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Gardner Chiropractic

Family and Wellness Center

Text Neck

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Text Neck

We live in a world where we have information that comes to us at the speed of a few buttons. A world of instant gratification. A world where we are looking down all the time. Have you heard of text neck? It is a real thing because we are constantly looking at our smartphones, tablets or even computers in the WRONG position. This can cause headaches, fatigue, tightness and soreness in the neck, shoulders and mid-back pain, problems with sleep, problems with asthma, radiating pain and numbness in the arms, problems with swallowing, and potentially much more.

So what is the cause of this?

Posture changes! When we hold our phones down in front of us it creates less of a curve and puts more pressure on our spines.  Take a look at the pictures below:

When we hold our smartphone. Many of us can have up to a 60 degree curve in our neck from looking down. Our head is normally about the size of a bowling ball. When our posture is not correct, and our head shifts forward, this adds extra weight onto our spine, creating muscles pulled, bones to shift and the nervous system to be irritated.

The first picture depicts your neck in an x-ray and the degrees of spinal degeneration that could be caused because of this constant forward head posture. The picture on the left is what a persons neck should look like. There should be a forward curve with spaces between each disc. As you look from left to right, the x-rays become straighter and more compressed together. Some people that have severe text neck, have a reverse curve, where the curve is going back. In these cases, the people that have this will live in constant dis-ease. Dis-ease (not disease) is the when your body is not in a state of ease. Dis-ease will cause you pain, irritation, dysfunction, inflammation, and chronic fatigue.

When I evaluate someone, I will look at their posture, how they move, how their spine and body feel. Bad posture is one of the most common reasons why someone has neck pain, headaches, muscle tightness in the neck, shoulders and mid-back, or pain and numbness radiating down their arms. The curves in the spine are there for a reason, which is to absorb compression when we move. Much like a spring does. Think of a slinky, when you roll it down stairs, it falls one end over the other. However, when there is a kink in the slinky, it just kind of falls down stairs and doesn’t go end over end like it should. It is the same with your spine! When you have a “kink” in your neck, your spine does not absorb the compression of each step or movement like it should. Since the spine is the housing of the nervous system, this can affect your nervous system because of subluxation.

What is a subluxation? A chiropractic subluxation, simply put, is a bone out of misalignment that causes nerve irritation. It is a joint restriction, that causes reduced mobility, muscles to tighten or stretch, and nerves to stretch. It takes the weight of a dime to cause nerve irritation. When the nerve even gets a little bit of stretch or stress that could be enough to cause numbness, tingling, muscle weakness and pain.

The nervous system is the most important system of the body. It controls every function and action of your body. When the nervous system is unhealthy, the body is unhealthy. The area that is affected most from text neck is the lower cervical spine to the mid-thoracic spine. These areas are responsible for the muscles in your arms, shoulders, back, and inbetween the ribs. These areas also send nerve signals to the heart, lungs, and digestive system.

Chiropractic care helps to reduce nerve irritation and restore balance to the body. With regular chiropractic adjustments the body will have reduced pain, good posture, and reduced muscle tension.

What can you do to help reduce text neck?

There are many things that you can do in your everyday life to reduce text neck.

  1. You want to try to hold any handheld electronics directly in front of your face. Bring your phone to you, not you to the phone!
  2. Take frequent phone/electronic breaks.
  3. Get up and stretch/walk every 30-60 minutes.
  4. Have good ergonomics.
  5. Stretch and exercise! Below are some of my favorites.
  6. Regular chiropractic adjustments!
  7. There are text neck apps that can monitor your posture!

Stretches and exercises for text neck.

  1. Chin tucks
  2. Yoga, especially downward dog, forward bend, cat-cow, bow pose are all great posture poses.
  3. Slowly and gently roll head around.
  4. Pec stretching. This can be done a variety of ways. The easiest to to find a door frame and to put your arm on the door with elbow bent at 90 degrees and your hand pointing up. Then lean into the stretch.                                                                                                          Line drawing of woman standing in doorway doing pectoral stretch exercise. SOURCE: Original art.
  5. Shoulder blade pinches. Pinching your shoulder blades together for a few seconds at a time.

