plantar faucitis foot

What Is Better – Taping vs Treatment For Plantar Fasciitis ?

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What Is Better – Taping vs Treatment For Plantar Fasciitis ?

plantar faucitis foot
Prefer to listen to the audio? Click below: Link to original article if you like to read it: What Is Better – Taping vs Treatment For Plantar Fasciitis ?

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ankle ankle pain back pain Chiropractic Treatment Chiropractor chronic headaches custom orthotics exercises hand pain headache headaches headache treatment hip pain Migraine Migraine headache migraine treatment neck pain neck pain treatment orthotics pain pain clinic Pain Management Pain relief pain treatment patient personality assessment Plantar fasciitis posture rehabilitation shockwave therapy Shoulder injury Shoulder Pain sinus relief Spinal manipulation tension headache wrist pain

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How Can A Chiropractor Help Me?

When you hear the word ‘chiropractor’ you most probably associate it with ‘back or neck pain’. Most Individuals who have never sought chiropractic care before are often surprised to discover the extent to which a chiropractor can help with other issues that can improve their overall well-being

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Toby Hall April 25, 2023

Back Pain From Cycling?

Putting in long hours on the bike is an excellent way to keep your body in top condition, improving your cardiovascular system and building up your quads. However, extended periods of crouching over the handlebars can be tough on your back.

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Toby Hall April 25, 2023
lions mane mushroom for pain

Can A Mushroom Help You With Your Pain ?

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Can A Mushroom Help You With Your Pain ?

lions mane mushroom for pain
Prefer to listen to the audio version? click for MP3 HERE: Read original article 5 Amazing Benefits Of Lion’s Mane Musghroom

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ankle ankle pain back pain Chiropractic Treatment Chiropractor chronic headaches custom orthotics exercises hand pain headache headaches headache treatment hip pain Migraine Migraine headache migraine treatment neck pain neck pain treatment orthotics pain pain clinic Pain Management Pain relief pain treatment patient personality assessment Plantar fasciitis posture rehabilitation shockwave therapy Shoulder injury Shoulder Pain sinus relief Spinal manipulation tension headache wrist pain

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Headaches, ‘A Pain In The Neck’?

Have you ever heard of the term ‘cervicogenic headache’? If you were to consult the International Society for Headache Research, you would discover a category of headache known as ‘cervicogenic headache’, which essentially means a headache caused by issues in the neck and its tissues. It’s more common than most people, including doctors (but probably not chiropractors), might expect.

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Toby Hall April 18, 2023

Can A Chiropractor Fix My Shoulder Pain?

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In this blog, we will discuss the causes of shoulder pain and how chiropractors can help relieve it.

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Toby Hall April 17, 2023

A Century Of Treating Back Pain

Back pain in the early 20th century was commonly attributed to ‘rheumatism’, with little explanation provided in clear biomechanical terms. However, given the World War and the subsequent devastation wrought by the Spanish flu, it is clear that there were more pressing matters on people’s minds at that time.

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Toby Hall April 17, 2023
neck pain

5 Signs Your Neck Issues May Be Caused By Scar Tissue

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5 Signs Your Neck Problems May Be Caused By Scar Tissue

neck pain

Many of us have scar tissue in our necks without realising it – scar tissue is a far bigger topic than most of us realise. Scar tissue can build up after an injury – but it can also build up slowly over time due to issues like bad posture.

Headaches
Research has shown that there are nerve pathways in your brain stem that can’t always tell where pain is coming from. These pathways will often report a headache when the problem is really tension, inflammation and scar tissue in the neck.

Persistent Tightness
It’s pretty obvious that muscle tension can cause tightness in the neck. It’s a common side effect of stress and desk work, the muscles tighten and they limit motion of the bones. A lesser known but major cause of stubborn neck tightness is scar tissue like fibrous change deep in the neck. This can come through injury or just years of poor posture.

Pressure Sensitivity
If the tissues in your neck are chronically compressed by tension & scar tissue you can develop what is known as ‘hyperalgesia’, this is when the tissue develop heightened sensitivity to touch. For people with this even the slightest touch can feel like being jabbed really hard in the neck and shoulder region. Not a nice way to be.

