Gentle chiropractic care is ideal for seniors, providing safe, effective relief for aging joints. As we age, our bodies go through natural changes that affect flexibility, balance, and joint health. Many seniors live with arthritis, osteoporosis, or chronic back and neck pain that interferes with everyday activities. The good news is, pain and stiffness don’t […]
Pain Medications for Pain Management
Pain medications often play a prominent role in pain management. Unfortunately, long-term painkiller abuse can lead to serious cardiovascular issues, liver and/or kidney disease or failure, decreased immunity, gastrointestinal problems, and even death resulting from toxicity or overdose.
Gentle chiropractic care can be a powerful tool in providing drug-free pain relief.
Advanced Wellness Solutions is accepting new patients.
We Accept All Major Medical Health Insurance and Medicare.
Call (772) 403-7640 to schedule your appointment.
In pain? Inflammation is to blame.
Pain is one of the body’s vital defense mechanisms. Injuries often cause micro-tears and micro-lesions. These cause inflammation, which in turn causes pain.
Pain lets the brain know that damage or death has occurred to the cells in the affected area. It’s also the way our body tells us not to use the affected area. Pain can also guide us in what to do and not do after an injury. Persisting in activities that cause sharp pain can cause even more damage and slow healing.
If you’ve ever been in a car accident, you may have refused treatment at the scene only to wake up the next morning feeling intense pain. The reason behind this cue is your body’s incredible ability to keep you alive. During your Florida car accident, your body released an adrenaline rush. An adrenaline rush, like pain, is another of the body’s vital defense mechanisms. This hormonal rush triggers specific processes in the body to help you survive. It decreases your ability to feel pain, increases your strength temporarily, and sharpens your mental focus.
If you were being mauled by a tiger, an adrenaline rush would be a good thing. It allows you to ignore your injuries and escape becoming a meal for a hungry tiger.However, the rush of adrenaline only decreases pain temporarily. After the effects wear off, you will probably be desperate to get your hands on immediate pain relief.
When you’re in pain, you want fast, effective pain relief.
You want to get back to doing everything you were doing before your injury. The fastest, easiest way to treat pain is by using pain medications for pain management. Unfortunately, we’re learning that pain relief medications, both prescription and OTC, have an unexpected dark side.
Painful Truth: Pain medications do not speed up the healing process.
Pain medications for pain management used in the short term can provide symptomatic pain relief. OTC and prescription pain relief medications can be very beneficial for the first 7 – 10 days after a traumatic injury. They are especially beneficial to use while gentle chiropractic care breaks up scar tissue and adhesions, providing long-term relief from stiffness and pain.
Unfortunately, we’re learning that you can’t find effective, long-term chronic pain relief in a pill. Opioid analgesics, also known as narcotic analgesics, modify pain messages in the brain. Often prescribed for chronic pain, these drugs can be dangerous and addictive. In a horrific catch-22, they can actually cause your pain to get worse.
Prescription painkillers cause the pain you feel to increase over time.
New studies on pain medications for pain management are painting an especially grim picture, pointing to the long-term effects of using opioids for chronic pain. It’s called opioid-induced hyperalgesia, or OIH. OIH is the increased perception of pain that leads to needing higher doses to achieve the desired effect.
Studies show that when you use an opioid, it sets off a chain of immune signals in the spinal cord that amplify pain rather than dulling it, even after the drug leaves the body.1
Peter Grace, a neuroscientist at the University of Colorado Boulder, is trying to trace hyperalgesia to the way opioids affect the immune system. His team injured rats to mimic the nerve pain humans feel. Ten days after the injury, half the rats received a 5-day treatment of morphine. Over the next 12 weeks, the researchers periodically measured the rodents’ threshold of pain. After 6 weeks, the injured rats that had received no morphine returned to the same sensitivity as uninjured control rats. Meanwhile, it took morphine-treated rats 12 weeks—twice as long—to return to the same pain sensitivity as the control rats. 2, 3
Using prescription painkillers to manage pain is a lot like blowing your nose with a tissue filled with sneezing powder!
The higher the dose, the more risk of overdose, all the while with the patient experiencing increasing pain levels. Some studies suggest that it makes the pain even worse than when the patient began treatment.
Based on what has been learned from animal and human studies, the following may be true:4,5
- The treatment of pain with high doses of opiates may increase the chance of greater levels of pain at later times.
