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A study conducted in an acute care facility in Hong Kong to determine the occurrence of back pain in nurses reported that 80.9% of the participating individuals suffered from some form of back pain throughout their careers with one third of them experiencing back pain at least once a month. The study also concluded that the contributing factors for back injuries among those nurses were caused from lifting and transferring patients, where stooping was recognized at the most common factor contributing to back complications. Most diagnosed cases of back pain were reported on orthopedic wards, closely followed by elderly or geriatric nursing. According to the study, back pain as a result of standing for extended periods of time was not considered significant. Another study conducted to determine the impact of back pain in nurses concluded that depression is associated with chronic low back pain and other symptoms which could exhibit as low morale and lower job performance among nurses. Additionally, the study also showed that two thirds of the nurse sample population suffered from back pain more than twice a year.
A nurse’s job can be very demanding, specifically in the hospital setting, where they must focus on applying intense intellectual and physical requirements over extended periods of time. Studies have shown that in a given year, approximately half of all nurses will have struggled with some form of back complication. In fact, a recent research published in two journals, The American Journal of Nursing and Clinical Nurse Specialist, declared that when nurses suffer, so do their patients. The researchers of the study created a questionnaire for registered nurses working in hospital settings, which asked them about their personal health and the level to which their injuries or illnesses seemed to affect their work. After evaluating more than 1,000 answers, the researchers found that nearly 20 percent of the nurses questioned presented symptoms of depression, a prevalence twice as high as that of the general population. Additionally, approximately three-quarters of the nurses experienced some grade of physical pain due to a muscle sprain or strain while at work.
According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, more than 24 percent of all injuries associated with the workplace and illnesses requiring individuals to miss days from work are due to back complications. As a matter of fact, healthcare workers have 4.5 times as many back injuries caused by overexertion than any other type of worker. In addition, a performance improvement alliance consisting of more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals and more than 84,000 other healthcare sites known as Premier, national statistics demonstrated that six of the top ten professions with the highest chance for back injuries are nurse’s aides, licensed practical nurses, registered nurses, health aides, radiology technicians, and physical therapists. Among nurses, more than one one third of back complications are associated with the handling of patients and the frequency in which they are required to manually move patients. From a worldwide perspective, back injuries to nurses have a point prevalence of approximately 17 percent, an annual prevalence of 40-50 percent, and a lifetime prevalence of 35-80 percent. These are only the accounted rates for reported incidents as many individuals working under healthcare jobs can experience back pain and other symptoms and never receive medical attention. Back complications are a world-wide issue as other studies from Greece, China, and Denmark have recently showed the relation between nurses and back injuries, to name a few.
According to a recent Public Citizen Report, the healthcare workplace is one of the most common industries where injuries or illnesses occur, with 653,000 nurses, aides, orderlies and others, become injured or fall ill every year. Approximately 45 percent of all workplace incidents in the United States which result in lost workdays occur in the healthcare sector. Among attendants, orderlies, and nursing aides in a 2011 study, the incidence rate of injuries requiring days off work was 486 cases per 10,000 employees, over four times higher than the national average for all workers. More musculoskeletal injuries are suffered by orderlies, attendants, nurses and nursing aides than workers in any other industry. Back injuries in the healthcare industry are estimated to cost over $7 billion every year. Although healthcare workplaces are considered to have a higher risk of injury or illness than any other type of workplace, OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) offers a few inspections of healthcare facilities. The authors of the report additionally explained that when OSHA does find safety problems, there’s often not much they can do as a result of the absence of much needed safety standards. In 2010, there were 152,000 workplace injuries and illnesses in the manufacturing sector in comparison to a massive 653,000 in healthcare. OSHA is attempting to better address the injury rates among nursing home workers with a National Emphasis Program (NEP), which will focus on addressing ergonomic stressors, falls, trips, slips, and workplace violence, as well as tuberculosis and blood borne pathogens. In conclusion, the report recommends for OSHA to considerably increase its number of inspections of healthcare facilities as well as pursue binding standards in order to ensure that workers are protected from the risks of developing musculoskeletal injuries and/or disorders and other types of threats that could greatly affect the overall wellbeing of healthcare workers.