Pain
Neck pain is one of the most common symptoms that we humans suffer with and require treatment for. The majority of neck issues are caused by stress, poor posture and old injuries. Any of the above can leave a legacy of scar tissue in the neck. Once this has built up the soft tissues of the neck lose their elasticity and neck pain often becomes an intermittent or even persistent issue.

A Neck Crease
If we hold tension in our necks and/or have poor posture over an extended period of time we can build up scar tissues and shortened muscles groups. In particularly bad cases and in particularly bad moments this can be seen as a skin crease across the back of the neck.

So there you have it – 5 signs you might have scar tissue in your neck that is a part of the reason for your neck problems – or even headaches. The good news is that if you word with the right chiropractor and the right tools there is every chance you can find a way to lead a life with less neck pain.
Call City Chiropractic now on 04 385 6446 to make an appointment now!

Prefer to listen to the audio version of this Post? Click below:

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The ‘Fascia-nating’ Fascia

You’ve probably come across the terms ‘fascia’ or ‘myofascial release’ before, especially if you’ve been to see us at the Featherston Street Pain Clinic or during a yoga, physical therapy, or massage session. But what exactly is fascia?

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Toby Hall April 11, 2023

3 Ways To Treat Plantar Fasciitis

Plantar fasciitis is a real pain to say the very least, it is one of those conditions that both really really hurts and is really really inconvenient.
In this blog, we will discuss three ways to treat plantar fasciitis.

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Toby Hall April 4, 2023
custom orthotics

3 Potential Benefits Of Wearing Custom Orthotics

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3 Potential Benefits Of Wearing Custom Orthotics

custom orthotics

Data from the US estimates that they spend 1.2 billion dollars per year on orthotics. With this many people using orthotics there must be a range of benefits to their use, but what are the main ones?

Well, there are a huge number of specific benefits that people report once they start wearing orthotics that range from improvements in pain from plantar fasciitis to bursitis and even osteoarthritis.

We live in a time where there is an epidemic of lower body pain in the developed world. If we were to combine the social impact of all the back pain, hip pain, knee pain, ankle pain, foot pain and lower body osteoarthritis we would see that it is a modern healthcare disaster.

We live far longer lives than our ancestors did and we do so on extremely hard unnatural surfaces. Concrete, tarmac and paving stones put horrendous amounts of strain on the soft tissues in the lower body. The flatness of our urban and domestic surfaces also contributes to the problem because it requires no balance, our stabilising muscles don’t get the kind of workout nature imposes on them.

We are probably less than 70% less active than our great grandparents were as of now, they lead far more physical lives on average. Who knows how we stack up against our hunter gatherer ancestors… not great is the broad answer. This inactivity leads to weakness and the weakness leads to pain.

The Benefits Of Wearing Custom Orthotics

There are 3 basic mechanisms that form the basis of all the more tangible and specific help with symptoms that foot orthotics offer.

1- Orthotics Reduce Strain in the Foot & Ankle Joints

As a species we simply did not evolve to walk on hard flat surfaces…admittedly we did not evolve to use orthotics or shoes either, so there is no getting around these facts.

Your ancestors walked on soft, uneven ground with a constantly shifting incline and camber. Orthotics take strain off the ankle and foot joints by mimicking some of the qualities of natural terrain.

If you picture walking along the beach in bare feet, no shoes and no orthotics. Consider the range of textures depending on the wetness of the sand, consider the shifting angle depending on whether there are dunes and how fast the tide went out.

Now picture barefoot in the forest. The terrain changes constantly in many forests, that leaf litter squashes up under your arch, you have to walk along fallen limbs.

Now consider walking to work in the city. Complete hard flat homogeneous terrain, the occasional flight of stairs where each step is completely flat also. Try to picture how much more movement there would have been in your feet, and how much more support they would have had from surfaces that hug the contour of the foot.

The hard flat terrain causes huge amount of stress in the ankle joint because there is no shock absorption. Orthotics provide shock absorption and bring that stresses in the ankle joint down to slightly more normal levels.

