Your body has more than 90 BILLION nerve cells. Each of these carries messages to other parts of your body. Those messages show up as sensations like neck pain or back pain.
If you’re prone to neck pain, you might wonder if you have a pinched nerve.
Like it sounds, it’s pressure on a nerve. Imagine your bones, ligaments, or tendons literally, squeezing your nerve. That nerve pain can send pain radiating through your shoulder or arm. You might find it painful to turn your head from side to side or experience numbness.
The medical term for a pinched nerve in your neck is cervical radiculopathy and symptoms include:
Numbness
Tingling or burning sensation
Muscle weakness
Pain radiating into other areas of your body, for example, a pinched nerve in your neck can cause shoulder or arm pain.
Why would a ligament shift position? There are many reasons, including poor posture, repetitive motions, injury, accident, etc.
As you may know, your body is in a constant state of adjustment. One adjusts for tiny airline seats, your bed, desk chairs, high heels, working at your kitchen table, the list goes on. In fact, virtually everything you do (or wear) requires your body to make some type of adjustment that pulls it out of alignment. Done often enough, you can start feeling like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Even if you don’t feel hunched over, you might still have trouble turning your head without pain.
You could also feel pinched nerve neck pain due to an earlier accident. Scar tissue or even pieces of bone can compress the nerve and an x-ray can show the exact problem. While you wouldn’t want to ignore neck pain, if you did, a pinched nerve could put you at risk for permanent nerve damage and chronic pain.
How Do You Treat a Pinched Nerve in the Neck?
As you know, your body is a complex machine and it may take more than one thing to relieve your pinched nerve neck pain. Here are some ideas for you.
Assess your habits. Do you need a better computer set up? Or a new pillow? As you probably know, the way you sit and sleep will affect your neck. Make sure it’s supported with an ergonomic work area and a supportive pillow.
Have a massage. It loosens up tight muscles and can help relieve the pain.
Chiropractic care can get at the source of the problem and works great in conjunction with massage therapy.
Over the counter NSAIDS like ibuprofen can help reduce pain and swelling
In severe cases, surgery may help.
Some chiropractic patients feel immediate relief from pinched nerve neck pain after one session. As you may know, chiropractors are trained to adjust your body so the ligaments, tendons, and bones find their rightful places, which means they’re no longer pinching your nerves.
At McQuaite Chiropractic in Doylestown, Dr. Jeff McQuaite will x-ray you to find the source of your neck pain and help you map out a treatment plan. You deserve to feel better.
Has election season given you a headache? It’s no wonder. It’s been quite a ride. But if you’re prone to headaches regardless of elections, you may appreciate a natural solution.
Over the counter medications and Joplin medical marijuana (among other providers of this herbal remedy) can provide you with pretty effective, quick relief, but if you find you’re losing hours and days of your life to headaches, it’s time to reevaluate your options.
I mean, what if you could find relief and reclaim your life with a simple and natural treatment like a chiropractic adjustment?
Millions of people have found headache relief at the chiropractor’s and in a moment, I’ll show you how but first, let’s look at the three main types of headaches.
Do You Have One of These 3 Common Types of Headaches?
There are many causes of headaches but the primary ones are tension based, migraines, and cluster headaches.
Tension headaches can feel like a band around your head or an achy feeling behind the eyes. These headaches are usually caused by subluxations (chiropractor speak for partial dislocations) in your upper back and neck. Chiropractic adjustments relieve this because the point is to re-align your spine.
Migraines are another common headache. These affect about 12% of the population. If you experience these, you know they can be accompanied by blinding light or pain and can be triggered by anything from bright lights, noise, smoke, certain foods, and even allergies. While doctors aren’t sure of the cause of migraines, many patients do find relief with regular chiropractic adjustments possibly due to the release of potential nerves and reduced stress.
Cluster headaches are the type that cluster behind one eye or side of your head and can occur over multiple days.
There are other types of headaches that can indicate a serious disease, even a brain tumor so if you suffer frequent headaches, you do want to work with a healthcare practitioner to discover the source.
How Can a Chiropractor Help You Find Headache Relief?
Here at McQuaite Chiropractic, in Doylestown, Pa we start with an x-ray to establish if there’s anything unusual going on. Next, we discuss your medical history and the types of headaches you typically have. Headaches can be triggered by food, not getting enough sleep or other lifestyle choices and sometimes, we can narrow down the possibilities as we discuss.
If you’d like to experience a chiropractic adjustment for your headaches, contact us to set up your first appointment or for a free consultation. You deserve to feel better.
