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    A publication for patients and friends of Westford Family Chiropractic

        Westford  Family  Chiropractic's

        Spinal Times of 2012 

Dr. Richard J. Leigh * 288 Littleton Road * Westford, MA 

 (978) 692-4476    www.westfordchiropractic.com

 

To all of Westford Family Chiropractic patients; welcome to our bi-monthly health newsletter!

             

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Every two weeks we will attempt to address two or three areas that will help improve your health.

 

westfordchiropractic@yahoo.com 

Please comment in the BLOG section of the website.

 

February 2012, Edition 5   

 

In addition to the electonic Newsletter,

Westford Family Chiropractic will be providing a

  paper Health Newsletter which will be issued through the mail.

If you wish to receive this Newsletter you can sign up

 in the office, call, or send us an email.

Dr. Leigh

 

 

  I

Have You Been Suffering From Chronic Knee Pain?

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Chiropractic Care and Chronic Pain

Chiropractic care is an essential component of a broad-based approach to the treatment of chronic musculoskeletal pain. Medication alone is never an effective solution to chronic pain as it does not address the root causes of the problem. On the other hand, if biomechanical issues are part of the overall cause, chiropractic care is able to provide a great deal of benefit.

Chronic musculoskeletal pain often has its origins in spinal misalignments. These restrictions in spinal joint mobility may be due to long-term postural inefficiencies or to an old injury - a fall, a motor vehicle accident, or a bending-and-lifting back spasm that took a long time to heal. If spinal misalignments persist, other structures begin to compensate. Sacroiliac joints and ligaments get tight. Hip joints lose some mobility. Knee and ankle motion are compromised, and eventually chronic back pain, hip pain, and/or knee pain develops.

Chiropractic care addresses the cause of these many problems by analyzing, identifying, and correcting spinal alignments. As the biomechanical function of your spine improves, so does the mobility of all other weight-bearing joint such as your hips, knees, and ankles. As a direct result, chronic pain begins to reduce and resolve.
Chronic knee pain is notoriously difficult to treat successfully. Persons with these problems often become discouraged as they shuttle from specialist to specialist, from rheumatologist to orthopedic surgeon to physical therapist to acupuncturist and back again. Lack of progress and improvement becomes understandable when one considers that typical evaluation and treatment are directed at the symptoms. But with chronic knee pain, and many other pain syndromes, actual benefits may be obtained by addressing underlying biomechanical problems.

Faulty biomechanics are at the root of many ongoing knee problems. Of course, various other diseases and orthopedic conditions may cause the same type of chronic pain. The most likely of these possibilities need to be considered and ruled out before a diagnosis of biomechanical knee pain is established. Osteochondritis dissecans, a torn meniscus, and synovial effusion are all frequently encountered in persons over age 40 with chronic knee pain. Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and ankylosing spondylitis are a few rheumatologic conditions which may result in sporadic or chronic knee pain.1

When these medical entities have been eliminated as possibilities, a biomechanical causation becomes probable. How does a person develop "faulty biomechanics"? In fact, most of us have never received effective instruction in how to use our bodies. We stand and sit in all kinds of unsound postures, slouching and slumping and generally giving in to every available force of gravity. We stand with all our body weight on one leg, neck and shoulder muscles gripped tightly and abdominal muscles sagging and protruding. When we sit we slump down, stressing the lower back with poorly tolerated mechanical forces, or sit for hours with legs crossed, stressing the lower back, hips, and knees.

Over the course of a lifetime, our bodies have continually tried to adapt to a range of inefficient and stressful postures and habits. But eventually no more adaptation is possible.2 As a result joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons break down and fail. We experience this failure as pain. And once this type of pain has started, it is not going to go away unless the underlying causes are corrected. Specifically, the person's biomechanics need to be restored closer to normal.

Correction of posture takes time and can only be accomplished gradually. The key is to learn what to do, learn how to do it, and to be working on posture every day.3 The most important thing is to begin. Three basic biomechanical corrections are as follows: (1) When standing, be sure to have your weight over the balls of your feet and to have your weight evenly distributed on both legs. (2) Activate your deep abdominal muscles by visualizing an "inner lift". (3) Have straight lines of force running down your legs (rather than lines of force crossing at your knee, creating torsion and tension). Visualize "straight energy" flowing from your hip sockets, straight down through the center of your knees, straight down to your feet, between your first and second toes.

Visualizing and implementing these three biomechanical corrections on a daily basis represents the first series of steps toward improving knee mechanics and reducing chronic knee pain.