Hard flat urban terrain does not hug the sole of the foot the same way that the majority of natural surfaces do, Orthotics make up for this by hugging the foot and providing a contoured ‘base’ for the arch.

2- Orthotics Reduce Strain in the Knee Joints

People who specialise in the study of human bones down the ages can easily spot the ‘evolutionary moment’ where we started walking upright full time just by looking at leg bones.

The ‘moment’ we started walking upright full time our knee joints essentially doubled in size due to the fact that the massive increase in stress and strain that caused. This is probably the best illustration of what our knees go through and what it means for the skeleton I can offer you. The transition from hunting on all 4’s to walking upright was a mammoth task in more ways than one for the human knee joint.

By supporting the arch orthotics reduce ‘torsional stress’ in the knee joint because the knee twists inwards if the arch drops.

By providing control to the position of the calcaneus (heel bone) orthotics can also help prevent with the slight collapse that happens in the knees of people with flat feet who live on hard flat surfaces. These reductions in small but persistent unnatural movements during weight bearing are the basis of all the benefits that Orthotics provide to the hard working human knee.

3- Orthotics reduce strain in the hip & pelvic tissues.

The hip and its associated muscles play a key role in maintaining foot alignment during weight bearing activities. When the arch collapses there are ‘internal rotations’ of the hip joint. The hip and the associated hips muscles have no issues with a moderate amount of internal rotation at the hip joint during weight bearing but like so many things too much is not healthy and the body can struggle to cope.

The hip and gluteal muscles play such a massive role in preventing the arch from collapsing under your body weight that if they can become the first area to experience pain in many people who are struggling with a need for custom orthotics. People who experience tight, sore hips and ‘lower backs’ after long walks and runs are just starting to notice the first signs that their hips are struggling with foot alignment.

So there you have it – 3 of the many potential benefits that may come from caring for your feet with custom orthotics.

So there you have it – 3 of the many potential benefits that may come from caring for your feet with custom orthotics.

Give City Chiropractic a call on 04 385 6446 to make an appointment now!

Prefer to listen to the audio version of this Blog-Post? Click here :

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chiropractor neck adjustment

5 Surprising Chiropractor Facts

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5 Surprising Chiropractor Facts

chiropractor neck adjustment

1- A Chiropractors Official Title Is Doctor

The NZ Commission of Inquiry into the chiropractic profession was a global landmark study carried out in the late 1970’s.

It was initiated due to concerns raised on the part of the medical profession – about chiropractic quackery on the part of the medical profession. 

The outcome of the enquiry set the gold standard for chiropractic legislation across the developed world.

The commission concluded based on the level of education chiropractors receive that chiropractors are entitled to use the title – doctor.

It also concluded that it was in the public’s interest that chiropractors and the chiropractic profession be embraced by the mainstream healthcare system, which incidentally has already become the case in the UK.

Sadly, for the NZ public – for reasons that are not clear this has still not happened over 30 years later.

Chiropractors are not doctors in the medical /pills/prostate examination sense.

They are doctors in their own sense.

They are qualified to diagnose and treat disorders of the neuro-musculoskeletal system… in the same sense that a dentist is qualified to diagnose and treat disorders of the teeth, gums and jaw.

2- Chiropractors Treat Ankle Sprains

The traditional way of doing dentistry was to identify painful little holes in teeth and then pull the whole tooth out.

In a far less invasive but similarly basic sense the traditional way of doing chiropractic was to sniff out locked spinal bones – and manipulate them back to full mobility.

Both the dental profession and chiropractors have evolved somewhat since their more simplistic and 1 dimensional beginnings.

Chiropractors now embrace a broad ‘scope of practice’ which includes the management of a broad range of complaints and techniques. 

Some chiropractors’ practices consist of as little as 25% pure chiropractic technique and complaints.

The rest of what they do is a broad and flexible approach to pain management that merges chiropractic tools with techniques most people would associate with physiotherapy, acupuncture, fitness coaching and osteopathy. This includes managing a million sprained ankles.

3 -Chiropractic Isn’t Neck Cracking

Most healing professions start off with a fairly basic methodology or tool and expand their scope over time.

