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Maintenance or Wellness Adjusting is when you come in periodically for a “tune up” to make sure that your vertebrae are staying in the correct alignment. Coming in for these periodic adjustments helps prevent the vertebrae from getting too far out of place and causing your original pain to return.
¨ Many people ask how often should I come in for a maintenance or wellness adjustment—and part of my answer is that it depends on the your age, your physical activities, and your underlying condition. Let me give some general guidelines. For someone who has had their initial problem corrected and wants to come in on a maintenance or wellness schedule—it ranges between every 2 weeks to once every 8 weeks.
- ¨ The older you are—the more frequently you should get adjusted—simply because your body has gone through a lot more and has more wear and tear on it.
- ¨ Someone who is sedentary all the time should come in a little more often than someone who is moderately active (who walks, swims, exercises).
- ¨ Someone who plays physical or contact sports or has high activity levels will come in more often—every 2—4 weeks, especially if you play football, soccer, cycling, lacrosse, horse back riding, rodeo, roping, etc.
- ¨ The same for people who have physically demanding jobs in construction, ranching, farming, and mechanics.
- ¨ People who don’t have any disc injuries, osteoarthritis, reversed neck and/or low back curves, or neck or back surgeries can usually go between 6—8 weeks for adjusting,
- ¨ People who do have any of those structural conditions have had their pain syndromes for awhile and should come in a little more frequently between 3—6 weeks.
The bottom line is, if you are not on a regular maintenance schedule and you start to feel stiff and sore for more than a couple of days, you should call and come in for an appointment, before things get too far out of adjustment. It is easier to correct something before it gets too acute.
 Scoliosis is described as a lateral deviation of the spine—a curved spine. Viewed from the back, your spine should look straight, there shouldn’t be any curves off to one side or another. Common symptoms from scoliosis include: back pain, muscle spasms, leg pain, neck pain, and headaches.
Scoliosis is rated by the degree of the curvature. The higher the degree, the more pronounced the scoliosis. Most scoliosis progress at a slow degree; however, there are some that progress fast – especially during growth spurts. Scoliosis tends to affect more girls/women than men, and many are genetically based. I have seen granddaughters, mothers, and grandmothers all with the same scoliosis – just at different degrees.
Without treatment, the scoliosis will become more pronounced with age. By the same token, the earlier you treat a scoliosis the less impact the scoliosis will have on your life.
When should you start looking for signs of scoliosis? Scoliosis really starts to show up in the pre-teens with growth spurts. If your child is beginning to complain of back pain, they should be evaluated by a chiropractor for scoliosis. If there is a family history of scoliosis, all your children should be checked by a chiropractor when they are pre-teens or even earlier.
A simple visual test of having your child bend over at the waist and inspecting their back to make sure it is straight is a good beginning. Look for shoulders being unlevel, hips at different heights, one shoulder blade winging, and/or their head in front of their shoulders.
How do you treat scoliosis? Chiropractors will evaluate the scoliosis and the progression of the scoliosis. This may be done visually and with some simple orthopedic tests, and it may include x-rays. For young children, x-rays may not be recommended if the scoliosis appears to be mild and responds to treatment. Chiropractic treatment consists of gentle adjustments (moving the vertebrae) back into their correct position. Dr. Zager also always gives her patients specific individual exercises to help strengthen the person’s muscles which help keep the vertebrae in place.
What if a scoliosis is left untreated? Most mild to moderate scoliosis are simply “watched” by physicians. However, if it is left untreated it will progress further over time. There are many people who if they had had their scoliosis treated early would not have had as much back or neck pain later on in life. It is much harder to treat and to completely resolve after the back has had years of being in the “wrong” position with uneven wear on the bones.
July and August are Scoliosis Screening months at Zager Chiropractic. Dr. Zager will perform courtesy scoliosis screenings for all school age children. Just contact our office to set up the screening—it takes about 15 minutes and is free of charge.
How to do Garden Chores Correctly
The first thing is to make sure that you take breaks, walk around and stretch throughout the time you are gardening! The old adage of “Stop and smell the roses (or daylilies and iris)” is important to take heed of so that you don’t over stress your muscles or joints.
When you start lifting things, you should remember these rules:
- Face the thing you are picking up.
- Bend at the knees to pick things up.
- Keep things close to your body, near your center of gravity.
When weeding you should:
- Either weed on your knees or bend over with a hand or arm on one thigh.
- Don’t over reach and twist.
