East Bay Chiropractic Wellness P.C.

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Can a Car Accident Cause Spinal Misalignment?

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Here on Long Island, like most of the country, we need a car to get around. Even if we’re taking the LIRR to work, we’re driving to the station. And while we find ourselves in cars frequently without incident, it only takes one accident to upend your day-to-day life with chronic pain and discomfort. And the odds of that happening may be higher than you expect, with more than 2 million Americans suffering injuries from car accidents every year.

The source of that pain could very likely be related to a misaligned spine. So, what are the symptoms of spinal misalignment?

What Are the Symptoms of a Misaligned Spine?

Our spine is more than just the bones in our back, it’s a major part of our nervous system. As a result, a misaligned spine can have a wide range of symptoms that may seem unrelated. These symptoms include, but are not limited to:

  • Knee pain
  • Hip pain
  • Headaches
  • Chronic fatigue
  • Numbness or tingling of the extremities.

If a misaligned spine isn’t eventually treated, depending on the severity, it could result in chronic pain and decreased mobility.

How Do You Treat a Misaligned Spine?

To best treat a misaligned spine, you’ll want to make sure you’ve consulted with a professional before anything else. If you’ve been in a car accident, it is important that you go to the hospital and get evaluated as soon as possible to ensure there aren’t any hairline fractures, internal injuries, etc. Several exercises and stretches could be recommended to you. However, it’s important to know the severity of your injuries before potentially causing further injury by performing exercises that worsen your injury. A chiropractor would be able to give you a full evaluation and determine an exercise regime that would fit your very particular needs based on your injury.

A chiropractor can also perform spinal manipulation to help put your spine back into its proper alignment. This is what most people imagine when they think of what a chiropractor does, but that is only one of the many services that can be provided.

Additionally, depending on the nature of the injury and how long ago it occurred, the Graston Technique® might be a useful addition to one’s treatment plan. The Graston Technique® is used to break up myofascial adhesions, which can limit mobility. It can also improve blood flow to the soft tissue in the injured area, which can aid the healing process.

How Long Does It Take to Treat a Misaligned Spine?

This will vary based on the extent of the misalignment in the spine. A chiropractor can give you a full evaluation and develop a treatment plan tailored to your needs. This will involve more frequent visits in the first few weeks or so, then determining the extent to which chiropractic care is helping to reduce pain and improve mobility. From there, the schedule and care plan can be reevaluated.

East Bay Chiropractic Wellness Provides a Non-invasive, Drug-Free Way to Recover from Your Injuries

As careful as we may be on the road, accidents can prove to be unavoidable. Whether it be a minor fender bender or an experience that’s far more harrowing; you may find yourself experiencing an equal amount of pain and discomfort resulting from the aftermath of whiplash. For more than 35 years, East Bay Chiropractic Wellness P.C. has provided a wide range of chiropractic services to fit your needs. We can work with you on pain management and restoring the range of motion in your neck and back through massage, the Graston Technique®, stretching exercises, spinal adjustments, and more, while avoiding risky surgeries and addictive pain medications. Schedule your appointment today and take the first step towards a more comfortable life.

How to Make Travel Easier on Your Body

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Travel often brings to mind vacations or business trips. Yet, everyday activities like commuting to work, running errands, and keeping appointments can mean spending hours traveling each day. This frequent travel without proper back support can lead to wear and tear on your back, resulting in ailments like chronic pain.

Enhancing Your Travel Routine for Better Health

To better support your body during travel, it’s crucial to maintain a healthy diet, engage in regular exercise, and follow a proper sleep schedule. However, these steps alone may not prevent back pain as we age. So, how exactly do driving and flying contribute to back pain and other chronic conditions?

Can Driving Cause Back Pain?

Yes, there is a significant link between driving and back pain. The more time you spend driving each day and the more consecutive days you spend in the car, the higher your risk of developing lower back pain. This is often due to poor posture and inadequate back support, which can lead to spinal misalignment.

Though long drives can aggravate lower back pain, taking breaks approximately every hour to get up and take a moment to stretch can reduce the risk. A professional chiropractor could provide you with additional lifestyle advice and suggestions on how to best care for your back while driving.

Does Flying Affect Joint Pain or Make Inflammation Worse?

