Posture and Back Pain

I have said and written many times that most of the patients of my San Diego Chiropractic clinic ended becoming patients because of aches and pains related to bad posture.  Think about how many times that your parents told you to "sit up straight" when you were a kid.  Although they probably didn't have any medical reasons behind this command, the potentially negative health consequences that accompany bad posture make this sitting up straight a reasonable request.

Bad posture can cause neck pain, headaches, back pain, digestive stress, carpal tunnel syndrome type symptoms, irritability and fatigue.  Surveys also indicate that bad posture gives others the opinion that you are not intelligent, lazy and unattractive. Egads!    

Correcting bad posture requires awareness, specific types of exercise, specific kinds of stretches and chiropractic treatment to help improve alignment and balance of the spine. 

Strong Glutes and Chiropractic

One of the common problems that I see in the patients of my San Diego chiropractic practice is weak gluteal muscles.  The gluteal muscles should be the strongest muscles in the body.  In addition to being powerful hip extensors that drive the body forward and upward in activities such as in running and climbing they also help hold our spine in proper alignment.

The problem with us in general is that instead of using our glutes to move our body weight we use them to sit on.  With increase time sitting and less activity time the glutes begin to weaken causing loss of posture, instability of the lower back and increased chance of injury.  When the glutes are weak the body recruits other muscles such as the hamstrings and the larger muscles of the lower back to perform the tasks that are usually handled by the glutes.  This kind of compensation leads to muscular imbalances, poor spinal alignment and back pain or injuries.

For most of us, avoiding hours of sitting each day would require a monumental effort as well as being in control of your work station.  Since this isn't possible in most cases, maintaining healthy spinal alignment requires specific exercises for the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus, taking as many breaks from sitting during the day as possible, a structured stretching program and maintenance chiropractic treatment.

Chiropractic and Exercise: Insanity

I always try to express the importance of complete fitness to the patients of my San Diego Chiropractic clinic.  Lets face it, chiropractic care can help you recover from car accident injuries, work injuries and sports injuries and it can be of tremendous benefit in keeping balance and alignment in people who sit at a desk all day but if you don't stretch, don't exercise and don't eat healthy you will not be a healthy person.

The reason that I am writing this post is because I recently began doing the Insanity workout.  I believe that this is my third or maybe fourth time that I have done the Insanity program.  This is also the first time that I will finish it (knock on wood) without injury.  Apparently injury isn't uncommon with the Insanity workout  - you can find this out yourself with a quick Google search that will give nearly one million results for the search phrase "Insanity Injuries".

Each time I have gone through this program I have relied heavily on my chiropractor and acupuncturist to give me the extra supportive care that I need to make it through without significant injury.  Of course, listening to your body is important as well - you have to make sure to make adjustments and avoid or modify exercises that cause pain.  "Working through the pain" is a common mistake that people who exercise make - in reality, there is no such thing as working through the pain.  Pain is always an indication that you have irritation and inflammation in a joint or a muscle.  Some muscle soreness following a workout is a good thing but pain during exercise is not.

Exercise, stretching and a healthy diet will always help you get the most out of your chiropractic care.  You don't have to commit to a program as challenging as Insanity to make improvements in you whole health picture but if you do - exercise safely, we don't want your exercise to be the reason that you need treatment.  For more information regarding the beneficial relationship between chiropractic treatment, exercise, stretching and proper nutrition call us at our San Diego Chiropractic clinic - we would be happy to help.

Chiropractor San Diego

Are you looking for quality chiropractic care?

At my San Diego Chiropractic Clinic we believe in helping you restore and maintain your health – not just with chiropractic care but by teaching you to balance and strengthen your body with stretches, exercises and proper nutrition.

Chiropractic care is natural health care that improves the relationship between your nervous system and your spinal joints.  Misalignments of the vertebral joints cause pinched nerves which result in pain, headaches, back spasms and other symptoms.  Spinal misalignments are called subluxations and are treated with chiropractic adjustments. 


We are a San Diego chiropractic practice and we use this blog and our website to explain to the residents and visitors of San Diego what chiropractors do and what chiropractors don’t do.  We also use these sites to relay information regarding general maintenance of your body in order to promote general health and wellness.

