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Weather Change Pain

Weather Change Pain

As I sit here and write this article, I feel a large amount of both sympathy and empathy for many of you reading this. That is because it is raining here and my knee is throbbing in pain. I have felt this storm coming for a couple of days now and I’m not sure which was worse, before the storm or now. Due to the fact that I suffer from a form of arthritis, I can use my body like a barometer that honestly is more accurate than the one that is hanging outside. I am sure, dear reader, that many of you feel the same when these storms hit.

Feeling pain when it is raining or snowing is not an uncommon complaint for many people, especially if you suffer from certain chronic joint disorders. Believe me, you are not imagining it. This has been a complaint of many people for as far back as anyone can find. Although we don’t have a full answer, the leading idea as to the reason for this is that when it rains, when the barometric pressure drops, it can cause swelling of the muscles and tissues around a joint. This is specifically found in joints that have arthritis, as something in the disease makes the tissue more sensitive to these atmospheric changes.

Unfortunately, there is no way to stop this internal weatherman from alerting you to the fact of a storm days in advance. However, if you are in pain you can try elevating the joint, resting, icing the area, or using a brace. Small amounts of over the counter medicines are good for this kind of pain as well. If the pain is severe, talk to your doctor and see what other options you may have.

If the basic tricks don’t work to relieve your pain, try coming into DiBella Chiropractic. Chiropractic care has been shown to help reduce the amount of pain felt due to chronic disorders such as arthritis and fibromyalgia. We can work on just about any joint in your body, not just your back. If the main focus of the pain is in your knee or your foot, that’s no worry. Head on in and see how much better you’ll feel when you aren’t a walking five day forecast!

Chiropractic Weekly Wellness Tips - Week 2

Chiropractic Weekly Wellness Tips - Week 2

This week, I wanted to focus on pain that could have occurred during winter. Unfortunately, there are a lot of different ways that winter can be harmful, despite the beauty that many associate with this season. Here are some pain relieving tips that you can use to combat the wintertime blues and welcome in the spring.

  1. Stretching. Yes, I am still suggesting stretching. I will never stop suggesting stretching. Stretching increases blood flow to your muscles and helps to create a better range of motion for you. This means you are less likely to fall, more likely to stay warm and alert, and you will be more flexible. There is literally no downside to stretching that I have ever experienced as long as you respect your own limits.

  2. Dress Appropriately. If it is cold out, please do your best to stay warm. Use layers and make sure that you don’t go outside without gloves, hats, scarves, or the like on. Even if you are female and like to wear dresses (or need to for some reason), you can either wear leggings with some kind of insulation underneath or change when you get to your destination.

  3. Stay Hydrated. Because it is cold out, many of us forget to keep drinking as much as we would during the hot days of summer. However, you still need to stay hydrated to keep your muscles from cramping and to keep your body running how it should.

  4. Take A Warm Bath. If you don’t like or can’t take a bath, a shower will work as well. Letting warm water soothe your muscles can help relieve pain and loosen up any knots or muscle cramps that you may be experiencing. If you’re feeling a little stressed, you may want to look into aromatherapy as well, as many scents can help to relax you even while you’re bathing.

  5. Take Vitamin D. In the winter, we are less likely to get the appropriate amount of vitamin D from the sun, so talk to your doctor and see if a supplement is the right choice for you.

Winter can be a brutal time when it comes to pain and our mental health. Always speak to your family doctor about any concerns you may have. You are always welcome at DiBella Chiropractic as well, so come on in and see how much an adjustment can help!

Car Accident Injuries

Car Accident Injuries

Being in a car accident is something that none of us ever want to experience. Unfortunately, it is believed that the average driver will be in at least three accidents during their driving lifetime. While most of these accidents will be small so called “fender benders”, sometimes the crash can leave lasting damage. While it is scary to think about, these lasting problems can change your life. Some of the possibilities are explained below, because it never hurts to be prepared for what the future may hold.

Head injuries are unfortunately common in the result of a car accident. These can range anywhere from a minor headache to severe swelling of the brain which can lead to coma or death. Very often, the jarring or jerking sensation that is felt from the impact will cause the driver’s head (along with the heads of any passengers) to quickly move forward and back again. This can cause anyone involved to strike their heads on the steering wheel, the dashboard, and the head rest. This can lead to concussions, and in more severe cases, vision or hearing loss and more extreme medical conditions.