- Taking high doses of opiates for chronic pain may increase levels of postoperative pain, even when their opiate doses are increased.
- People who have used opiates in the past may have increased pain responses to minor procedures such as having their blood drawn.
The key takeaway here is that your pain can keep increasing not because of an injury, but due to the action of the opioids themselves.
According to Dr. Al Clavel, who specializes in pain medicine, there’s another reason opioids can make pain worse. He writes:
Our bodies have natural opioids called endorphins. If your body becomes used to opioid pain medication, its ability to create and use natural endorphins will decrease. This makes you lose the ability to reduce pain on your own.
Over-the-Counter Pain Relief
There are many safer, proven ways to help relieve chronic pain. One is by using over-the-counter (OTC) painkillers. OTC painkillers include NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and acetaminophen (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, brand name Tylenol), which relieve pain. NSAIDs relieve pain by reducing the production of prostaglandins, which are hormone-like substances that cause pain. Acetaminophen works on the parts of the brain that receive the pain messages.
OTC painkillers are easily available, aren’t habit-forming, and won’t leave you constipated. However, even OTC painkillers can increase the risk of heart attack or stroke. OTC painkillers have also been known to cause stomach ulcers and bleeding as well as liver and kidney problems. These risks increase with sustained use.
If you’ve been using OTC pain relievers for more than 14 days straight, you should probably talk to your health care provider about the risks. Just because they’re sold without a prescription doesn’t mean that OTC pain relievers are “safe” for long-term use.
Topical Pain Relief
Topical pain relievers or liniments are also available without a doctor’s prescription. These products include creams, lotions, or sprays that are applied to the skin to relieve pain from sore muscles and arthritis.
Chiropractic Care for Pain Relief
Chiropractors specialize in treating the musculoskeletal injuries that cause acute and chronic pain. Chiropractic care is an effective drug-free treatment that allows your body to heal naturally.
Chiropractic care is proven effective. A study that compared the effectiveness of prescribed medications to spinal manipulation found that 94% of patients who underwent chiropractic treatment saw a 30% reduction in low back pain after 4 weeks. In comparison, only 56% of patients who used regular medical care saw a 30% reduction in low back pain after 4 weeks.6
At Advanced Wellness Solutions, we would love to help you get back to living the life you love pain-free! Call us at (772) 403-7640 to schedule an appointment today.
Muscle Relaxing Drugs
If you’ve ever had a muscle spasm, you know how painful it can be. Muscle spasms can cause severe neck and back pain. These spasms can make your life miserable. Before you turn to muscle-relaxing drugs, here are some things you should know.
Modern chiropractic care provides many treatment modalities that offer drug-free pain relief from muscle spasms.
If you seek usual medical care (UMC) for back pain, the doctor may prescribe muscle relaxants.1
New treatment guidelines from the ACP strongly recommend that people with back pain first try non-drug measures such as yoga, physical therapy, chiropractic and massage before resorting to over-the-counter or prescription pain relievers and muscle relaxants.2
What are muscle-relaxing drugs?
The term “muscle relaxers” is definitely deceiving because this classification includes a wide range of drugs with different indications and mechanisms of action.3
Many muscle relaxers cause sedation throughout the central nervous system. In other words, they make all of your muscles relax, not just the tight ones. They also make you feel sleepy. If acute pain from an injury is making it difficult to sleep, this can be a good thing. Sleep helps you heal. However, this can make living your life during your waking hours difficult.
There is growing concern surrounding these drugs because it is not clear how effective muscle relaxers are when it comes to relieving pain. Concerns have also been raised about the adverse side effects involved with many of these drugs. In addition to sedation, potential adverse effects include drowsiness, headache, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting and the potential for addiction.3
Acute Pain vs Chronic Pain
Acute pain is immediate pain. You can often identify what you were doing to cause the pain. Sometimes the cause of acute pain can be a seemingly harmless movement, like lifting something heavy. On the other hand, chronic pain is pain that lasts beyond the typical expected healing period.
Jeffrey E. Keller is a Board-certified Certified Emergency Physician with 25 years of emergency medicine practice experience before moving full time into his “true calling” of Correctional Medicine. His recommendations to physicians regarding prescribing muscle relaxers in his post Skeletal Muscle Relaxers Do Not Relax Skeletal Muscles.