If you are searching for natural treatment methods that will help you get well and stay well while avoiding drugs or surgery, you’ve found the right place!

Whiplash Treatment in San Diego

Rain almost always means that the phone of my San Diego Chiropractic clinic will be ringing with new Whiplash patients.  Today it looks like rain outside even though it is the second week of July - normally a dry time of year in this part of the country.  No doubt there will be people on the road who are in hurry and won't slow down for the wet conditions - this always leads to auto accidents and injuries.

Whiplash is a broad term that is mostly associated with sprain / strain injuries of the muscles and ligaments of the neck.  The whiplash injuries occur when your car either accelerates rapidly such as when your vehicle is hit from behind or when your vehicle slows rapidly which happens if you run into another vehicle or some other object.  Your neck is the most likely injured part of your spine because the muscles in that part of your body are weaker than they are in the rest of your back and because your head and neck are not supported as well by your seat and seat belt like the rest of your back is.

Whiplash can cause neck pain, headaches, ringing in the ears, dizziness, difficulty swallowing and upper back pain.  There are more serious - potentially life threatening injuries associated with whiplash as well.  If you were involved in a whiplash injury we would be happy to consult with you about your injuries. 

Low Back Pain Treatment

As a San Diego Chiropractor I see my share of patients with Low Back Pain. The majority of these patients come to my office to see what it is that I can do for them without really thinking of what they can do for themselves. Chiropractors are the unofficial "back doctors" of the medical community and we can often relieve back pain with very little additional help from the patient so long as they keep their appointments.

That being said, patients that play an active role in the treatment of their back pain tend to heal quicker and get longer lasting results. At my San Diego chiropractic clinic in addition to chiropractic adjustments and therapy my patients are always encouraged - but not pressured - to ice at home, stretch, exercise and take nutritional support.

Poor Posture and Chiropractic Care

Poor posture is the root cause behind most of the cases of neck pain and headaches that I see patients for in my San Diego Chiropractic Clinic. Slumping over your computer for hours on end stresses all of the joints in your spine, therefore middle back pain and lower back pain are also common results of poor posture. Good posture is just as important to your overall health picture as proper diet, sufficient exercise, regular stretching routines and 7 hours of sleep per night. From a superficial aspect, poor posture is one of the negatives that we often first notice about the way others look, the head forward posture and crumpled mid-waist region are never attractive.

Posture is a key component of good health. Bad posture presents with typical features, head forward position, slumped shoulders / upper back, flattened out lower back and inwardly rotated shoulders. Good posture saves our muscular energy reducing stress and fatigue. The ill effects of poor posture are numerous as are the causes of poor posture. Trauma, depression, failed physical education, poor ergonomic set-ups and a multitude of other scenarios set the stage for postural stress. In my office, most of my patients that I treat for posture related issues sit at a desk hunching over a computer on a daily basis. While a few isolated exposures to posturally stressful positions probably won't hurt you, repeated daily exposures can and usually do cause problems. Below is a more comprehensive list of the known causes of poor posture.

1. Accidents, injuries and falls
2. Poor sleep support (mattress)
3. Excessive weight
4. Visual or emotional difficulties
5. Foot problems or improper shoes
6. Weak muscles, muscle imbalance
7. Careless sitting, standing, sleeping habits
8. Negative self image
9. Occupational stress
10. Poorly designed work space

Bad posture can start a progression of symptoms. To begin with, slumped over postures allow one muscle group to rest while overworking the opposing muscle group. For instance, when poor posture causes our head is translated forward, the muscles in the front of the neck relax while the muscles that run down your neck and into the upper back are overly contracted. This imbalance creates a stretch weakness of the neck muscles causes tightness, spasms, neck pain, upper back pain and headaches. The end result for your muscles is over-worked, weak, painful muscles.

As time progresses, joint stiffness and pain begin putting you at risk for arthritis. Joints subjected to stress follow a predictable course. Postural stress causes irritation of the joints, Irritated joints become inflamed, inflammation causes pain, stiffness and scar tissue formation leading to arthritis. Chiropractic care will release the stiff joints breaking down scar tissue and eliminating pain.