If you experience a sore, achy shoulder, elbow or knee, you may have tendonitis. Like many injuries, it’s an inflammation usually caused by repetition and you may have heard of it as Tennis elbow, Pitcher’s shoulder, Golfer’s elbow, Jumper’s knee and Swimmer’s shoulder.
It’s a painful condition that if left alone can get worse leading eventually to a ruptured tendon and requiring surgery. In a moment, we’ll look at the symptoms and treatment but first, you may wonder what is a tendon?
Tendons are flexible, fibrous and tough bands of tissues that attach and extend from muscles to bones throughout your body. The word tendon was derived from the Latin word tendere and the Greek word teinein which means “to stretch”.
It’s the inflammation of the tendon that’s called tendonitis or tendinitis. There’s a variation on tendonitis called tenosynovitis, this is when the sheath around the tendon is inflamed rather than the tendon itself. And yes, you can have both at the same time.
Common Tendonitis Symptoms
Tendinitis symptoms include pain that gets worse when you move the affected area, you may also experience reduced range of motion, swelling and even a lump in the affected area.
Tendonitis usually starts with you feeling a dull ache after a particular activity. For example, if you’re an avid golfer, you may feel the pain in your elbow after a round of golf. You may next feel pain in the slightest movements and in the worst case scenario, you’re in pain most of the time.
When you treat tendonitis with chiropractic care early on, it can help relieve your pain and prevent it from becoming even worse.
Dr. Jeff McQuaite in a Doylestown chiropractor who will conduct x-rays of the affected area to determine if you do indeed have tendonitis and if so, the scope of the damage. Next, he’ll discuss your medical history with you and recommend a treatment plan for you. This may begin by supporting the affected tendons and ice and elevation to reduce swelling.
As you may know, chiropractic care addresses the cause of the pain and not simply the symptoms. That means, your chiropractor will work with you to find the cause so that you feel better and help heal the problem.
You’ll need regular chiropractic adjustments as that’s how your body maintains alignment and your chiropractor may recommend massage to help relieve the pain.
Chiropractic care is beneficial to your whole body. Chiropractor also may treat scar tissue with ultrasound which involves using sound waves to soften the scar tissue, enabling it to break down.
Conclusion
You can prevent tendonitis by properly warming up and cooling down. Also, it’s a good idea to vary your activities so that you’re not always using the same muscles in the same ways.
However, if you do prefer one primary activity such as golfing or running, including regular chiropractic treatments in your schedule can help you prevent injury. If you’re in the Doylestown, Pa area, why not schedule an appointment today? We offer a free consultation and you can find out it treating tendonitis with chiropractic care is right for you.
“You can always count on a cheerful welcome from Dr. Jeff’s staff. The office has a warm comfortable feeling. You can really tell when a person loves what they do and Dr. Jeff does. He is an excellent chiropractor. There is no better place to be when it comes to chiropractic care and feeling good. 🙂 This Yelp review is indicative of many of the reviews and testimonials patients have given Dr. Jeff McQuaite over the years.
The affable chiropractor always shows genuine concern for his patients and goes out of his way to try and help. It’s a combination of his skill, “bedside manner” and friendly staff that inspire his patients recommending him to their friends and family and voting him Best of Bucks for the 4th year in a row.
A Family Tradition
Dr. Jeff, a life-long resident of Bucks County, comes from a family of chiropractors. His father, Dr. Joe, opened the original McQuaite Chiropractic Center in Holland., Pa. It seems his father enjoyed his profession so much that instilled his love of helping others feel better in his children because Dr. Jeff and his sister became chiropractors. He even has an uncle in the profession and his brother-in-law.
Traditionally considered a back pain remedy, chiropractic care also helps clear up chronic sinus troubles, headaches, and many other health concerns. Chiropractic treatments are a natural, pain-free solution, with a series of adjustments that realign the body so you’re no longer in pain.
The motto of McQuaite Chiropractic is “Helping the residents of Central Bucks rediscover a life without pain for over 15 years.”
Dr. Jeff says, “Thank you to everyone who voted us Best in Bucks – for the 4th year in a row! It is truly an honor to serve you, our patients, and we’re grateful you choose us as your family chiropractor. “
McQuaite Chiropractic is located on 295 Logan Street across from the Central Bucks West High School. You can make an appointment for your free consultation by calling 267-247-7000.
Did you see the Women’s Cycling event in the Olympics? If you didn’t, the lead biker took a massive spill on the pavement towards the end of the race. Ouch!
