Chiropractic for Arthritis

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Health In The Bay Tomato in HandsDo you experience pain, swelling or stiffness in your joints? Do you find it difficult to walk up stairs or open jars?
If so, you may be one of 3.85 million Australians affected by arthritis, one of the major causes of disability and chronic pain in Australia.

Arthritis comes in many different forms, all of which can have a major impact on your quality of life. It is a condition of the joints that causes the cartilage lining the joint surfaces to slowly wear out. This may then result in stiffness, swelling and pain. The decreases in mobility of the joints also have a high tendency to affect the biomechanics of the spine as well as other joints of the body. For example, if you have arthritis in the knee, it can also affect the mechanics of your hip joints which will ultimately have a big impact on the biomechanics of the spine.

How can we help?

Many studies have shown Chiropractic to be remarkably effective in managing arthritis and its symptoms. With regular chiropractic care, the body will be able to do better what it has always been designed to do, to move! The joints will move more freely with lesser restrictions and less pain. Furthermore, we also detect and correct misalignments in the spine that is directly or indirectly affected by the arthritis. Having a properly aligned and functioning spine means increasing life energy in the nerves supplying every organ, cell and tissue of the body. This promotes your body’s natural ability to heal itself as well as increasing the immune system to limit further stress caused by the arthritis.

Chiropractic is a non-invasive method of care, which means we do not utilize medication or anti-inflammatory drugs for pain relief, therefore reducing any harmful side effects that can be associated with these drugs.

Combined with a positive focus and nutritious diet and exercise, Chiropractic provides a healthy lifestyle change that will get you going again!

 

Why do we get Back Pain?

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Pain is very important to us. It is the body’s warning signal to us that something is not right. It is a signal that usually makes us stop and take notice and then hopefully take action to change it.
Health In The Bay spoonBack pain can come from several structures. The spine is made of 24 moving bones which are interconnected at joints, called Facet Joints, along the back of the spine. Between the ends of the bones in the spine there is a disc which is soft to allow mobility as well as shock absorption.
If the Facet Joints are not moving freely then there will be irritation at these nerve-rich joints, resulting in pain.
The same change in movement in the joints, or acute trauma, can result in the dics becoming inflamed and swollen, or even ruptured. The disc can then push on the nerve exiting the spine, again resulting in pain.
Together with these issues the muscles along the spine will spasm which is again a common source of back pain and stiffness.
Chiropractic care has helped many people with these problems by utilising appropriate techniques which improve the movement of the facet joints and the relationship between the vertebrae of the spine, hence reduce any of these sources of pain. If you don’t already have a Chiropractor, or would like to try a different approach schedule an appointment today.

Stress can be a pain in the neck

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Have you ever referred to something or someone in your life as a “pain in the neck”? You were probably more accurate than you realised. Any emotional stress (which can include rushing and being very busy) can result in the muscles across the top of your shoulders tensing up. Tense muscles will be uncomfortable. Then if this tension is prolonged, over a short time the muscles in surrounding areas including the neck muscles and between the shoulder blades will also become tight and painful.

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Another response to stress is commonly clenching of the jaw or grinding teeth at night. This results in muscle spasms around the jaw, which also will cause muscle tightness in the neck, and hence neck pain and stiffness.
Poor or prolonged work posture can cause neck pain also. Work is commonly related to stress, and this together with a sustained posture over the course of the day will result in tight muscles around the neck and shoulders, resulting in pain.
Chiropractic care can help in several ways. Chiropractors can help release the tight muscles, as well as give advise on stretching and posture and activities to help maintain good muscular balance.
More more information, please read on, or contact Martina, our principal Chiropractor.

Neurolink

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Neurolink is a system of balancing the body and the physiological functioning of all its systems. The body is an amazing being that can repair and heal itself very efficiently. Sometimes due to various stressors it may not work at its optimum.
Health In The Bay breakfastNeurolink uses muscle testing to determine where there are areas of the physiology that aren’t working as ideally as it could be, and then utilises feedback to the brain about these imbalances to stimulates the brain and body to make corrections in these areas. In this way it stimulates and promotes healing and normal functioning of the body.
It can be used as a treatment all on its own, or to complement and assist other treatments and adjustments. It can address imbalances in digestion, hormones, immunity, sleep patterns and moods. It also addresses how well organs, brain centers and the nervous system are functioning, and how effective our immune response is to virus, bacteria and fungus. It results to strengthen our body to stressors including emotional chemical and physical stress and allows your body to cope better with these stressors.

The Musculoskeletal System and its Importance to our Health

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Health In The Bay beachThe Musculoskeletal System consists of bones, muscles, joints and ligaments and tendons that make up the body and allow it to be upright and to have movement. The skeleton is the framework of the body. Of this, the spine is made of 24 movable bones, 23 discs and has attachments for 12 sets of ribs and hundreds of ligaments and muscles. It supports and protects the spinal cord, and allows 31 pairs of nerves to pass from the spinal cord through small openings to muscles, organs, bones and skin.
The Nervous System consists of the Central Nervous System and the Peripheral Nervous System. The Central system consists of the brain and the spinal cord. The Peripheral Nervous System consists of all the nerves that are running through our body, from the point where they branch off the spinal cord to the target structure ie muscle, organ, bone or skin. The Central Nervous System has control over the whole body by sending and receiving signals via use of the Peripheral system.
The Nervous System controls absolutely every cell and system in the body. This means literally every muscle, every organ, every function the body has. Therefore if there is anything that impedes the function of any part of the Nervous system, the target tissue will be compromised. The opposite is also true, having a nervous system that functions optimally will result in a body that functions optimally.
As mentioned the Central Nervous system is housed and protected by the spine, with all the bodys nerves branching off the spinal cord and exiting the spine through small openings between the vertabrae. Due to this close proximity of these structures, it is easy to see how any imbalance in the spine or change in how well it moves or imbalances in the muscles around the area, can result in some impeding pressure or force on the nerve, thereby affecting its function and hence the function of the target structure. So by having a well balanced musculoskeletal system results in minimising any impeding pressure or force on the nervous system, thus allowing it to function optimally and so increasing the potential for optimal health.

Can Chiropractic help reduce headaches?

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Read more

How does chiropractic work?

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Health In The Bay rainbowOur Musculoskeletal system (ie our muscles and skeleton) is what allows us to stand, be upright and move. Musculoskeletal symptoms are what we often feel as pain in muscles and joints, and as stiffness. Through everyday stress on our bodies, such as poor posture, sustained work postures, minor bumps and falls and strains, our musculoskeletal system can become unbalanced.
This means that the relationship between the muscle and skeleton is not ideal, and this system then does not work efficiently or ergonomically, resulting in these symptoms of pain and mucsle spasms.

Chiropractic is the art and science of determining where these imbalances lie, where they have originated and why they have occurred. Then with the use of simple techniques applied to the muscles or joints, the body is able to rebalance and so function more normally and therefore function without any pain or muscle tightness.