While bad posture and the postural stress that accompanies it often causes discomfort, poor posture remains one of those conditions that most people identify quickly in others but not so easily in themselves. Those who are aware of their poor posture often consider correcting it impossible.

Correcting bad posture is possible but requires a multifaceted approach. Simply becoming aware of poor posture and correcting yourself when you have drifted into a posturally stressful position is not enough, although it is necessary to help break bad habits. Poor posture creates muscular imbalances throughout the body that require targeted stretches and exercises in order to reverse the structural changes that have occurred secondary to prolonged postural stress. This is yet another condition that is treated much easier in younger people or those who have not been subjected to poor posture for prolonged periods of time. That being said, almost everyone that I know spent at least 16 years looking down at their books for several hours each day while in school!

The bottom line is that most everyone can avoid the problems caused by bad posture and you can make improvements at any age.  Do you need help correcting the effects of poor posture?  We would be happy to help you at my San Diego Chiropractic clinic. 

Nutrition and Chiropractic

I have always considered myself a fairly healthy person and one of my goals has been to present myself to the patients of my San Diego Chiropractic Clinic as such. That being said, I do have some health concerns.

To begin with, since I am a chiropractor I will declare that I have my bouts with neck pain, back pain and the occasional headache but for the most part I am pain free. Since college I have suffered from a mild case of office hypertension - meaning that my blood pressure was borderline high but I attribute that to the anxiety I get from taking my blood pressure. Another thing worth mentioning is that some days I would get a little spacey from mild hypoglycemia, but this would only happen on days where my diet suffered from poor planning. Overall, for my age (44) my health compared favorably to most of those in my age group.

One day here about two months ago my assistant Linda told me that she had a representative from Standard Process coming to the office to discuss nutritional products. At the time of this appointment, I really had no expectations of where this would go. I figured that since I exercised and ate right (for the most part) that we would be discussing products for my patients.

By the time the appointment with the Standard Process representative ended both Linda and I had committed to doing a 21 day purification program. It was at this point where I really started looking at my diet. What I found was that vegetables and fruits were a good part of my diet but so were bean rice and cheese burritos, occasional cheeseburgers, potato chips, an occasional soda pop and lots of coffee. All of this stuff would have to go under the guidelines of the purification program.

Basically, the purification program involves taking whole food supplements to stimulate the kidneys, liver and intestines to eliminate toxins, supplementing whey protein for animal protein sources and eliminating all caffeine, dairy and processed foods.

Today is the thirteenth day of our purification program. I am embarrassed to say that even as a doctor with extensive schooling in nutrition that I have been taken back by the dramatic positive changes in my health as a result of this purification program. To begin with, what I thought was office hypertension is gone. Since the third day of this program my blood pressure reading has ranged from a low of 115/74 to a high of 121/80. This reading is accompanied by a calmness that I have rarely if ever felt as an adult. In addition to lower blood pressure, my digestion is significantly better - no more bloating, my blood sugar has been stable and my sleep is much improved.

I attribute these improvements in my health to three simple changes that seem so elementary. Stop putting junk in, eat a clean healthy diet and get the toxins stored in my body out.

I have been asked what I plan to do after the 21 day program is over. At this point, I can't imagine not continuing with a healthy diet and taking whole food supplements. The taste of that BRC burrito or that morning cup of coffee will not be missed in the least.

Controlling Dietary Cravings

In my San Diego chiropractic clinic, for the most part, I treat people that are more oriented toward taking proactive steps in maintaining their health. In addition to helping my patients with the typical neck pain, back pain and headaches that are common complaints for chiropractors, I also give advice regarding nutrition and exercise that help them become healthier people.

Dietary cravings are the downfall for many of us regarding our health. I can’t recall what the disorders or deficiencies were, but I remember studying conditions that made some people crave dirt – that is right, people crave to eat dirt, and other deficiencies that made people crave aspirin. Obviously, none of us would think that a nice plate of dirt for dinner would sound good without some underlying nutritional deficiency that would drive us to such a craving.