1. Never prescribe muscle relaxers long term for chronic conditions.
2. If you prescribe a “muscle relaxer” for acute low back pain, use them only for a short time. The number usually bandied about is no more than 7 days.
Ignore Pain at Your Peril
Pain is simply one way your body communicates with you. It’s your brain’s way of saying, “STOP!” BE CAREFUL! This part of your body needs your attention!”
Muscle relaxers mask the symptom of muscle spasm pain. A muscle spasm is not only a reaction to an injury; it’s also your body’s way of trying to protect itself from further injury.
Chiropractic is a health care profession dedicated to providing non-surgical treatment of disorders of the nervous system and musculoskeletal system. Chiropractics have a wide assortment of proven treatments and modalities that can provide drug-free pain relief for muscle spasms.4
Advanced Wellness Solutions focuses on creating individualized treatment plans incorporating treatment modalities combined with the use of patient-driven care such as exercise, activity modification, and ergonomic modifications. In addition to chiropractic care, Advanced Wellness Solutions offers medical massage therapy and acupuncture to provide drug-free relief from painful muscle spasms.
Contact Advanced Wellness Solutions at 855-509-5400 to schedule your appointment today.
Five Ways Chronic Pain Affects You
There’s no doubt about it. Chronic pain is a theft. It robs you of enjoying daily activities and can even damage your overall health. Here are five ways chronic pain affects you.
If you’re suffering from chronic pain, here’s what you should know about the way chronic pain affects you and your health.
There are two types of pain: acute and chronic. Acute pain is the pain you feel immediately after an injury. Chronic pain is defined as pain that lasts beyond the expected period of healing for an illness or injury.
We’re learning that even low-grade chronic pain can affect every aspect of your life. Patients suffering from chronic pain are often at risk for developing further complications, including altered mental states and physical dysfunctions. Studies show that chronic pain actually changes the way the human brain responds to acute pain.1
The constant assault of chronic pain can affect your life in a number of ways. According Perry G. Fine, MD, of the Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, Pain Research Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, in the Long-Term Consequences of Chronic Pain include:
- sleep disturbances
- cognitive processes and brain function
- mood/mental health
- cardiovascular health
- sexual function
Chronic pain affects your thoughts, feelings, sleep patterns, memory and concentration, and your relationships. This robs you of the pleasures of everyday life, not to mention harming your sexual, mental and physical health.
5 Ways Chronic Pain Affects You :
#1: Chronic Pain Robs You of Healthy Sleep
Your skeletal muscles possess the amazing ability to completely regenerate following injury. Muscles and tissues repair during sleep.2 However, pain disturbs your sleep. This sets up a catch-22. Sleep helps your body heal. If you’re not getting good quality sleep, your body can’t heal effectively. However, because you’re in pain, you can’t sleep. As this cycle repeats, it affects your mental, sexual and physical health.
According to SleepFoundation.org,
We know that pain triggers poor sleep. For instance, someone experiencing lower back pain may experience several intense microarousals (a change in the sleep state to a lighter stage of sleep) per each hour of sleep, which lead to awakenings. However, microarousals are innocuous for a person not experiencing chronic pain. Pain is a serious intrusion to sleep. Pain is frequently associated with insomnia and these coexisting problems can be difficult to treat. One problem can exacerbate the other.
#2: It Robs You of the Ability to Think and Remember
If you’re in chronic pain, you’re not operating at your cognitive best. Cognitive processes such as memory and attention have been shown to be impaired in up to two-thirds of patients with chronic pain.3 A comparative study assessed the cognitive functions in adults with chronic pain. Forty participants had chronic pain, while twenty-nine were pain-free. The chronic pain participants performed significantly worse than the pain-free participants on the cognitive measures of long-term memory, selective attention, processing speed, and executive functioning. Significant differences between groups were evident in all cognitive domains. 4
#3: It Robs You of Your Emotional Health
The emotional effects of chronic pain include:
- Depression
- Anger
- Anxiety, and
- Fear of re-injury
Chronic pain can influence your thoughts, feelings, memory, concentration, and even connections with others. Living with chronic pain can affect your mood, making you more susceptible to depression, anxiety, and fear. Chronic pain has been demonstrated to cause sleep disturbances, depression, and a heightened risk of suicide.5
Such mood disorders can also promote a dependence upon prescription medications designed to treat the pain, such as opioids. The more scared, alone or sad you feel, the more likely you are to depend upon medications which temporarily mask the pain by providing an “euphoric” feeling. However, when the effects of the medication wear off, the negative feelings return. If you’re suffering from chronic pain, this is yet another catch-22 cycle you can find yourself in.
