OK everyone I have eliminated all your excuses for not putting ice on your back. When most of my patients leave my office I tell them to put ice on their low back, especially if it is an SI injury. I think my all-time favorite excuse when I see the patient the next time is they didn’t have an ice pack. They had ice, a plastic bag, frozen vegetables, that left over blue thing from getting something frozen in the mail… but no official ice pack. Your Chiropractor in the Woodbridge, Dale City VA area has the recipe to make your own official ice pack!
So no more excuses about not being able to ice! Plus the more you ice the quicker that SI complaint will improve.
I know it doesn’t seem it with the weather right now but snow is coming. Snow shoveling can be very dangerous. The elements alone can be a problem not to mention you will at some point be trying to stand on ice. Back safety is very important but all around safety needs to be considered. Your Woodbridge, Dale City VA Chiropractor has some shoveling safety tips for you.
Stay on top of the snow. No we aren’t suggesting that you make snow angels but when there’s a heavy snow, the best advice is to stay ahead of the storm. SIMA recommends that to prevent snow and ice from adhering to the sidewalk or street, clear the snow every few inches instead of waiting for the snow to stop falling before you head outdoors.
Wear breathable layers. Layering is typical cold winter weather advice. We suggest wearing layers of loose clothing so you can peal a layer off if you get hot. Avoid wearing heavy wools, manmade materials or other materials that don’t allow perspiration to evaporate. Better choices are cotton and silk.
Watch your feet. No you aren’t on Dancing with the Stars, but nonetheless, you need to pay attention to what’s on your feet when heading outdoors to shovel snow. SIMA suggests wearing quality outdoor winter wear such as waterproof boots with good traction. Good traction is critical to ensuring that you don’t slip and fall.
Take a few minutes to stretch. Shoveling snow is a workout so you need to stretch to warm up your muscles particularly because you are shoveling snow in the cold weather. Stretching before you start shoveling will help prevent injury and fatigue.
Push don’t lift. Sounds like something a high school wrestling coach may say but if you push the snow to the side rather than trying to lift the snow to remove it, you exert less energy thereby placing less stress on your body.
Drink up! Water that is. SIMA recommends taking frequent breaks and staying hydrated. You should drink water as if you were enduring a tough workout at the gym or running five miles.
Don’t play in traffic. Sometimes people get so focused on the task at hand they don’t pay attention to their surroundings. When shoveling snow near streets, pay attention to the traffic since vehicles may not have good traction in the snow and ice.
Call and text. We’re not suggesting that you make calls and text while shoveling snow, but it is important to have your cell phone on you so you can make a call in event of an emergency.
Runners can be the worst patients at my Woodbridge, Dale City VA chiropractic office. By that I mean the first words out of their mouths at the end of treatment is can, I run later today! Than by next visit I will ask how are things going? That gets; well it was good than I did a short run and it is sore again. That tennis match continues until they finally give in and rest it for a few days so it can heal. That being said they are my favorite patients because they will do whatever homework they are given! So, for all of you who are going to run regardless of what I say here are some winter tips.
What Should I Wear?
It’s important to have the proper equipment for winter running. Everything from your head to your feet should be covered in some kind of moisture-wicking fabric. This is not the time to wear your cotton hoodie and wool gloves. You need fabrics that are going to wick away moisture from your body.
Cotton and other similar materials don’t evaporate your sweat fast enough. If you wear too much cotton while running, your clothing can become cold and wet. This is a great way to get hypothermia.
Here is a comprehensive list of all the clothing you’ll need to brave the weather outdoors.
Baselayer
Merino wool wicks moisture the best and stays the warmest. Buy several. Look into buying at least one synthetic layer with a hood.
Jacket
This should not be confused with a winter coat. Your jacket should be a wind and water resistant shell coat with a little bit of lining to keep you warm. When you’re running—except in extremely cold temperatures—heavy winter coats are unnecessarily warm and bulky. Your core can generate more than enough warmth to keep you toasty with just a baselayer and shell in most weather.
Running Tights
This is winter running’s greatest invention. Learn to love them. Tights are the single most versatile piece of clothing in your winter running arsenal. They are thin enough to keep you cool in the fall, but tight enough to keep you warm in the winter. This is due to the magic of compression. Compression means more blood flow in the thighs. The result is warmth.
Wind-Resistant Pants
There are some situations where running tights alone won’t cut it. When it’s really cold, or really windy, wearing tights can feel like you’re wearing fish nets. You may want a pair of winter running pants to go over your tights. You can also wear them with long underwear.
