Sweet Relief Pain Management and Chiropractic

By Karen McDermott, DC

McDermott Chiropractic Care, P.C.

. http://www.mcdermottchiropracticcare.com/Pages/default.aspx

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Sweet Relief Pain Management and Chiropractic

Pain is your body's alarm system; it sends you sometimes subtle and sometimes urgent signals that something is wrong and needs attention. If you choose to ignore these signals, they become increasingly intense and urgent, sometimes involving more body areas, but ultimately demanding attention. Chronic pain is a very debilitating condition interfering with our mood, perceptions, self-image, mental acuity, mobility and productivity.

Pain is usually the first complaint of patients coming for treatment. Your chiropractor evaluates which structures are involved in creating the pain and begins a treatment plan of remediation. The first and most noticeable result is pain relief and there is no sweeter word than relief.

The goal of chiropractic treatment is focused on two results first, immediate relief and secondly, remediation of factors that can effect long-term painful and destructive or deteriorating changes in your overall health.

Some of the treatments available within a pain management plan are as follows

Chiropractic Adjustment – This treatment allows for increased motion, decreased muscle tightness/tenderness and ultimately pain reduction. The adjustment allows ideal motion and position of the joints. This posture is critical because it places the least amount of pressure on the discs and all structures of the joints and requires the least amount of work for the muscles involved. This is why you are so tired when you have pain. After being an adjusted the skeleton is in a more ideal position for strength. It is important at this point to maintain this posture through rehabilitation.

For symptoms which are the result of an injury, it is important to induce proper biomechanical function with adjustments to avoid the long term antalgic (pain-avoiding posture) biomechanics that compromise health and well-being.

Rehabilitation – For recovery from an injury to regain full function and strength, a treatment plan needs to be continually developed with a person's progress.

Cold Laser (Low Level Laser Therapy) – In this therapy the laser is set at a wavelength that increases tissue perfusion and mitochondrial function (a cellular component of healing) resulting in a positive effect on the physiology of the treated area. It is an effective modality used to speed the healing process and reduce inflammation. It is particularly helpful for people suffering from severe osteoarthritis in the knees when other treatments are ineffective. It is a fast effective treatment for sprains and strains and carpal tunnel syndrome. It is also effective in deep areas and is subsequently effective on bulging discs.

The Graston technique – For those who find temporary relief with massage, this modality provides long lasting relief for sore, aching muscles. The theory behind the treatment proposes that along with inflammatory mediators there can be microscopic fibrotic changes in fascia, tendons and muscles which inhibits the ease of muscle contraction and relaxation. The Graston technique is a soft tissue technique that breaks up fibrosis and coupled with prescribed exercises enables healing. Graston is particularly effective in rotator cuff syndrome and plantar fasciitis.

Dry needling – Sometimes an area is too sore for hands-on treatment. This technique utilizes acupuncture needles for treating musculoskeletal conditions. It is not acupuncture for which a different diagnostic work-up is required. In dry needling, the needles are inserted into the painful soft tissue. Since it is a small gage needle it causes no inflammation and increases blood flow for faster healing. Because it is such a small gage needle, it is generally not painful; and unlike more superficial therapies, it can relieve painful tissues more deeply and equally within the reach of the needle.

Traction – This modality is used on the cervical or lumbar spine and is very effective in treating degenerative disc disease. Because the discs are not well vascularized, they rely on alternating compression and decompression to maintain the flow of nutritional absorption and thus disc health. Traction provides the needed decompression to allow discs to absorb fluid. In the case of bulging discs there are pressures acting on the area that essentially push the viscous fluid away from the middle of the disc location and towards the canal, thus irritating nerves roots and possibly the cord. Traction reverses this action.

A full chiropractic evaluation will determine the best combination of treatments for you. As a result, the treatment is often an evolving regimen that changes in response to your progress in healing.