Can Chiropractic Help With Shoulder Pain?

Chiropractors are known for their abilities in helping people with neck and back pain. The most common reason why someone even considers seeing a chiropractor is for back pain, specifically low back pain. Research and studies and the general consensus is that we can help in this area. What about shoulder pain? Is there anything a chiropractor can do to help shoulder pain?

You can certainly have a chiropractor take a look at and evaluate your shoulder problem. While the spine is most commonly adjusted, the chiropractic adjustment can be performed at any joint. A joint is anywhere two bones meet. In the case of the shoulder, we’ll be looking at three different areas; the clavicle (collarbone), the humerus (upper arm), and the scapula (the shoulder blade).

Any of these joints can move out of their normal position with extended use in the wrong way. Stress and poor posture in the upper back can lead the shoulder blade to become stuck and fixated in the wrong position. The chiropractor can adjust this area and work with the muscles to get things moving again.

The same principles apply to the humerus and the clavicle. There are certain movements in which each bone will take on a more primary role. The chiropractor can feel with his hand if the right areas are moving or not. If the joint is not moving, this means it is likely not functioning correctly. This is where the chiropractor’s expertise can be of most use.

The first evaluation of the shoulder is really to see if any of the muscles, ligaments, or tendons have torn. Depending on the severity of the tear, you may need an immediate referral for an MRI and a visit to an orthopedic specialist. You don’t want someone moving your bones around if you have a tear, and the chiropractor doesn’t want to do that either.

If you haven’t had any trauma to the shoulder joint and the pain has just come on gradually over the years. The chiropractor can take a look and provide adjustments and work to the muscles that can make a world of difference.

Can You Exercise Your Way To Bad Posture And Back Pain?

While I want to encourage each and every patient I come into contact with to start making healthier choices for themselves, I’ve had to learn to be very specific in the questions I ask them about what it is they’re doing.

“I started going to the gym three days per week!” To hear someone that has done little to no activity for themselves for years, it’s hard not to just be excited at that moment. When you’re dealing with someone who spends a majority of their day either sitting in their car, sitting in front of a computer, and sitting on their couch at home actually engage in physical activity… you want to pat them on the back and just be happy for their accomplishment.

You also want them to be successful. I want them to feel better, to have better posture, and end their back pain. I don’t want them to be discouraged because their posture seems worse and their back hurts more. That will only lead to them discontinuing all activities again. If I can direct some of what they do at the gym, they may just see the results they’re after and keep it up!

If you are going to the gym and using the cardio equipment, you’ll want to avoid things that going to make them worse. The treadmill is okay if you stand straight while you’re doing it. The recumbent bike and other stationary bikes seem to keep the person sitting with bad posture or slouching over the handlebars. The stair-steppers also seem to have a high incidence of people leaning on the machine. If you’re going to hunch over all day and then hunch over on the machine, you’re not going to help your situation.

I usually recommend the elliptical machine, because it almost forces you to stand up straight, requires some coordination, and has no impact on your joints while you’re doing it. Great for people looking to make a healthy change.

As far as the exercises you choose, the machines, and the weights, just remember that you’re trying to counter all the other daily activities that you perform. The weakest area that will help the most is to strengthen your back! Doing bench presses and abs will only further hunch you over unless you balance it with likely twice as much activity to your back.

You can’t keep working the front of your body and ignoring the back and think that your posture will improve. You can’t keep your back muscles long and weak and think that your back pain will end. Working the muscles that you can see easily in the mirror may make you feel a little better when you start to see some tone in your muscles. Unless your working your back muscles, that “tone” may be telling you that you’re on your way to more back pain.

Perform exercises that help you keep good posture and you’ll maximize your efforts.

Take Charge Of Your Health

Most health problems can be avoided. Many of the problems we deal with every day didn’t have to be there at all, if we were willing to take a good hard look at ourselves and decide to be healthy.

The first question is, do you think your body wants to be healthy or do you think you have to medicate it into being “healthy?” An easy example is if you get a cut on your skin. You know that the bandage doesn’t heal the cut, your body does. It just knows that it needs to heal that area and it gets to work. If you are a healthy person, the cut will likely heal much faster than if you are unhealthy.

