Migraines

  • Migraines

Very few of the complaints that we see at our chiropractors office are as unpleasant as migraine. Migraines vary in intensity and frequency – some of us are still able to function during a migraine attack but many cannot. 

There is significant variation from person to person in the type of pain chiropractic patients have with migraine. Classic migraine is a throbbing pain on one side mof the face or skull and frequently has additional or warning symptoms in the senses .. like mild visual hallucinations or a strange taste in the mouth.

Modern research has shown that during a migraine there are changes in the blood flow to the brain. Like many symptoms – migraine can have numerous underlying causes. A good indicator of this is that the triggers can vary from chocolate right through to stress and hormonal changes in the body. It’s good to remember though that there is a difference between a ‘trigger’ and a cause, tennis can trigger heart attacks afterall but it isn’t the true cause.

Chiropractic patients who experience migraine often report that they have a strong sense that the pain emanates from the base of the skull and upper neck. These people often find that acupuncture and acupressure – in combination with chiropractic brings rapid easing of symptoms and can even stop the onset of serious episodes.

The surprising and even confusing thing about migraines is that they can be caused by past neck injuries that had appeared to recover quite normally. The other surprising thing about migraines is that they are very commonly associated with certain patterns of emotional suppression. Most serious migraine sufferers exhibit very similar patterns of emotional suppression.

If you are suffering from migraines and would like to have a talk with a  chiropractors office who have extensive experience treating migraine let us know. We would be happy to help you explore your options for managing them the quickest and safest way possible give us a call.

Make An Appointment

Appointment

Sciatica / Sciatic Pain

  • Sciatica / Sciatic Pain

Sciatica is the medical term for pain running down the back of the leg – that doesn’t come from the leg itself but from the nerve pathway that supplies the leg. In reality sciatica or sciatic pain is a ‘symptom’ not a ‘condition’ because there are many possible causes of sciatic pain. 

Many people call their chiropractor of osteopath when they have a mild ache in the back of their thigh as part of their back ‘playing up’ – which is usually very easy to treat. If you can still sleep comfortably, are not crying down the phone to your chiropractor, and you walk around pretty normally you don’t have true sciatica. This common ache in the back of the leg from the back is ‘referred pain’ not true sciatica.

True sciatica has the characteristics of ‘nerve pain’ – very intense, very deep – often burning pain, down the back of the leg, which tends to put your life on hold. If you have this type of pain there is almost certainly pressure on a nerve somewhere deep in and around your spine or pelvis.

Treating true sciatica successfully is a job that’s based on the ability to identify the underlying cause. If we can figure out what’s causing it we can usually find a way to relieve it – luckily this is what chiropractors are trained to do. 

The list of possible underlying causes includes disc injuries, muscle spasm in the hip and degenerative joints in the low back to name but a few. Getting the right tests done is the key to solving the painful mystery – and we often find we can identify and treat without the need for x rays and scans.

If you are suffering from leg pain sciatic or otherwise and would like some relief feel free to call us. We will do our very best to make you an appointment as soon as possible at our chiropractors office because we know how unpleasant it can be.

Make An Appointment

Appointment

Mechanical Pain

  • Mechanical Pain

We know from personal experience that it’s very easy to get caught up in the mindset that perceives pain as a ‘bad thing’ – to be gotten rid of at all costs. But the truth is pain is a very important part of being a healthy person. 

Pain relief is always our aim. We do however (as chiropractors) feel that pain relief alone is a bit like taking the battery out of the smoke alarm. Just because it makes a nasty noise. Then going back to sleep without checking why it was going off in the first place.

If there is pain in your body that’s your bodies way of trying to bring your attention to something it knows is important!! You don’t need to be a trained chiropractor to know that.

The overwhelming majority of life aches and pains are at least partly mechanical in origin. Mechanical pain whether it comes from a joint, bone, tendon, muscle or ligament ( we treat all of those btw ) is a sign that the tissue is being stressed of overloaded in some way. 

If we consider something pretty simple like shoulder pain in typical hunched over ’50 hours a week at the computer’ chiropractors patient. pretty ob It’s pretty obvious just looking at them that there’s unnatural compression happening in their spine and rib cage. This is the kind of pressure that causes a lot of our pains – over time.

In this chiropractors view – the ingredients that most often lead to a stubborn pain are:

  • Habitual poor alignment ( like hunched posture or habitually standing funny )
  • Weak stabilising muscles ( like no tone on your lower tummy and core which supports your spine )
  • Unnaturally environmental stress ( like stomping around in concrete all day in high heels )
  • Emotional stress leading to chronic muscles tension ( like clenching your jaw all day because your boss has a personality disorder )
  • Old Injuries leaving residual scar tissue and muscle wasting in their wake.