If you took a peek at what surgeons were doing in Victorian times and then compared it what they can do now you would most likely be a little shocked and amazed. 

When surgeons founded their profession, they were essentially in the business of cutting peoples legs and arms off with no anesthetic and no hand or knife washing between patients.

In far less horrifying but similar terms chiropractors started off with some simple procedures and have expanded their scope of practice over time.

The original chiropractic intervention was the mobilisation of a spinal bone which gave an audible pop as it released. 

But chiropractic is a profession not a procedure – spinal manipulation is something that chiropractors sometimes do.

Chiropractic is a set of principles, theories and beliefs about pain and the spine which has given rise to many different techniques and tools.

4 – Chiropractors Aren’t Alternative

Spinal manipulation is now an absolutely Bonafide treatment for lower back pain and it is part of international guidelines for the management of lower back pain.

Chiropractic is a fully regulated healthcare profession who’s practitioners receive more basic training in the combined sciences of spinal pain, neurology and biomechanics than any other discipline.

Chiropractors have the same fundamental legal standing as doctors and dentists, they are primary healthcare providers. What is alternative about that?

5 – Chiropractors Didn’t Invent Spinal Manipulation

The oldest record of spinal manipulation being used to treat a patient is on 3000-year-old Egyptian papyrus.

Bonesetters are known to have practiced spinal manipulation across many cultures, for untold millennia.

Daniel Palmer was a visionary who founded the chiropractic profession a century ago.

Palmer had noted that spinal manipulation was an age old tool and became interested in developing theories around how it might work.

Palmer subsequently began testing and experimenting with spinal manipulation to great effect.

Palmer’s primary legacy though was the development of a healthcare profession with modern education standards built around the art and science of spinal manipulation. He did not invent spinal manipulations though… far from it.

Give us a call at City Chiropractic on 04 385 6446 to make an appointment now.

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Shoulder Pain

3 Ways To Avoid Shoulder Injuries

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3 Ways To Avoid Shoulder Injuries

Shoulder Pain

Before we offer 3 basic actions you can take to prevent your shoulder problems, we just want to make it clear that I will be leaving the ultimate solution off this list.

That’s because the ultimate solution is to stop sitting at a desk for 30+ hours a week.

99% of all shoulder injuries have their roots in chronic postural changes.

Slouching forward over time drops your spine, ribs and shoulder blades forward which puts huge stress and strain on the shoulders soft tissues. 

Desk workers are predisposed to shoulder injuries the way smokers are predisposed to breathing problems … that’s life.

All this being said – we know that you do need to put food on the table – so we will leave this point right here and give you some slightly more practical solutions than quitting your job.

shoulder press
Shoulder Pain Prevention Step 1.

This step alone is usually a game changer for most chiropractic patients with shoulder pain.

Narrow your grip while doing all ‘pressing’ movements at the gym!!!

Especially shoulder press!!!  The wide grip that we tend to take on a bar puts unnatural strain on the shoulders when pressing.

A narrow grip taken with 2 dumbbells… holding the elbows closer to the body makes the shoulder move with less stress to the soft tissues. 

On machines choose the narrowest grip options and keep your elbows and arms more compact … you’ll be stronger and have less pain.

Shoulder Pain Prevention Step 1.

This step alone is usually a game changer for most chiropractic patients with shoulder pain.

Narrow your grip while doing all ‘pressing’ movements at the gym!!!

Especially shoulder press!!!  The wide grip that we tend to take on a bar puts unnatural strain on the shoulders when pressing.

A narrow grip taken with 2 dumbbells… holding the elbows closer to the body makes the shoulder move with less stress to the soft tissues. 

On machines choose the narrowest grip options and keep your elbows and arms more compact … you’ll be stronger and have less pain.

Shoulder Pain Prevention Step 2.

Stick your chest out while you work. 

Part of the postural change that so many of us suffer with and that leads to shoulder injuries is a slightly sunken chest.

Imagine in your mind’s eye the classic teenage posture… the sunken chest is super obvious in teens –  but most of us do a bit of it. 