I see this in my practice every day. I’m a chiropractor and we work with aligning the spine to improve the patient’s health. In order for the spine to stay in its proper position, the muscles will need to work with us. The health of the muscles will determine how fast the patient gets results.

Too many people are in pain, come in and get treatment, just to find that the results take much longer than they thought they would. Then I see patients in moderately good health that bounce back much faster than expected. The patient that consistently makes more healthy choices will get better faster than the patient that doesn’t. Period.

So how do you avoid most health problems and stay healthy? There’s not a lot of mystery to it, believe me. I’ve tried, probably just like you, to find any other new possible way to get healthy other than what has been tried and true.

1. Eat right – What does this mean? Fruits and vegetables, you know, all the stuff you don’t want to eat. If you look at your health as just the results of what you’ve been doing so far, this will help in your motivation. Eliminating one bad food at a time and replacing it with something healthy will go a long way. Maybe no more sodas, instead you’ll be drinking water. Replacing green tea for coffee, or reducing your sugar intake.

Continue to make these better choices and eventually you’ll see a big difference in how you feel. Many conditions are the result of long term diet issues. If you eat poorly, you don’t give your body any materials to maintain your health.

2. Exercise – Don’t start your new exercise program by opening up your front door and running 10 miles. Find some ways to build momentum in your exercise program. Take a walk, go play catch with your child (or even your dog), or get a bike and start doing laps around your block. Find a way to get started and go from there.

Exercise will improve the tone of your muscles, make you stronger, and most importantly, will help you deal with stress. Stress is a huge factor in your health.

It all sounds to easy, right? It’s not easy. Staying consistent with these elements of your goal to get healthy will yield plenty of benefits, just figure out your best way of sticking with it. I’ve found that adding in (or taking out) one thing at a time will make all the difference. You won’t lose fifty pounds in six weeks, but whatever you do lose will stay gone. Over the long-term, that’s what will make all the difference in your health. Take charge of your health!

Can I Be My Own Chiropractor?

At least once a month I get a question from a patient asking some version of “Why can’t I just adjust myself?” And more often, I have patients that regularly do adjust themselves, particular grabbing their own head or neck and performing a maneuver that gives them a bunch of “cracks” and makes them feel like they’ve done something good.

There are probably more reasons than what I’ll list here, but the answer is “no” you can’t be your own chiropractor. You can be your own mechanic (to a point), you can be your own handyman (to a point), you might even be your own doctor at times, but you leave the more specific and more complicated tasks to the experts.

Getting a spinal adjustment is one of those complicated things that doesn’t seem so complicated on the surface. What is it that the chiropractor is really doing? Why do I need to have a chiropractic adjustment, what’s wrong with just twisting my own neck?

I think you’ll agree that if you are trying to move your spine, you have determined that it is either not moving or it has moved out of place, right? If it can go the wrong direction and cause pain and discomfort, then it makes sense that if you move it further out of place you can make it worse. So… how do you know which way to move your vertebrae? The move that I see being performed is a “move everything and hope I get the right one at some point.”

Each vertebrae can move up to sixteen different directions. Do you know which way your vertebra has gone? That’s where the chiropractor comes in. They are trained to determined which way the bone has moved and how to move it back into the correct place. Some of the directions are extremely difficult to accomplish on your own. Chiropractors don’t adjust themselves either!

The same principle that applies to adjusting yourself also goes for having someone “bear hug” you at a family gathering and having your kids walk on your back. It’s just not specific and the person performing the “therapy” has no way of knowing which part of your spine needs to be adjusted.

The next question is “If I can’t adjust myself, why does it feel better when I do it?”

You’ll notice that when you do it, the good feeling doesn’t last long. That’s why you keep doing it over and over again during the day. You still get the endorphin release, so you’ll temporarily get a influx of pain relief that makes you think you’ve done something good for yourself. However, you’ve more likely either moved something the wrong way or moved a different bone than the one that needs it. The pain and discomfort returns once the endorphins are gone and you’re back to where you started.

In summary, you cannot be your own chiropractor. I know it can seem like a simple thing, but chiropractors are the experts at finding the right area of your spine to be adjusted and then moving it back the right way. See the experts!

Is Chiropractic Care Needed After An Accident?

Do you need to seek out chiropractic care following an auto accident? My answer is a resounding “yes!” Why is it so important? Why can’t you just rest and take the medications that were prescribed by your medical doctor? Is the insurance company going to give you a hard time about it?