When digging, shoveling, or raking you should:
- Use the correct size shovel/tool for your size (women should typically use smaller tools—I personally use a ditching shovel for all my planting and transplanting chores).
- Alternate sides you are shoveling or raking from—yes, this takes some getting used to.
- Try not to twist too much.
- Use more legs than back.
One of the primary reasons people hurt their backs is because of poor lifting techniques – not necessarily the weight of the item. I cannot stress enough the number of patients who have come in to be treated by me, because of a lifting injury to their back. When questioned about the mechanism of the injury, they told me it was a light item (like a pencil or clipboard) that they just bent over to pick up. On further questioning, they told me that they bent over at the waist and that they were invariably twisted slightly or even a lot. For reference, the only worse position to be in when lifting something is, to lean back and twist while reaching for an item!
There are three simple rules to remember when lifting anything:
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1. Face the thing you are picking up
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2. Bend at the knees to pick things up.
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3. Keep things close to your body, near your center of gravity.
If you have a lot of things to carry (groceries, plants, books, etc.) don’t try to carry all of them at once. It is better to make more trips with less weight and less items to manage than it is to try and save yourself a few extra steps.
If you do a lot of lifting on a daily basis, you can wear a back brace, but understand that the brace is not there to help you lift heavier items. Rather when worn correctly with the double pulls used, it helps keep you from twisting and making stupid moves.
Many people have low back pain at one time or another in their life time. It could be just a short episode where you overdid some work and have an achy feeling for a couple of days and then it completely resolves itself with no more pain. It could also be where you have weeks, months, and years of low back pain that started as a simple ache, but which has progressively grown worse over the years to be a strong ache or sharp pain. It could even limit what you would normally do like walking, sitting for prolonged periods of time, and even keep you from good sleep at night.
What is the Cause? There can be a number of different causes for low back pain. You may have overworked some lumbar muscles which in turn have pulled a vertebrae out of place. You also could have irritated the disc (the padding between the two vertebrae). This typically causes deep ache and/or sharp pain when you move wrong. You may even be slightly off center (antalgic) as the body tries to take additional pressure off of the disc.
With chronic low back pain, you may not even remember how you originally hurt your low back, but the vertebrae and sacrum are usually out of alignment and there may even be a slight to moderate curve (scoliosis) in the low back. You started off with some low back pain for a couple of weeks with it getting better on and off, and then it eventually becomes sore all the time.
Chiropractic treatment helps to realign the vertebra, balance out the muscles, and takes pressure off the disc and the nerve roots. Dr. Zager also gives all her patients at Zager Chiropractic Services strengthening exercises and stretches that will help you prevent future back pain and will increase your flexibility and the mobility of your spine.
Stretches: Back Rocks: lying on your back, bring one knee up to your chest, then the other knee. Then bring both your knees up to your chest and pump your knees. This exercise puts a lot of motion into you low back and sacrum.
Low back ranges of motion: standing or sitting, lean forward (with your hands on your thighs), lean back slightly, turn to the right and the left, and lean to the right and left. Do not go past a point of pain, and always do pure movements.
Ice: Use an ice pack for 10 – 15 minutes at a time. This helps take some of the inflammation out of the area.
Heat: You can use heat (moist heat is the best – i.e. a hot shower), but you MUST follow it up with 10 – 15 minutes of ice, otherwise you will stiffen up after the heat.
Strengthen your Core Muscles: your core muscles include your stomach, back muscles, buttocks, and thighs. These all need to be strengthened and BALANCED with each other. See our website www.zagerchiro.com for Core Exercises or join one of Dr. Zager’s core exercise classes to learn these exercises.
These 5 exercises are my top picks to strengthen your core muscles, stomach, back, thighs, and buttocks. By strengthening your core muscles, you reduce the chances of having low back pain.
CATS+ 4: on your hands and knees, arch your back up to the ceiling, then sink your stomach down. Do 3 reps of CAT, then raise each limb straight out individually for a count of 10, then raise opposing limbs for a count of 10 – as you improve you can increase the counts.
Back Rock to Bridge: Do 5 back rocks, then go to the Bridge (lying on your back, lift your pelvis off the floor. Tighten your abdominal muscles, hold for a count of 20 (make sure your breathe through this), then relax. A more advanced version is to do the bridge, then straighten out one leg and hold it for a count of 20. Do the other leg.
