It’s always a guessing game whenever you have a medical or dental appointment. The schedule could be backed up in flu season, an emergency appointment came in that takes precedence over your regular appointment or things may just be taking longer that day. However, those are appointments we are used to dealing with and, based on what they are for, we can usually guess how much time to budget. What should you expect with a chiropractic appointment? How long does an adjustment take? Those answers depend on many factors from whether this is your first appointment to whether there is an injury involved or it’s simply a preventive adjustment.

New Patient Appointments

Much like visiting your medical doctor for the first time, an initial chiropractic appointment will begin with the reason for the visit and medical history. It is important for the practitioner to understand any previous injuries, illnesses or physical conditions that could affect or influence the course of treatment. The symptoms, or reason for the visit, will involve many questions to help narrow down the source of the problem. They will want to know the location of the pain or injury, a description of the sensation (burning, pinching, aching, etc.), when it began, if there are other impacts when it occurs and what makes it feel better. Once the chiropractor in Baltimore, MD has the information necessary to begin the assessment, they will start to assess the range of motion, nerve response and muscle tone and strength. Finally, the practitioner may want to order x-rays or other diagnostic tests. This could take anywhere from 1-2 hours, based on the need for other tests, to get from the review of the patient’s medical history through the assessment.

Treatment

Once you have completed the history, assessment and any diagnostic tests, the Chiropractor will determine a diagnosis and course of treatment. Your first subsequent appointment will involve a review of their findings and the recommended treatment plan. After that, an adjustment can take as little as from 5-15 minutes. Based on your diagnosis, you may need to go more frequently at first. It is not unusual to start with 2-3 treatments per week. Those should normally take only about 1/2 hour, as there will be a brief assessment of your condition since the last treatment in addition to your adjustment.

Preventive Maintenance 

It is recommended that a patient continue periodic maintenance adjustments to keep the spine in good, healthy alignment once the injury or problem has been resolved. This can head off future injury or reoccurrence of the original injury. Consult with a licensed chiropractic professional to see what the correct course of treatment is for you.

Thanks to Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic for insight into chiropractic care.

Chapel Hill Chiropractor: Advice on How to Address Fire Element Imbalance

You may have heard that your fire element is not balanced. What does this mean? In Chinese Medicine, five vital elements are representing the body’s elemental energies or qi: fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. Each component connects to many aspects of each person, and Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment of disease relies upon recognition of areas of element imbalance and balance. Asymmetry of the fire element is a diagnosis that aspects of the fire element are not working well in your system for some reason. When there is no disease, all the details are harmonious. Things happen, though- mental discord occur. Injury to and imbalance in the fire element can occur in many ways, and acupuncture and Chinese medicine can help make sense of it.

The fire element comprises four channels, two, and two yins: the small intestine and sanjiao, and the heart and xinbiao. These channels course the exterior of the body from the pinky finger to the axilla and ear, and the middle finger to the lateral nipple region and to the outer eyebrow. Related aspects include: the season of summer and the sensation of heat, the emotion of joy and the bitter taste, the sense of taste and the tongue organ as well as the small intestine and heart organs, the color red and direction south, the nature of growth, of sleep and the liquid blood are all aspects of the fire element. The arteries and veins that carry blood are essential aspects of the fire element. Inflammation anywhere in the body is connected to fire.

Problems with blood pressure or coronary artery disease are connected to the fire element, as is anxiety and insomnia. Upper, mid and lower back pain can be associated, as can shoulder, forearm or hand pain. Mental disturbance of any sort is reflective of fire imbalance, and speech impediment reflects imbalance as well. A person exhibiting characteristics of fire imbalance may have intense dislike or love of the spicy flavor and scorched scent. They may sound like laughter and joy, or they may be entirely devoid of pleasure, and their sense of taste may be heightened or absent.

The imbalance might be slight and transient, especially if the problem is acute and not long lasting, possibly the result of too much sun exposure to a minor injury. The more profound imbalance that has resulted from chronic issues, assaults or untreated injuries will require more attention. Nonetheless, it will help you in many ways to resolve fire channel imbalance. Discuss your concerns with Dr. Oskardmay and, as always, write down suggestions she gives you and follow all instructions provided and keep your scheduled appointments. Fire channel imbalance may benefit most from treatment during the hot summer months, but anytime is a good time to take care of your heart.