Lt. Col. Scott Griffith, MD, and Army’s pain management consultant, quoted in a recent interview, “Chronic pain can be very challenging so we focus a lot on their functionality, being able to restore their function as well as bringing their pain down to the extent that we can. Even for people who cannot have their pain eliminated, many of them can have an improvement in the quality of their life.” For military healthcare providers, managing acute and chronic pain has become a tremendous problem than ever before. In a June 2014 report in JAMA Internal Medicine, of 2,597 evaluated individuals, researchers found that 44 percent of troops experienced chronic pain symptoms after being deployed for combat while 15.1% of those individuals reported regularly using opioids. Furthermore, Veterans Affairs administrators gave a testimony before a Congress hearing that chronic pain was among the most common medical complication in veterans returning from the last decade of conflict. The frequent cause for chronic pain is due to musculoskeletal injury, which is usually unrelated to battlefield wounds. Causes for musculoskeletal injury include training and job performance with the use of increasingly heavy protective equipment as well as sports and recreation. The challenge for federal medicine providers still lies on relieving chronic pain symptoms among active duty military members and veterans while also decreasing the chance of opioid addiction and abuse among individuals. In 2003, the Defense & Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management (DVCIPM) was established to support and regulate pain research and education as well as improving pain management methods. Six years later, the Army surgeon general organized a pain task force membership that included representatives from military services, TRICARE and VHA, to give guidance and approval for a comprehensive pain management strategy. That same task force distributed a report in May 2010 recommending the military to use a holistic, multimodal and multidisciplinary approach to pain management, including complementary and alternative medicine. Through the project, the VA will analyze the extent and cost-effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine utilization among veterans being treated at the Veterans Affairs Medical Clinics for musculoskeletal disorder-related pain and other related conditions. On a wider spectrum, changes in drug development are giving clinicians other means to helping active-duty service members and veterans as well as others avoid opioid addiction.
The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP) outlined the inclusion of chiropractic services by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as a portion of the standard medical benefits package which has been provided to all eligible veterans for approximately 10 years. Researchers from the VA Connecticut Healthcare System published a study in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, conducted to demonstrate the substantial growth in the utilization of chiropractic services and the chiropractic workforce in the VA within a decade. According to the new study, the annual number of chiropractic visits increased by roughly 700 percent, indicating that more veterans have increased access to chiropractic care then ever before. The lead author of the study, Anthony J. Lisi, CD, Director of the Veterans Affairs Chiropractic Program and Chiropractic Section Chief at the Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, stated, “Our work shows that the VA has steadily and substantially increased its use of chiropractic services each year following their implementation in late 2004.” He added, “VA chiropractic care evidence-based, patient-centered treatment options that are in demand by veterans and referring providers. VA continues its efforts to ensure appropriate access to chiropractic care across the whole system, but as this study shows, the progress to date has been remarkable.”
Cheri Bustos, U.S. Representative, D-Moline, toured Healing Heroes in the Heartland, a nonprofit organization which implements alternative medical treatment and care to active duty military members and veterans. During the visit, Rep. Bustos joined several HHH volunteers and Ernest Ledtje, a veteran who was being treated by the organization at the time. Healing Heroes in the Heartland provides free chiropractic, acupuncture, reflexology, herbal medicine, nutritional supplements, massage therapy, life coaching and group and art therapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) through holistic care.
Healing Heroes of the Heartland held an open house at its offices at 2508 25th St., Rock Island, where many veterans and supporters assembled to discover more information about the non-profit organization. “The organization is devoted to contributing holistic services to heroes,” explained Angel Hong of Milan, doctor of chiropractic and holistic medical director. Holistic services are focused on treating an individual completely, both physically and emotionally. Although Healing Heroes in the Heartland inaugurated in 2013, utilizing holistic procedures to help individuals with anxiety, trauma, or pain is not a recent approach. “Three thousand years ago, people had depression,” Hong quoted. From individuals curious of the group’s services to supporters who’ve previously benefited from its services, more than 60 people attended the open house event, including soldiers who’ve been referred by doctors.