It is interesting how mineral deficiencies can result in cravings of more typical types of foods. Naturopath Colleen Huber says that all food cravings are a signal that our bodies are telling us that we need more of certain types of foods. For example; when we crave sweets our bodies really need chromium, carbon, phosphorus, sulfur or tryptophan. A craving for chocolate can be an indicator that you are deficient in magnesium while a craving for salty foods is an indication that we are chloride deficient. If you crave soda or other carbonated drinks what you really need is calcium.

This is incredibly valuable information. Once again, as a chiropractor I am not only concerned with relieving my patients back pain or neck pain but I am concerned about their health as a whole. Poor diets are fueled by cravings that we often don’t understand and by poor planning of our daily diets. A poor nutrition diet can cause low energy, weight gain, low self image and a feeling of being out of control among a host of other much more serious disorders.

Treatment For Neck Pain And Arm Pain

A few months ago I had a young lady come to my San Diego Chiropractic office with these complaints. In addition to numbness and tingling, she had neck pain, shoulder pain, arm pain, wrist pain and hand pain. She also complained of weakness in her left hand, which was resulting in clumsiness and was affecting her work as an executive secretary.

Complaints of neck pain and arm pain are seen with regular frequency in my office. The process is a familiar one and common with many musculoskeletal conditions that involve the nervous system. Usually, postural stresses such as leaning over a desk or computer will eventually irritate a specific joint in the spine. The irritation of the joint causes inflammation of the muscles and ligaments that surround that joint. This inflammation will cause compression of the local nerves resulting in pain and muscle spasm. If the nerve compression persists, numbness, tingling and weakness of the related muscles will follow.

This patient was displaying signs and symptoms of long-term nerve root compression that involved her left arm and hand.

We treated her with chiropractic manipulations that were delivered with the specific goal of eliminating the nerve root compression. She was also treated with ice packs, hot packs, electrical muscle stimulation and ultrasound in order to address the soft tissue inflammation. In addition to in office care she was given a set of stretches and exercises for at home therapy and advised to use ice packs daily for twenty minutes per session.

It took approximately eight weeks of active care, which is three treatment visits per week, to relieve 90% of her pain and 90% of her left arm weakness. The rest of her symptoms will resolve with at home therapy and chiropractic care delivered on an as needed basis for flair-ups that will occur in the future.

Feel free to call me at my San Diego Chiropractic office if you are experiencing symptoms similar to the ones discussed in this post - I would be happy to help you work through your problem.  

Back Pain Relief in San Diego

Many patients are looking for back pain relief when they schedule appointments at my San Diego Chiropractic clinic.

Most people consider chiropractors as back pain specialists. That being said, chiropractors provide treatment for patients with a variety of ailments including neck pain, headaches, sciatic pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, etc. While all of these conditions sound very different, they are actually very similar in the way they develop.

Most patients that suffer with headaches also complain of pain in the neck or neck stiffness. In fact, many headaches are related to muscle tension that originates in the neck. In these cases it is in fact the muscle tension or spasm in the neck that triggers the headache. Therefore, by treating the neck with a combination of chiropractic adjustments, hot packs, ice packs, muscle stimulation and ultrasound; the muscle tension in the neck can be resolved preventing the headache.

This is just an example of how one problem in a specific region of the body can be responsible for symptoms in a separate area. Likewise, sciatica is most often related to irritation of joints and muscle spasms in the lower back. Similarly, carpal tunnel syndrome results from a process involving joints in the wrist and the surrounding muscles and ligaments.

Almost all conditions follow the same path to becoming symptomatic - either through some specific injury or ongoing trauma (such as keyboarding or mousing), the joint(s) becomes irritated and inflamed causing pain and muscle spasm. If the pain and spasm affects a specific nerve, you may experience additional symptoms such as sciatica or arm / hand pain.

Pinched Nerves

You are on my last nerve! When I was a kid my mom probably said that to me a hundred times. Now my patients in my San Diego chiropractic office complain of other types of nerve issues. Sometimes, pinched nerves accompany neck pain, back pain and headaches.

Pinched nerves always result in pain traveling down either an arm or a leg resulting in what is called radiating pain. Many patients come to my San Diego chiropractic office complaining of a pinched nerve but my exam reveals simple neck pain or back pain.

