Here in Bucks County, Pa., we’re fortunate to have many chiropractors to choose from. Why, there are probably a dozen of chiropractic offices in Doylestown and they’re all good doctors.
So how do you choose? Many people choose their chiropractor based on referral, convenient hours, location, and insurance options. All are understandable reasons.
No matter who you choose, you might want a brief background in chiropractic treatments and conditions they treat since you want to be informed.
Chiropractic Care as Part of Your Health Plan
As you probably know, chiropractic care can help you with pain management whether it’s new issue – such as an athletic injury or chronic pain such as neck pain.
What you might not know is that chiropractic treatments aren’t just for back pain. They help you find headache relief, leg pain relief and even boost your immune system. Chiropractic care is a natural way of addressing your entire body which is why I’m a proponent of making it a regular part of your health regimen.
In fact, chiropractic care can even benefit children of all ages – including newborns. I’ve had the experience of helping some of my pediatric patients reduce allergy systems and asthma. Yes, all from realigning the spine.
Your Spinal Column at Work
Your spinal column is made up of 33 bones. Then there are ligaments, tendons, muscle, and millions of miles of nerves. Everything is connected and it’s perfectly normal to experience compression in certain sections of your body. Injuries and habits can both bring on pain.
I think you’ll agree that you have certain habits from sitting and standing. What you may not realize is that some of them may eventually prove painful. Let’s take sitting for hours at a computer. Most people’s computer set up isn’t ergonomic – your computer screen should be at eye level and your keyboard at a position that allows your wrists to be in a neutral position. When it’s not and you spend hours at the computer, it can take a toll on your body. You might find your wrists hurt, or your neck.
A chiropractic adjustment treats your whole body so you can feel relief from your hours at the computer.
Of course, any repetitive activity will cause your muscles to develop their habits. Some of those habits may cause your body to “favor” one side or the other – this can cause chronic pain later in life. In some cases, bones might shift out slightly and find themselves pinching a nerve. Chiropractic treatments make sure those bones are readjusted to where they need to be.
Traditional chiropractic care like that practiced here at McQuaite Chiropractic includes the stem treatment to relax your muscles followed by the classic chiropractic manipulations of your spine. That “cracking” or popping sound you may associate with chiropractors? That’s actually the release of a gas that’s built up in your joint. It’s not your bones at all and releasing this gas can give you immediate relief in many cases.
It’s true there are many chiropractic offices in Doylestown and we’re pleased to say we’ve won Best in Bucks four years in a row! Will you contact us for a free consultation?
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 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!
School’s in session which means every afternoon the streets of Doylestown are filled with running packs of high school athletes.
They run to get in shape for their sports no matter the weather — even in the 90+ degree days we had recently.
But the biggest concern isn’t the heat in the waning days of summer but sports related injuries they’re likely to take on through the season.
Concussions are the most common injury. According to this report from the National Academies, High school players are almost twice as likely to suffer a brain injury while playing as a college player. The reasons are many and vary from lack of protection, various levels of physical maturity – this is a big one — to lack of knowledge among the coaches and parents.
Another common injury is to the spine. You know when a football player bends his head when tackling or blocking? This flexes the cervical spine and bypasses its shock absorbing capacities. The result is strain on the cervical spine and surrounding muscles.
Knee injuries and concussions are common in soccer. The uneven playing surface (and falling) may be to blame on the wear and tear on the knees. Obviously, the concussions can come from bouncing a soccer ball off one’s head.
How Do You Combat These Sports Related Injuries?
As with most things, education and good habits are a good place to start. It’s hard to believe in today’s hyper vigilant society but there was a time when football players didn’t wear helmets – oh right – they still don’t in rugby.
Obviously, making use of the protections available are good practices. So are mixing up the training styles so muscles don’t get over worked. However, the fact is, when you’re training 15+ hours a week, you’re putting a lot of pressure on your body.
Regular stretching will help prevent sports-related injuries as well as using good form. Both of these your student athletes should be getting at school.
However, chiropractic treatments can also keep your child in tip-top shape. The reason is because chiropractic care “puts back” what gets knocked out of alignment in sports practices and games. That relieves pain naturally because your bones and muscle tissue are where they need to be instead of one pushing up against the other.
