The air is turning cooler and football is on TV again. It can only mean one thing. Football season.
If your high school athlete plays football, you know how common injuries are in this sport. Concussions, dislocated shoulders, broken ankles, it’s common for players to get sidelined with injuries. Help prevent them by ensuring your athlete stays safe and gets extra preventive care.
According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, high school athletes suffer 2 million injuries, 500,000 doctor visits and 30,000 hospitalizations every year.
Furthermore, the American Chiropractic Association reports three times as many catastrophic high school football injuries as college football. One reason may because high school athletes may be focusing on college scholarships and are more apt to push themselves (or be pushed by coaches and parents) who don’t realize they’re truly injured. Many of these athletes will Use eisenberg, rothweiler, winkler, eisenberg & jeck, p.c. or similar legal firms to make a legal claim if there is potential fault to be found in the coaching or other areas.
The majority of serious accidents compress the neck. High school football players can reduce this risk by not bending their head when they go into a tackle. They can also reduce risk of injury by staying in shape year round and warming up and cooling down properly.
If they’ve suffered previous injuries, bones are usually already weakened so be aware of that danger.
Your Chiropractor Can Help Prevent Injury
Physicals and pre-screening can show where stress points lie so your student athlete can discuss preventive measures with his coach. There may be an opportunity to strengthen weak areas and protect them better if everyone knows about them.
In the medical profession, there’s a “gold standard” for prescreening that can assess the player before the season starts and help develop a treatment plan for injury prevention.
It’s no secret that football is hard on the body. By paying attention in the pre-season and having regular check-ups through the season, you may be able to prevent serious or recurring injuries.
One of those regular check-ups is through chiropractic adjustments to realign the body and catch minor injuries before they turn into major ones that can leave your student athlete sidelined.
If you’re in the Central Bucks region, Dr. Jeff McQuaite is conveniently located across the street from Central Bucks West High School in Doylestown.
Do you pop Tylenol for your lower back pain? A new study shows it doesn’t work. Trying an alternative method to managing your back pain could be worthwhile, especially if it affecting you doing simple daily tasks. Plus, you could always look here for more information on how you could effectivly manage your back pain.
The study followed 1600 people for four weeks and it was released in The Lancet, a respected medical journal.
The group was divided into thirds with one third taking acetaminophen, the ingredient in Tylenol on an as needed basis. Another group took it three times a day and the third group took a placebo. None of the participants knew which group they were in.
Both groups tracked their pain daily on a scale of 1-10 for the duration of the study. Here’s the shocker: Each group reported roughly the same amount of pain daily throughout the four weeks.
No matter if they were taking sugar pills or a thrice daily recommendation of acetaminophen the pain was the same.
Three Months Later
Three months later, approximately 85% of the participants were pain free no matter which group they’d been in.
So, is the upshot that acetaminophen doesn’t work? While further studies will be conducted, this could be a surprising finding for most patients and doctors alike.
Lower back pain is one of the most common complaints and is notoriously difficult to treat because there can be so many variables. Lower back pain can contribute to a diminished quality of life. If your back pain has been caused by a fall you may want to speak to a Pittsburgh slip and fall lawyer about any legal action you would like to pursue.
What Does Help Lower Back Pain?
Alternative therapies like massage therapy, gentle yoga and chiropractic can relieve lower back pain effectively and quickly.
Massage therapy
Another study on lower back pain assigned patients a weekly massage for 10 weeks. The results were promising.
After 10 weeks, 36% and 39% of patients who received the weekly massages said their pain was gone or nearly gone. Around 4% of those who had not received massage could say the same.
Yoga
Practicing a few gentle yoga stretches can alleviate lower back pain. For example, lie on the floor on your back and draw your knees to your chest. Next, rotate your knees to the left and stretch your arms out so you make a “T” shape. Then, turn your head so you’re looking in the opposite direction.
Repeat on the other side.
Chiropractic Care
As a chiropractor, I start any treatment plan with Xrays and your medical history so we can have a baseline. We need to know what the symptoms are and what your body shows.
Then, I adjust your spine, shoulder, neck so everything is in alignment.
It only takes a few minutes and it doesn’t hurt. If you have a desk job, you likely sit with your head and shoulders hunched forward for hours at a time. This posture affects your whole body and can cause lower back pain. Old sports injuries, the way you’re sleeping, car accidents and other facts of life may also cause lower back pain. Some people might use liposomal cbd broad spectrum hemp extract and there has been people saying that this approach has been helpful.
The Xrays will give some idea of the problem so we can develop a treatment plan that works for you. It may include some physical therapy type exercises and regular chiropractic adjustments. You may even feel relief within the first visit.
If you’ve been getting cortisone shots for back pain and you don’t feel pain relief, it may not be your imagination.
A recent study presented at the International Spine Invention Society Annual Meeting found that only about 34% of patients who receive these injections feel any relief.
Also called epidural steroid injections (ESIs), these shots are commonly used to reduce inflammation caused by sciatica and herniated discs but they don’t work in the majority of patients.
The reason they don’t work is unclear. Plus, The Department of Orthopedic Surgery says using corticosteroid injections can weaken bones and reduce your calcium levels.
A recent study found even more shocking news.