In the past few years, in acknowledgement of the many health benefits chiropractic care provides, a permanent chiropractic care benefit was established for both active duty military personnel and veterans. Currently, there are doctors of chiropractic, or DCs, at 60 military bases around the nation, nevertheless, according to a 2005 Government Accountability Office report, solely 54 percent of men and women in active service have reasonably been recognized as eligible for accessing their benefit and receiving chiropractic treatment. Although many chiropractic services have become available to many military service personnel and veterans, it still remains a necessity to further increase chiropractic access, contribution, and availability for the individuals that most need it. When it comes to these services though, chiropractic care is actually part of the common medical benefits package available to all veterans. As a result, Veterans Affairs should provide a proper availability of these services to veterans by having an on-site chiropractic clinic, and by sending veterans to a private chiropractor using the “fee-basis” approach, where the VA pays the bill.
The headline above comes from a November 30, 2015, article on the U.S. News and World Report website in the Health section. The article begins by stating, "You might think chiropractors are only able to help with back aches, stiff necks, slipped discs and whiplash injuries. If so, you're not alone – but you're missing out." Although probably not surprising to many chiropractors, the article's author, David Starr, points out that many people are unaware that chiropractic may be able to help them with conditions that may not seem immediately related to the spine. Migraines and tension headaches are the first on the article's list. "Research shows that spinal manipulation – the primary form of care provided by chiropractic doctors – is an effective way to treat tension headaches and headaches that begin in the neck." Starr continued, "In a clinical trial conducted at Macquarie University, 72 percent of migraine sufferers experienced either substantial or noticeable improvement after a period of chiropractic treatment." The second condition listed is stress and anxiety. The article explains how chiropractic helps by noting, "Chiropractors work primarily with the spine – the root of the nervous system through which nerve impulses travel between the brain and the rest of the body – and can help the body manage and process this stress in a healthier way." The article also mentions that chiropractic can help with a weak immune system. To explain the connection, the article relates spinal subluxations to immune function. "Subluxation is the term for misalignments of the spine that cause compression and irritation of nerve pathways, affecting the body's organs. Subluxations are an example of physical nerve stress that affects neuronal control. According to researchers, such stressful conditions lead to altered measures of immune function and an increased susceptibility to a variety of diseases." Starr recants the study that shows the connection between subluxation and immune function. He states, "Another study measured the effects of six months of regular chiropractic care on the immune system function of HIV patients. At the end of six months of care, the patients who had received regular adjustments showed a 48 percent increase in the number of CD4+ T cells, whereas patients who had not been adjusted showed an 8 percent decrease in CD4+ T cells." The remaining two conditions include fibromyalgia and flexibility. The explanations offered in the article deal with both nerve function and improved range of motion. Chiropractic can specifically remove interference to the nerve system from subluxations while returning the spinal joints to as near to normal range of motion as is possible with a patient. Dr George Curry, president of the International Chiropractors Association, summed up the chiropractic approach by stating, "People suffering with a wide variety of health issues have responded to chiropractic care. The chiropractor actually isn't treating these conditions. By removing interference to the nerve system from subluxation, the chiropractor allows the body to function more normally and, therefore, self-correct many health problems naturally."
Via Barbara Rinkoff DC
For over 10 years, the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress has included chiropractic services provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA, as part of the approved medical benefits package offered to all enrolled veterans. A recent study organized by researchers from the VA Connecticut Healthcare System and published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, the handling of chiropractic services and the chiropractic workforce in VA has grown significantly since their introduction over a decade ago. The yearly number of chiropractic visits has expanded by nearly 700 percent, hence showing an increase in veteran’s access to chiropractic care. The lead author of the study, Anthony J. Lisi, DC, Director of the VA Chiropractic Program and Chiropractic Section Chief at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System made a statement on the progressive and significant increase of chiropractic service utilization by the VA each year after its introduction in late 2004. Additionally, as stated by Anthony J. Lisi, Veterans Affairs’ chiropractic care includes evidence-based medicine and patient-centered care, among other treatment options which are highly requested by veterans and referring providers. Throughout the numerous findings among an 11-year period, the study concluded that the number of individuals treated in Veterans Affairs clinics increased by 821 percent in a year, the number of chiropractic visits expanded by 693 percent in a year, the total number of VA chiropractic clinics escalated 9 percent in a year as well as the number of chiropractic employees, increasing by 21 percent in a year. Finally, the study also confirmed that the average VA chiropractic patient is male, between the ages of 45 and 64, and generally receives diagnosis, chiropractic spinal adjustments and manual manipulations, as well as other health care services focused on low back and/or neck injuries or conditions.