The remedy is to gently push your sternum forward and drop our shoulder blades a centimeter or two down your back.

When it’s time to move weights around at the gym give at least half your awareness and attention to having a big chest and low shoulder blades.

It can be a slightly self-conscious feeling at first – but you are a big boy/girl now and you can handle that.

Use the mirror in gym to see how different you look when you focus on this postural adjustment.

Shoulder Pain Prevention Step 2.

Stick your chest out while you work. 

Part of the postural change that so many of us suffer with and that leads to shoulder injuries is a slightly sunken chest.

Imagine in your mind’s eye the classic teenage posture… the sunken chest is super obvious in teens –  but most of us do a bit of it. 

The remedy is to gently push your sternum forward and drop our shoulder blades a centimeter or two down your back.

When it’s time to move weights around at the gym give at least half your awareness and attention to having a big chest and low shoulder blades.

It can be a slightly self-conscious feeling at first – but you are a big boy/girl now and you can handle that.

Use the mirror in gym to see how different you look when you focus on this postural adjustment.

Shoulder Pain Prevention Step 3 

Get your ribs manipulated by an expert.

Close to 100 percent of people with stubborn shoulder pain have become locked up in their upper ribs where they tuck in behind the shoulder blade.

Many of whom actually feel an annoying tight or painful sense of a knot in behind the shoulder blade. 

Many however don’t feel anything in that area but are still locked up there – and they experience great relief once it is worked on. 

Too much sitting in the wrong alignment leads the ribs to lock over time which cripples the rotator cuff.

A simple rib adjustment in most cases leads to immediate increase in comfort and range of motion in the shoulder.

For some it borders on seeming miraculous that years of limitation can vanish in a moment.  we would argue though that it isn’t particularly miraculous.

If you had left a splinter in your finger for 6 months and we came along and got it out for you – you could easily feel a sense of immediate relief.

Adjusting ribs isn’t much different –  because it’s an immediate physical release within the body.

Whether you’re a chiropractic person and have chiropractors work on you or you prefer physiotherapy, massage or osteopaths –  basic principles will help you to avoid the whole lot of us much more often… which let’s face it – is the whole idea behind successful pain relief.

Give us a call at City Chiropractic on 04 385 6446 to make an appointment now.

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Is Chiropractic Legit Healthcare

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Is Chiropractic Legit Healthcare?

chiropractors are legitimate

A profession that has made a significant contribution to legitimate scientific knowledge of its own area of speciality can consider itself a ‘grown up’ in the eyes of the law –  and in the eyes of modern medicine.

If you go back to the 1980s there was barely even the beginnings of such research from chiropractors, and the chiropractic profession.

At that time there were in fact only three chiropractors in the world with PhDs – Drs S. Haldeman and R. Phillips in the US –  and Dr L Giles in Australia.

There was not a single ‘medical specialty text on radiology, orthopaedics, paediatrics or sports chiropractic published by a chiropractor anywhere… but this wasn’t because there was a lack of knowledge among chiropractors.

Back then medical journals absolutely refused to publish – or even consider reading studies submitted by chiropractors.

When Dr Howie Vernon submitted results of a controlled trial to the journal Manual Medicine in 1984 the editor returned it with a short response that the journal did not accept studies undertaken by chiropractors.

To say that a lot has changed would be an understatement. The chiropractic profession has undergone a gigantic increase in its research capacity and has made a substantial contribution to the global understanding of pain management.

In Denmark alone 27 chiropractors hold PhDs and lead the world in generating chiropractic specific research data.

Canada also leads the world in Chiropractic scholarship because at present most large universities in Canada have a Chiropractic Research Chair, and there are chiropractors with PhDs on the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto alone.

If we look at the international healthcare guidelines for managing back pain we see ‘Spinal Manipulation’ is right up around the top of the list of recommended intervention.

This is because of the hard work done by chiropractic researchers to validate what chiropractors do in their clinics.

The law has spoken globally on whether chiropractic is legit – chiropractic now being deemed Primary Healthcare in virtually all developed countries.