There are many causes of pinched nerves. One of the worst scenarios involves a herniated disc in the spine that is putting pressure on the nerve. Herniated discs don't always mean that surgery is required but it usually results in stretched out, more intensive treatment plans.

One of the more common causes of pinched nerves results from irritated and inflamed joints in the spine. Poor lifting habits, awkward sleeping positions, poor posture and many other aggravating activities can inflame the ligamentous capsule that surrounds the joint. As the capsule swells, it cause local muscle spasm and can cause compression or pinching of the nerve.

Like I wrote earlier in the article, pinching of the nerve causes radiating pain that travels down the leg, into an arm, down the back or sometimes up to the back of the head. Either way, pinched nerves can make you absolutely miserable.

There are several things that you can do for a pinched nerve at home. To begin with, pinched nerves almost always involve inflammation and swelling. By applying ice packs to painful areas you can reduce the inflammation and relieve some of the pain. In addition to ice pack use, you have to acknowledge and respect your pain. That means rest as much as you can - working through pain rarely works out well for the patient. Try your best to stay out of painful positions and don't "test" it.

Chiropractic treatment is very effective at relieving the symptoms of a pinched nerve. Instead of masking the pain with drugs, chiropractic care improves the mechanics of the joint which helps relieve the pain and improve your range of motion.

Headaches and Chiropractic Treatment

I don't know about you, but I am a headache wimp - and I freely admit it to the patients of my San Diego Chiropractic clinic. I hardly ever get headaches, when I do I don't handle them very well. I get moody and I tend to "snap" at people that really mean me no harm.

In addition to my San Diego chiropractic office treating patients with neck pain and low back pain, we see many people with headaches. Headaches have many causes and there are many different types of headaches as well.

The most common types of headache that we provide treatment for are migraine and muscle tension headaches.

Muscle tension headaches typically begin in the muscles of the neck and upper back. When these muscle become tense, they pull on the muscles that cover your head. This tension results in a headache.

Muscle tension headaches can result from postural stresses such as long hours of computer work, they can develop as a result of car accident injuries, or just plain old work and home stresses.

One common reason for chronic, on going tension in the muscle is miss-aligned vertebra. When the vertebra become miss-aligned due to postural stress, awkward sleeping positions, accidents, etc., the muscles around that vertebra tighten up as a protective mechanism. The tight muscles are commonly the root cause of the muscle tension headache.

Chiropractic care re-aligns the joints of the spine causing a relaxation of the surrounding muscles. When the joints in the neck are re-aligned, the muscles that move and support that particular vertebra relax and return to their normal functions.

When the muscles are relaxed, the muscle tension subsides and the headache goes away. Treatment for muscle tension headaches usually requires a series of treatments but you should notice a decrease in the frequency and the severity of your headache with subsequent treatment.

Chiropractic Treatment for Low Back Pain

Why do I have back pain? Being a chiropractor in San Diego, I hear this question all the time. Back pain and neck pain are the two most common complaints that my patients have. The fact that my practice is in San Diego probably decreases the frequency of these complaints.  People in San Diego tend to be more active than those who live in other parts of the country which actually lowers the incidence of low back and neck pain.

Over fifteen years ago when I first started practicing chiropractic care in San Diego, most of my low back pain patients and neck pain patients for that matter were not related to office work. Most of the cases that I had when I first started practicing were do to injuries like car accidents and falls or heavy work.

In the mid to late nineteen nineties, I started to see a trend in injury mechanisms among my patients. They were starting to attribute their pain to long hours of sitting at the computer.

Sitting all day at the computer not only causes back pain but it also causes neck pain, headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome and various arm problems.

Lower back pain is primarily due to poor sitting posture. When we are standing up with good posture, our lower backs have a sweeping forward bowing curve that resembles a stretched out letter "c". This shape distributes our bodies weight evenly throughout the spine. When we sit, this curve reverses, greatly increasing the stress on the joints and discs in the spine.

With time, postural stress causes irritation and inflammation resulting in pain and muscle spasms.

Once the low back has reached a point of pain and spasms, chiropractic care is necessary to relieve the pain, improve the biomechanics of the spine and relax the muscles.

