Cocoa Beach Chiropractic Orthopedist

Low back pain (LBP) is VERY likely to affect all of us at some point in life. The question is, do you control IT or does IT control you? Here are ten “tricks” for staying in control of “IT!” 1)  STRETCH : When you’re in one position for a long time (like sitting at your desk), SET your cell phone timer to remind yourself to get moving and stretch every 30-60 minutes! Mornings are a great time to stretch. 2)  BE SMART : Do NOT place your computer monitor anywhere other than directly in front of you. Shop carefully for a GOOD supportive office chair that is comfortable and a good fit. 3)  POSTURE : For sitting, sit as upright as comfortably possible keeping your chin tucked in so the head stays back over the shoulders. 4)  SHOE WEAR : Avoid wearing heels greater than one inch high (2.54 cm). A supportive shoe that can be worn COMFORTABLY for several hours is ideal! Generally, the “skimpier” the shoe, the worse the support, so don’t “skimp” on shoe ...

For patients with chronic low back pain (cLBP), treatment guidelines recommend a non-surgical approach as the FIRST-LINE treatment. Ideally, the goal would be to avoid an initial surgery unless it’s absolutely indicated. That means, unless there is loss of bowel or bladder control or retention (which represents a medical emergency) or if there is progressive neurological motor and sensory loss, one can safely avoid surgery and conservatively manage the condition. Interestingly enough, a systematic review of the results from three randomized controlled studies carried out in Norway and the United Kingdom found the outcomes or results between the surgical fusion vs. non-surgical treatment of patients with cLBP showed NO DIFFERENCE at an 11-year follow-up! Studies have shown chiropractic to be highly beneficial for acute and chronic low back pain cases. In one study, researchers reviewed data on 72,326 cLBP patients in the Medicare system who received one of four possible trea...

Whiplash and headaches are a very common duo that frequently occur after motor vehicle collisions. The good news is that most headaches that arise immediately following a head injury (or shortly thereafter) usually improve after minutes or days. But unfortunately for some, these headaches may persist over the longer term and even become a permanent part of life. Researchers use the terms “post-traumatic” and “post-concussive” headache to describe long-term, intractable headaches associated with trauma. Given the back-and-forth, to-and-fro (and every combination in between) mechanism of injury in car crashes, it’s easy to understand why headaches develop. What isn’t so easy to appreciate is why most clear out while others don’t and become chronic. Mild brain injuries are essentially a concussion (also referred to as mild traumatic brain injury or mTBI). This is usually a brief disturbance of brain function causing loss of consciousness or transient difficulty in thought proc...

Similar to back pain, neck pain affects almost all of us at some point in life, and the severity can range from a mild stiffness to complete incapacitation. Chiropractic care offers a non-drug, non-surgical method of treatment that MANY neck pain sufferers utilize and benefit from. The following is a description of what you can expect when treated with an evidence-based chiropractic approach. Let’s first discuss the different types of neck pain. One classification system divides neck pain into two main groups: acute and chronic. In the acute group, there is an onset of pain that comes on quickly and resolves in less than three months. Chronic neck pain represents the patients who continue to have neck pain longer than three months. Studies show that patients experience immediate benefits—including pain reduction and mobility/range of motion (ROM) improvement—following cervical spinal manipulation, especially when administered on the same side as the neck pain. Short and...

  By To Your Health.com Neck pain can be acute (short term) or chronic (recurring or persisting for months and even years), but regardless, when you're in pain, relief is the first thing on your mind. Just as important as relief, of course, is finding the cause and ensuring you avoid the behavior / action that brought the pain on in the first place. Here are five common causes of neck pain – and why doctors of chiropractic are well-suited to relieve the pain  and  determine the underlying cause.  1. Poor Posture:  Leaning over a desk all day or slouching in your office chair? You're bound to develop neck pain eventually, if you haven't already. Do this quick test: In an upright or seated position, round your shoulders and back (poor posture). Does it impact your neck as well? Exactly! 2. Monitor Madness : Staring at the computer screen for hours at a time? That's not good for your health (or sanity), but from a neck pain perspective, it's madne...

According to the National Institutes of Health, circadian rhythms include physical, mental, and behavioral changes that roughly follow a 24-hour cycle, responding largely to environmental light and darkness. Most living things possess this trait including animals, plants, and many microbes. So how does this relate to low back pain? Recent studies reveal that the intervertebral disk (IVD)—the “shock-absorbers” located between our vertebrae in our spine—contain intrinsic circadian clocks that are regulated by age and cytokines and are linked to degeneration. This means we have a 24-hour rhythm producing various changes in an organized way throughout the day in each of the disks in our spine! Researchers have found at least 600 genes with 24-hour patterns of expression representing several essential pathways associated with disk pathology. In experiments on mice, scientists have observed that when the normal expression of these genes is disrupted, disk degeneration may occur....