Which Pain Relieving Cream is Best?

Do you love using creams to help you with your back discomfort but not sure which one to use? Check out this video to decide which one is best for you.

Get Better Chiropractic Results With Fewer Sessions

There is a saying about exercise that goes like this, “You can’t out exercise a bad diet.” That statement seems to go against what many people think, but it’s true. No matter how much you exercise, it is almost impossible to lose weight (or maintain your ideal weight) if you don’t have eating habits that match your weight goals. Take American football players for example. Those guys exercise and have better physical conditioning than most people on the planet. In spite of that, when you look at the big boys on the offensive and defensive line, you will see guys that are carrying a lot of extra weight. If exercise alone was the key to being slim and trim, every single player on an American football team would not only be muscular, but also super lean…whether they wanted to be or not. That’s simply not the case. Some of them have a low body-fat percentage. Some of them have a higher body-fat percentage. The difference is not how much they are working out. The difference is what they are eating.

A similar statement can be said about chiropractic care. You can’t out chiropractic your bad habits. I realise that’s a strange statement, but I promise that it will make sense in a minute. Many people show up at the chiropractor’s office looking for help. I’ve yet to meet someone who wants their chiropractic care to take a long time and involve a ton of visits. Usually, it’s the opposite. People want to get great results in the shortest time-frame and with the least number of visits as possible. That makes sense. What kind of person wouldn’t want that? The good news is that recovery time and chiropractic visit numbers are not set in stone. People can get better results more quickly and with fewer chiropractic visits. But for that to happen, it requires the chiropractor and the patient to work together. If you (as the patient) put all of the responsibility of getting well on the shoulders of your chiropractor, your recovery will take longer, and it will most likely require more visits. Also, the lack of participation in your care may result in a problem that never fully heals. When that happens, you’ll find yourself saying something like, “I’ve never quite been the same since…” Thankfully, you have a lot of influence when it comes to your results. If you take a proactive role in your care, your results will be better. You will feel better faster, stay better longer, and need fewer chiropractic visits. Sounds pretty good, right? How do you take a proactive role in your care? Well, there are several things that you can do to get better results faster at the chiropractor’s office. I made a list below. They are in no particular order, and some of them may have a greater impact on your care than others. The best way to stack the deck in your favor is to do as many of them as possible.

Keep Your Appointment: It can be tempting to cancel your chiropractic appointment the moment you start feeling a little better. On the surface, that makes a lot of sense. If you are feeling better, why go? For most people, chiropractic care involves a series of visits. The purpose of multiple visits is to help you feel better and to make sure your problem doesn’t come back right away. Patients who use how they are feeling in the moment to determine if they will follow through with their treatment plan are unlikely to get the best results. Of course, not every person’s body responds to care the same way. Some people take longer to recover. Some people recover quicker than expected. If you feel like you are doing better than expected and don’t need as many visits, you may be right. Talk to your chiropractor about it. You are a team.

Be Careful: Sometimes when I tell people to be careful, they think I mean sit around and do nothing. That’s not what I mean at all. In fact, sitting around and doing nothing may be why you have a problem in the first place. What I mean is that there are certain times throughout your chiropractic care that you are more likely to re-injure yourself. The most obvious time is when you start feeling better. Healing takes time, and it’s pretty common for people to feel better before their body is fully healed. Because of that, you will want to refrain from jumping right back into situations that are likely to cause a setback. This is especially difficult for athletes since they are always chomping at the bit to get back in the game.

The other time frame that I want to warn you about is the few hours right after your chiropractic visit. Most of the time, chiropractors are performing adjustments. Those adjustments are meant to make physical changes that will help your body heal. The longer those changes last, the better you will do. That’s why you also want to be careful an hour or two right after your adjustment. That’s the time-frame that you are more likely to mess up the work your chiropractor just did. So if you have to decide between going to the chiropractor before the gym or after, I would recommend going after.

Become Posture Conscious: Most people want to avoid bad posture because of how it looks. I understand that. Bad posture makes you look old and out of shape. Bad posture also puts additional stress on your muscles and joints. That additional stress makes you more likely to end up in the chiropractor's office. As a general rule, patients who have good posture respond better to care than those who don’t. That’s why it’s in your best interest to become posture conscious. What I mean by that is not only that you become aware of your current posture, but also that you prioritize having good posture from now on.   You may need to start doing specific stretches or exercises to improve your posture. You may need to modify your work space so you’re not hunched over your computer all day. If you aren’t sure where to start, ask your chiropractor. You are a team, remember?