If you have problems because of text neck or your child is starting to have problems, give us a call so we can get you in for an evaluation at 512-387-3308.

Sciatica

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Sciatica

Sciatica can be debilitating pain for anyone that experiences it. Sometimes people can be laid up in bed for days with excruciating pain. When sciatica hits, it can be very hard to do the simplest things.

What is it?

Sciatica is a term to describe irritation to the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve is the longest and widest nerve of the body and it supplies the buttocks, legs and feet. People with sciatica experience sharp, shooting pain starting from the low back or the buttocks and then radiates as far down as the foot. Numbness and tingling, muscle weakness and burning sensations may also be associated.

 

However sciatica is a SYMPTOM and NOT the CAUSE!

There are many things that can cause sciatica. The most common causes include: herniated discs, spinal stenosis, spinal misalignments, degenerative disc disease, spondylolisthesis, and piriformis syndrome. Other causes can be cancer, diabetes or nutritional deficiencies.

How can sciatica be treated?

There are many ways to treat sciatica. What I can do as a chiropractor is to evaluate your condition and figure out the cause of your sciatica. Once I have determined the cause, I can use many methods including regular chiropractic adjustments, trigger point therapy for tight muscles, flexion-distraction (which I will go into more details in a moment), and additional therapies such as electrical stimulation, low level laser therapy, instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization, and taping techniques.

Flexion-distraction is pictured here:

Flexion-distraction allows me to stretch the back, which will loosen up the muscles around the spine and pull the disc material back into the correct position if it is herniated. This technique is gentle and offers substantial relief over a short period of time.

Some interventions from medical doctors could be muscle relaxers, cortisone injections, physical therapy or even surgery.

Choosing chiropractic care for sciatica, usually will result in greater relief of pain, fewer pain days during recovery, quicker return to work and fewer prescriptions needed.

Check out this article from the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open shows that the inclusion of chiropractic care to usual medical care for low back pain produces better results than usual medical care alone.

Do you have sciatica and want to find conservative, natural and non-invasive care? Call me at 512-387-3308 to schedule or you can go here.

Numbness

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Many people experience numbness, whether it is in the hands, arms, legs, feet or even near the spine. When someone experiences numbness, what has usually taken place is damage to the nerve. When a nerve is damaged the first thing that a person will notice will be pain, followed by tingling, then numbness, and finally anesthesia, which is where the person loss of feeling. Many times tingling and numbness may be present together, much like a pin and needles type of feeling, can alternate from one to the other.

Did you know that it takes the weight of a DIME on a nerve to cause nerve irritation and possibly damage?

When a nerve is impinged, either by bones or muscles, the irritation has started. Pain is the first sensation many feel. Usually starting as a dull ache. Then as the person ignores this symptom then the pain starts to become sharper until eventually it will lead to tingling and numbness. For some people this can happen in a matter of weeks but most of the time it will happen over a matter of months or even years.

What can you do if you have an issue with numbness?

  1. Stretch
  2. Light Exercise
  3. Most Importantly Go See the CHIROPRACTOR

Why is going to see the chiropractor the most important?

Chiropractors can get to the root cause of a problem and fix it. Not cover up the symptoms, not delay the symptoms, but actually fix the symptoms.

Whether you suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome, sciatica, tarsal tunnel syndrome, neuralgia, or other issues from numbness, chiropractic can help to reduce symptoms and create alignment and balance back into the body.

If you suffer from numbness, tingling or pain, please give us a call and find out how chiropractic can help you at 512-387-3308.

Migraines

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You probably know someone that suffers with migraines, since 12% of the population, or 39 million people in the U.S., has them. Migraines can be a daily occurrence or only happen once in awhile. They are debilitating and are triggered by many things including: stress, dehydration, hunger, and environmental changes. Some examples of environmental changes include: certain types of lights, some foods like chocolate or caffeine, or air pollutants. Some migraines can even be triggered by fluctuating hormone levels in the body, specifically during certain times during the menstrual cycle or after sex.

There are many degrees to a migraine, however most consist of throbbing pain in the head and sensory sensitivities that can last between 4 and 72 hours.  Some variables of migraines are the location of the pain, visual auras, sound sensitivity, nausea, vomiting, and dizziness.