Plus, keeping your body properly aligned can maximize your output because your immune system is boosted.
If your child is already suffering with a sports related injury, chiropractic care can help with immediate and long-term pain since it’s designed to focus on the spinal column which affects everything else in your body.
Dr. Jeff McQuaite is a Doylestown chiropractor conveniently located directly across from CB West. His warm and approachable style is sure to set your student athlete at ease. You can take advantage of his new patient special here.
One of the biggest chronic pains of the 21st century is neck and shoulder pain.
Frankly, it’s not surprising. Most of us spend hours a day hunched over computers and mobile devices. Compound that with sports injuries and/or other types of injuries (like whiplash) and it’s kind of amazing more of us don’t walk around like Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Three Ways to Ease Neck and Shoulder Pain
1. An ergonomic desk set up can help relieve shoulder and neck pain that’s brought about because of poor posture.
Think about it.
If you have a desk job, you probably hunch your shoulders and jut your neck out (sounds attractive doesn’t it?).
Fact is, that’s the typical computer posture and creates huge amounts of stress and tension in your upper body because your spine is out of alignment. This then comes as no surprise to find that some people may check out sites like SnackNation (if medical marijuana is the route worth taking), in the hopes of finding an alternative way of managing these pains. As CBD is said to help with chronic pain and various other ailments, this may be something worth considering, especially if the pains are showing no signs of improvements even after visiting a doctor.
This can cause great pain for some office workers. They decide to enjoy something similar to pure pulls to ensure that they can manage their pain effectively.
Good posture keeps your head (and neck) in a vertical position so your head, neck, and spine all flow together seamlessly. Just like a smooth river without any obstacles. If you sit with your neck jutting out, you’ve created an obstacle. Even though you may not feel it, your neck and spine now have to work harder to keep your head balanced.
Add rounded shoulders and upper back and you probably find you have lots of tension in your upper back.
All of it prevents oxygen from flowing freely through your body which means you feel more tired. It also causes neck and shoulder pain.
Getting regular chiropractic treatments, massage therapy, and an ergonomic desk set up will help you feel better. TMS & Brain Health in California deal with issues that people face in terms of mental and physical health, if you are a chronic pain sufferer checking them out to see if they can help you, may benefit your physical health.
2. Stretch – Take breaks throughout the day and incorporate some gentle stretching.
You don’t have to look like the office loony to feel benefits. Even simple shoulder and neck rolls can help loosen the knots in your upper back. Use a resistance band to help stretch your muscles. You can hold it in front of you with both hands and pull it gently – like taffy.
Next, hold it over your head and tug on either end so it stretches.
Combine those with checking your posture and straightening up throughout the day and you’ll be on your way to releasing tension and building strength.
3. Combine Chiropractic and Massage Therapy – The chiropractic treatments “puts everything back where it belongs” in terms of your bones, tissues and ligaments and the massage helps the re-acclimate to where they’re supposed to be so they stay put.
This usually takes a few sessions but some patients have said it made a huge difference.
Your Spine Is Designed to Move
Whether you bend, sit, or twist, your back (and everything it’s connected to) work together to make your movements happen.
Within the 26 bones that form your back are a maze of nerves, tissues, and ligaments that provide cushioning, support and flexibility.
When you think about it, it’s kind of amazing.
The cervical vertebrae are 7 bones that make up your neck. They can shift position a millimeter due to a fall or even repeated motion (like when you spend hours hunched over a computer) and when that happens, you can hurt!
Maybe it doesn’t seem like a big deal but when a bone is out of alignment – even the tiniest bit – it can press on an adjacent nerve. You’ve heard of something “getting on your nerves” – this is the literal manifestation.
If you suffer with chronic neck and shoulder pain, see your chiropractor about discovering the underlying cause. Maybe it stems from an old accident or it’s your current habits. Whichever it is, an Xray can take a “snapshot” of what’s going on in there and your chiropractor can recommend a treatment plan.
After all, aren’t you ready to feel good again?
If you’re Doylestown, Pa, Dr. Jeff McQuaite offers a new patient special. Stop in and feel the difference.