Keep Moving: I was going to use the word exercise, but sometimes we associate that word more with fitness than we do with motion. Your body was meant to move. Your body likes movement. One of the worst things that has happened with the development of technology is that human beings have stopped moving. What’s even crazier is that many people start hurting because they stopped moving. Then they tell themselves that they can’t move because they are hurting, and they get stuck in a cycle. One of my friends always says, “motion is lotion.” It’s her way of saying that the way you fight that unpleasant tightness and stiffness that happens to all of us is by moving. The old saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it” applies here. No, you don’t have to go from 0 to 100. You don’t have to get off your couch and immediately run a marathon. That’s crazy. You need to pace yourself. Decide to start moving more and keep moving. It will make a world of difference with how you feel and it will make you stronger.

Stretch: I already mentioned stretching when I talked about being posture conscious. Stretching is an important part of correcting posture and maintaining good posture. Stretching is also connected to mobility. Movement is much harder when your muscles are tight. Sure, your muscles will loosen up as you start using them, but that doesn't make movement a substitute for stretching. Stretching and movement complement each other. They work together. Stretching will improve your range of motion. It helps relieve certain muscle aches and pains. It promotes better circulation. And a flexible muscle is less likely to become injured with sudden movements. So if you want to get injured less often and spend less time in the chiropractor's office, make flexibility a priority.

Sleep Well: Sleep is so important for your health. Poor sleep makes you more likely to get into an accident. It makes you susceptible to illness. It negatively affects your cognitive function. Poor sleep is devastating to your wellbeing and could result in more doctors visits.  Where do you start? Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Have a sleep schedule

• Avoid caffeine and other stimulants in the hours leading up to bedtime

• Keep your room temperature cool

• Don’t sleep on your stomach

• Turn off your phone notifications

Eat Well: I know. You were hoping to get through this article without me talking any more about diet. Unfortunately, I can’t do that. You are what you eat. If you put good food in your body, your body does better. Your diet affects your sleep. Your diet affects your exercise. Your diet affects how your body heals which ultimately affects how many visits you will need at the chiropractor's office. On top of that, there is the subject of weight. A bad diet will cause you to gain weight. Extra weight puts extra stress on your muscles and joints. Extra weight is not your friend, and it also affects how many visits you will need at the chiropractor's office.

Final Thoughts: Chiropractors are great. I love mine and hopefully, you love yours. But you don’t want to have to visit your chiropractor every day in order to feel well. That’s too much. If you want to get the most out of your chiropractic care with the fewest number of visits, you need to partner with your chiropractor. You are a team. You do your part, and they will do theirs. The result will be the best possible results and the fewest possible visits. That sounds pretty good to me.

Written by Dr Jerry Kennedy

Plank Progressions

Planks are great for helping to build your core muscle endurance but they do get a bit boring after a while. Check out this video if you want to challenge yourself further. Remember to squeeze your butt whilst you're planking to avoid your back taking unnecessary load which may lead to injury.

If you experience any pain, please contact our chiropractors to see if there are any areas that need addressing.

Sciatica

Sciatica describes symptoms of buttock and leg pain. This sometimes includes tingling, numbness or weakness. It originates in the lower back and travels through the buttock and down the large sciatic nerve in the back of each leg.

Common lower back problems that can cause sciatica symptoms include a lumbar herniated disc, degenerative disc disease (caused by osteoarthritis), spondylolisthesis, or spinal stenosis (caused by osteoarthritis). Sciatica isn't an actual diagnosis, it's just referring to the symptoms.  Often people refer to their back or leg pain as sciatica but if your pain isn't going below your knee, it's unlikely to be caused by your sciatic nerve, even if it's a really sharp pain. 

Sciatica Nerve Pain Characteristics

It may comprise of one or more of the following:

• Constant pain or pain brought on by certain movements in only one side of the buttock or leg (rarely in both legs)
• Pain that is worse when sitting, coughing, sneezing or going to the toilet 
• Leg pain that is often described as burning, tingling, or searing as opposed to a dull ache
• Weakness, numbness or difficulty moving the leg, foot, and/or toes
• A sharp pain that may make it difficult to stand up or walk and pain getting in and out of a chair
• Pain that radiates down the leg and possibly into the foot and toes 

Sciatic pain may range from being mild and occurring infrequently to excruciating and debilitating. In rare and extreme cases, where the pain is caused by a disc herniation, it may cause a condition called cauda equina syndrome which can result in a loss of bowel, bladder and sexual dysfunction. This is a medical emergency.

The Sciatic Nerve and Sciatica

The sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in the human body and is made up of 5 individual nerve roots which exit from the Lumbar spine (lower back). Sciatica symptoms occur when the large sciatic nerve is irritated or compressed at or near its point of origin.

If you're experiencing sciatica symptoms please contact us as our chiropractors can help you out. 

How is it diagnosed

Your chiropractor will take a thorough history to determine when and how the injury occurred as well as what aggravates and alleviates it. You will be taken through a series of tests including orthopaedic and neurological testing and muscular strength test providing it doesn't increase your pain. You may also have X-rays taken to check for any slippage of a vertebra, osteoarthritis, disc narrowing and the amount of curvature in your spine. 