The reason why chiropractic care is so important after an accident has little to do with you being in pain (although it’s good for that too). A vertebra that moves out of its normal alignment can wreak havoc on your neck and its associated nerves. You may not be in a lot of pain immediately following the accident, but research indicates that most people will experience a bulk of their symptoms after a few days.

Once you start to feel symptoms, this is a good indicator that something has moved out of place, and likely that you’re experiencing a sprain/strain kind of injury. Sprain and strain don’t sound horrible, but really they are describing tears of various tissues in your body. The severity of the tear will indicate the type of treatment you should probably consider first. The chiropractor can help make the determination.

Eventually, your body will heal with scar tissue. Scar tissue is more sensitive than the previously uninjured tissue that you had within you before. Once scar tissue sets up (this takes about 3 weeks following the trauma), it will become increasingly difficult to get you back to your pre-accident state. Receiving some chiropractic adjustments to your spine will help assure that your spine is in its best position as that scar tissue begins to form. The better your spine is when all of this occurs, the more likely you can return pain-free following your therapy and treatment.

So why can’t you just rest and take the medications? That may be your best first course of treatment for a couple of days following your accident, but certainly can’t be the best choice long term. The medications are there to help you with pain, to help you get through the difficulty of the initial phase of your injury. However, they’re certainly not fixing anything.

In addition to the chiropractic adjustment, you can typically receive additional therapies that will help your muscles and other soft tissue heal more quickly than just “resting” alone. The additional therapies also help with pain, swelling, and inflammation and can be a big help in the speed of your recovery.

Will your auto insurance or health insurance company give you any trouble? You have insurance for just this type of situation, when you need health care and you can’t afford to pay for it yourself. Your health insurance company may have issue if the accident wasn’t your fault and the other person should be paying for it (or their insurance), but otherwise you shouldn’t have trouble here.

Your auto insurance policy will determine the amount of coverage and just how much help the company has to give. Still, it’s your body and your health and you’ll need to make sure your injuries are taken care of following the accident. Where you will have trouble is if months have gone by and you haven’t gone to see any doctors, just hoping it will go away. Then you decide to tell your insurance company that they need to pay for it all. That doesn’t go over too well.

If you’ve been in an auto accident, it’s a good idea to see a chiropractor and do it as quickly as possible once you realize you’ve been injured. The faster you get some type of treatment, usually the better your results.

Low Back Pain After Sitting At The Computer

My practice is in an area that is filled with people that sit at their computer all day. They don’t have the best posture in the world, and they don’t always have the best ergonomic set up for their desks. They are also under a lot of stress. However, usually bad posture, stress, and poor ergonomics will lead to frequent headaches, neck and upper back pain… not low back pain.

Low back pain is usually reserved for those employees doing physical work, a lot of lifting, bending, and stooping. During the times that I’ve seen patients with more physical jobs, most of them presented to my office with low back pain. Now, the top half of their body provides the more abundant symptom.

So if you don’t do physical work all day, why are you getting low back pain? I noticed the same two major muscle groups being tight and stressed over and over again. By stretching these two major areas, a lot of very common symptoms, including low back pain and sciatica seemed to get quick relief. Doing the stretches also seemed to make a difference long term in my patients’ ability to get longer lasting results from their chiropractic care.

The first muscles you should stretch are your hamstrings. You sit all day and the seated position puts them in their shortest position. Standing up means your hamstrings are pulling on your pelvis and pulling things out of place. Keeping this muscle more flexible is key in helping your back pain.

People have the most trouble because they can’t quite get it stretched. First step would be to get off the floor. That’s usually too much! Stand up or sit in a chair and put your leg straight out on a chair. Slowly try to touch your toes. Just go slow and only as far as you can reasonably go without pain. Hold the stretch for at least thirty seconds. Repeat on each side twice. Usually people just don’t hold their stretches long enough to do much good. Consistency will make the difference in getting more flexible.

The next muscles to stretch are your hip rotators. Relieving the muscles here takes a lot of strain off the sciatica problem. For this one, you can even do it while lying in bed or on the floor. Keep one leg straight while you pull your other leg up to your chest. You should feel a pull. You can further stretch this area by pulling your knee across your body to get better results. Again, hold the stretch for at least thirty seconds.