Half Sit ups (Crunches) with leg raise – lying on your back with your knees bent, support your head with your hands. Slightly raise your head and shoulders off the ground. Do 10 lower crunches. Then with your head still up, hold one leg up off the floor for a count of 10 working up to 20.
Standing Leg flexion/extensions – Standing up straight, hold one foot out in front of you (about 6 inches off the floor) for a count of 10, then in back of you (about 6 inches off the floor) for a count of 10, then straight out behind you while you lower your torso horizontal hold for a count of 10.
Kegals – Sitting down or standing, tighten up your pelvic floor (like you are trying to stop urinating), hold for a count of 30. For added difficulty, while tightening your pelvic floor, tighten your abdominals, then your buttocks, then your thighs and hold for a count of 30.
Low Back Pain
Many people have low back pain at one time or another. It could be just a short episode where you overdid some work and have an achy feeling for a couple of days and then it completely resolves itself with no more pain. It could also be where you have weeks, months, and years of low back pain that started as a simple ache, but which has progressively grown worse over the years to be a constant strong ache or sharp pain. It could even limit what you would normally do like walking, sitting for prolonged periods of time, and even keep you from good sleep at night.
What is the Cause?
There can be a number of different causes for low back pain. You may have overworked some lumbar muscles which in turn have pulled a vertebrae out of place. You also could have irritated the disc (the padding between the two vertebrae). This typically causes a deep ache and/or sharp pain when you move wrong. You may even be slightly off center (antalgic) as the body tries to take additional pressure off of the disc.
With chronic low back pain, you may not even remember how you originally hurt your low back, but the vertebrae and sacrum are usually out of alignment and there may even be a slight to moderate curve (scoliosis) in the low back. You started off with some low back pain for a couple of weeks with it getting better on and off, and then it eventually becomes sore all the time.
Treatment:
Chiropractic treatment helps to realign the vertebra, balance out the muscles, and takes pressure off the disc and the nerve roots. Dr. Zager also gives all her patients at Zager Chiropractic Services strengthening exercises and stretches that will help you prevent future back pain and will increase your flexibility and the mobility of your spine.
If you have back pain for more than 3 days without it resolving, you should seek a chiropractic evaluation and treatment at Zager Chiropractic Services (830) 393-6554. If you have chronic low back pain, you should also seek treatment at Zager Chiropractic Services. Dr. Zager can also educate you on the various things you can do to help reduce and prevent future back pain episodes.
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Newsletter 2010 February
The First Annual Healthy Living Day be held on April 10th from 10 am until 2 pm at Zager Chiropractic Services at 2840 Business Loop 181 N, Floresville, TX. This mini-seminar day will provide information on a wide variety of common conditions such as low back pain and headache, as well as self help topics like how to do core exercises, nutritional tips, exercises for kids, correct lifting techniques, and relaxation techniques. It is free of charge and refreshments will be provided.
Click here to sign up for the class or Call (830) 393-6554
Why Do People Seek Chiropractic Treatment?
People come in for chiropractic treatment for a variety of reasons. People obviously come in for treatment because they are in pain (see box below), but many people also come in on a consistent basis after they are out of pain for general tune-ups or maintenance/wellness adjustments.
Chiropractic gets great results and has helped millions of people get relief from many painful conditions like low back pain, but it also helps many people who suffer from allergies, sinusitis, fibromyalgia, and headaches among other things.
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Newsletter 2010 January
Trigger Points: Trigger points are discrete, focal, hyperirritable spots located in a taut band of skeletal muscle. They are usually found as sore or tender round spots in muscles. You can usually “move” them around. Many of them are found near muscle/tendon junctions or near tendon/bone junctions. They can produce pain locally and/or in a referred pattern and often accompany chronic musculoskeletal disorders. Acute trauma or repetitive micro trauma may lead to the development of stress on muscle fibers and the formation of trigger points. Tender Points are like trigger points, but do not refer or radiate pain out.
Tender points/trigger points can be painful for several reasons. First there is inflammation or swelling around the knot, which is painful in itself. Secondly, as the muscle is in continual contraction it fatigues (painful) and waste products (lactic acid – painful) build up. Thirdly it can build neural “links” to other nerves stimulating their pain fibers. Very similar to sclerodermal pain from a heart attack is referred to your left shoulder. Fourthly, the rest of the muscle is now not working at its optimum level or ergonomics because a portion of it isn’t working in concert with the rest of the fibers. This can overburden the rest of the fibers and not make them as effective.
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