Chiropractic for your new born and child

In my previous blog article I discussed how chiropractic can assist mothers during pregnancy and how we can make the birthing process much easier. In today's blog article I want to discuss the benefits of chiropractic on newborns and children. 

Natural births and Cesarean births  can cause injuries and an infants first neurological compromise. Nervous system interference does not show up as back pain in infants, but rather as neurological disfunction that can lead to; ear infections, colic, irritability, trouble breastfeeding and poor sleeping habits. 

Nerve interference may predispose to asthma, developmental delays, an inability to concentrate, behavioral problems, digestive system issues, headaches, bed wetting and scoliosis.

As a chiropractor , we don't always focus on treating the above conditions, but rather making sure the nervous system has the opportunity to work effectively and efficiently, thus enabling the body to create order and promote healing. 

We all grow out of our paediatric conditions, such as colic, as the nervous system learns how to control the body appropriately. Chiropractic adjustments speed up the process by piggybacking nerve signals from the organs through spine and helping the nervous system/brain receive information from the organs.

Paediatric Chiro adjustments are not done with the same pressure as adult ones. It is a safe and effective way to treat your baby and child. With this is mind, if you have any questions regarding the article above, please give me a call or drop me a mail and I will gladly discuss with you.

In our next article we'll be discussing specific conditions and how Chiropractic adjustments can help them

Benefits of Chiropractic Care during pregnancy

Benefits of Chiropractic Care during pregnancy

Hello, in today’s blog article, I want to discuss chiropractic care and pregnancy and the benefits associated with it, I am sure that not everybody is aware of them.  Pregnant women usually come to alleviate back pain, but there is a lot more to Chiropractic when it comes to pregnancy. 

During pregnancy there are a lot of physical and hormonal changes that take place in preparation for the baby.  In this article I want to discuss both the physiological and endocrinological/hormonal changes and how it affects you and the baby, and how the Chiropractic profession can assist in dealing with them.

The various changes in the pregnant body result in changes to the Pelvis, a protruding abdomen and increased lumbar curve and a number of postural adaptations. 
This often leads to pelvic misalignment and imbalance. When the pelvis is misaligned it reduces the amount of room available for the developing baby, this external force obstructing the babies normal movements is known as intrauterine constraint and can lead to problems. 

A misaligned pelvis also makes it difficult for the baby to get into the best possible position for delivery, reducing the chances of having a natural, non-invasive birth. Posterior positions can lead to C-sections

Chiropractors believe that the nervous system is the master communicator to overall functioning of the body, including the reproductive system. Keeping the spine aligned helps the entire body work more effectively.

There are physical changes and hormonal changes that take place, when falling pregnant, the body starts producing more estrogen and progesterone to sustain the pregnancy, this causes muscles tone to decrease and your ligaments to become more lax, resulting in vertebral misalignments which that can worsen morning sickness, nausea, gastric reflux and all other symptoms associated with pregnancy. 

When the spine and pelvis are in alignment, the body can work to its full capacity, thereby curbing the dreaded symptoms of pregnancy.

Chiropractic treatment can assist during pregnancy and can also assist with the healing process after pregnancy, by correcting misalignments that may have occurred during pregnancy and any postural problems and back pain resulting from breast feeding and bottle feeding and picking up baby .

Chiropractic care is a safe (drug-free), effective practice during pregnancy and can be administered as early as the first tri-mester. In the next blog, I would like to discuss Chiropractic and its benefits for babies.

Chiropractic Maintenance

In today's Blog post, I would like to discuss the importance of Chiropractic Maintenance or continued regular chiropractic care. Most of you visit my practice when you are in pain after a injury. Many feel better after an adjustment or two, but in reality the body takes longer to heal beyond the initial improvement phase. The ligaments and muscles that support the spine are still healing even after you no longer feel the pain.


Maintenance is about preventing the initial complaint from resurfacing and then to prevent new ones occurring.

During your initial appointment, I only begin to address the problem and initiate healing of the soft tissue around the spine. It is only through continued maintenance that we complete the healing process which leads to lasting recovery.  I use a specific diagnostic technique so that when you come to see me for a maintenance session I can evaluate problems before they become symptomatic, that way I am working to  improve your health and prevent the return of the original condition.

With regular visits I am able to correct small problems before they become serious. It should be noted that pain only occurs once tissue damage has taken place. During your maintenance session I make sure your spine is staying in its proper position and alignment and I make sure your muscles and nerves are functioning correctly.

Everyday life situations like sitting for long periods of time, emotional stress, poor posture which we are all accustomed to, puts pressure on your spine. Regular maintenance keeps your spine healthy. A healthy spine leads to more energy and enhances your overall health.

If you would like to book an appointment for your maintenance session, or discuss a plan dependent on your activity and stressors,

please contact me and I will gladly assist.

Dr Matthew Walters

Part 2- A more in-depth look at reading X-Rays

In the last blog article I explained the various reasons we use X-Rays as tools for evaluation as well as the basic outline on what we look for when looking at your X-rays. In this particular blog article I want to explain what we can determine from a chiropractic point of view from films.

