If you’re one of the 4 million people suffering from fibromyalgia, you know how it commands your life. From debilitating pain to constant fatigue, fibromyalgia is a mysterious disease because there’s no clear cause.
What IS known is it can cause headaches, sleep problems, stiffness, and many other unpleasant conditions. It often accompanies other health concerns like Irritable Bowel Syndrom (IBS) and chronic myofascial pain.
It turns out, that some people are affected by trigger points for fibromyalgia, and chiropractic care helps them. Other fibro treatments include exercise, stress reduction, medication, and acupuncture.
What are Fibromyalgia Trigger Points?
Trigger points for fibromyalgia are small spots mostly around the joints. For example, you can find common trigger points in the hips, upper chest, upper back, back of the head, and other areas of the body. Trigger points are associated with chronic myofascial pain which is another mysterious disease that affects the muscles. Doctors call these trigger points referral pain because the pain radiates out.
Imagine having a knot in your shoulder and you have myofascial pain in addition to fibro. In such a case, that shoulder knot can radiate pain across your shoulder if someone touched it. That’s not the same type of pain as tender points.
What’s the Difference: Trigger Points vs Tender Points?
You’ll hear people use the words trigger points and tender points sometimes interchangeably but they’re not the same thing.
As mentioned above, trigger points occur from chronic myofascial pain and they can cause pain in other parts of the body. Doctors call this “referred pain.”
Tender points are different. Living up to their name, they’re “tender” areas on your body that can hurt even if someone gently touches you in the area but they don’t tend to radiate pain. These 18 tender points include:
Lower neck in front
Knee
Back of the neck and shoulders
Hip bone
Base of the skull
Back of the neck
Other areas
In the past, doctors relied on testing the tender points as a diagnosis for fibromyalgia but now they realize they are unreliable indicators. Fibromyalgia symptoms change from day to day and no two patients have identical symptoms.
Ways Chiropractic Care Can Help Fibromyalgia
Chiro care can help fibromyalgia patients because chiropractic care helps your central nervous system. The adjustments reduce localized pain because they realign your spine. If you imagine the 33 spinal bones along with the interspersed discs, tendons, muscles, and nerves that all connect in your spine, you can why chiropractors say, “the spine is your lifeline.” Everything connects there.
Everyone’s body gets out of alignment through daily habits. Whether it’s repetitive tasks, hours hunched over a computer, or an accident, a muscle or nerve can shift a millimeter and find itself pressing on a ligament or spinal disc.
Regular chiropractic adjustments “put everything back.” When your body is in correct alignment, blood flows easier and pumps oxygen into every corner of your body. This helps your brain communicate easier with the cells in your body.
Your chiropractor can handle adjustments in a sensitive way. They’ll talk you through your most painful systems and devise a plan for managing the pain. If you’re suffering from tender points or trigger points from fibromyalgia, Dr. McQuaite is a Doylestown, Pa. chiropractor who can help.
chiropractic alignment can bring natural pain relief
Aches, pains, and being just plain physically uncomfortable are things that happen to all of us as we age. Sometimes back pain, knee pain, and other chronic pains are due to accidents and injuries. Others we can chalk up to years of bad habits (like poor posture.)
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
What if you could relieve annoying back pain with a chiropractic alignment?
What’s a chiropractic alignment?
Also called an adjustment, a chiropractic alignment is a series of short, sharp thrusts at the hands of a trained professional to re-align the spine. When the bones, tendons, and other parts of your body are in their right places, you have less pain.
That’s because chiropractic care supports your body’s natural way of being.
You probably know your joints, muscles, and bones have a specific configuration. When they’re in physical alignment you don’t feel pain but when they’re out of whack, you do.
Misalignment can be caused by things like poor posture, or repeated activity. For instance, doing the same motions for a job or sitting at a computer for hours at a time often leads to repetitive stress injuries.
For instance, athletes are more likely to experience foot and knee pain and discomfort than the average person. That doesn’t mean a person with a desk job won’t ever experience knee pain but athletes who jump, run, and constantly put a lot of impact on their knees see the pain in those areas the most.
Then there’s back pain which affects virtually everyone at some point in their lives. Our backs are constantly in use, well if you’re a person who sits up at all. Back pain doesn’t have to be just accepted as a part of ageing. We can retrain how we sit, stand, and if the damage is already done get realigned to relieve that pain.
5 common ways to relieve pain
The alternatives to Chiropractic alignment are pain-relieving drugs, over-the-counter topical treatments, steroid shots, or surgery. These can help in the short term but they’re not natural and may not help at all.
1- Steroids: Things like steroids have a lot of chemicals in them and have side effects like elevated blood pressure, eye pressure, and even psychological effects. Also, in a lot of cases, people can build a tolerance to their steroids making them not work overtime.