You can’t really tell by the weather but it is Holiday season. We all know football season, summer sports season and yardwork season…. but shopping season. That’s right it sounds boring (maybe because I am a guy) but shopping can be as strenuous as any other activity. Your Woodbridge, Dale City VA Chiropractor wants to provide you with some tips that may help.
The holidays seem to come earlier and earlier every year — and along with them, the stresses and strains of frenzied holiday shopping. Take a stroll through your local mall, and you’ll already see symbols of the approaching holiday season — from Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations to notices of blowout sales. As your muscles tense with each passing day, the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) asks, “Are you ready for the holiday shopping challenge?”
“Our bodies have the capacity to do a little more than we normally do,” says Dr. Scott Bautch, past president of the ACA’s Council on Occupational Health. “But our bodies do not adapt very well to doing a lot more than we normally do. Since the added demands of this season can stress the capacity of our bodies, we need to do everything we can to help ourselves. Eat right, drink plenty of water, stretch, exercise and take a few minutes to slow down and reflect on what the season is all about.”
So relax and enjoy the holidays! Dr. Bautch and the ACA encourage you to consider the following tips to help keep you and your loved ones healthy, happy and safe this season.
Treat Holiday Shopping As An Athletic Event
Stay hydrated! Drink eight to ten 8-ounce glasses of water a day. (Coffee, tea, soft drinks and alcohol are dehydrators. Don’t substitute them for water.) On shopping days, you may need to drink even more water.
Be sure to stretch before and after a long day of shopping. When you are stressed-out, your muscles are less flexible than usual.
Wear shoes with plenty of cushioning in the soles to absorb the impact of walking on those hard shopping mall floors.
Make sure your clothing is as comfortable as possible. It’s a good idea to wear layers, because you may be going from a cold environment (outdoors) to a warm environment (indoors).
Leave your purse at home. Wear a light fanny pack, or if necessary, a light backpack instead. Pack only those items that are absolutely essential (driver’s license, credit card, etc.).
If you start to feel some pain, nip it in the bud. Apply an ice bag to the affected area for 20 minutes, then take it off for a couple of hours. Repeat a couple of times each day over the next day or two.
“During the holiday season, we’re running at absolute maximum capacity, which can lead to stress and even depression,” says Dr. Bautch. “We need to stretch and stay hydrated to increase our capacity, so we are not overwhelmed by the activities of the season.”
Plan Frequent Breaks Into Your Shopping Day
During a day of heavy shopping, most people should take a break every 45 minutes. Those with less stamina may even need to take breaks more frequently.
If possible, obtain a locker. Lockers can help cut down dramatically on how much you have to carry around. You can take a load off by scheduling trips to your locker into your breaks.
If your mall or shopping center doesn’t offer lockers, try to plan trips to your car. Don’t carry around more than is absolutely necessary at one time.
When taking breaks, try to eat light foods. A salad and some fruit is a much better option than a burger and fries.
Skip the coffee break! Coffee and sodas contain caffeine and sugar, which add even more stress to your body. Pass on the designer coffee at the java stand and keep drinking water.
“We actually need to eat better than normal during the holiday season,” explains Dr. Bautch. “On average, people gain five to six pounds during the holidays. And heart attacks occur more often during the holidays as well. Eating a heavy meal and then running out on an exhausting shopping trip can be very dangerous.”
Shopping With Children
If at all possible, DO NOT bring children along on a holiday shopping trip. Most children simply do not have the stamina for such an event, and you and your child will only become frustrated with one another. Don’t add this type of stress to an already stressful situation.
Try to split “child duty” up with a spouse or another parent. They’ll watch your kids while you shop, and vice-versa.
“Shopping with children is just a bad idea,” says Dr. Bautch. “If your hands are loaded with shopping bags, you may not be able to hold your child’s hand, which could increase the chances he or she might wander away from you. Take whatever steps necessary to not have to bring your child along.”
Wrapping Your Gifts
Since there is no “ideal” position for wrapping gifts, the most important thing to remember is to vary your positions. For example, try standing at a table or countertop for one package, sitting on a bed for another, sitting in a comfortable chair for another, etc.
Do not wrap packages while sitting on the floor. Wrapping packages while sitting on a hard floor can wreak havoc on your posture, and should be avoided.
Always stretch before and after you wrap gifts.