#4: It Robs You of Your Cardiovascular Health
Chronic pain can lead to a chronic stress reaction that causes an increase in blood pressure and heart rate. This stress reaction can lead to harmful health effects, such as a reduced ability to fight off illnesses and diseases. It also can increase the risk for conditions such as heart disease.6
#5: It Robs You of Your Sexuality
Chronic pain may interfere with your sexuality because of the pain itself. However, other factors associated with your chronic pain, including mood disorders, decreased sex drive (libido), medications or stress, can also affect your sexual function 7.
Gentle Chiropractic Care Can Provide Drug-Free Relief from Chronic Pain.
Let’s be honest, there is no “one size fits all” solution to chronic pain. This is the type of thinking that has led to the opioid crisis. However, there are many drug-free therapies and modalities which can dramatically reduce and even eliminate chronic pain.
Gentle Chiropractic Care harnesses the body’s innate ability to heal itself without resorting to dangerous drugs or life-altering surgery. This is accomplished through manual manipulations of the spine and joints. The goal of chiropractic treatment is to restore the neuro-skeletal system to fully functioning capacity.
Gentle chiropractic spinal mobilization is used to restore or enhance joint function. Unlike traditional high-velocity spinal manipulation, gentle chiropractic modalities utilize slow movement, usually to a firm endpoint of joint movement.
One of the benefits of gentle chiropractic care is that it can be tailored to meet your specific needs. In our continual pursuit of natural, hands-on pain relief, Advanced Wellness Solutions is proud to offer primary care, weight loss, massage therapy and acupuncture in addition to gentle chiropractic.
Accepting new patients.
Call 855-509-5400 to schedule your appointment.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatment
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a surprisingly common condition that causes pain, numbness, and tingling in the hand and arm. At Advanced Wellness Solutions, we take a two pronged approach to carpal tunnel syndrome treatment, using both gentle chiropractic care and acupuncture to provide carpal tunnel syndrome treatment.
What is Carpal Tunnel
The carpal tunnel is a narrow passageway in your wrist. This passageway comes up through the bones (carpals) and ligaments on the palm side of your hand. The median nerve passes through this narrow passageway to control the muscles in your hand, thumb and 3 of your 4 fingers. (The median nerve doesn’t control your pinky finger.)
When the median nerve is compressed, the symptoms can include numbness, tingling and weakness in the hand and arm.
Carpal tunnel syndrome occurs when the tunnel becomes narrowed or when tissues surrounding the flexor tendons swell, putting pressure on the median nerve. 1 This swelling causes pressure on the median nerve causing pain, numbness and tingling in the hand and arm.2 Left untreated, this pressure on the nerve can eventually cause permanent nerve and muscle damage.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Symptoms
One of the most common symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome is pain, numbness or tingling in the hand and arm. These symptoms are usually mild at first but it increase in severity as the condition progresses.
Carpal tunnel syndrome stiffness and immobility is often most severe in the morning. However, the pain from carpal tunnel syndrome is often most severe at night, preventing healthy, restful sleep.
Since carpal tunnel syndrome affects the nerves and muscles that control the hand, performing common everyday tasks like picking up a glass can become difficult. Weakness is often mild at first, increasing as the conditions progresses.
Because carpal tunnel syndrome involves the nerves, other symptoms include other symptoms such as:
- a burning sensation in the hands/fingers
- itching in the hands/fingers
- feeling as if the hands/fingers are swollen, even if they’re not.
- reduced sensitivity to hot and cold in the hand/ fingers.
In its early stages, carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms may include your hand tingles and feels weak, or the fingers numb, or both.
Diagnosing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome involves nerve pain due to compression in the wrist. Unfortunately, pressure on nerves in the neck due to disc problems or arthritis can cause similar symptoms. To confirm the diagnosis, diagnostic imaging may be required. A nerve conduction study can measure the severity of the compression on the nerve if surgery is needed.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatment
Numbness, tingling and pain in your hands, fingers and wrists are examples of an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure. Early, correct diagnosis and treatment can dramatically improve your outcome. Treatment modalities depend upon the cause and severity of your symptoms.