To learn more about acupuncture and Chinese medicine, contact Acupuncture and Chiropractic in Chapel Hill today.

Chapel Hill Chiropractor: Advice on How to Reduce Back Pain

Back pain is frequently associated with problems in the hip. A chiropractic physician is a trained healthcare professional who can help determine the source of your back pain and will know how to treat vertebral and hip muscle spasm and inflammation. The hip is a large joint of connected muscles and bones with a pattern of motion that should move smoothly. Imbalance and swelling in any of the hip joints or muscles will create problems in the kinetic chain of strength power and movement in the torso and legs, affecting the body as a whole. It is essential to maintain the integrity of the connected parts of this significant region to provide balanced healing to the organization as a whole. Hip stretching exercises help to achieve this goal and are integral to any chiropractic treatment plan that aims to heal back pain.

The hip is divided into three main areas. The anterior bone made up mostly of the quadriceps muscle and is responsible for flexion and extending the leg.  The lateral hip contains the cartilaginous tensor fascia lata muscle and performs the motion of abduction or moving the leg away from the midline. The posterior pelvis is the location of the hamstrings and serves to extend the leg. In addition to moving the thigh, hip muscles also stabilize the distal knee joint. Nerve supply to the hip muscle mainly comes from the large, thumb width sciatic nerve which begins in the lower lumbar spine; dislocation of the hip can easily damage this nerve and cause pain and instability to the entire lower body. Chiropractic adjustments to the spine and lower extremity help maintain proper nerve supply and position of the hip so that injury is kept to a minimum. Tight hip muscles can negatively impact hip and back pain because contracted muscles inhibit spine and body range of motion and affect nerve flow; holistic back pain treatment pays attention to hip muscle tightness.

Your chiropractor will suggest hip and leg muscle stretches to enhance treatment goals. When a muscle contracts, tiny actin and myosin protein filaments that make up each muscle slide across each other like a ratchet. A fully contracted muscle cannot move further into contraction to move the body or support activity. To regain strength, the contracted muscle has to stretch or rebound from its contracted state before it can slide into power again.  Other, supportive factors need to be in place as well to help the muscles relax and keep injury at bay. In its uninjured, healthy state, the body has the means to accomplish muscle contraction and relaxation easily; when pain and inflammation exist; however, muscle relaxation can be difficult to achieve, and muscle spasms result in pain and inhibited motion. Your chiropractor can help you know how to stretch hip and leg muscle in a safe, supported way to help you recover from injury. She will recommend nutritional changes and other ways to improve health naturally.

Reach out to a hip pain doctor Chapel Hill, NC trusts today to schedule an appointment and get the help you need. Contact us at Acupuncture and Chiropractic in Chapel Hill today!

Chapel Hill Chiropractor: Advice on Metal Channel Imbalance

When you visit the Acupuncture clinic of Dr. Lisa Oskardmay in Chapel Hill, NC, you may receive a diagnosis of metal channel imbalance. What does this mean? It may seem strange at first to think about your health in terms of balance and asymmetry of the natural world, but it makes sense in Chinese medicine which is a logical and orderly health system that has helped millions of people over the millennium achieve better health. Each channel or meridian in the body corresponds to certain health aspects and natural phenomenon we see every day, and each has an element or natural association related to either metal, water, wood, fire, and earth. Patterns help us to understand the source of disease and health problems; treatment aims to resolve distortions of the natural order.

Metal is the season of autumn, of the start of decline, and colors are grayness and white color. Organs associated with this element are the lungs, the skin and large intestine which are our vital organs of detoxification, boundary, and release. Grief and sadness are emotions of metal, and connected smells are rotten or putrid, and the flavor is pungent or spicy. Dryness is a power of metal. The time of day associated with the metal channel is early morning.

Additionally, body areas more likely to be irritated on any level with metal element imbalance are the ulnar (thumb) side of the hands to the anterior shoulders and across the face to the opposite side of the nose. Back spine regions include the midthoracic area (T34) and low back (L5). The metal channel is only one to cross the body. The sense of smell connects with metal element issues, and the nose and sinuses reflect health and disease.