Neck injuries are also rather common when a person is in a car crash. These happen for many of the same reasons that head injuries do. The sudden and harsh motion of quickly having your neck thrust forward and then back into its natural position can cause the most common injury after a car accident. This is known as whiplash. This can cause muscular damage as well as tendon and ligament swelling. Naturally, the extent of the severity of whiplash depends on both the intensity of the crash and the health of the person involved before the accident. General pain and swelling around the neck is also common after a car crash. It has been reported that vocal cord paralysis can occur as well, however some doctors believe that this can be a psychosomatic, or psychogenic, response to the physical trauma.

While a chiropractor cannot help all of these issues, people have reported that seeking chiropractic help after a car crash can help significantly with the pain. If you have recently been in an accident and are cleared to do so by your main doctor, come into DiBella Chiropractic and see just how much we can help you recover.

Chiropractic Weekly Wellness Tips - Week 1

Chiropractic Weekly Wellness Tips - 2017 - Week 1

One of the biggest reasons we all hear, or give as the case may be, for not exercising or eating healthy is a lack of time. We all lead such busy lives and hardly seem to have a minute to ourselves between work, home, and whatever else may be needed of us. If you have a full time job, you understand how difficult it may be to get in some daily exercise. Here are some quick tips you may be able to use to help yourself stay healthy at work.

  1. Smoke Breaks. We all know that smoking is bad for us. Unfortunately, it is an addiction and so simply quitting isn’t as much of an option as some think it is. If you are trying to quit, there are numbers you can call or programs you can work with to help you along. We highly recommend you trying to quit. Now what do you do with your smoke break time? Instead of having a cigarette, try standing outside and simply breathing the fresh air. Perhaps take a walk around the block if possible and safe. If you are already working to quit or have quit, good for you! We are proud of your hard work!

  2. Stretch. Even if you sit at a desk all day, there are some things you can do to help keep yourself in shape. Leg exercises such as raising and holding them for a certain amount of time can help. If you are on the phone often, you can stand and do certain exercises as well. This may include standing on your toes for a short time and lowering back to your heels again. Find a couple of stretches that work for you and your location while you are working.

  3. Workplace Wellness Groups. Some of us don’t really want to have groups of people all working out together, and that’s fine. Just because you have a group at work doesn’t mean you have to work together. Perhaps have small contests throughout the month either in a group or just individuals as to who works out the most. For example, most of us have pedometers on our phones, or can easily get them. Maybe offer a free lunch for whoever walks the most in a month.

There are hundreds of ways to keep yourself healthy at work. These are only a few. Find what works best for your work environment and stick to it. Come on in and tell us here at Dibella Chiropractic what you find most effective.

Exercise Pain Relief

Exercise Pain Relief

Now that we are in a new year, many of us have taken to hitting the gym. New year, new me, right? Quite a few of the members of my family have done so and boy am I hearing about it on Facebook! Now don’t get me wrong, I love seeing that so many of my loved ones are attempting to get healthier. I think it’s wonderful and wish I could join them. However, I am also seeing with every post they make how much they’re hurting from their new exercise regimens. Believe me, that I do not envy them.

If you are finding yourself in quite a bit of pain due to gym activity, remember rice. Now while rice may be yummy, I don’t mean to eat. As an acronym, it is a quick way to remember how to help minor aches and pains, such as those you may feel from pushing yourself a little too hard on that bench press. It also works very well in an old (clean!) sock if you put uncooked rice in the microwave to make a hot pack. The acronym is as follows:

R Rest. You need to let your body recuperate before plunging back into working out. This is why many people have “leg day” and “arm day”. It’s a chance to let other body parts rest.

I Ice. Any swelling that you may have should be iced to bring down the inflammation.

C Compress. If there is a great deal of swelling or pain, you may want to use an ace bandage or a brace to bring down the inflammation.

E Elevate. If there is a certain part of the body that hurts and is swollen, by elevating the area you can reduce the amount of blood flow and therefore bring down the swelling. It’s good to do this while you watch an episode of your favorite show on Netflix as a reward for working so hard.

The other wonderful thing you can do to help relieve your pain is come on into DiBella Chiropractic! We specialize in pain relief with no needles or pills. We use good, old-fashioned joint cracking to help release those air pockets that might be causing you discomfort. We can also help to get you on a good exercise program and the right food. We love to help, so come in and let us do what we do best!

Slip and Fall

Slip and Fall

Falling is never fun. If it is a controlled and safe fall, such as one at an amusement park while you have safety gear on it may be better, but falling accidentally is a totally different story. It can happen to anyone and at any time. While some people may be at a higher risk of falling, a simple dizzy spell due to a blood pressure drop can make anyone fall without a single warning.

Slipping is another problem that can happen to anyone. When something is wet or your shoes don’t have a good grip it becomes all too easy to slip and fall. Like a dizzy spell, it can happen to anyone and often doesn’t have a warning. Although those “Wet Floor” signs can help, they often aren’t placed until after someone has already fallen.

