In my San Diego Chiropractic practice sometimes my patients associate health with ridding themselves of back pain, neck pain, headaches or perhaps making a recovery from injuries suffered in a car accident.

At my chiropractic clinic we try to encourage our patients to take a broader view of health than simply being pain free.  Health is about your body expressing its full function and operating at the optimum levels that it is capable of.  It has been my experience that chiropractic care can help you function better, but optimal health will not be expressed without paying close attention to your diet and nutritional needs. 

One dietary change that you can do right away to help support your health is to get more fiber into your diet.  Fiber is an extremely important part of a healthy diet and can help you regain and maintain your health.  Because of the fast-food lifestyles that we have come to accept as normal, most Americans aren’t getting enough fiber.  On average, Americans consume only 5 to 10 grams of fiber a day…15 to 20 grams less than the 25 grams recommended by the FDA.  

You may ask, why is fiber so important?

1. Fiber helps stabilize energy and sugar levels. Fiber slows digestion and therefore helps slow the absorption of sugars into the bloodstream.  Soluble fiber, specifically, delays the absorption of sugars and starch by dragging partly digested food through the intestine.  Delaying the absorption of ingested sugars keeps your blood sugar, insulin and energy levels more stable throughout the day.
2. Fiber is filling. Fiber is a bulky and stays in the stomach longer, providing a greater sense of fullness between meals.  For instance, a slice of 100 percent whole grain bread (loaded with fiber) is more filling than two slices of white bread (very little fiber).  Foods high in fiber also need to be chewed thoroughly so it slows down the eating process.  Eating slower helps prevent overeating.
3. Fiber facilitates weight loss and maintenance. Fiber helps move fat through our digestive system faster so that absorption is significantly reduced.
4. Fiber can reduce risk of disease. Soluble fiber helps lower blood cholesterol and glucose levels.  This, in turn, reduces the risk of diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease.
5. Fiber helps maintain regularity. Fiber increases the movement of food through the digestive system.  As a result, fiber promotes regularity and helps avoid or eliminate constipation, abdominal pain and “sluggish bowel” syndrome.

Dietary fiber can be found in fresh vegetables, fresh fruit and whole grains.   At my office we always stress the importance of a healthy diet – adequate fiber intake is an important component that is needed in our daily diets.

Have a great day!

Dr. Jones

(619) 280-0554

www.JonesPainRelief.com

Regardless of the lack of damage to my patients’ vehicle, he knew immediately that there was something wrong with his lower back and his right leg. He told me that when his car was hit, he felt the metal framework of his seat apply a significant amount of force through his lower back. As he got out of his vehicle, he felt weakness and a little pain in his right leg.

I have patients that I treat for certain conditions that are later aggravated by car accidents but this case wasn’t one of those. This patient had no prior history of low back pain or sciatic pain – this current pain was all new.

After four weeks of chiropractic care for his injuries, both the patient and I were frustrated by his lack of progress. I sent him for an MRI of his low back which clearly showed 2 herniated discs in his low back – no doubt these were from his accident.

This patients’ options for care at this point were to go to an orthopedic surgeon or continue with chiropractic care at my office. He elected to continue with chiropractic care with the understanding that if his condition either failed to improve or worsened that he would consider an orthopedic consult.

In this case, this patient made significant improvement with chiropractic care and made a complete recovery. The odd things about this case was how little damage was done to the car by the accident and the fact that the patient experienced no neck pain while suffering significant low back injuries.

The bottom line is that even light impact accidents can create enough force to create a significant injury.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

(619) 280-0554

Automobile Injuries

We treat patients who have been in whiplash accidents on a daily basis. One of the more common complaints that our whiplash patients have is headaches. In fact, I would say that headaches are the most common complaint that car accident victims have next to neck pain.

Usually headaches from car accidents are caused by damage to the neck muscles and the muscle tension from the accident. In my practice, almost everyone that I see with headache issues from a car accident also has neck pain. That is not to say that everyone with neck pain has headaches although at least 50% of them do.

Car accidents generate a lot of force through the neck and upper back. Under circumstances like those found during car accidents, the weight of your head is simply too much for the smaller muscles in the neck and at the base of the skull. When those muscles get stretched and torn, the other surrounding muscles tighten up as a protective mechanism. It is those tight muscles that trigger the muscle tension headaches that are so common after car accidents.

