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Healthy Living

What does the spine have to do with health?

The spine is a strong, flexible set of bones called vertebrae. It protects the spinal cord, which runs through the center of every vertebra. The spinal cord carries information from the brain to all muscles, organs, and tissues of the body. Through each level of the spine, nerves branch out from the cord like vines, sending and receiving vital information to the body. If spinal bones are slightly misaligned, it can cause inflammation in joints, which affect the way nerves carry important messages to and from the brain.

What happens when there are spinal misalignments?
Chiropractors refer to a spinal bone misalignment as a “subluxation.” Car accidents, sports injuries, slips and falls, sleeping on your stomach, repetitive strain injuries, stress, and postural distortion can cause vertebrae to move away from their ideal alignment. A subluxation can cause pain because when bones move the wrong way, the resulting irritation and swelling can impinge on nerves around the spine.

Many conditions can arise due to subluxations. A person might feel pain, inflammation, or other problems in the area of subluxation, but sometimes health issues can occur far from that site. Examples are digestive problems, chest congestion, colds, carpal tunnel syndrome, sinus issues, and more. However, since the nervous system controls everything in the body, including the way we fight sickness and disease, digestion, breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, etc., when spinal nerves work optimally, we do not experience sickness, pain or other symptoms. While Doctors of Chiropractic are interested in your symptoms to better understand your health issues, they do not address symptoms directly. Chiropractors are trained to remove nervous system interference, allowing the body to heal itself naturally.

Chiropractic is widely recognized as one of the safest healthcare options available to affect a variety of health conditions using natural, drug-free means. In addition to the safety of chiropractic, spinal adjustments are incredibly effective, often helping patients get back on their feet faster than other forms of health care.

Research Ongoing
A March 2004 study in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT) found that chiropractic care is more effective than medical care at treating chronic low-back pain in those patients who have been experiencing the symptoms for one year or less. In addition, a study published in the July 15, 2003, edition of the journal Spine found that adjustments provide better short-term relief of chronic spinal pain than a variety of medications. Canadian journal Military Medicine reported in 2007 that out of 102 military personnel referred for chiropractic services, 94% were satisfied with their care, and 80% of referring physicians were equally satisfied.

Your chiropractor will usually be able to tell whether or not his or her services will be of help in your case after discussing your health history and conducting a comprehensive examination. When you go to the chiropractor, ask questions so you can fully understand your condition, how to improve it, and ways to prevent future problems.


The Key to Playing Better Music
How structure and body function can improve your musical performance

Playing a musical instrument can be one of the most rewarding and entertaining endeavors. Whether you are part of a band, an orchestra member, or a professional performer, your body feels the physical challenges of your trade. Playing music can interfere with your daily life when it causes neck, shoulder, elbow and wrist problems, mid and lower back pain, and more.

Every instrument sounds distinct, and each requires a specific playing position that affects the body uniquely. Drummers, for instance, may suffer from shoulder, wrist, elbow, upper back and lower back dysfunction. A violin player commonly feels neck, shoulder, and arm problems, often accompanied by numbness and tingling with extended play. Other instruments produce unique and subtle changes to health that one might not expect.

Anatomy of the musician
Not only is the musician’s brain distinct from others, you are prone to different physical stresses than your non-musical counterparts. Musicians are not necessarily worse off than those who don’t play an instrument, but due to prolonged physical stress caused by repetitive motions and positions, your spine and extremities have greater stress placed upon them. Your body will respond differently from other musicians based on your personal health history, genetics, lifestyle, and other factors. To understand how you are affected by your hobby/profession, consider your anatomy.

The spinal column is the protective covering around the spinal cord, which is an extension of the brain. The spinal cord travels down to the low back, and at each level of the spine, pairs of nerves branch from the cord to control different body functions, muscles, and organs. Nothing can occur in the body without nervous system function; any alteration of the flow of nerve communication can affect your health and wellness.

Your head is roughly 12 pounds. The spine and surrounding muscles support your head and work to keep it aligned properly over the shoulders and in line with the hips. Any prolonged variation of this posture can alter muscle function, your center of gravity, and nerve activity. For every inch forward of head position, it acts as if there is an extra 10 pounds of head weight. Imagine someone with a 2” forward head carriage (a common phenomenon currently). That is equivalent to a 32-pound head they must support! This causes muscle spasm, pain, headaches, and general cranky behavior. When you have improper posture and joints are stressed from recurring positional injuries, repetitive stress/strain injuries, or ergonomic challenges, your musical ability and health is compromised.