Associations such as those described above for the metal element are helpful to understand the causes and repercussions of problems one may experience. Seemingly disparate and disjointed symptoms can be more readily explained through the lens of Chinese medicine. For instance, a person grieving over a severe loss may develop dry eczema, especially on the arms and shoulders or asthma with symptoms worsening in the early morning hours. They may have back pain between the shoulder blades or low back with constipation.  A person may have an extreme craving of or dislike the flavors and smells of metal- spicy, putrid and rotten. He/she may experience irritation of the thumb and anterior shoulder a lot especially in the autumn season. A person with metal channel imbalance may have trouble grieving and letting go of issues.

These associations are not concrete, and all of them need not be present for the patient to have a metal imbalance. Nonetheless, with disruption of the metal channels, it’s nice to know about the patterns seen in Chinese medicine. Many people choose to come in for a `metal channel tune-up` at the start of the fall season to ward off problems. Visit us at Acupuncture and Chiropractic in Chapel Hill to see how acupuncture can help you.

Chapel Hill Chiropractor: Advice on Back and Neck Pain

Have you ever wondered why back or neck pain is so debilitating? For one reason, neck and back pain frequently accompany pain in other areas of the body. We find neck pain in people who have shoulder or arm pain, for instance. Carpal tunnel syndrome exists in people who have cervical spine problems, and tennis elbow sometimes follows irritation of the lower neck vertebrae. Wrist, arm, elbow and shoulder pain all share nerve connection with the neck.

Similarly, inflammation at the lower lumbar spine region many times precedes or follows foot problems such as plantar fasciitis or heel spurs and pain; knee derangement exists in people who have low back pain. The reason why neck and back pain is thus patterned is that the nerves that exit the spine carry messages to specific areas. When the vertebral column is injured and inflamed, the nerves exiting the spine at that level get irritated, pinched and far-reaching symptoms result. A chiropractic physician is a trained professional who can evaluate and treat neck, back, and shoulder, hip or knee pain because they recognize this connection and treat pain at its source.

The cervical spine has seven vertebrae with eight cervical nerves. Messages from the nerves which arise from the neck and exit from cervical vertebrae travel to and from muscles and ligaments of these upper extremity regions. Irritation at any point in the nerve pathway can affect the neck and upper limb.  What this means is that problems originating in the wrist, for instance, can irritate the cervical spine, just like inflammation in the neck can hurt the wrist. To heal the system effectively, choose a healthcare provider such as a chiropractor who recognizes and treats the body as a whole.

Treatment of neck and shoulder to wrist pain needs to include vertebral care such as posture assessment and spine mobilization. Additionally, the muscles and ligaments of the upper limb need support to heal; treatment can consist of soft tissue massage and muscle stretches to repair altered nerve messages and pathways. In this multifaceted, holistic approach full recovery is expected sooner. Your chiropractic physician will mobilize vertebral subluxations to restore nerve connections and treat injured distal regions such as the wrist and shoulder using physical modalities such as massage, ultrasound therapy or muscle stretching.

The lumbar spine consists of 5 lumbar vertebrae and five lumbar nerves which travel to the hips, legs, knees, and feet. Treatment of lower extremity pain needs to include evaluation and mobilization of the spine to assist the nerves that signal a change in those areas. Likewise, when problems arise in the feet or knees or hips from injury, for instance, it is crucial to have the spine treated as well as the injured area to keep the nerve messages intact. A chiropractor is well suited to handle many types of upper and lower limb pain and disability and associated neck and low back pain.

If you have neck or back pain and want to avoid or need treatment for shoulder wrist and hip knee problems that follow, call the offices of Acupuncture and Chiropractic offices of Dr. Lisa Oskardmay in Chapel Hill, NC today. She is there to help!

Acupuncturist Chapel Hill, NC

What should a patient expect on their first visit to a chiropractor or acupuncturist? You may wonder what to expect in the office of an alternative medicine practitioner after you make the first appointment. Will it be similar to what you expect to happen at your medical doctor’s office? Will it be different? The answer to each of these questions is `yes’.

Once you decide to pursue so-called `alternative medicine’, your healthcare journey will be similar to standard medical care in many ways, but will also be significantly different. And, don’t worry- you can always change your mind and `go back` to standard medical care, or, better yet, combine them. `Complimentary medical care` is another name for alternative medicine- chiropractic and acupuncture, etc. support healing on many levels and do not exclude the healing opportunities offered by medicine. Many chiropractic doctors or acupuncturists share referrals with medical doctors and other healthcare practitioners, share online `Patient Portal` links and insurance billing information to make it easier to provide healthcare. This facilitates healthcare delivery and can reduce paperwork.