2- Over-the-counter pain relievers: Some of the most common over-the-counter options are things like Advil and Tylenol. Medication serves as a type of Band-Aid rather than a solution. Plus, they’re not meant for long-term, daily use and if used that way, they can cause problems with your stomach lining.
3-Topical treatments: These are things like ointment, and balms that help soothe the pain. These treatments block pain signals and may add a cooling effect that helps soothe the pain. This method can provide short-term relief but it doesn’t help your body heal.
4- Surgery: This is the only form of treating back pain that does typically get to the root of the issue. However, this form of pain relief is extremely invasive, sometimes ineffective, costly, and comes with a lot of potential issues down the road. So many people have not found it helpful there’s even a syndrome called “Failed Back Surgery Syndrome” or FBSS.
We tend to think of it as a last resort.
5-Chiropracticalignment:
A professionally trained chiropractor assesses your body, talks with you about your medical history, and makes strategic adjustments to help you find pain relief. Using decades of proven techniques, a chiropractic alignment helps your body heal itself. It’s also often covered by insurance.
If you’re in Bucks County, Pa. Consider making an appointment with Dr. Jeff McQuaite to assess your body’s aches and pains. It may be that a chiropractic alignment treatment is exactly what you need.
If you’re like many people, you want to find natural pain relief. After all, medicine is only a short-term solution – a band-aid if you will. It only masks the symptoms but doesn’t solve the underlying problem.
Plus, with the opioid crisis in Bucks County and beyond, so you’ve probably heard about the addictive quality of the heavy-duty pain killers. Over-the-counter pain relievers like ibuprofen can damage your stomach lining if used all the time.
Fortunately, there are other ways to relieve back pain without medicine. The best natural pain relievers for back pain include natural solutions like massage therapy, yoga therapy or gentle stretching, and chiropractic care to help you feel your best.
Common Causes of Back Pain
16 million Americans suffer from chronic back pain leading to lost workdays and missing out on the better parts of life.
People can experience persistent back pain for a variety of reasons. Some of these include chronic back conditions like:
Scoliosis
excessive weight gain
having a heavy chest for one’s body size
improper lifting
posture
accidents
One hallmark of a healthy spine is mobility. It supports your entire body by keeping you upright and helps with your range of motion. The 33 bones in the spine connect with every part of your body thanks to the nerves, ligaments, and tendons. Whether you’ve suffered injuries or a chronic dis-ease, you can relieve back pain without medicine by tending to your spine’s mobility.
How to Relieve Back Pain Without Medicine
Regular stretching, moderate exercise like walking, and chiropractic care can help maintain your spine’s health. Chiropractic care assesses the underlying cause of your back pain and helps your body heal naturally because it re-aligns the spine.
Imagine if you have a pinched nerve, the reason for a pinched nerve is due to a muscle, tendon, or other body parts that shifted and is now pressing on your nerve. Body parts shift all the time because of the way we sit, stand, and sleep. A chiropractic adjustment helps your body re-align so you feel less pain and have greater mobility.
It’s also an affordable way to relieve your back pain without medication. Here at McQuaite Chiropractic, we take most insurance.
Chiropractic care is one of the best ways to relieve back pain and help correct back issues, all without any medicine. All you have to do is show up and have a conversation with your practitioner. They’ll ask you about your medical history and work out a treatment plan based on your symptoms or diagnosis. You will enjoy the best results with some lifestyle changes tailored to your situation. For example, some people benefit from investing in an ergonomic desk area so your posture is better supported for computer work.
As professional health caregivers, we use non-invasive adjustment and realignment techniques on the body to improve its function and mobility. Many people feel immediate relief.
Are you ready to relieve back pain without medicine? Visit us at McQuaite Chiropractic in Doylestown, Pa. 267-247-7000.
Do you find yourself wincing in pain after a long workday? Hunching over the computer will do that to you.
What about playing golf or tennis? Practicing yoga? Is your favorite recreational activity straining your muscles?
Finding upper back pain relief may be at the top of your list for your quality of life. After all, chronic pain can slow you down in all kinds of ways.
In fact, upper back pain affects every age is the leading contributor to disability worldwide.
If your pain is affecting your quality of life, i.e., is severe and unrelenting, it may be time to seek upper back pain relief through a chiropractor.
Let’s break down what upper back pain is and how chiropractic care can give you relief, naturally.
What Is Upper Back Pain?
You may feel upper back pain anywhere between the base of your neck to the bottom of your ribcage.
It can originate in several areas in the thoracic spine such as the 12 bones attached to the ribcage, the discs separating each vertebra, and the muscles surrounding the joints.
It’s different for everyone. Whether dull and achy or sharp and burning. Everyone’s upper back pain is unique to their body and circumstances. Your chiropractor will work with you to create a personalized treatment.
Here are some typical causes of upper back pain.