Text neck is a modern, cervical spine condition characterized by neck pain and discomfort as a result of constantly looking down at a technological device for extended periods of time. The symptoms include neck pain and soreness, upper back pain, shoulder pain and tightness, and occasionally, neurological symptoms if a cervical nerve becomes pinched. An improper posture is the source of the pain and other symptoms related to text neck. The common slouching posture of text neck can add extra pounds of unnecessary pressure on the cervical spine which can begin causing degeneration and wear and tear of the structures surrounding the cervical spine. Text neck is much more common among young people. Considering the impact of the accumulative hours of bad posture in the time span of a year, is the reason teenagers are at a higher risk of developing text neck and further cervical spine complications. Furthermore, text neck in combination with a sedentary lifestyle can further aggravate the condition. Inactivity and an improper posture can cause other types of complications along the spine, such as back pain and muscle weakness, and if there’s a spinal misalignment, the nerves along the length of the spine may also become compressed. Through chiropractic treatment, a chiropractor may use spinal adjustments and manual manipulations as well as recommend a specialized set of stretches and exercises to strengthen the muscles surrounding the spine. Spine health is important for anyone who wishes to maintain a healthy lifestyle and preventing injuries or complications to their health is the key to improving your well-being, most importantly during the growth of teenagers, in order to avoid text neck from developing.
Plantar fasciitis is one of the most common causes of heel pain in many individuals. Although most commonly diagnosed in runners, individuals who are overweight, women who are pregnant, and those who wear shoes with inadequate support, are at an increased risk of developing plantar fasciitis. The condition is characterized by a sharp pain that generally occurs during the first steps an individual takes first thing in the morning. After the foot warms up, the pain of the condition may decrease, but it may return after extended periods of time standing or after getting up from a seated position. The pain and symptoms associated with plantar fasciitis can develop gradually, most frequently affecting a single foot although it can occur in both feet simultaneously. Plantar fasciitis can be caused by a variety of reasons but certain factors can increase the risk of developing the condition. Overuse with age frequently irritates the plantar fascia, resulting in the well-known symptoms of heel pain and discomfort. Plantar fasciitis is most common in individuals between the ages of 40 and 60. Because women who are pregnant can often experience plantar fascia complications due to their added weight, plantar fasciitis is statistically more likely to occur in women than men. Also, certain types of exercise or physical activities which place an increased amount of stress on the heel and attached tissue, can greatly contribute to the early development of plantar fasciitis. Additionally, being flat-footed, having a high arch, or even having an abnormal pattern of walking or running can negatively affect the weight distribution within the body while standing, adding stress on the plantar fascia. Occupations that require longer periods of time walking or standing while on hard surfaces can also aggravate the plantar fascia and result in plantar fasciitis. And last but not least, improper footwear can commonly cause plantar fasciitis.
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Many nurses believe that utilizing proper body mechanics while lifting and moving a patient can help prevent injuries from occurring. The truth is that there’s not an exact safe manual for lifting plus, during the rush of a busy day for nurses or other healthcare workers, even if the most suitable body mechanics are used on a specific situation, manually lifting, turning, or transferring patients can often result with injuries to the spine. The effects of an injury might not occur immediately, but the constant overexertion on the structures of the spine can eventually aggravate an injury further and lead to a debilitating condition. Musculoskeletal injuries, also referred to as ergonomic or overexertion injuries, are common among workers in all healthcare settings, from acute care hospitals to long-term care and ambulatory facilities. Nurses, nurses’ aides, orderlies, and attendants frequently experience these type of injuries at a much higher rate than the general population of workers, even more than those who work in construction, mining, and manufacturing settings.