Advanced Wellness Solutions offers natural, drug-free carpal tunnel syndrome treatment. Gentle chiropractic care can treat the mechanical nature, while acupuncture can address the underlying symptom of inflammation that causes the tissues inside the wrist to swell.
Early intervention is important to avoid surgery. We’ve had outstanding success using our two pronged approach to treating carpal tunnel syndrome.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Left Untreated
It’s important to seek treatment if you have signs and symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome that interfere with your normal activities and sleep patterns. Permanent nerve and muscle damage can occur without treatment.
You should always seek treatment for symptoms of tingling, numbness and radiating pain. These are possible symptoms of nerve impingement. Symptoms will progress if carpal tunnel syndrome is left untreated. You’ll begin dropping things. Activities that require fine finger movements, such as writing or fastening buttons, will become more difficult. You may begin to feel you are losing coordinated movement of your fingers. Moving your thumb may also become difficult. Again, these could also be symptoms of pressure on nerves in the neck due to disc problems or arthritis, so if you don’t schedule treatment with Advanced Wellness Solutions, be sure to discuss your symptoms with your health care professional.
Carpal tunnel syndrome is the compression of the median nerve which can lead to permanent nerve and muscle damage without treatment.
Should I Start with Chiropractic Care or Acupuncture to Treat Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
It’s up to you which path you wish to take on your journey of carpal tunnel syndrome treatment.
Chiropractic care addresses the mechanics of musculoskeletal pain while acupuncture addresses inflammation (causing the swelling) and helps natural healing to occur in the body. Choosing to take a two-pronged approach by combining chiropractic and acupuncture can accelerate natural healing. Our patients who have chosen to take this approach have been delighted with the results.
Chiropractic care and acupuncture can work alone, together or even along side other medical treatments.
Rest assured that the health care professionals at Advanced Wellness Solutions will work together to resolve carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms. If we can’t help, we’ll get you where you need to go for your best treatment options.
Accepting new patients.
Call 855-509-5400 to schedule your appointment.
Super Bowl Super Sick Monday
There’s a big push to make the day after the Super Bowl a holiday. According to the NY Post, 24 percent of Americans say the day after the Super Bowl should be a national holiday. The reason behind the push goes beyond the junk food and alcohol consumed while watching the game. The game runs late so many lose sleep that night.
Even if you didn’t “eat, drink and make merry,” just by losing sleep, you can still wake up feeling as if you did.
There’s good news if the Super Bowl represents a single “glitch” in your normal nightly sleep routine. According to recent studies, you can expect to fully recover from a single sleep deficit in four days. That means your withdrawal from football is going to last a lot longer than your Super Bowl Monday sickness. Unfortunately, many of us don’t get enough sleep on a regular basis and good quality sleep helps you heal. If you’ve been injured in a car accident or are suffering from chronic pain, you need to sleep so your body can heal itself.
Sleep deficiency is serious
For those who lose sleep on a regular basis, there’s a lot of bad news on the horizon. Sleep deprivation can quickly spiral into the much more serious condition, sleep deficiency. According to the NIH,
Sleep deficiency can lead to physical and mental health problems, injuries, loss of productivity, and even a greater risk of death. Sleep deficiency also is associated with an increased risk of injury in adults, teens, and children. For example, driver sleepiness (not related to alcohol) is responsible for serious car crash injuries and death. In the elderly, sleep deficiency might be linked to an increased risk of falls and broken bones. In addition, sleep deficiency has played a role in human errors linked to tragic accidents, such as nuclear reactor meltdowns, grounding of large ships, and aviation accidents.
Sleep deficiency has also been linked to many chronic health problems, including heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, obesity, and depression. Studies suggest that sleep loss (defined as less than 7 hours per night) may have wide-ranging effects on the cardiovascular, endocrine, immune, and nervous systems, including the following:
- Obesity in adults and children
- Diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance
- Cardiovascular disease and hypertension
- Anxiety symptoms
- Depressed mood
- Alcohol use
As you can see, sleep deficiency is a serious health issue.
Want to know if you’re sleep deficient?