While flying alone may not cause joint pain or inflammation, being confined on a plane when already experiencing these issues can be extremely painful. There are certainly several travel tips to reduce the risk of joint pain and inflammation while traveling on a plane.

Strategies to Minimize Joint Pain and Inflammation While Flying

  • Choose the Right Luggage: Opt for easy-to-transport luggage, like four-wheeled suitcases.
  • Check Your Bags: Prefer checking bags over having to carry and lift heavy items into overhead bins.
  • Request Assistance: Always ask for assistance when necessary to prevent exacerbating inflammation.
  • Stretch and Move: Utilize opportunities to stretch or walk when it’s safe to do so during the flight.

East Bay Chiropractic Can Help to Alleviate Your Back Pain and Increase Your Quality of Life

Frequent travel without proper back support can cause spinal misalignment and aggravate a number of chronic conditions, such as joint pain. East Bay Chiropractic specializes in the use of the Graston Technique® in pain management and relief caused by soft tissue fibrosis and chronic inflammation that could lead to constant discomfort or pain. And with decades of experience, you know you’ll be in good hands. Contact East Bay Chiropractic and request an appointment today.

Stadium Seating and Your Back: Correct Posture Month

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Nothing says summer in America like attending a baseball game. Watching a game while sitting in the sunshine, drinking beer, and eating hot dogs is a quintessential summertime experience. One aspect that may be lacking is comfortable seating, especially at minor league or children’s games, where you may find yourself sitting in bleachers.

Bleachers are designed to accommodate a large number of people in a relatively small space. Unfortunately, they aren’t designed for comfort or optimal ergonomics.

Can bleachers cause back pain? Yes, absolutely, but whether it’s a baseball game, swim meet, wrestling match, marching band exhibition, or other events, there are steps you can take to protect your back.

Why Does My Back Hurt When I Sit on Bleachers?

Bleacher seating is flat, hard, and in back support. Bleachers aren’t only uncomfortable; they encourage poor posture, which leads to back, hip, and leg pain.

Most of us know that prolonged sitting is bad for the back; it compresses the lumbar discs and misaligns the spine. Sitting on hard, backless bleachers makes the problem even worse. It also leads to “bleacher butt,” where pressure from sitting on a hard surface irritates the bones and ligaments in the backside.

How Do You Sit on Bleachers Without Hurting Your Back?

The best way to avoid a bleacher backache is to maintain correct posture, preserving the natural curve of your spine. Sit up straight, using your abdominal muscles, with your shoulders back. Hold your knees at a 90-degree angle, aligned with your hips. Keep your weight distributed evenly on both hips.

Change your position approximately every half hour to prevent prolonged stress. Take regular breaks from sitting; get up and move around from time to time.

Avoid putting your feet up on the seat in front of you. It may feel more comfortable in the short term, but it causes you to hunch forward, creating an unnatural arch in the spine. This puts excessive pressure on your lower back, which can damage your discs. Instead, keep your feet flat on the floor.

Be sure to stay well-hydrated, which promotes flexible, healthy discs. Remember that alcohol and caffeine dehydrate the body. When you leave the event, stretch thoroughly before you get in the car and again when you get out of it. See your chiropractor regularly to get adjustments.

How Can I Make a Stadium Seat More Comfortable?

Bleacher sitting is rarely comfortable, but some supports and cushions can make the experience less painful. Stadium seats or foam stadium chairs with back supports and thick cushioning are optimal, but an ergonomic gel cushion or even a folded blanket is better than hard, bare bleachers.

These items are sold at sporting goods stores and other retailers. Some sports venues offer rental seats with cushions and back support. If you plan to bring your own seat, check venue regulations to be sure it is on their list of approved items.

Make Chiropractic Care Part of Your Sports Spectating Routine

Being proactive can reduce bleacher back and butt pain. If you experience discomfort, we can help manage pain and restore a normal range of motion with spinal adjustments, massage, and more. For more than 35 years, East Bay Chiropractic Wellness has provided a broad range of chiropractic services to Long Island residents. We specialize in the Graston Technique® to break up fascial restrictions and promote soft tissue healing. Contact us online to schedule an appointment.