This means that government legislation looks at chiropractic the same way it looks at your dentist and your GP. And believe it or not it was NZ who blazed this trail of legally validating chiropractic globally.

So next time you are at a dinner party and someone is dissing chiropractors for being quacks ask them why the international MEDICAL guidelines for managing back pain have Spinal Manipulation right up the top of the list?

And if they don’t believe it refer them to government legislation on chiropractic for clarification.

In most cases it will be the first time they have even considered researching the topic they deem themselves qualified to speak on.

Give us a call at City Chiropractic on 04 385 6446 now to make your appointment.

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5 Times You Should Call Your Chiropractor – That You May Not Have Considered

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5 Times You Should Call Your Chiropractor – That You May Not Have Considered

call chiropractor

For the most part we associate chiropractors treatments with neck pain and back pain. But the truth is that the spine is an internal organ that regulates the bodies processes – so are there any other conditions that might be made easier by checking in with your chiropractor?

Headaches

Headaches are no fun! Like any game, the headaches game has levels. Some of us have mild tension type headaches that are easily managed with some Panadol, annoying but not exactly the end of the world. For others their headache is a skull splitting migraine that puts them out of the work force for 2 days out of every month, really bad!

Chiropractors have the necessary training and skills to correctly diagnose your headache in most instances and quite possible also offer some relief. Many headaches are caused in part by muscle tension and joint inflammation in the top of the neck and in the jaw. By releasing tension in the neck and jaw chiropractors can sometimes help a great deal, even with severe migraines and the like.

Sciatic Pain 

One of the worst complaints that chiropractors deal with on a regular basis is sciatica or sciatic pain. There is a common misconception that sciatic pain always comes from a disc. The truth is however far more complex than that. Sciatic pain is in technical terms ‘pain in the sciatic region’ (down the back of the leg) and it has many possible causes.

Your chiropractor should be able to give you a very clear idea of what the most likely cause of your sciatic pain is. Sometimes this will require further tests to be ordered but often a physical exam is enough to confirm the most probable cause. If you are one of the lucky ones your sciatic pain will be coming from muscle tension in the back of your pelvis, this type of sciatic pain is very common and can be managed by your chiropractor.

Shoulder Pain

The shoulder is an amazingly complex mechanism. Unlike most ‘joints’ the shoulder is actually an amalgamation of different joints and tissues. Depending on your perspective you could say that there are anywhere from 4-10 joints involved in elevation of the arm, and that’s before we start on the army of muscles that are involved.

Your chiropractors expert knowledge of musculoskeletal pain should make it relatively easy to diagnose your shoulder pain in most cases. One of the secrets to successfully rehabilitating shoulder pain in most cases is knowing that the ribs are generally involved. Even in standard rotator cuff pain cases, mobilisation of the ribs is often the key to reducing pinching of the rotator cuff. Chiropractors are experts at joint mobilisation. 

Hayfever

Hayfever will never kill you, but for some it can make them wish that they were dead. Like most complaints intensity is what drives how unhappy they make us and hayfever is no exception. The truth is about hayfever that most people are fairly happy to just put up with it or pop a pill once a day.

For those who are being made really miserable by their hayfever there is an alternative perspective that their chiropractor can offer.

People with hayfever definitely have a genetic disposition towards reacting to things like pollen. A chiropractors perspective is that in order for this genetic potential to be fully realised as full blown hayfever you have to have problems with sinus drainage. Mobilisation of the bones in the neck and skull in a way that promotes drainage is one way that you may find your hayfever can be be dramatically improved. 

Insomnia

Sleep is so important isn’t it! You can go way longer without food than you can without sleep. Whatever sleep really is we still don’t know, but we know it’s super vital stuff for a healthy life. Studies on sleep indicate that it is a key part of the wellbeing of our brain but also the whole body.

There are many possible causes of insomnia and in truth most of them are not issues that you chiropractor is trained to help you with. There are however certain instances where your chiropractors may be able to help you a great deal. That’s because there are certain instances where insomnia can be caused or at least greatly worsened by tension in the neck. 

So there you have it – the body is complex and there are many ways in which we may benefit from having its mechanics working a little better. And its the improvement of the body’s mechanics that gets chiropractors get out of bed in the morning!!