“When wrapping presents, it’s a good idea to ‘stretch the opposites,'” says Dr. Bautch. “In other words, if you are leaning forward when wrapping your gifts, stretch backward when you are done.”
Chiropractic Care Can Help
If you experience pain or discomfort as a result of holiday shopping, consider a visit to your doctor of chiropractic. Your doctor of chiropractic can help alleviate your pain naturally, so you can enjoy the holiday season as it was meant to be.
There are several types of low back injuries. One of the most common that I see in my Woodbridge, Dale City VA chiropractic office is SI pain. This is the low back pain people get across the pant line and it is usually worse on one side. It makes getting out of a chair and long car rides a nightmare. The good thing is there are no discs in the area so it usually isn’t a surgical injury.
Pain in and around the sacroiliac joint is one of the more common causes of low-back pain. With approximately 80 percent of the population suffering from low-back pain at some point in their lives, the sacroiliac joint dysfunction likely represents about 15-25 percent of those cases.
The following points will help you educate your patients about the sacroiliac joint dysfunction.
What Is Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction?
Sacroiliac joint dysfunction (SJD) is a broad term often applied to pain in the sacroiliac joint region—the largest joints at the base of the spine.
SJD can be painful and debilitating, but it is rarely life-threatening.
SJD rarely requires invasive types of treatment such as surgery.
Symptoms and Causes
SJD symptoms include low-back pain, typically at the belt line, and pain radiating into the buttock or thigh.
These symptoms are hard to distinguish from other causes of low-back pain, such as disc herniations or facet joints disease.
Most often, SJD is caused by trauma. For example, rotation of the joint when lifting or participating in some vigorous activity may cause tears in small ligaments surrounding the joint, resulting in pain and dysfunction.
While more serious conditions such as fracture or dislocation, infection and inflammatory arthritis can cause sacroiliac joint pain, minor trauma is considered a much more common cause.
The risk of SJD may also increase with true and apparent leg-length inequality, abnormalities in gait and prolonged exercise.
Pregnant women may suffer from SJD because of hormone-induced relaxation of the pelvic ligaments during the third trimester, weight gain and increased curvature of the lumbar spine.
Evaluation
Because SJD pain resembles other types of low-back pain, it is often difficult to isolate it as the actual cause of the patient’s discomfort and disability.
Diagnostic imaging procedures, such as X-ray or MRI, aren’t very helpful in evaluating SJD.
The mostcommonly used diagnostic procedures are physical examination and anesthetic blocks of the sacroiliac joint.
Physical examination involves stressing the joint in various body positions and movements.
During anesthetic blocks, a procedure with unproven validity for SJD diagnosis, the anesthetic solution often creeps outside the sacroiliac joint and may relieve pain from other structures.
Treatment
Because it is often difficult to isolate SJD as the source of pain, an appropriate management strategy is hard to implement. Once SJD is determined as the cause of the problem, many therapies are available.
Chiropractic manipulation and mobilization of the sacroiliac joint has been shown to be beneficial.
Exercise focusing on strengthening the core stabilizer muscles of the spine and trunk and on maintaining mobility of the sacroiliac joints can also be helpful.
Patients with a leg-length inequality may benefit from a shoe inserts helping to properly distribute weight borne by your lower back and sacroiliac joints.
For those with abnormal gait biomechanics, gait training may be needed.
To reduce the excess rotation that sometimes occurs with SJD, a pelvic belt can help stabilize the sacroiliac joints.
In cases of fractures and dislocations of the sacroiliac joints, surgery is needed.
Prevention
Use proper lifting techniques and ergonomics during your daily activities.
Maintain a regular exercise program and a healthy diet to help you function at peak capacity and prevent injuries
I usually try to get the patients in my Woodbridge, Dale City VA chiropractic office to start some type of exercise program. Exercise is very important to keep the muscles supporting your back strong. The routine doesn’t have to be crazy intense but it does involve getting out of your office chair. The most important and often overlooked aspect of any routine is warming up. Most of us go, ok I will do 45 minutes of exercise… than just start. But to avoid injury you have to give yourself time to warm up before beginning the 45 minutes. So yes give yourselves an hour!
Whether your workout plan is a bodyweight routine in the park or a 5K, warming up should be the first thing on the to-do list (after that pre-workout snack). But what’s the ideal way to warm up? Experts agree a warm-up should heat and loosen the body, and prepare the mind for action. But there are a few moves you should avoid too.