If you’re experiencing excessive daytime sleepiness, you’re probably not getting enough quality sleep. However, there are other symptoms, including:
- yawning
- moodiness
- fatigue
- irritability.
- depressed mood.
- difficulty learning new concepts.
- forgetfulness.
- inability to concentrate or a “fuzzy” head.
If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, start keeping a sleep diary. Write down
- when you went to bed
- how long it took you to fall asleep
- when you woke up
- how alert and rested you feel in the morning
- how sleepy you feel during the day.
Do this for at least two weeks.
If you’re having trouble sleeping, you should schedule an appointment with Advanced Wellness Solutions to go over your sleep diary. You’ll be glad you did.
Get Relief from Chronic Pain
No one likes living with chronic pain, but many of us push through rather than address the underlying issue(s).
Did you know that chronic pain can harm your health even if it’s not limiting your activities?
Fortunately, effective gentle chiropractic care combined with modern therapeutics can help you say goodbye to pain.
Chronic pain significantly impacts your overall health.
If you’re living with (and ignoring) chronic pain, university medical school studies reveal that you may be doing long-term damage to your overall health.
According to a University of Utah School of Medicine report published at NCBI, chronic pain significantly impacts your overall health. One of the ways chronic pain can affect your health is by disrupting your sleep. The American Psychological Association released a study proving that healthy sleep is the single most important factor in predicting longevity.Healthy sleep is more influential than diet, exercise, or heredity for predicting longevity!
Another negative health effect of chronic pain is that it impairs your cognitive processes and brain function—even your mood and your mental health. 1 2 3
As if that laundry list weren’t enough, the University of Utah study indicates that chronic pain can even impact your cardiovascular health, not to mention your sexual function.
Gentle Chiropractic Care Provides Drug-Free Relief from Chronic Pain.
The good news is that chronic pain can often be successfully managed without drugs, injections or surgeries
Modern chiropractic care addresses so much more than just neck and back pain. Modern chiropractors treat the whole person, not just a specific body part.
Dr. Danielle has helped hundreds of patients find drug-free relief from chronic pain.
If you’re dealing with chronic pain, don’t delay!Chronic pain can have a domino effect on your overall health!
In our continual pursuit of natural, hands-on pain relief, we’re proud to offer massage therapy and acupuncture in addition to gentle chiropractic.
Don’t suffer another day with chronic pain! You owe it to yourself to schedule an appointment with Advanced Wellness Solutions.Call 855-509-5400 to schedule your appointment today.
Chiropractic Treatment for Disc Herniation
Chiropractic treatment is a non-surgical option for disc herniation. Chiropractic care is frequently the preferred first choice for treatment since it is non-invasive and avoids the use of medications or injections.
Your spine is made up of a series of bones (vertebrae). Between each bone is a rubbery disc that acts as a cushion. When the soft center of a rubbery disc is pushing through a crack in the tougher exterior casing, it’s called a disc herniation.
Unfortunately a herniated disc can irritate nearby nerves, resulting in pain, numbness, or weakness in an arm or leg.
With proper treatment, a herniated disc does not mean a lifetime of unbearable pain.
Is a herniated disc serious? Yes. Many herniated discs can be managed successfully with proper care and monitoring.
Seek immediate medical attention if you have:
- Loss of balance, bladder control or consciousness
- Vomiting
- Loss of sensation
- Symptoms are rapidly getting worse
A disc herniation falls into a broader category of disc derangement.
Disc derangement is a general term for when a disc has been damaged. This damage can be minor or major depending on age and type of trauma. The disc is made up of a gelatinous center called the nucleus pulposus surrounded by fibrocartilaginous material (annulus fibrosis). When the annulus fibrosus is torn due to stress, the gelatinous nucleus pulposus can ooze out.
How far that gelatinous nucleus pulposus oozes out is what determines what kind of disc derangement you have.
There are four stages of disc derangement:
- degeneration,
- prolapse,
- extrusion,
- and sequestration.
Degeneration
The first stage of disc derangement is when the nucleus pulposus begins oozing into the layers of annulus fibrosis.
Prolapse
Prolapse is when the nucleus pulposus pushes all the way out to the last layers of the annulus.
Extrusion
Extrusion is when nucleus pulposus has left the confinement of the annulus fibrosis. This is the state where nucleus pulposus can physically start interfering with surrounding structures.