To listen to this Posts audio version, click below:

 

 

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ankle ankle pain back pain Chiropractic Treatment Chiropractor chronic headaches custom orthotics exercises hand pain headache headaches headache treatment hip pain Migraine Migraine headache migraine treatment neck pain neck pain treatment orthotics pain pain clinic Pain Management Pain relief pain treatment patient personality assessment Plantar fasciitis posture rehabilitation shockwave therapy Shoulder injury Shoulder Pain sinus relief Spinal manipulation tension headache wrist pain

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2 Extremely Common Questions That Often Need Answering At The Chiropractors Office

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2 Extremely Common Questions That Often Need Answering At The Chiropractors Office

asking chiropractor questions

How Come My Hand & Wrist therapy is not working?

Hand and wrist pain can be very frustrating – hands useful – and that’s putting it mildly!!!!

At our clinic we regularly meet people with wrist & hand pain. Many of  whom are so bad that they’ve begun to worry about their livelihoods

But what’s even more frustrating than hand & wrist pain?

Getting complete STUCK with hand and wrist pain because the treatment we receive isn’t working!!! (As someone who had crippling wrist problems for an extended once upon a time – I can totally empathise with this.)

The HAPPY NEWS is that most hand and wrist pains get better very quickly – as long as they are getting THE RIGHT KIND OF TREATMENT! Which is generally not ‘just exercises’!

Most hands and wrist issues have SCAR TISSUE that needs to be broken up by someone who knows how. There also tends to be locking of thew small bones in the wrist – which need mobilising. That’s what brings relief. 

Then – only once they are feeling good > tendon strength exercises to make the improvements lasts!

Not ticking these specific boxes is what causes the majority of hand pains  that fail to recover to become frustrating. The same truths hold for many other conditions – likes stubborn neck pain and back pain for example

How come I keep doing my exercises but they are not fixing my problem ? 

Let’s be honest – we the human race don’t exactly have the best track record for keeping up with the exercises our chiropractors gave us! Or doing yoga 365 days per year. Even though most of us kinda know we should.

But there are a percentage of us who are so desperate to get better that we actually follow through – and keep consistently  doing ‘the exercises’…… Strange but true.

It’s great that some of us are willing to put in work but that can lead to a second layer of difficulty. When the exercise program doesn’t get rid of the pain. Which is actually quite a common thing!

The reason so many of us struggle to fix ourselves with rehab exercises – pilate – yoga & gym is quite straight forward.

Generally speaking – exercises work better for PREVENTING pain than REDUCING pain! 

If we have an inflamed spinal joint in our neck that’s been causing headaches for years – that’s a very very hard thing to shift with exercise!!

If our knee pain is caused by a deep knot of scar tissue between layers of muscle – right where they attach to the knee – that’s a very very hard thing to shift with exercises!!

If we have neck and shoulder pain – because the fascia in our upper back has become completely stuck from years of office work – that’s a very very hard thing to shift with exercises!!

Sometimes the best way to understand pain treatment is in the same way we understand dental care….

Exercises are as important for treating stubborn pains as brushing & flossing are for managing tooth decay. VERY IMPORTANT

But there is no use trying to floss yourself for an hour a day if what you really need is root canal. 

If you have persistent pain in your tooth –  it needs TREATMENT.

If you have persistent pain in a joint or muscle – it needs TREATMENT.

Then once the pain is under control it becomes exercises o’clock!

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3 Chiropractors Patient Questions Answered!

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3 Chiropractors Patient Questions Answered!

1 – Why Is My Hand & Wrist Therapy Not Working?

Hand and wrist pain can be very frustrating – hands useful – and that’s putting it mildly! At our clinic we regularly meet people with wrist & hand pain who’re so bad that they’ve begun to worry about their livelihoods! 

But what’s even more frustrating than hand & wrist pain?

Getting complete stuck with hand and wrist pain because the treatment we receive isn’t working!!! (As someone who had crippling wrist problems for an extended once upon a time –  I can totally empathise with this.)