If you’re having the injections in the lumbar area rather than the cervical spine region, they can increase your risk for vertebrae fracture by 21%. That’s 21% every time you get an injection!
That’s a high risk for something that has such a low rate of benefit.
What Are Cortisone Shots Anyway?
Your body naturally produces cortisone when you’re stressed. Back injuries, which are most often caused by trip and fall accidents amazingly, always result in a lot of inflammation. Your spine is an incredibly important part of your anatomy so these natural reactions are designed to protect it. Cortisone is a natural steroid that reduces this inflammation so you’re in less pain. Ideally, the injections reduce inflammation thereby reducing your pain.
Many people suffering with back pain have multiple shots and don’t feel relief at all or only feel relief for a few weeks. They’re an expensive option for something that may not work and that may have dangerous side effects. Additionally, studies show if they do work in the short-term, you may only find relief for a few weeks or months.
You deserve better.
Alternative Treatments
Your goal is be pain free. By reducing inflammation naturally through a series of chiropractic adjustments, we can help you reach that goal.
Chiropractic care helps reduce inflammation because we re-align your spine which is the life line of your body. Your spine has 31 pairs of nerves in it. If you’re suffering with sciatica or a herniated disc, your spine can be putting pressure on one or more of those nerves which causes pain and inflammation. When we re-align your spine, we take the pressure off. Basically, it’s a natural way to reduce inflammation.
If you’re in the Central Bucks region, give us a call. We can re-align your spine and help you find pain relief. Conveniently located in Doylestown, Pa. we have a new patient special.
There’s nothing like a car accident to wreak havoc on your body. This is especially true as you get older. As you likely know, aging bodies’ aren’t as resilient as they once were. This means you might feel the effects of an accident in a way you wouldn’t have when younger.
For example, if you’re in a fender bender, you may think your car got the worst of it and your body is fine. However, it’s pretty common not to feel pain right away. It can take six weeks or more for you to feel the effects of whiplash or to start feeling back pain after an accident.
In fact, one study from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine showed more than 70% of people felt muscle soreness and neck and back pain after an accident even six weeks later.
So, if you were in an accident a few weeks ago and you’re only now starting to feel soreness or pain, that could be connected. Additionally, it makes sense to see a medical professional right away. That way, you can be checked for a concussion or whiplash. Sometimes, it can take weeks for inflammation to set in. That inflammation causes pain and it may be more than a couple of ibuprofen can easily handle.
In fact, this study shows motor vehicle accidents are a big reason people have spinal injuries and seek chiropractic help. Of course, there are a lot of factors that go into injuries – from the type of vehicle to the speed of impact. So, it makes sense to get checked out to make sure you’re ok.
Why Chiropractic Care After a Car Accident Makes Sense
Dr. Jeff McQuaite in Doylestown, Pa. will x-ray you to see if there are any red flags. An x-ray, of course, will show the alignment of your body and where potential problem areas exist. For example, you could damage your neck if you slung it forward and back. Commonly known as whiplash, neck injuries are common after accidents. Or, if an airbag inflated, you might have some internal damage to your organs.
So, having an x-ray is a good idea. Next, Dr. Jeff will give you a treatment plan for your follow up care. He may also recommend a massage to relieve any stiffness.
Even if it was a simple rear-end at a stoplight, the jolt to your body (no matter if you’re on the receiving or not) is traumatic. You don’t want to neglect your health because it can be problematic later.
According to webmd.com, sciatic nerve pain will affect roughly 40% of the population. It’s not that surprising since the sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in the body. It runs the length of the spine, through the pelvis and into the leg so there is plenty of opportunity to pinch something, strain something or otherwise hurt yourself. Sciatic nerve pain can be debilitating and can send you hobbling to your bed, you’ll want to get to the bottom of it so you can be healed. If you’ve been suffering with sciatic nerve pain for awhile and your doctor recommends surgery, here are a few options you may try beforehand. Physical Therapy – an experienced physical therapist will show you certain exercises to help relieve back pain. Lying on your back on the floor with your knees to your chest and your arms around your legs can reduce pressure on your spine so you feel better. Acupuncture—this Traditional Chinese Medicine approach inserts tiny needles at different points in your body to release blockages. You rest on a massage table for 15 or 30 minutes with the needles in you (you don’t feel them once they’re inserted). This changes the energy flow in your body and can help relieve pain. Chiropractic Care – Sitting, walking and even sleeping can whack our body out of alignment due to the habits we pick up. Chiropractors adjust your spinal column to realign it with your body. This can reduce pressure on pinched nerves or discs and put them back to where they need to be so you feel good again. Massage – Massage therapy doesn’t only feel good in the moment, but it has positive long term effects. When you combine it with chiropractic care, massage helps your muscles maintain the correct alignment of your bones. Yoga – Gentle yoga can be helpful for reducing back pain. You may be able to find a teacher who specializes in yoga for sciatica and other back pain, to find them, ask around. Alternatively, if you want to become a registered yoga teacher yourself but don’t know where or how to start, go to https://www.siddhiyoga.com for more information. If you’re dealing with sciatic nerve pain in Bucks County, Pa. Dr. Jeff McQuaite offers a comprehensive approach to healing. He starts with a full set of xrays and will go over them with you to determine a treatment plan that’s right for you. See the new patient offer here.