Because many healthcare jobs can be very demanding, always working at peak performance is essential. From a rush into the emergency room to a simple clinical visit, most patients are assisted by healthcare workers even before seeing the doctor, including being the first ones to be exposed to infections and viruses. Getting sick is not an option and nurses need a healthy and strong immune system to stay well and do their job. The human body is designed to remain healthy. When the immune system is functioning to its fullest capacity, it’s intended to fight off, hunt down and destroy foreign organisms and viruses. But, if the immune system is functioning at less than its best, the individual’s health is at risk and as a health professional, so are those individuals that depend on their care. By incorporating chiropractic into your lifestyle, one can learn a healthy new habit for improving and achieving the maximum potential of overall wellness.
Prolonged standing and walking for healthcare workers can cause or aggravate previous health complications and soft tissue injuries and its effects can usually become instantly noticeable. An abundance of individuals often experience swollen or painful feet or legs, bunions or bony bumps that develop on the joint at the base of the big toe, plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinitis, varicose veins, knee complications, low back pain, neck and shoulder stiffness, poor posture and the effects that follow, restricted blood flow, heightened risk of knee or hip arthritis and, muscle soreness and fatigue. Through many healthcare jobs, as well as with other types of jobs, standing is frequently a normal component within a healthcare worker’s day but, when the physical layout or work practices of a task require individuals to reach across wide surfaces in uncomfortable positions or repetitively participate in tasks without breaks, individuals may be at a higher risk of developing musculoskeletal injuries or conditions. Additionally, standing can be much worse when the individual has limited space to move around or while working on hard surfaces and/or wearing unsuitable footwear.
“Healthcare in the U.S. and the VA has operated on a ‘find it, fix it’ reactive disease model,” Gaudet said in a recent interview. “What we’re undertaking is truly a paradigm shift that promotes health and wellness.” As compared to initiating with a patient’s suggested complication or attempting to identify a condition early in its development, Tracy Gaudet believes healthcare providers should begin by understanding the veteran and their ambitions. She explains that medical staff at the VA shouldn’t be asking, “what’s the matter?”, rather, they should be asking, “what matters to you?”. The goal of complete health at the VA is to assist all veterans in order to determine their basic health achievement goals and desires and to also help them focus on all the areas of their lives that affect their health and don’t allow them to reach those goals. “It’s not just a ‘feel good’ program,” Gaudet noted, “but an approach informed by evidence that makes use of all appropriate therapeutic approaches as well as emphasizing self-care at all points along the spectrum of health and disease.” This approach often takes veterans out of the clinic. The nine-week, peer-to-peer program emphasizes on guiding veterans through various questions to encourage them to discuss why they want to be healthy, what they want to accomplish and the kinds of relationships they want to have. According to Tracy Gaudet, the results have been astounding. Many veterans have found meaning and purpose in their lives again and connected to healthier lifestyles through these new programs being available at Veterans Affairs clinics. Veterans can then follow through with other available programs to help them reduce stress like meditation or they can increase their overall fitness levels. Additionally, as their health improves, the cost of caring for them drops. The complete health approach encourages veterans to make continuous changes in their health and life which may involve working on their closest relationships.
Fibromyalgia symptoms are presumed to occur subsequently from physical or emotional trauma where there’s been considerable psychological stress, after surgery, or as a result of an infection. In several cases, the symptoms can also progressively accumulate over time without a single event to trigger them. The widespread pain that most frequently accompanies fibromyalgia sufferers can be described as a continuous, dull ache which has lasted for a minimum of three months. Other symptoms for fibromyalgia include fatigue, where the individual awakes feeling tired despite sleeping for long periods of time, restless leg syndrome or sleep apnea as a result of an interrupted sleep, cognitive difficulties, and other complications, such as depression, headaches and pain or cramping in the lower abdomen. For years, traditional pain relievers such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and the opioids like Morphine, have been used as a form of treatment for fibromyalgia but due to the drug’s high probability of dependency as a source for pain and symptom relief, especially over long term use, opioids are not recommended by any current guidelines for the treatment of fibromyalgia symptoms. Fibromyalgia is not a fatal or terminal disease but its symptoms of chronic pain where the pain can recur throughout an individual’s lifetime can often be a common reason for drug abuse and addiction. Despite the absence of recommendations and studies that prove the benefit of opioids in fibromyalgia, currently about 30% of Canadian and American patients with fibromyalgia report to using opioids for pain relief. Studies have shown that individuals who use and abuse opioids tend to have more severe pain, a more severe impairment in daily functioning as well as the presence of mood disorders compared to those who did not use opioids. Several alternatives for treating the symptoms of fibromyalgia include physical therapy and chiropractic care to relieve chronic pain naturally.
