Shepherd of Hope Clinic

Scoliosis Whiplash Headaches Neck Pain Degeneration

Chiropractic Care There's nothing mysterious about chiropractic. It's a natural method of health care that treats the causes of physical problem rather than just the symptoms. Chiropractic is based on a simple but powerful premise: With a normally functioning spine and a healthy lifestyle, you body is better able to heal itself. That's because the spinal cord, which is protected by the spine, is the main pathway of your nervous system. It controls feeling, movement, and function throughout your body. Your chiropractor's education includes at least six years of training in the sciences and health care, leading to a doctor of chiropractic degree (DC). He or she works to restore your health and guides you in a personalized approach to overall wellness-through spinal care, exercise good nutrition and stress management.

A Balanced Spine   From the front, the spine looks like a straight line from the neck to the hips.

Scoliosis Can Chiropractic Care Help Me? Early detection and treatment of scoliosis during childhood may help prevent it from worsening over time. Whether the scoliosis is discovered early or not, chiropractic care can do a lot to improve your condition. Your doctor of chiropractic can looks at your overall health - focusing not only on your spine, but your life style. This integrated approach helps determine the best way to control your scoliosis. How Does a Chiropractor treat Scoliosis? Your doctor of chiropractic us uniquely qualified to improve the health of your spine. Special techniques may help reduce or slow down the progression of scoliosis. Spinal Adjustment To begin, your chiropractor manually applies various degrees of pressure to different joints in your spine. Over time, these adjustments may help improve your spines alignment and range of motion, while relieving pain and stiffness.

An Unbalanced Spine    Usually a result of heredity or injury, scoliosis is a sideways curve of the spine that can lead to increasing back pain and stiffness. Scoliosis is seen more often in females than in males, and usually begins in childhood. If left untreated, symptoms can become severe.

Whiplash When a sudden accident or injury hurls your head backward or forward, your neck gets thrown out of balance. The force can damage parts of your neck and reverse its natural curve. This may cause pain in your shoulders, arms, hands, and lower back. Sometimes symptoms don't occur until days, weeks or months after whiplash has occurred. How Does a Chiropractor Treat Whiplash? Your doctor of chiropractic is uniquely qualified to restore the health of your spine. Special chiropractic techniques may relive the pressure that is causing your neck pain.

Spinal Adjustments
Depending on the extent of your injury, your chiropractor may locate misaligned vertebrae in your neck and manually apply gentle pressure to the reposition of vertebrae. These adjustments can improve your neck's balance, mobility, and strength, while relieving pain and stiffness.

Related Treatment
Your chiropractor may recommend other types of treatment for straightening your neck muscles or relieving muscle tension and pain. These treatments may include moist heat, ice packs, trigger point therapy, a cervical collar, or special exercise. Your chiropractor can discuss these with you.

Headaches

Headache! Random house dictionary defines headaches as "pain located in the head, as over the eyes, the temples or the base of the skull." Head-pain would be a better descriptive name. This head pain can be sharp stabbing pain that happens suddenly without warning or it may sneak up on you with a dull throbbing pain that does not seem to ease up.
It doesn't matter what name it carries, you know what a headache is. It is one of the most common health complaints. Findings, in one survey have shown that pain is the number one health complaint, headache being the number one pain. And to a large percent of the population, headaches are more than occasional; they are chronic, or regularly recurrent. Eventually, nearly everyone will get a headache, and every headache is a sign of something wrong.

A headache is no simple complaint-there are numerous named varieties. One variety alone, the migraine, have five sub-varieties!

Many Conditions Can Precipitate Headaches
There are headaches from brain disorders such as tumors or epileptic seizures; headache hangovers from the side affects of drugs. There are headaches from inhaling toxic fumes of chemicals; from sinus trouble or eye problems; headaches associated with high blood pressure, diseased teeth, ear problems, fevers and infections.
Certain medical procedures and tests can also result in severe headaches, such as lumber puncture, a procedure that removes protective cerebrospinal fluid from around the brain and spinal cord.
There is also the common "muscle tension" or "nervous" headache brought on by everyday tension and emotional stress. In fact, there are so many more things that can cause, be associated with, or contribute to a headache that a person suffering from one can be very confused about what to do.