The HAPPY NEWS is that most hand and wrist pains get better very quickly – as long as they are getting THE RIGHT KIND OF TREATMENT! Which is generally not ‘just exercises’!

Most hands and wrist issues have SCAR TISSUE that needs to be broken up by someone who knows how. That’s what brings relief. 

Then > only once they are feeling good > tendon strengthening exercises to make the improvements lasts!

Most of our patients are surprised that as chiropractors we are interested in helping with their wrist and hand problems. Most people associate chiropractic and chiropractors with spinal pain alone. But the truth is that while many old school chiropractors still see themselves as purists who only treats the spine – many of us have moved forward from that and now use our extensive understanding of the body to treat extremity pain. This is why extremity pains like hand and wrist pain are considered legitimate parts of a modern chiropractors ‘scope of practice’.

2 – How Come I Keep Doing My Exercises But They Are Not Fixing My Problem ? 

Let’s be honest – we the human race don’t exactly have the best track record for keeping up with the exercises our physiotherapist or chiropractors gave us! Or doing yoga 365 days per year. Even though most of us kinda know we should.

But there are a percentage of us who are so desperate to get better that we do actually follow through – and keep consistently doing ‘the exercises’…… Strange but true!!

It’s great that some of us are willing to put in work – but that can lead to a second layer of difficulty for many physiotherapists and chiropractors patients. When the exercise program doesn’t get rid of the pain!? Which is actually quite a common thing.

The reason so many of us struggle to fix ourselves with rehab exercises – pilate – yoga & gym is quite straight forward.

GENERALLY SPEAKING – exercises work better for PREVENTING pain than REDUCING pain! 

If for example your have an inflamed spinal joint in your neck that’s been causing you headaches for years – that’s a very very hard thing to shift with exercise.

If your knee pain is caused by a deep knot of scar tissue between layers of muscle – right where they attach to your knee – that’s also a very very hard thing to shift with exercises.

If you have neck and shoulder pain – because the fascia in your upper back has become completely stuck from years of office work – that’s a very very hard thing to shift with exercises.

Sometimes the best way to understand pain treatment is in the same way you understand dental care….

Exercises are as important for treating stubborn pain as brushing & flossing are for managing tooth decay. VERY IMPORTANT.

But there is no use trying to floss yourself for an hour a day if what you really need is root canal. 

If you have persistent pain in your tooth –  it needs TREATMENT.

If you have persistent pain in a joint or muscle – it needs TREATMENT.

Then once the pain is under control it becomes exercises o’clock!

3 – Is Mixing Old With New Legit ?

People often find it strange that at our clinic we combine super modern pain management processes – with more traditional forms of treatment. Most clinics operate an either/or policy after all. 

Our policy is to focus on the methods that make the greatest number of people feel better – regardless of whether they are ‘old’ or ‘new’! And also regardless whether they are traditional chiropractors methods or methods from other disciplines like physiotherapy and osteopathy.

Listening to our doctors – we could be forgiven for thinking that the scientific method has been carefully applied to all the ‘old school’ ways of treating pain – and that we found out they are all placebo’s!

But we have done no such thing!!!!

We haven’t spent anything like the time and money it takes to have a comprehensive scientific investigation into which traditional treatments actually work and which don’t!

Some of the old ways were nonsense – and we have proven that. 

Some of the old ways were not nonsense like acupuncture and spinal manipulation like chiropractors do – and we have proven that too.  This is why spinal manipulation is now part of international guidelines for managing lower back pain for eg.

But most just haven’t been studied. 

So this brings us finally to the diff between ‘scientifically unproven’ – and ‘proven unscientific’ – do you understand that those are 2 different things????

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ankle ankle pain back pain Chiropractic Treatment Chiropractor chronic headaches custom orthotics exercises hand pain headache headaches headache treatment hip pain Migraine Migraine headache migraine treatment neck pain neck pain treatment orthotics pain pain clinic Pain Management Pain relief pain treatment patient personality assessment Plantar fasciitis posture rehabilitation shockwave therapy Shoulder injury Shoulder Pain sinus relief Spinal manipulation tension headache wrist pain

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