In addition to chiropractic care for back pain, the patient must seek out an ergonomic chair and have it adjusted properly for their body. In many cases, I suggest a complete workstation analysis to help prevent future problems related to postural stress. 

Chiropractic Care is Much Safer Than You Think

As a Doctor of Chiropractic, I often deal with new patients who carry an unreasonable fear concerning chiropractic treatment.  New patients that I see in my San Diego Chiropractic practice often have some fears associated with chiropractic treatment, in my opinion, a lifetime of neck pain, back pain or headaches should inspire much more fear than chiropractic treatment.

I have been practicing chiropractic in San Diego full time since I moved here in 1993. During that time I have kept in close contact with 8 friends that I made while in Chiropractic College. There are another 10 or so that I speak with 2 or 3 times per year. All but one of these doctors has been in full time practice for at least 15 years. Out of all of these doctors, not one of them has had a patient sue them for treatment related injuries. One of these doctors knows a doctor who was sued by a patient that tripped over his welcome mat and suffered a broken arm.

At a risk prevention seminar that I attended several years ago, the instructor stated that in a group of 25 chiropractors that practice for 20 years seeing an average of 100 patients per week, that one of these doctors would have a patient suffer from a serious injury related to treatment.  That is equal to 1 serious injury in every 2.6 million chiropractic adjustments. When these numbers are compared to the dangers of Tylenol use for example, one can see how comparatively safe chiropractic care actually is. Just in the United States and the United Kingdom, each year there are 300 deaths and 130,000 emergency room visits as a direct result of Tylenol use.

The rest of this post is a compilation of facts regarding the safety of chiropractic treatment.

Chiropractic is Safe.
Records form insurance and court cases have constantly shown that chiropractic is the safest portal of entry health care available to the public today. Although no healthcare procedures are 100% safe, chiropractic stands on its record of safety and effectiveness unmatched in healthcare. To learn more about the safety record of chiropractic please visit the website
Chiropractic Is Safe at www.chiropracticissafe.org.

Chiropractic is the fastest-growing and second-largest primary health care profession.
There are approximately 60,000 doctors of chiropractic (DCs) in active practice in the United States spread from rural areas to inner cities. More than 10,000 students are currently enrolled in chiropractic educational programs accredited by a federally-recognized body (CCE).

Chiropractic services are in high demand.
Tens of millions of Americans routinely opt for chiropractic services and this number is rapidly growing. In 1993, more than 30 million patients made chiropractic a regular part of their health care program.

Doctors of Chiropractic receive extensive, demanding professional education that is on par with medical doctors (MDs) and osteopaths (DOs).
To receive the doctor of chiropractic degree, candidates must complete extensive undergraduate prerequisites and four years of graduate-level instruction and internship at an accredited chiropractic institution. Comprehensive knowledge of all systems of the body and diagnostic procedures enable the DC to thoroughly evaluate a patient, address disorders relating to the spine and determine the need for referral to another health care provider.

Doctors of Chiropractic are primary health care providers.
According to the Center for Studies in Health Policy, "The DC can provide all three levels of primary care interventions and therefore is a primary care provider, as are MDs and DOs. The doctor of chiropractic is a gatekeeper to the health care system and an independent practitioner who provides primary care services. The DC's office is a direct access portal of entry to the full scope of service."

Doctors of Chiropractic are licensed in all 50 states. DCs have been licensed and recognized for many decades in all states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Chiropractic is recognized by governmental health care programs.

Chiropractic is included in Medicare, Medicaid, Federal Employees Health Care Benefits Programs, Federal Workers' Compensation and all state workers' compensation programs.

Chiropractic students are qualified to receive federal student loan assistance and DCs are authorized to be commissioned as health care officers in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Chiropractic care is very effective and very safe. We have been treating patients with neck pain, back pain, headaches and many other symptoms for years without incident. I hope that this article hits home with some of you who have delayed chiropractic care due to unfounded fears.

Why Does Chiropractic Care Work?