The Need-to-Know
When it comes to strength training and a variety of sports, coaches often think of their warm-ups as training preparation—using techniques such as foam rolling and movement practice to get the gears aligned.
We perform optimally and better avoid injury after a warm-up that does what its name promises: warm us up. And while a marathoner doesn’t warm up like a powerlifter (the same way an opera singer doesn’t warm up like a modern dancer), there could be some similarities.
For endurance or cardio routines, research shows a dynamic approach, including dynamic stretching—active range of motion movements that tend to be similar to what you’ll do in your workout, can improve performance. Some experts even suggest performing a few short intervals of the planned exercise at a lower intensity (for example: brisk walking before running, or bodyweight squats before adding weight).
As for static stretching, leave it for the cool-down. Numerous studies have shown that it can hinder performance and increase the risk of injury.
Your Action Plan
Every warm-up will be different, depending on your fitness level and the goal of your workout. But as a jumping off point, start with these four basic goals for every warm-up, as outlined by the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
Loosen up.
Warm your joints, muscles, and prep your body for exercise with mobility movements. If you’ve got one, now is also a great time for foam rolling. Start by rolling your back, then hit every section of the legs, glutes, and hip flexors.
Get your heart pumping.
Increased heart thumping warms up your muscles and switches on your nervous system. Jog, slowly row, or ride a bike on low resistance. Just be sure you’re able to converse with your workout buddy (or sing along to your Spotify playlist).
Do some dynamic stretches.
Stretch your warm muscles, but don’t hold it. Remember: Static stretching during a warm-up can actually hinder your performance. Instead, do dynamic stretching, which involves continuously moving through a range of motion. For instance, you can make big arm circles in both directions, kick your legs forward, or simply touch your toes and then reach for the sky. The key is to not hold in any position.
Practice.
Move through the exercises planned for that day’s workout at a lower intensity. Have a long, hard run ahead? Warm up with a few technique drills. Back squats? Start with bodyweight squats or by holding an empty bar. Practicing the movement patterns teaches muscle memory (a.k.a. neuromuscular adaptation) and continues to prepare your body for action.
Find an enjoyable warm-up and remember to listen to your body’s cues. Your warm-up should not fatigue you. After all, it’s only one aspect of the workout. And don’t forget to cool down at the end.
I get asked about diets and healthy eating all the time in my Woodbridge, Dale City VA Chiropractic office. Seems like this time of year everyone is trying to diet or worried about breaking their diet due to the holidays. Making the right choices with what we eat is tough enough with all our busy schedules. I try to encourage my patients to make small changes in their diets rather than one huge drastic one. Lunch seems to be the easy one to change. It is usually done on the fly so bringing a healthy lunch can help improve your daily food intake. Here is some pretty good advice on making the correct food choices.
Healthy Dietary Choices
Eat more raw foods. Cooking and canning destroys much of the nutrition in foods. With the exception of canned tomatoes, which have been shown to help prevent prostate cancer, fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables generally have more natural vitamins and minerals.
Select organically grown foods when possible, because they have lower amounts of toxic elements, such as pesticides and heavy metals.
Consume 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day. Whole-grain breads and cereals, beans, nuts and some fruits and vegetables are good sources of fiber. High-fiber diets can help prevent digestive disorders, heart disease and colon cancer.
Eat out more sparingly. Food preparation methods in restaurants often involve high amounts—and the wrong types—of fat and sugar.
Brown-bag your lunch to control your fat and sugar intake while adding nutritious fruits, vegetables and grains.
Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated. Don’t substitute coffee, tea and soft drinks for water.
Limit your intake of alcohol, and quit smoking. Drinking alcohol excessively and/or smoking hinder your body’s ability to absorb nutrients from food.
Vegetarian Diets
Research shows that a good vegetarian diet as part of a comprehensive health program can help prevent heart disease, cancer and other diseases. However, fried foods, hydrogenated fats and commercial meat substitutes may contain more sugar and fat than a meat-eater would consume. If you are considering a vegetarian diet, keep the following tips in mind:
Eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes to consume a wide range of nutrients.
Consume fortified foods or take supplements, such as vitamin B12, to obtain the nutrients you no longer get from animal-based products.
Children, pregnant and breast-feeding women, and people recovering from illness should consult their healthcare practitioners before eliminating animal products from their diet.
Supplements
While dietary supplements are becoming increasingly popular, they are not substitutes for foods, nor can a person sustain good health simply by taking vitamin and mineral supplements. When taken properly, however, supplements can play an important role in achieving maximum health.