There’s no way you can give up music, so what to do?
There is an alternative – chiropractic care. Whether you play woodwinds, strings, a drum kit, or the triangle, there are natural ways of dealing with chronic problems resulting from your instrument. Most musicians note a higher level of health and wellbeing with regular chiropractic care, but they also report improved musical performance.

What do chiropractors do?
The goal of chiropractic is to insure your optimal health throughout your musical career and beyond. The chiropractic profession seeks to find and correct spinal and extremity subluxations. More simply, Doctors of Chiropractic are trained to detect and reduce the effects of misaligned joints of the body that hinder your performance, whether it is your musical performance or that of your body systems. There are many methods of finding and fixing your subluxations- some chiropractors use specific computerized testing to assess your range of motion, muscle activity, and other parameters. Some chiropractors use instruments and/or hands to adjust and correct problems in your spine and extremities. Whatever the technique, the goal is the same: restore proper alignment and thereby improve function of the muscles and nervous system.

The body is a dynamic and complicated machine. Take care of it well and it will, in most cases, heal itself and thrive. If you wait too long to address your problems, it will take more time to mend. Your chiropractor can evaluate your spine and body to see how s/he can help you achieve your health goals.

Common problems in musicians:
• Wrist issues (Carpal Tunnel symptoms: wrist pain, tingling, numbness; loss of normal motion, pain)
• Forearm, elbow, and shoulder dysfunction
• Neck, upper and lower back pain and tightness
• Headaches
• Postural distortion


What to do about Headaches?

Nine out of ten Americans suffer from headaches. There are several variations—occasional, frequent, dull, throbbing, sharp, shooting, and more. Some cause nausea and light sensitivity.

What do you do when you suffer from a pounding headache? Pop a pill and hope the pain goes away? Studies show a better alternative. Spinal adjusting – the primary form of care provided by Doctors of Chiropractic – can be an effective treatment for tension headaches head pain that originates in the neck. A report released in 2001 by researchers at the Duke University Evidence-Based Practice Center in Durham, NC, found that spinal adjusting resulted in almost immediate improvement for those headaches that originate in the neck, and had significantly fewer side effects and longer-lasting relief than medication. Also, a 1995 study in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT) found that spinal adjusting is an effective treatment for tension headaches.

Headache Triggers
Headaches have many “triggers.” These may include stress, foods, environmental causes like noise, light, and air quality, or behaviors such as over-exercising, rapid blood sugar changes, and eyestrain. About 5 percent of all headaches are warning signals caused by physical problems.

Ninety-five percent of headaches, such as tension, migraine, or cluster headaches, are the primary problem. These types of headaches are not caused by disease. “The greatest majority of primary headaches are associated with muscle tension in the neck,” says Dr. George B. McClelland, a Doctor of Chiropractic from Christiansburg, VA. “Today, Americans engage in more sedentary activities than they used to, and more hours are spent in one fixed position or posture. This can increase joint irritation and muscle tension in the neck, upper back and scalp, causing your head to ache.”

What Can You Do?
• If you spend a large amount of time in one fixed position, such as in front of a computer, on a sewing machine, typing or reading, take a break and stretch every 30 minutes. The stretches should take your head and neck through a comfortable range of motion.
• Low-impact exercise may help relieve the pain associated with primary headaches. However, if you are prone to dull, throbbing headaches, avoid heavy exercise. Engage in such activities as walking and low-impact aerobics.
• Avoid teeth clenching. The upper teeth should never touch the lowers, except when swallowing. Clenching results in stress of the temporomandibular joints (TMJ) – those that connect your jaw to your skull – leading to jaw irritation and tension headaches.
• Drink at least ½ your body weight in ounces of water a day to help avoid dehydration. Lack of proper water intake is a direct cause of headaches.

What Can a Doctor of Chiropractic Do?
Your Doctor of chiropractic may do one or more of the following if you suffer from a primary headache:
• Perform chiropractic adjustments to improve spinal function and relieve the stress on your nerve system.
• Provide nutritional advice, recommending diet changes and the addition of whole food supplements.
• Offer advice on posture, ergonomics (work postures), exercises and relaxation techniques.