1Yusuf E, et al: Do knee abnormalities visualised on MRI explain knee pain in knee osteoarthritis? A systematic review. Ann Rheum Dis 70(1):60-67, 2011
2Suri P, et al: Low back pain and other musculoskeletal pain comorbidities in individuals with symptomatic osteoarthritis of the knee: data from the osteoarthritis initiative. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) 62(12):1715-1723, 2010
3Bennell KL, Hinman RS: A review of the clinical evidence for exercise in osteoarthritis of the hip and knee. J Sci Med Sport 14(1):4-9, 2011

 

*From the February 15, 2012 Health Newsletter* 

Back Pain - Am I At Risk?

Are there risk factors for back pain? And, if there are, what can I do to keep myself healthy and well?Learning about potential risk factors and taking appropriate action will help ensure a stronger, more flexible, and healthier lower back.\r\

 Your Family and You

For the most part back injuries are caused by mechanical issues, and the tendency to get such injuries is not inherited.

However there are family-related behavioral tendencies, and these behaviors - while not "inherited" as such - may easily be passed down from parents to children. When we grow up, these ingrained habits of daily living may lead to back injuries.

Poor posture, lack of interest in exercise, and a tendency to be overweight are all patterns of behavior we learn from our parents. As adults, its valuable for us to make conscious efforts to revise these unhealthful patterns, being proactive in developing new behaviors that support our goals of health and well-being.


And, various health issues that actually may be inherited can increase a person's susceptibility to back pain and back injury. Your chiropractor will be of assistance in identifying such additional risk factors.

Are there risk factors for back pain? And, if there are, what can I do to keep myself healthy and well? Your chiropractor can help answer these questions and more.

One primary risk factor relates to exercise. Everyone has heard, "if you don't use it, you lose it". If you're not exercising regularly, your back muscles are deconditioned and much more susceptible to injury - the strains and sprains we're accustomed to calling "back pain".

Muscles get stronger when they're required to do work. Also exercise helps "train" the soft tissues around a joint - the ligaments and tendons - these supporting structures "learn" how to withstand mechanical stresses and loads without becoming injured. Basically, when you exercise - when you do any kind of exercise - your body gets "smarter" and you're less likely to get those annoying back problems.1

A related risk factor is weak abdominal muscles. When you were a kid, at some point one of your gym teachers probably told you to "suck in your stomach". Actually, it turns out that was pretty good advice. Your abdominal muscles support the muscles of your lower back. If your abdominals are weak or if you're not using them - letting them hang out and droop instead of keeping them activated - your body weight has to be held up by the muscles of your lower back. They're not designed to do that - they're designed to move your spine around. And eventually, these lower back muscles will give way under the excess strain. The result is a very painful lower back injury.

There are many easy-to-do exercises for your abdominal muscles. The key is to actually do them - and do them after you're finished doing the rest of whatever exercises you've scheduled for that day. How often? Three times a week is plenty. Abdominal routines are quick - no more than 10 minutes. And, remember to use your abdominal muscles throughout the day. Imagine your abdominals are being pulled in and lifted up. This is not a "tightening" - your thought should be "activate". Your body will know what to do, once you've started adding consistent abdominal training to your exercise routine.

Risk factors for back pain may also be found in your personal and family medical history.2,3 During your initial visit your chiropractor will ask you about accidents and surgeries you've experienced, and discuss any important elements in your family history. For example, surgery to remove an inflamed galllbladder or appendix or to repair a hernia may result in weakened abdominal muscles. A motor vehicle accident or a fall from a height may have caused injuries that healed with soft tissue scarring.

Learning about potential risk factors and taking appropriate action will help ensure a stronger, more flexible, and healthier lower back.

 

 Look for our "hardcopy" Health Newsletter coming soon....in the mail. 

A Westford Family Chiropractic "ALERT"!  90% of prospective patients will find their chiropractor ON-LINE.  Positive reviews are so important...and we / I hope that you feel Westford Family Chiropractic and myself provide you with top quality (5 star) chiropractic care.  I ask that each of you who receive a newsletter would kindly take the time to "write" positive review on one (or more) of these sites:   

     Click on the logo for the site which you may wish to provide a "review" and type "Chiropractor near Westford" in the search box.  Click on the Westford Family Chiropractic heading...Thank You! 

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When creating a "review" you will need to "verify" your authenticity by providing an email address.   THANKS!

   

February 2012 Special !!!

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Positioning Roll exclusive to persons NEW to our office.  Westford Family Chiropractic will always be happy to provide x-rays and evaluations to past and present patients for$25.00.

For any existing patient that refers someone to our office; we will provide you with a neck or back roll as our thank you!

Call Westford Family Chiropractic today!

(978) 692-4476   or

request an appointment on-line.

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