Tips for Reducing or Avoiding Back Pain

It’s common for people to think that back pain and discomfort are a normal part of life and something that must be accepted.  They learn to both accommodate and adapt as ways to function while minimizing the aches and pains as much as possible.  But what if we shared some simple tips for protecting your back that would improve your quality of life and help you to enjoy your daily activities while out and about in Mill Creek.

Tips for Protecting Your Back and Reducing Back Pain

As healthcare professionals in Mill Creek, we understand that people will often resolve to live with back pain when it isn’t necessary.  Along with these simple tips and lifestyle enhancements, there are treatments that can help as well.  But first, try these tips:

Get Up, Move Around and Avoid Prolonged Sitting

Whether professionally or for enjoyment, most of us spend long hours at the computer or sitting in one place with our eyes glued to our phone screens.  The human body, with all its complex wonder, was designed to move.  When we sit for long periods of time, it compresses the discs in our spine and creates sore muscles and a feeling of stiffness in our backs and necks.

Rx:  Get up and walk around.  Getting up and moving a little each hour will remove pressure on your spine and alleviate the pain that is rampant in our society today.  Stretching and bending is another way to improve your physical wellbeing when tasked with long hours in front of a screen. 

Healthy Nutrition and Hydration

Maintaining a healthy weight has many benefits and certainly goes a long way in keeping your back pain-free.  In particular, it’s imperative to keep weight off your midsection.  When you have excess weight around your middle, it causes an imbalance and pulls on the lower back muscles continually weakening them and making you more susceptible to pain and injury.

Rx:  In Mill Creek, we are lucky to have access to lots of local farms, markets, and restaurants that offer good healthy food.  Get excited about good nutrition by visiting local farmers’ markets or take a cooking class.  And don’t forget to hydrate and drink lots of water to aid in losing unwanted weight.  Maintaining a healthy weight may be the single most important thing you can do to reduce the burden on your back and Amazing Life Chiropractic and Wellness can help you customize a nutrition plan so you can achieve your goals.

Start, Refocus, or Continue a Sensible Exercise Program

Along with a solid nutrition plan, sensible exercise not only helps with weight control, but also keeps joints limber and improves flexibility.  Without exercise, our bodies become stiff and our various systems no longer work at peak performance.

Rx:  Amazing Life Chiropractic and Wellness can help you with exercises that you enjoy and that’s in your fitness range as well as teach you to protect your back.  Warm up properly prior to beginning your exercise session and cool down when you are finished.  And most important, if you are beginning a new exercise regime or picking one up after time away, protect your back by starting slow and building up over time…don’t jump right in and train for a marathon.

Lifting Heavy Items Using Good Body Mechanics

Many back injuries, as well as general back pain, occur when you use poor lifting techniques or body mechanics.  This causes strains and sprains that can be debilitating and are easily avoidable.

Rx:  Know your limits!  Don’t try to lift too much; sometimes it’s better to make two or three trips rather than risk a serious back injury.    When lifting, keep your back straight and lift with your legs.  And finally, don’t twist when lifting, if you must turn, move your feet and not your back and shoulders.

All of us at Amazing Life Chiropractic and Wellness wish you health and freedom of movement.  Please contact us at our Mill Creek Location for more tips on body mechanics and nutrition, as well as to discuss the natural and healthy benefits of chiropractic manipulation.

Powerful Chiropractic Treatment Options for Car Accident-Related Pain in Mill Creek

Whether a minor fender bender or a serious, multi-vehicle crash, car accidents can happen in the blink of an eye and the residual pain can be life-altering.  From a health perspective, chiropractic diagnosis and treatment for car accident injuries and the associated pain has proven effective as a long-term healthcare solution that focuses on alleviating the discomfort instead of masking it with drugs.

Common Injuries Associated with Car Accidents

The injuries sustained in car accidents are typically to the neck, back, and shoulders.  These injuries can occur when your cervical spine is suddenly and unexpectedly “whipped” backwards and then forwards with great force in what is commonly referred to as Whiplash.  This type of injury is most common in rear-end collisions when the subject doesn’t know it’s about to occur.

Conversely, when someone sees an impact coming, they will typically brace themselves in anticipation.  This leads to strained or pulled muscles in the back and neck areas that happen as a result of overstretching and cause significant pain, swelling, and discomfort.

Chiropractic Treatment for Car Accident Injuries

Each set of back and neck injuries is unique, and your chiropractic treatment plan should be customized to reflect the best care for you.  Some of the common healing therapies recommended include:

• Spinal manipulation
• Exercises to strengthen the affected areas
• Medical massage therapy
• Advice on lifestyle and nutritional choices that will aid in recovery and for the future

Seeking treatment and relief from a doctor specializing in chiropractic treatment for car accident injuries would include a thorough consultation exam that identifies the best solutions to resolve your pain and return you to healthy activity.  After the acute injury and pain is treated and subsides, patients often find an ongoing preventive regime of spinal manipulation and massage healing and curative in the longer term.

Isolating and Treating the Root Cause

When traumatic neck and back injuries result from a car accident, traditional treatment methods rely heavily on pain medication to mask the root cause.  A more holistic and natural course of treatment combines various chiropractic techniques with massage, ice and rest.  Chiropractic treatment for car accident injuries is a proven modality that is supported by insurance providers and can provide relief from the first treatment.

As a member of the community in Mill Creek and Snohomish County, our chiropractor understands the healthy and engaged lifestyles of our residents and is dedicated to returning our patients to top shape quickly.  Contact us today to learn more about your treatment options.

 

Neck Pain in Mill Creek

Are you suffering from neck pain in Mill Creek? Much of the suffering from the upper back region, including your neck, happens on the job. Up to 40% of work injuries are to the neck, arm, shoulder and back. That may be, you say, but I’m too young to suffer from neck or back pain. Maybe not. Two-thirds of all back problems occur to people under 30. Surprising, isn’t it?

Symptoms

While some experience neck pain just in their neck, for some it sometimes it spreads, leading to headaches and stiffness. With neck pain, some people may feel a “kink” in their neck or upper back, or a shooting pain in the shoulder or arm. Sometimes, they’ll notice restricted movement in these regions doing the simplest of tasks, such as putting on a coat or brushing their hair. They may even feel a loss of strength in their arm. Or starting to lose their grip! A burning, tingling or numbing sensation may be felt in the area in question. After the back, the second most common complaint is neck pain. The neck is very vulnerable to stresses and strains and often reacts violently to seemingly insignificant accidents or falls. While the neck is hurting, you may want to protect it by hindering its movement but “stopping the neck from moving when you have neck pain is probably one of the worst things you can do,” Dr. Kochelayev says. “If you have a sore neck, certainly don’t push through pain, but work within your comfortable movement pattern”.

What can cause these ailments you may ask? For the neck these can be bad or rigid posture, muscle weakness, arthritis, accidents (whiplash), nervous tension, “pinched nerve” and/or bad work habits. While for the upper back, these can be spinal dysfunction, stresses at work, injuries, disease, posture defects and/or problems from arthritis.

If you are experiencing any symptoms explained here and would like to know more, please  call 425-737-5343 to make an appointment and we will be happy to answer all of your questions!