Sequestration
Sequestration is the most severe. The nucleus pulposus has left the confinement of the annular fibrosis and has broken off into little pieces. These pieces can travel and cause interference with the surrounding structures.
Any stage of disc derangement can cause pain.
How much pain depends upon the individual and the location of the derangement. Extrusion and sequestration pose the most serious risk of the four. Anytime nucleus pulposus has left its confinement, it can cause impingement and pain.
In rare cases, disc derangement actually pinches a nerve, causing pain. Usually, the pain associated with disc derangement comes from the inflammatory response of the body to the change in structure. Inflammation occurs around the deranged disc, causing the nerve to become irritated. This in turn causes pain.
An MRI can show the location and what type of disc derangement is present.
What are the symptoms of a herniated disc?
Disc issues can manifest in various forms. Some individuals may have herniated discs yet experience no noticeable symptoms. The nature of the symptoms varies based upon where the herniated disc is located.
Cervical disc herniation symptoms:
- Pain in the arm or hand; this pain often feels like it is traveling down the arm or radiating
- Numbness and tingling
- Weakness in the arms
- In severe cases, reduced reflexes in the upper limbs with increased reflexes in the lower limbs
Lumbar disc herniation symptoms:
- Low back pain that travels down the buttocks, legs and feet
- Numbness and tingling
- Weakness in the legs
- Decreased reflexes
Risk factors for herniated disc:
- Overweight: excess weight puts extra stress and different weight loading on discs
- Physically demanding jobs
- Genetics: a family history of disc herniation
- Age: most likely to occur between 30 and 50
What causes a herniated disc?
Herniated discs can happen gradually with repeat stress. In other cases, trauma (like a car accident) can damage or displace one or more discs.
Common car accident injuries include
- bulging discs (when a disc shifts out of place and bulges into the spinal canal),
- annular tears,
- herniated discs.
How do you treat a herniated disc?
Treatments for a herniated disc include:
- Gentle chiropractic treatment with adjustments
- Acupuncture
- Medical massage therapy
- Cervical traction
- Physical therapy
- At-home exercises and stretches
- Postural correction
- Weight reduction
- OTC pain medications, muscle relaxers and prescription opioids.
- Surgery
An important thing to remember with a herniated disc is to avoid too much bed rest. Lying in bed waiting for the pain to go away is one of the worst things you can do. Taking it easy and not lifting heavy things is fine.
Gentle Chiropractic Treatment for Disc Herniation
Gentle chiropractic care has been demonstrated to effectively treat lumbar disc herniation. A gentle chiropractic care technique (activator method) has advantages over traditional chiropractic techniques when treating symptomatic lumbar disc herniation.1
We [the case study authors] speculate that the use of an AAI, combined with Activator methods, may provide definitive benefits over side-posture manipulation of the lumbar spine in treatment of resistive disc lesions, because of the lack of torsional stress imposed upon the disc during instrumental spinal adjustment.
In another case study, Activator-assisted spinal manipulative therapy had positive subjective and objective results for low back pain in a patient with degenerative disk disease.2
Yet another case study concluded:3
Conservative chiropractic treatment may provide an effective therapeutic intervention in selected cases of cervical disc protrusion.
This study specifically cited “instrument-delivered adjustments” (gentle chiropractic) as providing benefit in cases in which manual manipulation causes an exacerbation of the symptoms or is contraindicated altogether.
Other gentle chiropractic techniques, such as the flexion-distraction technique, the drop technique and pelvic blocking, have been shown to be helpful in treating disc herniations.3,4
Flexion-Distraction Technique
This spinal adjustment method utilizes a specialized table that allows the chiropractor to gently stretch your spine.
The photo above is of William sitting on our specialized table that gently stretches your spine.
This technique is gentle and typically painless, making it suitable for individuals experiencing significant discomfort. It can help reposition the herniated disc away from the nerve, providing symptom relief.
Pelvic blockage Treatments
This approach makes use of specially designed cushion wedges. During treatment, these wedges are placed beneath each side of your pelvis. This positioning helps to naturally shift the herniated disc away from the impacted nerve. In addition to addressing herniated discs, pelvic blocking can also be beneficial for other issues such as headaches and general body pain.