That put an American Mara Abbott in the lead for roughly 20 excruiting minutes. In the final seconds, three others overtook her and she came in 4th. It was painful to watch the Gold slip from her hands so quickly.
It serves as a reminder that games are won and lost in seconds and sometimes there are serious injuries. Even injuries that seem less serious than skidding on the pavement at 50 miles an hour, can sideline athletes. Take the hamstring for example. Your hamstrings run down the backs of your thighs and Health Insights Today says that they’re one of the most common (and costly) sports injuries out there. For years, traditional sports medicine has chalked them up to poor flexibility or inadequate warm up but more recent knowledge shows that there is an underlying cause which is directly addressed by chiropractic care.
It’s not surprising. Chiropractic care addresses your entire body and helps keep it in tip top shape.
How does that relate to hamstring injuries? Well, your feet, knees, hips, pelvis and lower back are all connected. When one area is out of alignment it can throw everything out of balance. Poor posture, joint restrictions and micro muscle imbalances can all contribute to potential injury. If you suffer a hand or wrist injury and are in need of a surgeon in the state of New York then it may be in your best wishes to check out this HandSport Surgery Institute for further help and support to treat your injury.
The body is a finely tuned instrument and daily habits cause things to migrate away from their proper places. There’s a reason a good trainer or coach harps on proper form. When you’re not in proper form, that’s when injuries can occur. Chiropractic adjustments re align the body so that every muscle, nerve, and tissue is put back into its proper place.
That’s one of the reasons professional athletes have massage therapists and chiropractors as part of their routine. Both massage and chiropractic care can soothe sore muscles as well as help players stay in top condition and even prevent injury.
Now that August is here, high school sports teams start practicing for the fall season. As you know, top performing players win accolades, trophies and college scholarships. If your student athlete is hoping to be part of the college roster you want to help him or her use every advantage so they can perform their best. Chiropractic care can help keep your student in top shape and prevent injuries.
If you’re in Doylestown, PA, we’re located right across the street from CB West and will be happy to offer a free consultation.
There many reasons why you might have leg pain. You may have torn a muscle, even blood clots (deep vein thrombosis) can cause pain. However, it’s possible that your leg pain actually stems from your lower back.
You might remember that old song, the one about the thigh bone connected to the hip bone. Well, that’s true. (The song is called “Dem Bones” in case you’re wondering.) Your nerves and tissues are all connected too. Nothing in your body is independent of anything else. This means, if you have chronic leg pain, it could be related to your sciatic nerve or a herniated disc. Both of these usually stem from your lower back.
How the Sciatic Nerve Can Relate to Leg Pain
The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in the body. It runs from the base of your skull, down your back and into your thighs where it sends nerve signals down both legs and into your feet.
If you feel a burning or tingling sensation in one leg, that can be a symptom of sciatica. If you find it painful to sit for long periods, that’s another symptom.
Sciatica can be caused by arthritis in the spine, degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis or other spinal concerns.
Therapeutic yoga classes can help reduce lower back pain and ease the symptoms of sciatica including leg pain. Chiropractic adjustments can help relieve sciatic pain and get at the source of the problem through x-rays and an individual treatment plan.
How a Herniated Disc Can Cause Leg Pain
Disc troubles go by many names. Herniated, ruptured, slipped and other terms can all relate to back trouble that stem from these round spinal elements that line your spinal column. In some cases they can be out of alignment and pressing on a nerve which triggers leg pain.
When a chiropractic adjustment realigns your spine so that the disc returns to its rightful place, you may feel relief right away.
Like back pain, leg pain symptoms can take many forms. You may feel searing pain or a tingling sensation. Your leg may feel numb or pain may radiate down your leg. The causes of leg pain are best determined by a health checkup and discussion with a medical professional.
If you’re in the Doylestown area, Dr. Jeff McQuaite will discuss your medical history with you, your lifestyle and perform an X-ray to determine the root cause of your pain.
You deserve to feel your best! Why not come in for your free consultation?
Summer…you may have visions of outdoor BBQ’s, and maybe, moving your exercise program outdoors. Kayaking, golfing, biking, running…these are popular summer activities around Doylestown. However, as a chiropractor, I see frequent summer sports injuries.
They’re usually caused by an overly zealous exercise program.
If you’ve spend the past several months watching Game of Thrones rather than at the gym, take it easy at first. You’re better off with shorter exercise sessions than one mammoth one that will leave you exhausted, sore and possibly hurt.