Falling often can cause damage even if you’ve only fallen from standing up. Imagine then falling from a height. This can also happen to anyone. Perhaps you’ve fallen down the steps in your house or into a hole that you didn’t happen to see before you stepped ahead. Falls, although common, are one of the biggest reasons for the body becoming hurt. While sometimes these falls result in something fractured or broken, other times they result in pain for some invisible reason. Sometimes a nerve has been pinched, other times a disk in the spine has been damaged, or possibly some muscles were pulled by you trying to stop your fall. Whatever the reason, these falls are never fun. The aftermath is even less fun and unfortunately the pain is more often than not a factor of trying to heal after the fall. How are you supposed to help yourself get better when you don’t even know exactly what is wrong?

Chiropractic care is one of the first things that you can and should try. If the fall damaged something in your musculoskeletal system, a chiropractic adjustment can be just what the doctor ordered- literally! Getting an adjustment can pop everything back into alignment and fix your back if you have suffered a fall. Chiropractors are specially trained in how to realign the skeleton inside your body which can help to relieve the pain from your unfortunate run-in with gravity. Call today and see if DiBella Chiropractic can help you live pain free.

Winter Slip and Falls

Winter Slip and Falls

The winter season always conjures up images of beautiful snow falls, twinkling lights, and couples ice skating on a lake. While many of these pictures seem lovely and romantic, there is a darker and not so happy side to these things. By darker, I mean the shades of black, blue, and purple that you end up with if you fall during those ice skating adventures. It doesn’t even take skating for it to happen. I don’t know about you, but I have never gone ice skating and have certainly ended up on my butt from patches of ice. Sure, some of them may have been my own fault, but that doesn’t make the impact, or the bruising, hurt any less.

Falling on ice is almost always a painful event. While some are obviously worse than others, I have never seen someone fall because of ice and gotten up only to purposefully do it again. Even those of us, myself included, who have the tendency to laugh when we get hurt don’t enjoy the sensation of falling or the pain that results despite what many people think.

Falling during the winter is naturally a lot more common than other times of the year. Even if you don’t see any ice, you may still be in danger from slippery conditions. Do you know those videos of people driving and sliding around on snow? That isn’t something that only happens to cars. Humans are just as susceptible to the snowy slide, especially if you don’t have proper footwear.

Making sure that you have appropriate shoes for the winter is as important as making sure you have good tires on your car. Make sure that you have good treads and soles and be sure that if you have on winter boots that lace up, they are laced tightly. This can help prevent your ankle moving the wrong way if you slip or fall. Never run if there is ice on the ground and always be sure to alert others if possible to patches of it.

If you do end up falling during the winter, always be sure to get checked by a doctor. Come on into DiBella Chiropractic and let us help relieve some of your pain. Although we can’t do much about bruises, we can help to make sure your joints and muscles recover quickly. Be careful out there!

Adding Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy to Standard Medical Care

Adding Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy to Standard Medical Care

In 2013, a study was done among 91 military personnel with lower back pain. While they all received basic and standard medical care in an attempt to treat their pain, half also received chiropractic care in addition. According to the study, 73 percent of those who received chiropractic care experienced moderate to substantial pain relief. This is compared to only 17 percent of those who experienced the same relief while receiving only standard medical care. They also received lower disability scores when assessed again by a doctor.

This study in the journal Spine is called “Adding chiropractic manipulative therapy to standard medical care for patients with acute low back pain: Results from a pragmatic randomized comparative effectiveness study” and was written by Dr. Goertz in 2013. It was a randomized controlled trial and all of the patients were 18 to 35 years of age. The abstract of the study makes no mention if the study was done only on males or on both genders, however the conclusion does state that the study shows chiropractic care can improve the health of those suffering from lower back pain in that age range and the difference was shown in men and women.

This study, unlike the last one highlighted in this blog, used not only the number system (one out of ten how bad is your pain), but also the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire after four weeks of treatment and therapy. The participants were screened first and were only included if they were active duty military, had been dealing with lower back pain for less than four weeks, and were excluded for things like leaving the base or being relocated within six weeks or if they were pregnant.

The patients who received chiropractic care as well as standard medical care were scheduled for up to two appointments a week with the chiropractor and were evaluated before the study with a physical exam, an exam of medical history, and any medical imaging the doctor deemed necessary. Some patients were also prescribed brief and minor massage therapy and stretching exercises for the affected area. Some also used ice and/or heat to relieve severe pain in the lower back.

For the most part, this study has shown that chiropractic care does help those dealing with back pain. If you’d like to come in and see for yourself, come on over to DiBella Chiropractic and make an informed decision.

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