Treatment

Bed rest isn't a good idea unless you just can't get out of bed and try to minimise it to a few days. Try to move as much as your pain will allow you to as it will help you to heal faster. Try bending forwards, backwards, side to side and rotating only in a comfortable range.

Spinal manipulation has been shown to help reduce pain (1). This in combination with exercises specifically prescribed for you will help you recover faster. 

If needed, take pain killers to help you tolerate your severe pain and get adequate rest. Don't over do it just because you can't feel the pain anymore as you may cause further injury. Heat packs can also help to manage the pain.

Surgery is a last resort and most cases can be managed with conservative chiropractic care. 

Our chiropractors have had extensive experience in dealing with clients who have sciatica. If you would like help with this please contact us or book in online.

(1) https://nccih.nih.gov/health/pain/spinemanipulation.htm#science

Fuel For Your Back

Your back pain isn't only affected by what you do or don't do throughout the day but also by what you eat. 

What you eat affects your back pain and body composition. Your body is like a car's engine, if you fuel it with e-10 and it needs 95 or 98 octane fuel, don't get upset when it doesn't give you the output you want. Research shows that a plant-based diet is best to help reduce pain and inflammation. Whilst a purely plant based diet makes it harder to get in enough protein and you may be sad to not eat meat, the Mediterranean diet is a happy medium.

If you would like to know more about fuelling your body properly to reduce pain please contact us or book in online to start feeling better today as our chiropractors love being able to help.

How Do I Strengthen My Back?

If you really want to make headway in regards to getting a stronger back to reduce pain and tension, you need to address the weak muscles and areas that aren't moving properly in your body. To obtain your best results you need to be assessed for these imbalances. Our chiropractors, are able to examine you and provide an appropriate strength and mobility rehab program tailored for your body.

If you don't have pain but you find your hamstrings and hip flexors or side of neck/shoulder muscles are always tight regardless of how much you stretch, you need to be assessed for weak areas because tight muscles aren't the root of your problem, they are a symptom of it. Stretching helps but only to a certain extent.

If you are ready to take this step please contact us or book in online to start feeling better.

If you aren't ready to take the step of coming in for a proper assessment to determine specific areas you need to work on, try these exercises at home. If you experience any pain with these exercises, please stop doing them and book in for an assessment with one of our chiropractors.

It Takes Time

When starting treatment, people and this includes myself, want to see results straight away and some people do.  For lasting changes it really does take time for our body to heal and become strong again, especially when our muscles and connective tissue have tightened up and are full of scar tissue which pulls us back into our old, incorrect posture.

I was reminded of this recently when I had a moment of frustration about my back still giving me issues after I had an unstable pelvis late in my 2nd pregnancy.  Whilst I am significantly better than I was (I could barely walk from 36 week's of gestation), I had to remind myself that I hadn't given it enough time or adequately done rehab exercises to strengthen my spine to get myself back to great spinal health.  I am now being vigilant about doing my exercises!

So, just remember - Rome wasn't built in a day... It takes time for our body to heal.

Stronger is Better

I hope you enjoyed the October Long Weekend and have adjusted to the clock going forward.  I love this time of year as the days are getting longer.

People tend to get back into exercise if they let their exercise regime lapse over winter. I want to share with you a wonderful exercise to help strengthen your core stabilising muscles, it is called the Pallof Press. It is so important to have a strong core to minimise spinal injury.  Please take a look at this video on our new Riverside Chiropractic YouTube channel.   We will be uploading more videos to our channel in the near future which is very exciting.

We will be uploading more videos to our channel soon which is very exciting.

Yippee!!

Hooray for the arrival of spring! Recently I've been getting stuck into my garden at home by removing some small trees and lots of weeds.  It struck me as to what a good workout it was as well as other DIY activities, however, it is potentially quite damaging for one's spine.  Some of these tips might be really obvious to you but nevertheless a reminder is always good.

1) Vary your position when doing a prolonged activity eg if raking do it from the right and left hand side of body and when weeding change from between crouching, squatting and kneeling.  Doing a deep squat is best as it takes pressure off the balls of your feet and calves. 

2) Stretch: your muscles can get a really good workout so loosening them up when you finish will help you to not only feel better but also reduce the likelihood of injury later on.  Our resources page contains stretches. 

3) Bend your knees not only when you lift heavy pots and plants but also when picking up light objects such as a trowel or a paintbrush.

Gardening and DIY can be a great workout however it predominantly works the muscles at the front of your body so one still needs to do exercises to help strengthen their spine.  This helps to keep it healthy and reduce pain. Some of these exercises are: bridges, vertical row and core muscle exercises.  My colleagues and I can help you out if you have any questions regarding looking after your body whilst gardening.