You also want to make sure you have the proper form in whatever you’re doing. Take golfing for instance, some weekend golfers hunch their shoulders when they hit the ball rather than bending from the waist. The “hunched shoulder” technique puts a lot of strain on your neck. Plus, swinging a golf club a hundred times or more in a round of golf can lead to a sore rotator cuff and lower back. The same goes for tennis players; a really common injury for you is twisted ankles as a result of not positioning yourself correctly in readiness to receive the ball. Your main line of thought might be ‘what is my tennis rating‘ but your health should come first, and an injury could also cause some serious damage to your future in the sport.
Practice proper form and be careful when you lift your golf club bag.
If you’re a runner, you know there’s a difference between running on a treadmill and running outside. For example, you may hit dirt or gravel trails or you may run on pavement. Each of these surfaces require hundreds of micro-adjustments with every step.
In daily life and in sports, your body develops certain habits which affect your posture and pull your body out of alignment. When you’re misaligned, you may be more injury-prone.
How Chiropractic Care Can Protect
Your Body From Summer Sports Injuries
If you’ve never been to a chiropractor before, you may not be aware of how the process works or how it can benefit more than your back.
In simple terms, daily life puts stresses on your body. You may spend hours a day sitting hunched over a computer. Such posture strains your upper back, shoulders and neck and creates misalignment in your body called “subluxation.”
A chiropractic treatment realigns your body. When your bones and muscles are in alignment with one another you experience pain relief because your bone isn’t pushing on a nerve. You can also have better form on the playing field and perform better.
Famous athletes from Tiger Woods to Arnold Schwarzenegger have relied on regular chiropractic treatments to give them an advantage. So have many Olympic gold medalists. You can track their progress on social media sites like Instagram and Facebook. If you’re thinking about trying to win a gold medal, you may want to do the same, set up an Instagram account to get things started and, gain a fan base! You could also look at getting some free followers in sites similar to socialfollow.
Just as star athletes protect their bodies by taking care of it, you can too. Regular chiropractic adjustments keep your body in alignment, and help protect you from injury.
Enjoy your summer and take a extra care to prevent summer sports injuries. If you need chiropractic care and you’re in the Doylestown area, give us a call at 267-247-7000. We offer a free consultation.
You may be aware that chiropractic care can relieve back pain.
However, you may not be aware of the full range of chiropractic care for everything from asthma relief to carpal tunnel syndrome. In fact, family chiropractic care goes way beyond back pain and can truly benefit everyone in your family.
Colicky infants
Teens with allergies
Adults with back pain
The reason chiropractic care has such a wide range of benefits is that it treats your entire body by re aligning your spine which affects your entire nervous system.
You’re probably aware that your spine runs from your neck to your lower back, from there, your sciatic nerve runs down either leg. That’s why leg pain can stem from your lower back.
Your spine connects your entire body. So, how you feel relates directly to it. Keeping it in good working form is essential to your overall health and that’s why family chiropractic care can benefit every family member.
For example, let’s look at chiropractic care for pregnancy.
Chiropractic Care for Pregnant Women
It’s no secret that your body changes drastically when you’re pregnant. The extra weight in your belly causes you to stand differently which can put increased pressure on your joints and/or cause lower back pain. Plus, your pelvis tilts.
It all adds up to a posture change which typically pushes vertebrae out of place where they can rest on a nerve and..ouch. This misalignment can also affect your brain causing you be forgetful and feel foggy. Regular chiropractic adjustments realign your spine so these vertebrae are put back into place and you feel better.
When it comes to your newborn baby, they can benefit from pediatric chiropractic care too. Journal of Manual Medicine examined 1000 newborns and found 119 of them had imbalances in the spine and nerves that could be corrected by gentle chiropractic care.
Left untreated, these imbalances can contribute to colic, tonsillitis, allergies, asthma, ADD/ADHD and even seizures. If you have a fussy baby, a chiropractor experienced in pediatrics may be able to help.
Chiro care can even benefit those with allergies or asthma.
Chiropractic Care for Allergies and Asthma
You may not realize that allergies and asthma are a result of a lowered immunity system. In fact, what happens, is if you come into contact with pollen for example, it can trigger sneezing, watery eyes and the other symptoms of allergies which is your bodies’ way of going into overdrive to protect you.
You may have heard of a “chemical cascade.” When you have an allergy attack, your body releases the antibodies immunoglobulin E (IgE.) These antibodies cascade through your body in order to neutralize the pollen or other allergy trigger. As a result, you experience the itchy eyes and all the other symptoms.