Benefits of Chiropractic Care for Teachers

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As a teacher, your day is busy enough that you might not notice your physical exertion until long after the school day is done. Reaching for an ice pack or an over-the-counter pain medication may seem like it’s the thing to do. However, there are many benefits to chiropractic care that can help alleviate the pain stemming from the deceptively physically demanding teaching career.

Roughly 35% of the 22 million Americans visiting chiropractors each year are seeking relief from back pain, neck pain, pain in the limbs, and headaches. Those looking for alternatives to surgery or medication for back pain relief often turn to chiropractic treatments.

Why Does My Back Hurt After School?

If you experience soreness or back pain at the end of a day molding young minds, you might not even realize the strain you place your body under. Activities common to teachers that lead to back pain include standing for long hours, a head-down posture (as if looking down at a desk, grading papers, or leaning over to help a student), or even the repeated lifting of school supplies.

How Can Chiropractic Care Help Teachers?

Spinal manipulation has been associated with moderate improvements in back pain. There’s even some evidence that chiropractic manipulation may help slow the progression of arthritis by improving cartilage, bone, and the joint capsule.

Grading papers and all the other work that can lead to one hunching over a desk can result in a poor hyperkyphosis, or hunchback, posture. Chiropractic treatments can be a boon to improving posture and providing pain relief in the head and neck.

Realigning your spine can ease the tension in your neck muscles to reduce pain and improve posture. The Graston® technique is another treatment that helps with chronic pain, improves posture and function.

People who experience chronic pain are often given prescription pain relievers to help manage their pain and discomfort. Receiving chiropractic treatment may eliminate or lower the reliance on pain medication.

Why Do Teachers Have Back Pain?

The average person doesn’t realize how easily teaching can contribute to or even cause back pain. Teachers of lower grades might sit on the floor or on child-sized chairs to be closer to their students. Teachers also spend long hours standing without a break. Bending over to help students and even sitting with their necks and possibly shoulders slumped forward while grading papers will also cause or contribute to back pain.

To make things worse, Teachers may avoid drinking water to minimize bathroom breaks or consume diuretics like coffee or tea. Since well-hydrated muscles are more pliable, dehydration can worsen back pain.

Lower back pain is the second most common reason for doctor visits in the U.S. For teachers, it can mean a diminished quality of life, functional impairment, frequent sick leaves, and even early retirement. Addressing lower back pain promptly may prevent the need for more invasive treatments such as surgery or injections.

There is evidence that early intervention with physical therapy or chiropractic care can lessen treatment costs and reliance on more expensive health services. The official Oregon State website references the “economic burden of low back and neck pain” and cites a peer-reviewed study demonstrating the effectiveness of chiropractic care for these conditions.

Both chiropractic care and physical therapy are often more effective than non-pharmacological treatments for lower back pain, with chiropractic services generally costing less than physical therapy.

Talk to East Bay Chiropractic Wellness About How Chiropractic Care Can Improve Your Life

For more than 35 years, East Bay Chiropractic Wellness P.C. has been providing a wide range of chiropractic services to Long Island residents, treating a wide range of conditions that impact day-to-day life. We can work with you on pain management and restoring a normal range of motion through spinal adjustments, massage, stretching exercises, the Graston Technique®, and much more. Schedule your appointment today.

How Can the Graston Technique® Treat Chronic Pain?

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The Graston Technique® is a soft-tissue instrument-assisted mobilization, a manual therapy technique used in chiropractic treatments. Instead of using just one’s hands, practitioners of this technique use six instruments combined with a specialized form of massage to achieve a therapeutic effect by releasing adhesions that restrict mobility, causing pain.

Chronic pain is any pain that lasts multiple months (typically 3-6). It’s a common enough problem that roughly 20 percent of all U.S. adults deal with it.

Does Insurance Cover the Graston Technique®?

Chiropractic care isn’t specified in federal essential health benefits requirements. So, whether or not your insurance provider will cover the Graston Technique® will depend on the state you live in and your own personal insurance plan.

Does Graston Help with Whiplash?

If you’ve suffered a car accident injury and you’ve been suffering whiplash for months, then you should see a trained chiropractor or other qualified health professional. They can help you establish a program to help improve your neck’s strength and flexibility.

How Do You Break Up Scar Tissue from Whiplash?

Each of the six core tools used in the Graston Technique® is made of stainless steel and comes in an array of convex and concave shapes. They’re used to scan over the body to detect areas of injured fibrotic tissue.