During your initial visit to a chiropractor or acupuncturist Chapel Hill, NC chooses, like Acupractic Natural Healing Center, you will complete health intake forms and provide insurance information prior to your visit with the doctor/practitioner.  Your chiropractor or acupuncturist will need to know your health history: surgeries, medications, health issues and concerns, family history, etc. In addition, you will be asked about areas of current pain, digestion, sleep, activities of daily life; your spine, posture, and extremities will be assessed and palpated, touched and evaluated.

The chiropractor or acupuncturist will watch and assess your posture and the way you walk or carry yourself in order to see how posture affects your health. They will check your pulses on the wrists, look at your tongue, and your eyes to gain important information related to health  They will palpate regions related to pain or other concerns in order to gain more information about those areas and to determine range of motion, imbalances to temperature and sensation. Your practitioner may use orthopedic and neurological tests such as: Valsalva or Phalens to determine nervous system functioning and cause of pain.  If additional information is needed your acupuncturist or chiropractor will ask for test results from other sources and practitioners; x-rays or blood work can provide valuable health clues.

Following the exam, your practitioner may provide therapeutic treatment to offer some relief that first visit. Not all offices do this however; be sure to check when you make an appointment because many offices prefer to start treatment on the next visit along with a `Report of Findings` where information obtained in the exam is explained and a treatment plan created.

At the front desk after the initial exam, an office assistant will collect payment and schedule your next appointment. He/she will explain what your insurance benefits cover and what you can expect to pay at each visit. They will give you office materials to take home and explain other office policies such as how to schedule or change appointments, how to visit the website or how to contact the office after hours. If you have questions, please ask.

Hip Pain Doctor Chapel Hill, NC

Sciatica is the term used to describe the symptoms that result from compression of the long sciatic nerve extending from the low back to the leg. Generally affecting one side of the body at a time, sciatica symptoms can be disabling and affect one’s ability to walk, sit and sleep. Numbness and muscle weakness of the leg and hip can accompany the nerve pain. Sciatica can reach all the way down to the feet and affect the hip, knees, and feet as well. Over time, untreated sciatica can affect gait and create postural deviations that can be hard to overcome. Alternative medicine treatments for sciatica such as chiropractic are increasingly used to help many people.

People of all ages can get sciatica. although it is very rare in toddlers and children, and much more common in adults in their fourth decade of life and older. About 40% of people experience sciatica at some point in their lives, making it one of the most common ailments. Sciatica pain can come on suddenly with no warning and is usually caused by performing repetitive activities such as lifting or twisting and pulling. Many people suffering from sciatica visit their chiropractor to get help.

The main cause of damage is compression injury to the sciatic nerve – a nerve bundle arising from the lower lumbar spine segments L3,4, and 5. The nerve bundle travels through the hip under the piriformis muscle, then branches out again in the thigh and leg. Nerve compression can originate in the back at the nerve origin or in the hip under the piriformis. Causes can be herniated disc in the low back putting pressure on the lower lumber nerves as they exit the spine, or vertebral or hip misalignment and inflammation affecting nerve pathway. Piriformis syndrome (compression of the sciatic nerve under the piriformis hip muscle) can mimic sciatica and treatment can be similar.  A thorough physical exam as performed by your chiropractic physician or medical doctor can help determine the cause and extent of your back and leg pain. Xrays, CT scans and MRI exams may be used, but are no replacement for a good physical exam and are sometimes inconclusive.

Treatment for this condition depends on the cause. If there is nerve damage or loss of muscle control, this can indicate a surgical emergency. Otherwise, the medical treatment of sciatica frequently involves relaxing involved muscles and controlling pain with medications. Physical therapy may be added when appropriate to improve posture and strengthen and balance weak and tight muscles. Chiropractic care focuses on finding and resolving vertebral irritation and kinetic chain imbalance in order to resolve pain at the source. Treatment involves chiropractic adjustments or acupuncture to the lumbar spine and hips to improve nerve flow, with muscle therapy to the paraspinal muscles, hips, legs, and other involved areas. Treatment can be very effective with most sufferers becoming pain-free in as short as a few weeks.

Chiropractic care for sciatica can be an effective and long-lasting choice. Call a hip pain doctor Chapel Hill, NC trusts today to schedule an appointment and get the help you need.

Thank you to our friends and contributors at Acupractic Natural Healing Center for their insight into acupuncture and sciatica.