Since supplements are just an added source of nutrients, consume dark green vegetables, oils, nuts and seeds, which are sources of magnesium, fatty acids and many other vitamins and minerals.
I have patients that come in concerned because they have been told they have a scoliosis and think it is the cause of their pain. Sometimes it is but more often than not it has nothing to do with it. So for those of you who have one and think you are stuck with back pain, there may be hope. There are also home exercise and in office therapies that can help people who are suffering from pain directly caused by their scoliosis. Your Woodbridge, Dale City VA chiropractor want to help you better understand the diagnosis.
Because we walk on 2 feet, the human nervous system constantly works through reflexes and postural control to keep our spine in a straight line from side to side. Occasionally, a lateral (sideways) curvature develops. If the curvature is larger than 10 degrees, it is called scoliosis. Curves less than 10 degrees are often just postural changes. Scoliosis can also be accompanied by lordosis (abnormal curvature toward the front) or kyphosis (abnormal curvature toward the back). In most cases, the vertebrae are also rotated.
In more than 80% of cases, the cause of scoliotic curvatures is unknown; we call this condition idiopathic scoliosis. In other cases, trauma, neurological disease, tumors, and the like are responsible. Functional scoliosis is often caused by some postural problem, muscle spasm, or leg-length inequality, which can often be addressed. Structural scoliosis does not reduce with postural maneuvers. Either type can be idiopathic or have an underlying cause.
What are the symptoms of scoliosis?
Scoliosis can significantly affect the quality of life by limiting activity, causing pain, reducing lung function, or affecting heart function. Diminished self-esteem and other psychological problems are also seen. Because scoliosis occurs most commonly during adolescence, teens with extreme spinal deviations from the norm are often teased by their peers.
Fortunately, 4 out of 5 people with scoliosis have curves of less than 20 degrees, which are usually not detectable to the untrained eye. These small curves are typically no cause for great concern, provided there are no signs of further progression. In growing children and adolescents, however, mild curvatures can worsen quite rapidly—by 10 degrees or more—in a few months. Therefore, frequent checkups are often necessary for this age group.
How is scoliosis evaluated?
Evaluation begins with a thorough history and physical examination, including postural analysis. If a scoliotic curvature is discovered, a more in-depth evaluation is needed. This might include a search for birth defects, trauma, and other factors that can cause structural curves.
Patients with substantial spinal curvatures very often require an x-ray evaluation of the spine. The procedure helps determine the location and magnitude of the scoliosis, along with an underlying cause not evident on physical examination, other associated curvatures, and the health of other organ systems that might be affected by the scoliosis. In addition, x-rays of the wrist are often performed. These films help determine the skeletal age of the person, to see if it matches an accepted standard, which helps the doctor determine the likelihood of progression. Depending on the scoliosis severity, x-rays may need to be repeated as often as every 3 to 4 months to as little as once every few years.
Other tests, including evaluation by a Scoliometer™, might also be ordered by the doctor. This device measures the size, by angle, of the rib hump associated with the scoliosis. It is non-invasive, painless, and requires no special procedures. A Scoliometer™ is best used as a guide concerning progression in a person with a known scoliosis—not as a screening device.
Is scoliosis always progressive?
Generally, it is not. In fact, the vast majority of scolioses remains mild, is not progressive, and requires little treatment, if any.
In one group of patients, however, scoliosis is often more progressive. This group is made up of young girls who have scolioses of 25 degrees or larger, but who have not yet had their first menstrual period. Girls generally grow quite quickly during the 12 months before their first period and if they have scolioses, the curvatures tend to progress rapidly. In girls who have already had their first periods, the rate of growth is slower, so their curves tend to progress more slowly.
What is the treatment for scoliosis?
There are generally three treatment options for scoliosis—careful observation, bracing, and surgery. Careful observation is the most common “treatment,” as most mild scolioses do not progress and cause few, if any, physical problems. Bracing is generally reserved for children who have not reached skeletal maturity (the time when the skeleton stops growing), and who have curves between 25 and 45 degrees. Surgery is generally used in the few cases where the curves are greater than 45 degrees and progressive, and/or when the scoliosis may affect the function of the heart, lungs, or other vital organs.
Spinal manipulation, therapeutic exercise, and electrical muscle stimulation have also been advocated in the treatment of scoliosis. None of these therapies alone has been shown to consistently reduce scoliosis or to make the curvatures worse. For patients with back pain along with the scoliosis, manipulation and exercise may be of help.