Chiropractic care safely and effectively helps you recover from both neck pain and headaches. Chiropractic manipulations ease muscle tension, improve your range of motion and reduce your pain. This care combined with at home therapies including ice packs, light stretching, light exercise and rest can help you regain your health.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

(619) 280-0554

Whiplash

As it turns out, inflammation plays a big role in our health following a motor vehicle accident. Inflammation causes the muscles to tighten or spasm in an effort to protect the joint. Inflammation also causes us to feel pain. If the inflammation lasts for more than a few days it will cause scar tissue to form around the joints which also causes pain and decreased range of motion.

Since chiropractic care is so effective in treating the injuries associated with car accidents, I see many of these patients in my San Diego Chiropractic Center. Many of these patients had never been to a chiropractor prior to the care that they will receive because of their accident.

Chiropractic care for auto injuries should involve three separate phases of care.

The first phase of care should be directed toward to relieving pain. Ice packs, electrical stimulation, ultrasound and spinal manipulations all help to reduce pain and tension.

The second phase of care is directed toward improving the range of motion of the injured joints. It is important to “remodel” as much as the scar tissue as possible to help you maintain your full range of motion in the future.

The third phase of care is directed towards building strength and flexibility in and around the injured joints. Strong, flexible muscles that work to move joints that have full range of motion will help you maintain your spinal health in the future.

We would be happy to consult with you regarding care for your auto accident injuries.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

(619) 280-0554

Whiplash

I have been practicing chiropractic in San Diego for the last 15 years and what I have seen in practice regarding back injuries would be surprising to most people in non-medical careers.  The average person that I speak with regarding back pain and injuries is of the mind set that low back pain is the result of jobs that require heavy lifting or contact sports, golfing or car accidents. 

In reality, it is the constant stress and strain of postural stress that is the biggest burden on our spines.  The postural stress of sitting for hours on end in a task chair in front of a computer can become overwhelming.  When our bodies are exposed to a specific stress over a long period of time, the effects that the stress places on our bodies has a cumulative effect.  Over the course of months or years that cumulative stress expresses itself as pain, stiffness, pinched nerves or more serious symptoms. 

When I am explaining the ongoing cumulative effects of postural stress to my chiropractic patients I like to use the classic example of the Chinese water torture.  Those first couple hundred drops of water on the forehead aren’t bothersome – but a few hundred drops more will make you truly miserable.  The same process happens to your low back as the minutes, hours, days, months and years pass with you sitting in a computer chair.

There is a chart floating around that I have come across in several texts that relates your bodies posture with the amount of stress that each particular posture generates on the discs in the lower back.  As the chart demonstrates, the level of stress increases as the subject transitions from a prone position to a standing position to seated position to a slumped forward seated position.  The chart shows the pressure in the discs to equal 100% of your body weight while standing, approximately 125% of your bodies weight while sitting and over 140% of your body weight when sitting in a forward slumped position.

The reason that sitting is so hard on your back from a postural standpoint is due to the anatomy of the lower back vertebra.  When we are standing, your lower back naturally has a forward sweeping curve with the concavity of that curve facing rearward.  That curve acts to efficiently divide the weight of your body between the discs that separate your vertebra and the joints that run down the back of your spine.  When you assume a seated position, that curve straightens out transferring some of your weight from the posterior joints to the discs.  Slumping forward transfers even more weight resulting in more compression of the discs and more stress on the low backs discs.

As time passes, this increase pressure causes irritation of the overloaded spinal structures eventually leading to inflammation, spasm and pain.  This is the basic process with many injuries to the body that result from ongoing exposure to some irritating or stressful activity.     

How is this postural stress negated?  Well, unfortunately, all if it can’t be.  But it can be limited by practicing good posture and the right ergonomic principals.  A brief ergonomic evaluation of your work area can give you loads of valuable information that will help minimize the effects of your work environment on your body.

Sitting is a sedentary task but like most things in life, if you don’t do it properly there will be undesirable consequences.

Work Safe!

Dr. Jones

http://www.jonespainrelief.com/blog1/

www.JonesPainRelief.com

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 whiplash type car accident injuries, pinched nerves 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.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

Pain Relief Blog

www.JonesPainRelief.com