Many clinicians at the VA frequently argue whether chiropractic treatment methods, such as spinal adjustments and manual manipulations, are actually effective towards improving injuries and conditions causing chronic back pain. A new research was conducted to determine the effects chiropractic care had with chronic pain symptoms. While the study concluded that spinal adjustments and manual manipulations were similarly as effective as placebo for pain relief, the study did find that individuals demonstrated an increased improvement in disability at 12 weeks after receiving consistent chiropractic treatment, according to a report published in the journal, “Geriatric Orthopedic Surgery & Rehabilitation”. With the contribution of Paul Dougherty, DC, a staff chiropractor at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center in upstate New York, the authors of the study described that the almost identical improvements between the individuals of the different study groups suggested the presence of a non-specific therapeutic effect from the treatments. For the study, researchers classified 136 veterans, 65 years old or older, with lower back pain whom had never received chiropractic treatment. The individuals were then divided into two separate groups, with 69 of the veterans receiving spinal adjustments and manual manipulations. Dougherty explained, “spinal manipulative therapy, or SMT, is where you take a joint to its end range. When you crack your knuckles and squeeze them together, you hear the pop. That pop is the joint changing pressure. SMT is basically doing that, taking a joint that isn’t moving enough and trying to maneuver it to where it moves normally again and changes pressure.” The other 67 veterans participating in the study were enrolled in a procedure known as sham intervention, where a water-based ultrasound gel is spread across the lower back while the individuals lay face down, followed by the chiropractor rubbing a detuned ultrasound machine across the affected area for approximately 10 minutes. The ultrasound machine made noise but did not transmit any sound waves. Additionally, the participating veterans from both groups were given an educational pamphlet from the Arthritis Foundation on different varieties of back pain and other symptoms. After four weeks of twice-a-week treatment, the individuals were evaluated on the fifth week to rate their pain on a standardized scale. Both groups showed comparable pain improvement. Paul Dougherty explained that pain is perception-based, originating equally from the mind as it does from the body, but that disability is a better measure of effectiveness. Dougherty quoted, “Twice a week for four weeks, we met with these patients. We talked to them about their pain. They were touched in a caring and meaningful way. It comes down to this: If people believe they’re going to get better, it changes the way they thing about pain.”
In 2002, President George Bush signed Public Law 107-135, which assures chiropractic treatment for all eligible Veterans Affairs patients. Although, many veterans are not aware this service is available to them, despite its inclusion in their Medical Benefits Package since 2004. Additionally, the VA is still seeking to make this service accessible to all veterans requiring care. According to the American Chiropractic Association, or ACA, only 48 of 152 Veterans Affairs Medical Centers currently offer chiropractic care for their patients. Veterans in general have a higher chance of developing any of these conditions due to the strict nature of their military duties. The Seattle Times stated that merely walking and wearing heavy gear has caused many veterans a variety of musculoskeletal injuries. According to the article by Hal Bernton, “The number of soldiers medically retired from the Army with at least one musculoskeletal condition increased nearly 10-fold from 2003 to 2009.” These numbers were determined according to Army statistics.
David McIntyre, president and CEO of TriWest Healthcare Alliance quoted, “It made good business sense to expand our footprints here considering El Paso is one of the top 10 best cities for veterans in the United States, and out only line of business at TriWest is to serve veterans”. TriWest operates as an associate with the Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA, in executing the Veterans Choice Program for veterans in El Paso as well as throughout 28 states. The Veterans Choice Program grants veterans the opportunity to obtain care out in the community if they cannot receive care at the VA within 30 days or it they live more than 40 miles away from the closest Veterans Affairs facility. “By making veterans a priority, El Paso is setting itself apart from other communities around the country”, U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso stated, admiring the announcement. “We are attracting jobs, talent, and investment. I am excited that TriWest sees the value and potential in our veterans, in our Downtown and in El Paso”, O’Rourke concluded.