Yet, you know your spine is connected to your entire body. When you get regular chiropractic adjustments, it re aligns your spine so that not only do you feel better, but it also boosts your immunity. That means you may be able to rid you and your family of allergies and asthma all together.
As you can see, chiropractic adjustments can do far more than simply reduce back or shoulder pain. It can yelp you and your family at every stage of life.
Here at McQuaite Chiropractic, we have a special family chiropractic deal to help keep your family healthy and save you money. Make your appointment today!
According to the Mayo Clinic, sciatica affects nearly 3 million Americans. If you’re one of them, you’re familiar with the pain that starts in your lower back and radiates down one of your legs and boy does it hurt!
You also probably know that long periods of sitting can trigger the pain and tingling sensations. That’s because sciatica is usually related to a compression of the sciatic nerve in the spine due to a herniated disc or bone spur. As you can imagine, if you have a herniated disc in your lower spine and it’s pressing on your sciatic nerve, the sitting position could be painful.
The good news is that you can treat sciatica without invasive surgery. Many people find relief within a few visits to the chiropractor.
Chiropractic Treatment for Sciatica
In Doylestown, PA, Dr. Jeff McQuaite x-rays problem areas for all new patients. This lets him see what’s going on in your body so he can better prescribe a treatment plan that works for you. He also reviews your medical history. After all, if you really have arthritis in the spine, that requires a different approach than a herniated disc.
You may realize chiropractic care is a series of micro adjustments that re aligns your spinal column to reduce pressure on adjoining tissue and nerves that become compressed when vertebrae get out of alignment.
The primary way a chiropractic treatment for sciatica works is through a series of spinal manipulations which re aligns your vertebrae and takes the pressure off any nerves. When you have bones or muscles that are out of alignment, they’re typically resting on a nerve or “pinching” it causing pain.
Not only is it painful, your body has developed this new posture. The chiropractic adjustment “puts everything back” into proper alignment so nothing is “pinching” your nerve. That’s why so many people find relief after their chiropractic visit.
As you may know, chiropractic treatments reduce inflammation which both reduces your pain as well as helps your body heal faster.
You may find combining chiropractic care with massage therapy helps because while your chiropractor realigns your bones and tendons, massage realigns your muscles. The two work in tandem to help your body stay in alignment rather than in pain.
If you’re ready to try chiropractic treatments for sciatic pain and you’re in the Doylestown area, why not give us a try? You deserve to feel better!
Have you ever felt sore after doing seasonal yard work? Have you ever pulled a muscle dragging those fallen leaves to the curb?
Unfortunately, spring cleaning injuries are pretty common. In fact, every year more than 21 million people end up in the emergency room.
Sprains, tendonitis, serious cuts and even fractures are common during seasonal cleanups. So, what’s a homeowner to do? Well, you can certainly hire out seasonal yard work and inside cleaning jobs. But if you’re a do-it-yourselfer, there are a few ways you can protect yourself so that you don’t end up in pain or in the emergency room.
Here’s The Number One Way to Prevent Spring Cleaning Injuries
Take it small bits at a time rather than embarking on a mammoth clean up all at once. Anyone who spends 5-8 hours on a weekend day raking, scrubbing and doing all the other tasks that go along with seasonal cleaning is risking injury – unless you’re already a highly active person.
Think about it, if you’re like most Americans, you drive to work, you sit at a computer and you drive home and sit some more in front of the TV or on your tablet. Even if you get the daily recommended 30 minutes a day of exercise, that’s still a lot of sitting.
So to go from a sedentary life to a day of active cleaning is kind of like lacing up your shoes to run a 10K the first time you take up running.
It’s far better to do break up your spring cleaning into 30-60 minutes stretches over several days if you can.
And of course, before you get started make sure you do a few warm up stretches. Bend over and touch your toes. Reach your hands to the sky and do a few bends from side to side. Put your hands on your waist and twist a few times. Spend 10-15 minutes warming up gently and you’ll be at less risk for spring cleaning injuries.
It’s also critical to enlist help for bigger projects. Whether you need to move heavy items or climb ladders a helper can reduce the strain on your body and help prevent falls. It turns out that falls are a serious source of spring cleaning injuries. Bissell offer cordless vacuum cleaners, reducing the chance of tripping and causing injury.
So, enlist help, do less in smaller bits and warm up before attempting active clean ups.
If you do feel sore or have tweaked your back a good massage or your chiropractor may be able to help you feel better again.
What will you do to prevent spring cleanup injuries this season?