A new patient of my San Diego Chiropractic clinic asked me this question just the other day. The funny thing about this question was that he was a new patient for me but he had been going to different chiropractors for nearly 40 years. Over the years he had struggled with neck pain, back pain and headaches that occurred after various falls, work injuries and car accidents and had created his need for a life time of chiropractic treatment.  I thought it was odd that he asked me why chiropractic works after all the care he had been through.

Certain types of injuries cause chronic symptoms Various physical issues that never fully return to their pre-accident state cause chronic symptoms.

For instance, whiplash type injuries leave about 25% of the patients with chronic ongoing neck pain. In these cases, the muscles that move and support the neck have been stretched and sometimes torn. When muscles tear they heal with scar tissue. Scar tissue does not move, stretch or contract like healthy muscle tissue.

Because of the different properties of scar tissue that has formed within the healthy muscle, the joint that is moved by that muscle becomes dysfunctional. As the joints movement alters, it has the potential to become irritated and inflamed. These irritated and inflamed joints then become painful, restricted in their movements and the muscles that move that joint tighten and spasm as a protective mechanism.

Chiropractic care is the perfect solution for painful joints and spasmed muscles. Through manipulation or adjustments of the affected joints, the muscle spasms are calmed and the pain is relieved. For some patients, ongoing chiropractic care helps prevent the onset of pain and stiffness that is associated with chronic injuries.

This example above is just one of the reasons that some chiropractic patients come in for treatment on a regular basis.

As for the patient above, he said he has been coming in for chiropractic for neck pain and back pain for years. He receives treatment for both health maintenance reasons as well as for control of specific symptoms that come up from time to time.

Chiropractic and Nutrition Continued

Ever since I started practicing chiropractic in San Diego I have had trouble sleeping. I addressed this issue in several blog posts over the last few weeks.

As many of you know, lack of sleep makes days difficult and nights dreadful.

I had always assumed that my lack of sleep was secondary to stress from my business / practice. It seemed like a reasonable assumption. I spend my days treating patients who I truly care about for neck pain, back pain, headaches and other aches and pains. While I love my job, having patients depend on you for their well being is stressful and I do think of these things at night.

There was also a time when I decided that my lack of a good nights sleep was due to caffeine. As a result of this assumption I completely weaned myself off of coffee for about five years. This didn't really help me sleep any better but I was much calmer in fact until I eliminated caffeine from my diet I didn't realize how anxious it made me.

As you may have read in my prior posts, I ended up having a hair mineral analysis that had really interesting results.  The Mineral Analysis showed a deficiency in several nutrient minerals that can have an impact on sleep.

For the last six weeks or so I have been supplementing these minerals and have been experiencing some exciting results. As of last night, I have been sleeping for three or four hours per night longer than I used to.

What a huge difference!

Instead of feeling run down and tired I actually have energy. My anxiety has decreased and my paper work shuffle at work is much more efficient.

I still have great concerns about my patients' neck pain, back pain and headaches, but I think about them during the day now, not at night.

Last night I had a horrible sleep and today I feel wiped out. It made me wonder how I used to live with nights like that on a regular basis.

Nutrition and Chiropractic Update

Back in the early part of April, I posted a blog article regarding chiropractic care and nutrition, specifically, my own nutrition. Being the owner of my San Diego Chiropractic office, I spend most of my days treating patients with neck pain and back pain. While neck pain and back pain are very important to resolve, there are other health concerns that must be addressed if we expect to be truly healthy.

Several months ago, I had a hair mineral analysis performed on myself. The results of that test were surprising to me. Aside from my calcium and magnesium levels, every other nutrient mineral was deficient.

Even iron!  This is normal for women but not so common in men.  Without the analysis, I would have never thought this finding was a possibility.

As I had indicated in prior posts on this topic, one of my primary health concerns over the last 10 years has been lack of restful sleep or insomnia.

As I read up on the minerals that I was deficient in, insomnia was a side effect in two of them in instances of deficiency.

That bit of knowledge was not enough to quiet the skeptic in me. After all, the company that does the hair mineral analysis also makes the vitamins and minerals that they recommended to me. In addition, I also indicated on my paperwork that insomnia is one of my health concerns.