Most people with scoliosis lead normal, happy, and productive lives. Physical activity including exercise is generally well-tolerated and should be encouraged in most cases.
I see tons of patients who have been bounced around for Doctor to Doctor before finally being diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. Some have suffered for years before they finally get diagnosed. And then once they are diagnosed the treatment is sometimes more frustrating than waiting for the diagnosis. There are plenty of treatments out there for people and most don’t involve just taking a pill and hoping for the best. Your Woodbridge, Dale City VAChiropractor wants to help speed you along with the diagnosis.
Fibromyalgia is typically diagnosed in patients with:
Widespread pain in all 4 quadrants of the body for a minimum of 3 months; and
Tenderness or pain in at least 11 tender points when pressure is applied. These tender points cluster around the neck, shoulder, chest, hip, knee, and elbow regions.
Some fibromyalgia experts say, however, that many people may still have fibromyalgia with fewer than 11 tender points if they have widespread pain and several other common symptoms, including:
Fatigue
Sleep disorders
Chronic headaches
Dizziness or lightheadedness
Cognitive or memory impairment
Malaise and muscle pain after exertion
Jaw pain
Morning stiffness
Menstrual cramping
Irritable bowels
Numbness and tingling sensations
Skin and chemical sensitivities
Correct Diagnosis Is Key
Correct diagnosis of fibromyalgia is very elusive, so if you are diagnosed with the disorder—or suspect that you have it—seek the opinion of more than 1 health care provider. Other conditions may create fibromyalgia—like pain, fatigue, and other symptoms. Ruling other conditions out first is very important.
In addition to clinical evaluation that will assess possible causes of your pain, your doctor may need to order blood work to determine if you have:
Anemia
Hypothyroidism
Lyme disease
Other rheumatic diseases
Hormonal imbalances
Allergies and nutritional deficiencies
Disorders that cause pain, fatigue, and other fibromyalgia-like symptoms.
If the tests show that you have 1 of these conditions, treatment will focus on addressing that problem first. If your pain is caused by a muscle or joint condition, chiropractic care may help relieve it more effectively than other therapies.
Treatment Alternatives
If no underlying cause for your symptoms can be identified, you may have classic fibromyalgia. The traditional allopathic approach includes a prescription of prednisone, anti-inflammatory agents, antidepressants, sleep medications, and muscle relaxants. These temporarily relieve the symptoms, but they do produce side effects. If you prefer a natural approach, the following suggestions may be helpful:
Studies have shown that a combination of 300 to 600 mg of magnesium per day, along with malic acid, may significantly reduce may significantly reduce the number of tender points and the pain felt at those that remain. B vitamins may also be helpful.
Eating more omega-3 fatty acids and fewer saturated fats has shown promise in fibromyalgia patients. Limit red meat and saturated fats and increase the amounts of omega-3 fatty acids by including fish, flax, and walnut oils in your diet. Fatty acid deficiencies can interfere with the nervous system and brain function, resulting in depression and poor memory and concentration.
Improving the quality of sleep can help reduce fatigue. Watch your caffeine intake, especially before going to bed. Reduce TV and computer time. If you watch TV in the evening, choose relaxing, funny programs instead of programs with violent or disturbing content. Ask your doctor of chiropractic for other natural ways to help you sleep better.
Stress-managing strategies can also help address anxiety or depression issues. Cognitive therapy has been shown helpful in relieving fibromyalgia patients’ negative emotions and depression by changing their perception of themselves and attitudes toward others.
A traditional gym-based or aerobic exercise program may exacerbate fibromyalgia symptoms and is not recommended. Instead, yoga, Pilates, or tai chi—which offer mild stretching, relaxation, and breathing techniques—may work better than vigorous exercise.
Studies have shown that acupuncture is another effective, conservative approach to treating fibromyalgia symptoms and many doctors of chiropractic offer this service right in their offices.
Chiropractic care has consistently ranked as one of the therapeutic approaches that offer the most relief for the fibromyalgia patient. Your doctor of chiropractic can also include massage therapy, ultrasound and electrical stimulation in the treatment program, which may help relieve stress, pain, and other symptoms.
Your doctor of chiropractic has the knowledge, training, and expertise to help you understand your problem and, in many cases, to manage it successfully. Remember, however, that the treatment program can be successful only with your active participation. If your doctor of chiropractic feels that he or she cannot help you, you will be directed to another health care provider.