Acupuncture Treatment for Disc Herniation
Herniated discs can cause inflammation and pain, but acupuncture can reduce it. While it doesn’t address the root cause of degenerative disc disease, acupuncture can provide relief from symptoms and help slow the disease’s advancement.
Individuals undergoing acupuncture treatment could see a faster healing journey. Additionally, acupuncture aids in improving overall movement capabilities. When it comes to alleviating pain and enhancing mobility, acupuncture may offer more advantages compared to traditional physical therapy methods. After undergoing surgery for a lumbar disc issue, acupuncture might prove to be more beneficial than standard medical treatments for alleviating post-surgical discomfort.
Medical Massage Therapy Treatment for Disc Herniation
Medical massage therapy can be an effective treatment for a herniated disc. It can alleviate discomfort resulting from nerve compression and muscle tension. It also
- enhances blood flow to the affected region
- aids in regaining mobility in the joints,
- and provides support to the herniated area.
Medical massage therapy may boost the likelihood of natural healing for the disc, potentially facilitating the disc’s return to its proper position.
If you are experiencing symptoms of a herniated disc or have been in a Florida car accident and fear you have a herniated disc, you should contact Advanced Wellness Solutions.
Chiropractic Treatment of Facet Syndrome
Chiropractic treatment of facet syndrome,1 along with exercise, is the most effective approach for addressing both acute and chronic pain in the facet joints. Surgical options are usually not necessary for the treatment of facet syndrome because conservative treatment (such as chiropractic care) often resolves the issue.
Chiropractors emphasize the importance of addressing the root neurological, mechanical, and muscular issues contributing to facet joint pain.
Facet syndrome is a degenerative joint disease of the facet joint that can mimic the symptoms of a herniated disc.
The facet joints play an important role in stabilizing the spine while allowing movement. When these joints become injured in some way, it can result in considerable pain and disability. Since there are facet joints throughout most of the spine, this is a condition that can affect the neck, upper back and lower back. Even though facet syndrome can occur in any facet joint, it appears most often in high-movement and weight-bearing areas such as the neck and low back.
While facet syndrome often presents in patients older than age 50, anyone suffering from repeated trauma such as whiplash or multiple car accidents can suffer from facet syndrome.
Chiropractic care specializes in treating disorders of the musculoskeletal system and can offer some of the most effective treatment options for facet syndrome.
Flexion distraction is a gentle chiropractic technique designed to alleviate discomfort and symptoms linked to facet syndrome. The technique involves gentle stretching and rhythmic motions aimed at decompressing the spine, which can lead to pain relief and improved mobility.
Advantages of flexion distraction include:
- Enlarging the spinal nerve passageway,
- Decreasing pressure on intervertebral discs,
- Relieving inflammation in spinal nerve roots,
- and restoring proper movement in spinal joints.
What causes facet syndrome?
The cause of facet syndrome is still unclear. There are several factors that can contribute to the presentation of facet syndrome.
These factors are:
- Age 50 or older
- Repeated trauma to the neck or low back
- Repetitive stressful movement
- Genetics
Degeneration of the facet joint due to age or trauma causes the inflammation that produces pain in facet syndrome. Inflammation irritates the small nerves located in the facet joint, causing pain.
What are the symptoms of facet syndrome?
The symptoms vary depending on the area that is involved.
In the cervical region, the symptoms that may present are:
- Headaches
- Inflammation
- Neck and shoulder pain
- Limited range of motion when turning the head and bending the neck
- Stiffness
In the lumbar region, the symptoms that may present are:
- Lower back pain
- Tenderness
- Stiffness
- Radiating pain down the buttocks or back of the thighs
- Pain when twisting or arching the lower back
How do you treat facet syndrome?
In both the cervical and lumbar regions, treatment usually starts conservative.
Conservative treatments include:
- Chiropractic adjustments
- Acupuncture
- Medical massage therapy
- Physical Therapy
- NSAIDs
- Hot/Cold therapy
- Range of motion exercises
- At home stretching
If conservative treatment fails, there are other options, such as:
- Intra-articular facet injections
- Median nerve block
- Radiofrequency neurotomy
- Cervical Fusion
Surgical options are usually not necessary because conservative treatment often resolves the issue. All surgical interventions should not be taken lightly and should only be considered if a great deal of conservative treatment has failed.
If you are experiencing symptoms of facet syndrome and wish to discuss your treatments options, contact us at 855-509-5400