In order to test these results, I bought mineral supplements from a local source and began taking them as directed on the containers. It took about 11 days before I could say for sure that the quality of my sleep had improved. Within a few more days the improvement was dramatic. Prior to taking these mineral supplements, a good nights sleep was limited to two or three nights per month.

As I write this blog post, I have slept well, over 7 hours per night, for the past month or so. Despite all this quality sleep, I still feel like I am playing catch-up with my rest. I suppose that is the result of 10 years of poor sleep.

I will do future posts on this topic. In the mean time, remember that you are what you eat! Poor dietary habits definitely create a need for dietary supplements. Maintaining your health is work but it is worthwhile.

Why Do We Get Neck Pain

Do you ever remember seeing someone in a neck brace? Do you remember thinking, "I wonder how much pain you would have to actually use one of those?" Last week I had a patient come to my San Diego Chiropractic office because of neck pain. Her neck pain was bad enough that she wore a neck brace. She said that she had a long history of neck pain but that this current episode of neck pain was the worst she ever felt and it began after she spent a few hours watching her boyfriend fly his stunt kite at the beach.

In this patients' estimation, she had no idea what possibly could have caused this painful episode.

Those of you who have suffered with neck pain know what she is going through.

After a neck injury that has not been properly treated, future flair ups can be common. These flair ups of neck pain can come with little or no obvious provocation.

In most cases of neck pain without a significant discernible injurious event, the cause of a painful episode lies in an accumulation of old injuries like car accidents and falls combined with ongoing daily postural stress.

When your neck is exposed to a combination of specific old injuries and ongoing postural stress, seemingly new injuries to the same area can be the result of something as mundane as an awkward sleeping position or a prolonged fixed position of the neck that might occur with watching TV or working on the computer.

Because this type of flair up is so common, "new injuries" that occur with non stressful events are not new injuries at all but aggravations of old injuries. I like to use the analogy of the straws on the camels back for these kinds of episodes.

In closing, if this patient had hurt her neck watching her boyfriend fly a kite at the beach and she had no other history of neck pain or injury, I would be surprised. With this patients' history, however, the onset of this episode of neck pain did not surprise me at all.

There is an old saying, "The body never forgets".

Chiropractic Patients in San Diego

My San Diego Chiropractic clinic primarily serves those who have had experience with chiropractic treatment in the past. Many of them come for treatment because they simply like the way they feel after a treatment, not because they have a particular ache or pain.

I don't want to imply that chiropractic care is addicting like smoking or some other unhealthy vice, but after you have experienced the improved range of motion, increased athletic performance and decreased muscle tension that results from chiropractic care, many simply want that feeling to be the norm. Other patients come specifically for treatment of neck pain, back pain, headaches, etc.

One thing that most of these patients have in common is that they usually know someone who could benefit from chiropractic care but that person is hesitant. They are hesitant to come for treatment either because they don't "believe" in chiropractors or because they are afraid.

Those who don't believe in chiropractic care are easy to convince of the benefits of chiropractic treatment. Many of these people hold on to the untruths spread by the American Medical Association (AMA) regarding chiropractors. Between the 1960s and the mid 1980s, the AMA spent nearly $100,000,000 on an anti-chiropractic campaign. While most of the information that the AMA dispersed regarding my profession was false and based on the bad behavior of just a few doctors, some people continue to hold on to those false ideas.

That being said, chiropractic treatment has a direct and immediate beneficial effect on the joints of the spine. This benefit is a combination of increased joint motion, relaxed muscles and decreased tension and is hard to overlook even by the most pessimistic skeptic.

Those who are fearful of chiropractic care are more difficult to convince of the benefits of treatment. They are afraid that they might get paralyzed or have some other life changing occurrence as a result of care. In reality, chiropractic care is very safe. The only "side effect" that we have personally seen regarding chiropractic care is that the patients feel better.

The safety of your doctor's office can usually be measured by the cost of their malpractice insurance. Chiropractors' insurance rates for the same level of coverage is less than 1/10 of most MDs. What that means to patients is that despite the fact that some people don't like the thought of having their joints "cracked", a chiropractor's office is an extremely safe place to receive treatment.

If you live in the San Diego area and are looking for a chiropractor we would be happy to consult with you regarding your health needs.