Chances are, you’re not going to stop working on your computer any time soon. Taking a few minutes each day to do some stretching will make a world of difference. Seeing a chiropractor on a regular basis is also a huge help.

When Your Ergonomic Chair Isn't Enough

Based on the best ergonomic research available today, you would believe that if your monitor is in the right place, if your keyboard and mouse are positioned just right, you’ll be free of any type of repetitive stress injury.This is just not the case.

My practice is in an area heavy on computer users. They all work for top notch companies that have hired ergonomic experts to measure the angles and modify the employee’s desk and chair to make sure they are in the best position possible. Still, all of the people that come into my office are still experiencing pain and discomfort in the head, neck, upper and lower back.

Why isn’t the ergonomic chair enough? Why doesn’t it “fix” everything that can go wrong? Do we need more expensive chairs?

I don’t think this is the problem. You have to agree that the early computer workstations were not very ergonomically friendly, so it certainly helps to have improved that situation. I still see people that have problems because of either spinal misalignments or because they get so little physical activity that their spines are starting to show the wear and tear of their normal daily activities.

Just about every problem with the spine can be linked to some kind of trauma. Trauma from a car accident or a fall is easier to notice. A small, repetitive trauma that seems benign when done for a short period can really start to affect the person when done for forty or more hours per week and compounded by years of the same movements.

The muscles in the front of the body become short, creating a hunching over. The muscles in the back become longer and, because of this, they become weaker. After awhile, the best chair in the world is really only providing support for a spine that is not nearly as healthy as it could be.

In fact, it could be argued that since the chair is providing all the “support,” the person may not feel the need to improve their own spine and create a better support for themselves. Over time, the spine is only getting weaker and more is being asked of the ergonomic equipment meant to prevent injury.

What’s the solution? See a chiropractor, and make sure your spine is in alignment. Next, get some exercise and work specifically on targeting stretching of the muscles in front of your body and strengthening muscles in the back. Now your ergonomic setup will actually have something to support!

Chiropractic As Part Of A "Get Healthy" Program

If you’re like many people, you’d love to be a healthy person. If you already feel pretty healthy, that’s great. However, I’ve noticed more and more people are searching the internet for ways to get healthy. They want to be healthy, they just don’t necessarily want to have to take any difficult action steps in order to make it happen.

Getting healthy usually means all the normal steps. Eating better, getting some regular exercise, and addressing various ailments and symptoms that have begun to show up. Still, most people are going to take a passive approach to their health. They want to do things and go places where things will be “done to them” rather than them having to “do stuff.”

Let’s take eating better for example. There’s no real mystery any more for you in which foods are good for you. Fast food is usually bad (even the stuff they try to make seem like it’s good for you), and vegetables are good. When you are snacking on potato chips, you can’t honestly be telling yourself “I sure am eating healthy.” Eating healthy things, putting only healthy things in your shopping cart, and worse, planning your meals ahead of time so you don’t get caught starving and nothing to eat but fast food requires effort.

Exercise is the same thing. Remember those belts that people used to strap around their waist and get shaken into better health? You don’t see them anymore because exercise really is not a passive thing. You’ve got to get out of your chair and regularly move around to make anything happen. After awhile, just walking around is not really going to get you the results you want either. You’ll have to put in more effort to increase the intensity of your exercise to hit the next level.

Here’s the good news for those people that want to do something healthy, but don’t want to put forth a ton of effort. Get a chiropractic adjustment. You don’t have to wait for headaches, neck pain, or back pain to decide to visit a chiropractor (even though that’s what a lot of people do). Getting a chiropractic adjustment is one of the easiest things to do, and one of the healthiest.

It’s an insidious thing. You don’t see that your spine is breaking down. You don’t see the degeneration process start to occur in your spine and the spinal discs. You just know that things aren’t quite right. I’ve had patients that never complained of anything more than low back stiffness, before coming in for their first chiropractic visit.

However, their x-rays showed advanced spinal degeneration something that simply could not happen overnight. The best part of all in starting this type of program is that the only “action” you have to take is to show up. The chiropractor will do the rest, and you get to just sit back and feel better about taking a healthy step toward a better you.

What's That "Cracking" Sound?