Migraines can affect people of all ages, from children to the elderly. However, most of the people that have migraines are women.

If you want more information about migraines, please click here.

Chiropractic Care and Migraines

Although there are many causes for migraines, chiropractic care can be very beneficial to those that do suffer from migraines. Having the neck and cranial bones adjusted, can relieve neck tension and allow for proper movement of the cervical vertibrae. Looking at a migraine from a biomechanical standpoint, the migraines are a result of muscle tightness and reduced vertibral motion at the base of the skull and into the neck. Through chiropractic adjustments, we can restore the correct motion and reduce muscle tension. This action will reduce both severity and frequency of the migraines.

Many people come into the office with migraines. Some people can feel relief after the first adjustment but typically the migraines will start to go after a few adjustments.

As a migraine sufferer myself, I know that the combination of massage and adjustments, reduces the duration of my migraine and I have them less often. I highly recommend people that do suffer with migraines get regular chiropractic care.

If you suffer with migraines, or any type of headache, and would like to see how chiropractic care can help, please reach out to make an appointment and we would be glad to help you.

Benefits of Chiropractic For Breastfeeding

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There are many benefits to getting adjusted during breastfeeding for the mother and the child. Watch Dr. Gardner’s video here: Benefits for Breastfeeding

Some of the benefits for the mother include increased milk production, better posture for nursing and reduced mid-back pain. Let’s start with the common breastfeeding positions. Many women use the positions you see below.

Unfortunately women tend to bring the breast to the baby instead of baby to breast. Which increases strain on the neck/back and can cause pain in the midback.

If you need help with positioning, this video is great to walk you through it.

Chiropractic care during nursing can ease discomfort and help with better posture for breastfeeding.

You may be wondering how chiropractic care can increase milk production. It relates to the spine!

Breastfeeding production:

When the child suckles at the breast, that triggers the mammary glands to release milk with the hormone oxytocin. As the child drinks and the breast starts to empty, the mammary glands send signals through the blood and nervous system to the pituitary gland, in a feedback loop. The feedback loop then sends a signal to make more prolactin in the anterior pituitary via the hypothalamus. The prolactin then produces more milk.

How chiropractic helps this system, is in the communication between the glands. The nervous system sends signals to the brain, and brain to the body, and when the spine is not aligned correctly, it can put pressure on the nerves and surrounding spinal tissues causing a decrease in functionality. When the nervous system doesn’t function at its best, the signals send slowly and can decrease the amount of hormones being secreted by the pituitary gland. It only takes the weight of a dime on the nerve to cause irritation and decrease functionality! These hormones then can’t tell the mammary glands to produce/release more milk. With chiropractic aligning the spine, and the nervous system, this allows the body to communicate better and produce/release the milk for the baby and reduce nerve irritation.

How can chiropractic care be beneficial for the child breastfeeding?

When Dr. Gardner evaluates a child that is having a hard time nursing, she evaluates the musculoskeletal system, specifically, the neck and jaw of the child to determine where there is restriction (non-movement). With the art and skill of the gentle adjustment, Dr. Gardner will improve movement in the neck muscles, facial muscles and bones of the face, skull and neck. If there is an imbalance, sometimes this can show in  how the baby latches or possibly a lip or tongue tie. Also if the baby prefers to nurse on one side vs the other.

A good latch should be seen with the whole mouth covering most of the areola (the area surround the nipple) and should be using their tongue in a fluid suckling motion. If the mouth does not cover the majority of the areola, or the baby doesn’t use their tongue in a fluid motion, then the latch should be evaluated by a health professional, whether that is a family wellness chiropractor (like Dr. Gardner), a lactation consultant, pediatrician, or a trained midwife/doula.

Correcting any irregularities in the mouth, head and neck, is where chiropractic can help these children. The adjustments for babies are very gentle, with as much force as you would apply to a ripe tomato to hold it. There are no twisting motions with babies and mom/dad can hold them the entire time.

If you have any questions about the benefits of breastfeeding please call us or reach out and we would be glad to answer them.