If you would like a chiropractors help figuring out why you have a certain pain that either won’t go away or keeps coming back feel feee to give us a call and make an appointment or time to chat on the phone.

Make An Appointment

Appointment

Wrist Pain / Hand Pain

  • Wrist Pain / Hand Pain

There are few more frustrating and limiting places you can have pain than the wrist and forearm. 

Believe it or not even though most people think of the spine when they think Chiropractors – chiropractors who choose to do so are more than qualified to manage and rehabilitate wrist and hand problems.

Due to the nature of our work many chiropractors over the years have found themselves that they develop wrist pain, RSI and forearm pain. Chiropractors who have been through this and out the other side(like me) often get pretty good at fixing wrist and hand pain.

In bad cases wrist and hand pain can be very excruciating, sharp and limiting… about as much fun as toothache. The reason these areas get so sore is often because of the sheer amount of work they do. If you add injuries into the mix it can be an excellent recipe for chronic pain. Many people who have RSI wrist and forearm pain become completely unable to use the effected hand.

The key to the vast majority of cases of wrist pain is treatment of the tendons. It’s the tendons in the forearm and wrist that do all hard work because they pull on the bones of the hand when we do ‘stuff’. Basically the constant pulling starts to cause inflammatory or mildly degenerative change in the tendons and they become sore. Obviously – when tendon pain arises the traditional chiropractors tool kit must be expanded and other forms of treatment are incorporated by the chirorpactor.

A percentage of wrist and hand pain sufferers also suffer with locking of the carpal bones. This issue falls very neatly into the traditional chiropractors toolkit – because in these instances the bones need to be manipulated. 

If you are finding that certain activities and movements of your hand and forearm are becoming painful you will most likely find that our combination of passive stretches, manipulation, deep tissue release, chiropractors adjustements and sometimes acupuncture will bring surprisingly quick relief. The key to permanent ease and full rehabilitation is usually specialised tendon stretches which generally resolves even the most gnarly of wrist problems.

If you live in Wellington and would like to attend our chiropractors office for treatment and relief of your wrist pain, forearm pain or RSI we would be happy to book you a consult at your earliest convenience so feel free to call us.

Book Appointment

Appointment

Ankle Pain

  • Ankle Pain

Ankle problems can be very frustrating. Many of us find that we either have to give up on certain activities or suffer pain during our chosen activities as a result our ankle issues .. which is no fun at all! Whilst many patients choose to see a physiotherapist for their ankle issues – others find that the chiropractors approach extremely useful. Chiropractors are trained in the care of joints – and the ankle is a joint!! 

The vast majority of ankle pains are mechanical in nature, that means that an overload of mechanical stress has caused the tissue in your ankle to become irritated or slightly damaged. The most common version of this is the classic ‘rolled ankle’ or ankle sprain but there are many other ways that things can go wrong in your ankle over time.

The important thing to understand about ankle pain is that a healthy strong ankle will almost never cause problems but an ankle that is weak or poorly aligned in some way will tend to be a trouble maker.

When considering your ankle pain we look very closely at your pain but we also like to look very closely at what the underlying causes might be… including weakness, bad movement habits and old unhealed injuries to name but a few.

In our search for answers we use comprehensive history taking, orthopaedic testing, x Ray reports and computerised gaitscan analysis leaving no stone unturned.  

When treating ankle pain we often use manipulation, acupuncture, rehab exercises and orthotic prescription. And in the vast majority of cases we get the win!

If you have injured your ankle or have ongoing ankle issues feel free to call us for an appointment (or a chat to see if an appointment sounds appropriate).

Seeing a chiropractor for your ankle pain can be an excellent treatment and rehabilitation option. Chiropractors are trained to understand how your bodies pain and injuries connect to the other parts of your body. Chiropractors can frequently uncover faulty movement patterns that are the underlying cause of ankle issues and help you to find ways of resolving them.

Make An Appointment

Appointment

Back Pain

Back pain can range from the level of mild annoyance right through to crippling levels of agonising pain.

Continue reading

Shoulder Pain

Nagging discomfort, knots and pain in your shoulders can seriously effect your ability to work effectively and enjoy life. Severe pain in your shoulders can put your life on hold.

Continue reading

Neck Pain

Whether you suffer from annoying, long standing neck discomfort, from severe episodes of acute neck pain or some combination thereof you will no doubt be looking for some ease and relief.

Continue reading

Hip Pain

There is a lot more to hip pain than arthritis and old age. And there is a lot more to treating hip pain than surgery – or even chiropractic. A flexible approach to hip pain rehab brings success in many instances.

Continue reading

Knee Pain

The majority of knee pains are caused by irritation of soft tissues. More serious cases of knee pain can be caused by damage to cartilage and connective tissue. In either case there are many ways of working towards being free of knee pain.

Continue reading