Not everyone has to get "cracked," but everyone would benefit from a chiropractic adjustment. If you've considered chiropractic and wondered if it was right for you, give us a call today for a no-charge consultation.

Dan O'Brien And Chiropractic

If Dan O'Brien Needs Chiropractic maybe you could use it too? Give us a call today!

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How Old Do You Have To Be To See A Chiropractor?

Is there an age requirement to see a chiropractor? I've told my patients over and over again that "you're never too old to get an adjustment" and that's the truth. The oldest person I ever adjusted was 94 years old. (If you know anyone older, send them my way -- it'll help my story!)

So.. is anyone too young to get an adjustment?

The soonest I've ever adjusted anyone was within an hour of their birth. My own kids! My youngest had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck 4 times when he was born. He didn't look so great when he first showed up in the world.

Of course, being chiropractors, we were very concerned about his spine. I checked him within an hour and found a misalignment of his spine at very first vertebrae. So I adjusted him. No, I didn't lay him on the table and give him a good "crack." It was just the slightest pressure from my pinkie finger to the right bone moving it in the right direction.

If you meet him, you'll know he's as healthy as could be. Glad I didn't have to find out how that early trauma might have had an effect on his health.

Yay! It's March!

The sun will start to shine a little bit longer, the weather a bit warmer... but not yet as hot as summer. It's almost Spring! And just in time for this wonderful new weather is the CORE Chiropractic monthly e-newsletter!

I know you're excited, I can feel it through my laptop! To get this month's newsletter, please click on the link below!

Click here for CORE Chiropractic's March Newsletter

Last Weekly Health Update for February!

Here you go, your last weekly health update for the month. Whew! The month has flown by! Have you made your way closer to your health goals? Click on the link below to get this week's update:

WEEKLY HEALTH UPDATE FOR 02/23/09

Weekly Health Update for 02/16/09

Here's this week's health update. Are you reading these? Do you have any questions? Please feel free to leave a comment below!

WEEKLY HEALTH UPDATE FOR 02/16/09

Weekly Health Update for 02/09/09

To get this week's health update, just click on the link below!

WEEKLY HEALTH UPDATE FOR 02/09/09

Time Again for our Monthly e-Newsletter!

Hey everyone! Hope you're enjoying and actually have a chance to read our newsletter each month. It's filled with lots of health information you won't find in the general news.

It's also got inspirational stories to help lift your day. Thanks for being our patient. We truly appreciate each and every one of you!

Stay tuned for new and exciting things happening in our office. You know we're always up to something!

Click here for the February 2009 newsletter

Weekly Health Update for 02/02/09

To view the weekly health update for this week, please click on the link below:

WEEKLY HEALTH UPDATE 02/02/09


How's your new year coming along? Have you been making healthy changes? Is this the year?

Please remember that we are hear and ready to help you answer any health concerns you might have. Not sure about whether we can help with your problem? Just ask! Know someone that may benefit from chiropractic care but you want to make sure it can help before you tell them? Just ask!

See you around the office!

Weekly Health Update for 01/26/09

Hope your January has gone well and you've enjoyed learning more about your health.

Did you know you get a "brand new you" every 7 years? Interesting stuff! Let us know if you have any questions!

Here's the link for this week's update: January 26th Weekly Health Update

It's that time again... Update for January 19th!

Here's the link to your Weekly Health Update for January 19th!

January 19th Health Update

Weekly Health Update for 01/12/09

Here's your Weekly Health Update for January 12th!

How's your New Year coming along? Any resolutions made? Are they broken already!

There's still plenty of time in the year to get healthy. Don't give up!

Here's the link: January 12th Weekly Health Update

January e-Newsletter!

One of the most important things we try to instill in our patients is that they continue to learn new things about their health.

When we do our weekly health class, there is never anyone that regularly spends time learning about their health... yet our health is our most valuable possession!

We offer everyone a monthly e-newsletter at absolutely no cost. You can download by clicking on the following link:

January 2009 Newsletter

We hope you find it helpful and look forward to hearing from you!

Weekly Health Update - January 5th edition

Here's the link to the Weekly Health Update, the first for 2009! Check back each week for the next one in the series.

Usually I get it ready for viewing on Mondays. You'll find the quick information helpful and immediately applicable.

To Your Health!

Here's the link: January 5th Weekly Health Update