There's A Reason Why It Is So Important

Walk into any gym or health club and you’ll find people exercising their core. Core training has taken the world by storm, and for good reason as strengthening the core creates stability and better movement and helps prevent lower back pain. To help you get the most out of your efforts, it’s important you understand what you’re doing.  We’ve outlined below the difference between local and global muscles, to help you perform core work safely and effectively.

What Is your Core?

Your core is a shorthand way of referring to all the muscles of your lower back/pelvis/hip area. It’s where your centre of gravity is located and where movement begins. A strong core stabilises the spine and pelvis and supports you as you move. The core has 29 pairs of muscles that fall into two categories:

1) Local Muscles: Think of your local muscles as the deeper muscles, the ones close to the spine and responsible for stabilisation. They don’t have much ability to move the joints. The local muscles are further broken down into primary and secondary categories. The primary local muscles are the Transverse Abdominus and Multifidi (the two most critical muscles for providing stability). The secondary local muscles are the Internal Obliques, Quadratus Lumborum, Diaphragm and Pelvic Floor muscles.

2) Global Muscles: The global muscles are the outermost layer of muscle—they’re the ones you can feel through your skin. They’re responsible for moving joints. The global muscles in the core are the Rectus Abdominus, External Obliques, Erector Spinae, Psoas Major and Iliocostalis.

The core should operate as an integrated functional unit, with the local and global muscles working together to allow easy, smooth, pain-free movement. When the muscles work together optimally, each component distributes, absorbs and transfers forces. The kinetic chain of motion functions efficiently when you do something dynamic, like exercise or run.

Core Injury

An injury to one of the core muscles usually means an episode of lower back pain. When that happens, the deep stabilizers change how they work as a way to compensate for the injury and protect the area. The stabilisers now have delayed action; they’re turned on only after you move, instead of as you move. Because now they’re not functioning as they should, the brain recruits the global muscles to compensate. That causes a core imbalance. The result: pain in the lower back, pelvis and glutes (the big muscles you sit on).

Exercises designed to help get your core muscles back in balance are the best way to prevent re-injury and avoid lower back pain. Traditional abdominal exercises are often recommended to strengthen the global muscles. These exercises can actually increase pressure on the lower spine. Similarly, traditional lower back hyperextension exercises meant to stretch out the lower spine also may actually increase pressure on it. A better approach to preventing lower back pain is restoring stability with the core exercises below.

Abdominal Brace

The abdominal brace activates all the contracting muscles in the abdominal wall. This exercise strengthens the connection between the global muscles and the deep local muscles. This helps restore the balance between them and improves spinal stiffness.

To get an idea of how the muscles in your core work, place your thumbs in the small of your back on either side of your spine. Next, do a hip hinge: bend forward from the hips about 15 degrees. You should feel the muscles in your lower back move as you bend and stand back up again.

To do the brace, stand upright and suck in your stomach, as if you were about to get punched. Hold that for 10 seconds, then relax. Repeat 20 times; do three sets.

You’ll know you’re doing the brace correctly if you poke your extended fingertips right into your side below your ribs and then brace. You should feel the muscles move under your fingertips.

Curl-Ups

Curl-ups train the Rectus Abdominus, the long abdominal muscle that runs vertically from your breastbone all the way down on both sides of your bellybutton.

Start by lying on your back with your hands palm-up beneath your lower back. Bend one leg and put the foot flat on the floor; extend the other leg, perform the abdominal brace. Hold your head and neck stiffly locked onto your ribcage - imagine them as one unit. Lift your head and shoulders slightly off the floor by about 10 centimetres and hold that position for 20 seconds. Your elbows should touch the floor while you do this.  

Relax and gently lie back again and repeat 10 times. Switch legs and repeat 10 times again. Do three sets.

Tip: If you experience neck discomfort doing this, push your tongue against the roof of the mouth to help stabilise the neck muscles.  If you experience pain in your low back try bending both knees.

Bridge

Lying on your back with your knees bent, brace your abdominals then raise your hips up until you are in a straight line.  Do not over arch your back.  Keep your hips level and hold for 10 seconds then lower hips to the  floor.  Repeat 10 times.

This strengthens all of your core muscles due to abdominal bracing as well as your Glutes and Hamstrings.  These muscles become weak from sitting too much.

Side Bridge

This exercise is great for training the back extensors, including the Longissimus, Iliocostalis and Multifidus.  

Start on your hands and knees (quadruped position). Raise and extend the opposite arm and leg simultaneously.  Hold for eight seconds, then return to the quadruped position. Repeat eight times, then switch arms and legs and repeat for ten reps. Do three sets.

All the muscles of the core must work together to produce efficient and effective movement. The core is the centre of the body’s motion—training it is a critical part of any exercise routine.