What is more interesting from a Chiropractic Evaluation is the specific position of each vertebra.
When a vertebra is out of position it shifts and tilts FORWARDS a small amount, this needs to be corrected with a specific adjustment. From the forward position it can tilt sideways as well so that these vertebra can initiate sideways curves or scoliosis and a set of compensations that lead to muscle tension and further injury.

Using films to explain the concept.

Lateral view:

In this lateral view,  the last lumbar vertebra (L5) and the next up (L4) tilt and shift forward. We still need to stand upright so they cause  L3 and L2 to hyper-extend and this causes an  increase in the lumbar lordosis.

The sacrum also extends backwards due to the change in orientation of L5. Due to the hyper-extended position of L2,  the thoracic spine Vertebrae need to flex forwards until they tilt and collapse forwards eventually leading to wedging of the vertebral bodies.

                                                                                                                                                              

The forward view:

The vertical lines show the curve that is initiated at L5 with L4 following it.
The lateral lines show how the pelvis has compensated and how a change in leg length would be caused.

What are they feeling?
These injuries should have been caused by some sort of trauma, postural or an accident. If the spine is going left the muscles would be strained and painful on the right from trying to hold the body up.
The change in direction from left to right at L3/4 would cause Joint pain on the right from the compression of that joint. Disc compression at L3/4, the rounded surface of the bottom of the L3 vertebral body shows this as the disc has been pressing upwards due to the hyper extend position.  The shadows of the Iliopsoas muscles indicates muscle tension and a forwards pull on the spine that would cause the gluteal muscles to deactivate, the hip muscles would have to take over and become fatigued and sore over time.
Based on the spine position this person should have chronic muscle tension and hip pain with acute flare ups of central low back pain and hip pain with exertion.

How to fix it?
Lifting the L5 and then L4 Vertebrae and correcting the Pelvic position would make the muscles function better and correction of the pelvic position would facilitate this further.
The improved positions of the lower vertebrae would remove the need for the upper compensations.
The thoracic spine vertebrae that have tilted forwards can then be corrected and specific rehabilitation can be done teach the correct muscles to work at the correct time.

If you have a set of x-rays that you would like to discuss or if you have any questions regarding this article please give me a call to discuss that.

How I read X-Rays

The next series of articles will be about reading  X-rays. These are the basics and the follow up will be more in-depth. X-rays are a quick and easy tool for me to be able to get a good idea of what is going on in the spine. You may want to refer to my article on anatomy for a better idea about the structures being described.

 

There are specific criteria for Spinal X-ray/ Diagnostic evaluation: They are as follows:

• Traumatic injuries especially those with a dangerous mechanism of injury, fracture risks with low bone density, 

• Neurological signs and symptoms such as radicular pain or muscle weakness

• Persons who don't progress and heal as expected are also sent for diagnostic imaging. 

The classic way to read a spinal X-ray is to look at the ABCD, that is the Alignment, quality of the Bone, the Cartilage and joints and the Dense soft tissue.  I'll show a few X-rays and comment on them to show what can be seen. 

 

As a basic evaluation:

 

Alignment: 

Are the vertebrae stacked neatly on top of each other?

Is there a curvature or scoliosis?

Bone

The quality of the bone, fractures, bony outgrows and signs of injury are examined.

Cartilage and Joints

Are the joints symmetrical, are they close together indicating a loss of disc height or a loss or cartilage, are there signs of arthritis or stenosis?

Dense Soft Tissue

Spamming Muscles can become visible, thickening of ligaments, metastatic tissue, visceral spaces, signs of bleeding show up on X-ray. 

The follow up article I will be giving more of a chiropractic evaluation and discussing these films with you.

If you have a set of films you would like to discuss or if you have any questions regarding this article, please give me a call or leave a comment.

Boost your Immune System with Chiropractic Care

As we are approaching winter, I thought it would be fitting to write an article on how chiropractic can help you boost your immune system and how regular adjustments can reduce your chance of becoming ill or if already ill ,it can assist with healing you much faster .  Here is a quick breakdown of how this works.

Your nervous system works together with your immune system to create optimal responses for the body to adapt and heal appropriately. When your spine goes out of alignment and stresses the nervous system, it causes compression and irritation of the nerve pathways that lead to a poorly coordinated immune response. This affects the organ systems of your body and in turn leads to an altered measure of immune function and increased susceptibility to a variety of diseases.  Your nervous system controls all of your organs including that of your lymphatic system that produce that body immune response.

A two year study was conducted at the University of Lund, in Sweden by Ronald Pero, Ph.D.  He is an internationally respected cancer researcher who demonstrated the positive affects of Chiropractic care on the immune system by studying 96 people who had received ongoing chiropractic treatment. He looked at their overall health and immune indictors and found that regardless of age they had a 200% increase in their immune system development and function.  These studies suggest that chiropractic treatment can influence the B&T lymphocytes, NK Cell numbers(Natural Killer Cells), anti-body levels as well as your Beta-Endorphin levels, leading to a better immune response and viruses and bacteria being destroyed.

Analyzing your spine for irritation and correcting it with specific adjustments reduces stress on the nervous system, optimizes the immune response and reduces the chance of you getting sick.