What Causes Headaches?
Most of the many conditions that can precipitate headaches, and there are more than those mentioned above, have at least one thing in common- nerve irritation. Dorland's Medical dictionary defines pain as "a feeling of distress, suffering or agony caused by stimulation of specialized nerve endings." There can be no pain unless these specialized nerve endings are stimulated (irritated), resulting in the transmission of nerve impulses to the brain.
When spinal vertebrae misalign even slightly, or their normal mobility altered, sensory and motor nerves can be irritated or even damaged. This is known as vertebral subluxation complex, or bio-mechanical lesion, - commonly shortened to just subluxation.
Chiropractors have found subluxations to be one of the most common causes of nerve irritation. Since nerve irritation is a factor in all pain, headache included, subluxations are one of the most common contributing factors.

Treatment
The proper treatment for a headache depends, of course, on what has presumably caused it. A headache arising from visual problems can often be reduced by eyeglasses. A headache caused by infection of the sinuses or ears can often be relieved by bring that infection under control. Medically, most common headaches are usually treated with mild pain killers or other drugs. More powerful compounds, including narcotics, are given for more severe headaches, thought with narcotics there is always the risk of severe side affects and dependency - in some cases making the treatment worse then the disease.

Chiropractic For Headaches
Chiropractic is not a glorified aspirin. It is neither a headache therapy nor a treatment for headache pain. Yet, headache suffers are turning to their neighborhood chiropractors in record numbers because chiropractors treat one of the most common causes of headache - subluxation. Chiropractors are licensed health care professionals highly trained to analyze and determine if a vertebral subluxation exists, and then to reduce and correct it if possible.
Today the vertebral subluxation has reached epidemic proportions. This condition is called a "silent killer" because it can slowly eat away at a person's health and vitality for years without that person having the slightest awareness of it. Why? Because:

Pain is only a symptom, not a disease process. Only sensory nerves carry pain messages. Pain (headache) is only felt when these nerves are irritated. If there is no pain, the unlucky person may not be aware they have a subluxation producing an insidious decline of his or her health. People with painful subluxations might be considered the lucky ones - they know they are having a problem and can do something about it. However, don't delay proper care by treating only the pain with pain killing drugs - this does nothing to reduce the subluxation, if present, which must be done before long-lasting relief and good health can be restored. Therefore, it is important to understand that the absence of pain does not necessarily mean the presence of health.

The Spinal Checkup
Doctors of chiropractic analyze the spinal column for the vertebral subluxations that can affect nerves, bones, muscles, joints, even blood and lymph vessels. A spinal checkup should be done periodically even if you feel fine because spinal subluxation (nerve irritation) may be causing serious harm to your body, sometimes for years without your knowledge.
If subluxations are found, the chiropractor uses special techniques (without drugs or surgery) to restore the subluxated vertebrae to allow a more normal position and motion. This allows normal flow of nerve impulses thereby contributing to the restoration of normal function. This procedure is called a chiropractic adjustment. The direct purpose of the chiropractic spinal adjustment is to reduce spinal nerve irritation, thus permitting the body to restore itself to a greater level of health and, of course, relieve pain.

Don't Delay Your Proper Treatment - Consult Your Doctor of Chiropractic...Now!
When you have pain, no matter what it's called, be it a headache or any of the hundreds of other problems that the flesh is heir to, delaying proper treatment is dangerous and can result in a major health problem. Seek chiropractic examination immediately to see if yours is a condition which comes within the scope of chiropractic. The pain you suffer may be because the cause of the pain has been ignored and proper treatment has been delayed.
Everyone needs a healthy spinal column. Even if you are seeing other health care providers, it is still possible and desirable to see a chiropractor to make sure your spine is subluxation free.

Neck Problems

What Causes Neck Pain?
Your neck protects your spinal cord and spinal nerves, while supporting and balancing the weight of your head. Poor posture, wear and tear, injury, stress, and tension can strain or damage vital parts of your neck.

A Healthy Neck     Your neck (cervical spine) is aligned in a natural curve at the top of your spine. Damage to your necks curve can cause painful problems.

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Your Spine May be Wearing Out

Life Can Be Tough on Your Spine Every day, your spine has to handle the stresses you put on it. Whether your bending down to get a file, or sitting behind a desk, your spine has to support your upper body and help you move. Poor posture and repeated movements that strain your spine (micro traumas) injuries like whiplash (major injuries), spine injuries present since birth (congenital conditions), and even your lifestyle may contribute to spinal degeneration. If you have a degenerative spine, you may or may not be experiencing pain or other troublesome symptoms.  Your Chripractor Can Help You Fight Back You may be able to prevent, slow or halt spinal degeneration with the help of your chiropractor. A spine care specialist concerned about your body's overall health, your chiropractor can evaluate and treat your spine if it is degenerating. Your chiropractor can teach you how to strengthen and protect your back with exercises and proper movement. You may also learn about healthy lifestyle choices, since the health of your spine is linked to the health of your entire body.

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