Back pain is one of the most common back complications affecting the general population. About 80% of individuals will encounter back pain and other symptoms at some point in their lifetime, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Chronic low back pain can be heightened by a variety of triggers, such as stress, over straining, muscle weakness, improper sleeping positions, lack of exercise, and excessive weight. Fortunately, chiropractic care ranks among the most popular and effective treatment options available today for back pain. Through the use of spinal adjustments and manual manipulations, chiropractors help both relieve the symptoms as well as correct the individuals source of back pain to gradually restore their natural state of well-being. According to many chiropractors, spinal adjustments can provide more efficient results if it’s combines with weight loss. According to the American Obesity Association, individuals whom are categorized as overweight or obese can be most at risk of developing back pain and complications than individuals who aren’t.
Rebecca Halstead began supporting the idea of utilizing alternative medical treatments, such as chiropractic care and nutritional supplements, after being diagnosed in the year 2005 with fibromyalgia, a condition distinguished by widespread musculoskeletal pain along with fatigue, sleep, memory, and mood issues. However, throughout the time the retired Army brigadier general discovered her own solutions for the chronic symptoms of her condition, she was amazed by the recent studies indicating the troop’s use of alternative medical therapies at much higher rates than their civilian counterparts. Rebecca Halstead became curious about the way troops recognized the availability of these benefits. “How do they find out about it and pay for it? It was not a high priority when I was in the military”, she quoted, acknowledging complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM.
When first visiting a chiropractor, its essential to provide the medical specialist with as much detail relating to your neck pain, including medical records and history that can outline the description and symptoms of any prior injuries or conditions. Explaining your symptoms in detail to a chiropractor can provide valuable information to best diagnose the root cause of an individual’s cervical spine complications. Spinal misalignments can be caused by numerous factors, such as an improper posture or a sport-related injury. The spine is surrounded by many complex tissues: muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, and blood vessels. In the presence of a subluxation of the spine, the vertebra may stretch or compress any of these tissues, resulting in the well-known symptoms of pain and discomfort and depending on the location of the symptoms, neck or back pain may occur. Chiropractic care consists of spinal adjustments and manual manipulations to the spine to progressively re-align the vertebra to their natural state in order to improve functionality, reduce nerve irritation, and restore the spine’s range of motion. After treatment, a chiropractor may also recommend a series of stretches and/or exercises according to an individual’s level of pain and symptoms, to strengthen the muscles surrounding the affected area. It’s important to seek immediate medical attention and treatment for your neck complications to help alleviate an individual’s pain and discomfort and restore your well-being.
The feet are complex structures which function to provide protection and support to the body in relation to the spine and head posture. The feet are essential towards balancing the body’s entire weight, allowing it to walk, run, stand, and, jump. Consequently, foot complications may cause severe issues throughout the spine, hips, knees, and ankles if left untreated. Individuals who’ve suffered a prior injury or condition may often continue experiencing pain and other symptoms on the surrounding structures of the foot. Bone fractures on the outside end of the ankle can occasionally occur but more often, the ligaments around the anterior and side of the ankle can tear and produce pain as well as visible swelling and bruising on the affected region. Generally, it can take 4-6 weeks to recover from a direct injury but, the ligaments can become full of scar tissue, which is non-elastic and stiff. This can increase the chance of damage or injury, often leading to further sprains. Repeated traumas can influence the mobility of the ankle and cause complications on the joint and other structures, such as the knee and spine. Chiropractic care can be effective for treating injuries or conditions such as plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, and ankle sprains, among others. Foot health is essential towards establishing the body’s proper support and balance, together with a proper spinal posture. In the presence of foot complications, chiropractic treatment can be used to achieve long lasting health.
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Nurses are considered to be the most crucial component in the delivery of primary care within any public or private healthcare setting. Throughout this environment, regardless of the availability of several types of lifting equipment, the nurse’s role will generally include manually lifting or assisting in movement of patients as a major portion of regular healthcare activities. As a result of the demanding tasks of the job, many nurses often experience low back pain and other symptoms. For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at (915) 850-0900.