The Graston Technique® works to break down adhesions and fascial restrictions found in the soft tissue areas affected by trauma. It attempts to stretch and rearrange tissue to reduce restrictions on the treated areas.

Why Is It Important to See a Chiropractor After a Car Accident?

A chiropractor can help reduce pain and discomfort throughout the neck and back. It can also help reduce inflammation and swelling.

Some states require a person involved in a car accident to seek medical treatment within an allotted amount of time close to the time of the incident to qualify for certain times of insurance.

Does Graston Work for Back Pain?

A back injury is one of the most common results of harm from an auto collision. Evidence suggests that massage and other manual therapies can help reduce pain and improve mobility function with chronic nonspecific neck to lower back pain.

Can Graston Help with Back Injuries?

Scar tissue can limit a muscle’s ability to move normally and cause back muscles to tighten, which can work the spine out of alignment. This can lead to a herniated disc, also called a slipped disc.

Can a Slipped Disc Be Fixed by a Chiropractor?

Chiropractic care can prevent a herniated disc from worsening and ease pain symptoms and inflammation. Certain cases of fragmented herniated discs may be beyond being treated by chiropractic care and may require surgery.

Your treatment plan with your chiropractor will vary in specifics depending on your physical activity level, pain level, overall health, and other factors.

East Bay Chiropractic Can Help to Alleviate Pain

For many people, chronic pain is a daily challenge. East Bay Chiropractic specializes in the use of the Graston Technique® in pain management and relief caused by soft tissue fibrosis and chronic inflammation that could lead to constant discomfort or pain. Contact East Bay Chiropractic today and learn more about how we can help you manage your chronic pain with the Graston Technique®.

How Chiropractic Care Can Help Following a Car Accident

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Many of us spend some time in a car almost every day. Whether we’re commuting to work, running errands, or visiting loved ones, driving is an integral part of life here on Long Island.

And while using a car overall is a safe form of travel, it’s not without its risks. More than five million car accidents are reported, on average, every year. Thankfully, less than 1% of all accidents lead to fatalities. That said, many of those who wind up in a car accident run the risk of injury.

While some car accident injuries are minor and heal quickly, others can persist, leading to chronic pain and discomfort. One of the most common enduring injuries is whiplash.

Can a Chiropractor Fix Whiplash?

To understand how a chiropractor can be help in treating whiplash, it’s important to understand the cause and symptoms. Whiplash typically occurs when a car abruptly halts during an accident, causing the neck to jerk backward and forward rapidly. This abrupt motion can result in the tearing of tendons and ligaments in the neck. Common symptoms include:

  • Headaches
  • Neck pain or stiffness
  • Dizziness
  • Drowsiness
  • Blurred vision

Over time, it can also cause chronic pain in the head, neck, and shoulders.

Chiropractors focus on injuries and conditions affecting tendons, ligaments, muscles, bones, and the nervous system. Therefore, they can treat whiplash symptoms from car accident injuries by addressing the underlying issue—the tears in the tendons and ligaments.

Can A Slipped Disc Be Fixed by a Chiropractor?

If the resulting accident leads to another injury, in this case, a slipped disc, chiropractic care can be helpful for your recovery as well. Spinal manipulation and massage therapy can help alleviate stress and pain in the affected areas. Most slipped disc injuries heal within six weeks. Chiropractic care can provide pain management for both such injuries simultaneously if needed.

Does Graston Help with Whiplash?

The Graston Technique® is used for injuries just like those caused by whiplash. Its primary purpose is to break up hidden adhesions in the tissue over tendons and ligaments, a common occurrence in whiplash injuries. This technique helps relieve pain and improve range of motion. A licensed chiropractor can effectively utilize the Graston Technique® to treat whiplash and similar injuries.

Get Car Accident Chiropractic Care at East Bay Chiropractic

Unfortunately, whiplash is a common injury affecting millions of Americans each year. At East Bay Chiropractic, we specialize in the Graston Technique® as a pain management approach that targets soft tissue scars, reducing inflammation and helping you regain your life comfortably. This technique has also been proven effective in alleviating whiplash-induced pain. With nearly three decades of experience, you can trust that you’re in capable hands. Contact East Bay Chiropractic today to learn how we can help you manage your chronic pain.