Common Upper Back Pain Causes
Poor posture — “Stand up straight” is more than a parental admonishment. It turns out slumping when you sit or stand puts stress on your vertebrae because it’s unnatural. Your spine is designed a certain way and when you adopt habits like slumping over a computer for hours every day, your head juts out funny and puts unneeded stress on your neck, shoulders, and upper back muscles.
Injury — Slip and falls, car accidents and other injuries can lead to fractures, nerve damage, and other pain.
Overuse — Such repetitive motions are usually work-related. Typing, dog grooming, massage, and other jobs can lead to chronic pain.
35 million Americans seek chiropractic care every year because it’s simple and effective!
In fact, research shows combining chiropractic care with traditional medicine alleviates pain faster than medical care alone.
Ready to add your name to the list?
Natural Pain Relief
A chiropractor will look at your musculoskeletal system as a whole, treating the cause of your upper back pain at the source.
By focusing on the body’s natural ability to heal itself, chiropractors use their hands to apply force to joints in the spine, moving them for better alignment and alleviating pain.
This is a great alternative for those who are looking to abstain from addicting pain medications and costly surgical procedures.
How to Treat Upper Back Pain
Chiropractic care doesn’t hurt. It is safe, non-invasive, and with regular sessions, your muscles will adjust.
Dr. McQuaite in Doylestown, Pa. uses an x-ray to assess your upper back pain. He discusses your medical history with you and creates a treatment plan that takes into account any underlying conditions or past injuries that may impact your recovery.
Standard techniques for upper back pain relief are:
Spinal adjustments — chiropractors use their hands to apply force to joints in the upper back to correct misalignment, release stress, and improve range of motion.
Soft tissue therapy — a massage that promotes blood circulation and relaxes the muscles in the upper back to reduce inflammation and pain. Massage combined with chiropractic care is an excellent one/two punch.
Strength training — is important because it builds strength and improves flexibility. This can help prevent upper back pain.
Upper Back Pain Doesn’t Have To Be Permanent
Regular chiropractic adjustments will alleviate your upper back pain and improve your quality of life for years to come.
If you’re in the Doylestown area, schedule an appointment with Bucks County’s best chiropractor to receive exceptional chiropractic care and relieve your pain, naturally.
Have you ever felt an unusual pain or stiffness in your thighs or groin? Sometimes people who suffer from hip impingement feel a pain deep in the glutes or feel their hips pop when bending over or moving forward.
Unfortunately, not much is known about the cause of hip impingement. But what’s certain is you want to find pain relief.
What is Hip Impingement?
Imagine a cup with a small ball inside. Got that image in your head? Now apply that picture to your hip socket. Doctors refer to the ball of your hip as a “femoral head.” Your hip curves into a “cup” shape called an acetabulum. The acetabulum is surrounded by cartilage. Sometimes the cartilage gets pinched. Hence, hip impingement or what the medical establishment calls, femoroacetabular impingement (FAI.)
According to Hopkins Medicine, there are two types of Hip Impingements (FAI). One occurs due to a deformity in the femoral head and the other type is due to an abnormal shape of the acetabulum (the cup.) Imagine if the cup is misshapen and covers too much of the femoral head. That can lead to painful friction. It’s one example of how a hip impingement can present to your medical professional. It’s also possible to have a combination of the two.
Hip impingement can be an early sign of osteoarthritis.
Symptoms of a Hip Impingement
The symptoms can vary from person to person, but these are common issues:
Pain after sitting for long periods
Pain as you rotate your hip
Pain while and/or after running
Stiffness of the hip, groin, or thigh
You’ll know the difference between pain from an overzealous exercise class and chronic hip pain.
Diagnosis
A physical examination and imaging tests can help your medical professional assess hip impingement. For example:
X-ray
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
CT Scan
Many chiropractors offer X-rays and can make further referrals if you’re seeking a natural pain relief solution. Yet, other things can also cause hip pain. For example, a pinched nerve or sciatica can both be painful (and chiro care can help them too.)
Seeking Non-surgical Relief? A Chiropractor Can Help!
Firstly, your chiropractor may diagnose your hip impingement and offer you exercises to strengthen your core and lower back. In some cases, better posture and an ergonomic work area will help. What won’t help is ignoring the pain. You can take an over-the-counter pain killer like Ibuprofen but it only masks the systems so you’ll want to dig deeper.
When you take a proactive, surgical-free approach to pain relief, you know you need the right chiropractor or other medical professional and strength training. For example, an exercise program focusing on mobility and strength is core to natural pain relief and aging gracefully. You may find a therapeutic yoga class helps or a combination of massage therapy and chiropractic care with gentle yoga.
There’s no doubt, everyone’s body is different. Yet, in Doylestown, Pa, Dr. Jeff Mcquaite can help you feel your best through traditional chiropractic care. McQuaite chiropractic takes most insurance and offers a free consultation.
