Archive for chiropractic
Dr. Steven Alff, your Ventura Chiropractor, wants you to know that there are a variety of chiropractic treatment plans that can be effectual when treating your musculoskeletal system, from eliminating a particular problem to responding to your general health issues. After thoroughly examining you, Dr. Alff will inform you as to which treatment plan would be most effective for you. As your Chiropractor in Ventura, he will want to provide you with a range of treatment strategies from which you can select in accordance with your immediate concerns as well as your long term health and fitness goals.
It could be practical for you to have some concept, ahead of time, about the versatile chiropractic treatment plans Dr. Alff will likely propose.
Relief Care is the specific chiropractic option made available to individuals who are in the throes of pain and distress, no matter what the source of the condition. The purpose of this type of treatment is to offer prompt pain relief. The length of the treatment time period can be difficult to pinpoint as it depends exclusively on the extent of the problem or disability experienced by the individual and how quickly it can be remedied.
Corrective Care typically is a “more advanced” method of chiropractic treatment. This is for those who have endured spinal issues over an extended time period, which is to say, for those who have a chronic problem that has evolved into a more problematic situation owing to their putting off proper care. Remedial treatment in most cases stretches over a longer period of time. How long care is necessary is determined by the magnitude of the progressive affect and how rapidly the individual responds to the treatment.
Maintenance Care, as the name suggests, is intended to maintain or sustain any kind of procedure previously administered to a patient. Many times, chiropractic care is extended solely after the initial treatments have been estimated to be successful. The goal of this kind of chiropractic care is to minimize the possibility of the original affliction coming back and to discourage degenerative changes in the future.
Wellness Care is extended to those people that are not feeling severe discomfort, but are looking to enrich their overall health. Periodic chiropractic treatment improves the flow of blood and oxygen inside the body, enhances muscle flexibility, helps prevent work and play injury, and boosts an individual’s entire sense of well-being.
It doesn’t matter if you are presently suffering from pain or you want to increase your overall health, chiropractic care can help. Call Dr. Alff, your Ventura Chiropractor, today!
Ventura Chiropractor: Chiropractic Treatment Can Frequently Relieve Vertigo
Posted by: | CommentsWhat is vertigo? Vertigo is a medical term used to denote the dizzy feeling that someone suffers within a fixed environment. It is a sense that the outer world is tilting or spinning. The disturbance can be sudden and short-lived or chronic. Whether acute or chronic, however, the origin of the vertigo should be uncovered and the necessary treatment undertaken.
There are a number of causes for the symptoms of Vertigo. An inner ear condition, known as Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, can frequently occur as the aftermath of a sustained head trauma or severe cold. Sometimes this type of vertigo can be the result of the aging process. The cause, however, frequently is unknown. Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo may appear to be an unusually long term, but it delineates perfectly this non-progressive affliction that is caused by, as its name implies, a quick change in head position. Such episodes are generally unexpected and unpredictable.
It is helpful to discuss the function of the inner ear in order to understand what produces the frequently immobilizing symptoms of this type of vertigo. The brain senses movement and maintains balance through the medium of the fluid contained in the inner ear. The inner ear also contains small calcium carbonate crystals, known as otoconia. These crystals will float in the inner ear fluid if dislodged. As the crystals strike against the sensitive nerve endings in the inner ear, they cause the symptoms of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo or BPPV.
Fortunately, chiropractors using a technique known as the Epley maneuver, can eliminate the symptoms of BPPV quickly and effectively. Using this technique, your Ventura chiropractor slowly turns the head of a BPPV sufferer into several different positions, allowing gravity to move the calcium carbonate crystals into an area of the inner ear that is away from the nerve endings where they will cause no further dizziness.
Your Ventura chiropractor has assisted hundreds of individuals for Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo using the Epley Maneuver technique and the majority of patients are no longer dizzy after with just one treatment. Make an appointment with your chiropractor today!
Ventura Chiropractor: Don't Let Excess Weight Put Your Joints on Overload
Posted by: | CommentsIt is no secret that carrying around excess body weight, especially as we age, can cause a number of health problems from heart and pulmonary diseases and diabetes to back and joint pain. Surplus poundage puts extra stress on organs, like the heart, and on joints in the low back, hips, and knees. Over half (62%) of American adults are overweight or obese, according to recent studies. That is a gigantic number and a huge problem (no joke).
Excess weight, in the form of body fat, overburdens the structure of the human body. It was not designed for the added. The musculoskeletal system can literally be put on overload with only an additional 20 or 30 pounds. For example, in an effort to compensate (counterbalance) for weight in the belly, the pelvis tilts forward. This causes joints in the low back to compress. Joint compression inhibits nerve function and produces painful inflammation. Most individuals who are overweight suffer from low back pain caused by a pinched sciatic nerve or misalignments of the spinal column that impinge nerves due to weight-bearing stresses. Misaligned vertebra can not only produce new arthritic changes in the spine, but can continue to irritate the degenerative changes that have already taken place over the years.
You may be wondering how chiropractic can help. First of all, to be clear, a healthy body weight is requisite in order for the musculoskeletal system to perform the way it is meant to. That said, in addition, chiropractic treatment relieves nerve impedence in the spine and helps to restore motion back into the joints of the musculoskeletal system, like in the low back, hips, and knees. A spine in alignment and joints that have good mobility make exercise and physical activity a lot easier. Exercise will not only help in weight reduction, but it can actually decelerate degenerative changes as a person ages.
It is always a good plan to make an appointment with a healthcare professional, like your chiropractor, to discuss diet and exercise. Chiropractors not only help people get pain relief from back challenges and joint inflammation due to arthritis, but in addition they offer highly knowledgeable advice on the type of lifestyle changes that can aid a person in staying healthier and more active through the years. arthritis and immobility due to aging don’t have to be inevitable. The human body was meant to move, to walk, even to dance, without pain, for a lifetime.
So, if you’ve been throwing your weight around and all you’ve been getting in return is back and joint pain, your chiropractor can help relieve your suffering. Make an appointment today!
If you’re over 40 you know that as we age our body feels and acts differently than it used to when we were younger. It just doesn’t seem fair that as our mind appears to improve and become more “inventive,” our body seems to become less “cooperative.” We’re stiff in the morning; certain activities during the day make us sore at night; and, if we’re not truly careful, even something as simple as turning too fast or bending over to pick up a dropped object, can send our back or some other muscle group into spasm. The good news is that there are specialized techniques accessible that is not only beneficial in slowing down the aging process of the body, but can aid us in avoiding some of those problems completely.
Take arthritis for instance. In point of fact, with the exception of pharmaceuticals, allopathic medicine doesn’t take care of this age-related affliction. What is the basis for such a limited approach? It is because most medical professionals treat the symptoms of arthritis. Chiropractic care, on the contrary, not only is beneficial in relieving the pain of arthritis, without drugs and their side effects, but it finds the origin of the condition and eliminates it. Chiropractors, like your Ventura Chiropractor, have been helping people suffering from pain caused by arthritis, and other age-related challenges, for over a hundred years.
Repetitive stresses, years of incorrect gait and improper posture, and lack of beneficial movement cause wear of various joints over time and create the arthritic changes the body goes through as you get older. Chiropractic adjustments restore motion back into your joints and relieve any vertebral misalignments that may be causing irritation and restriction. In addition to causing arthritic changes in the spine and increasing pain, did you know that misaligned vertebra can also reduce your resistance and immunity? It’s true, and this might be one of the reasons why it may seem to you that as you age you experience more health problems and that it frequently takes longer for you to feel better again. Studies have shown that older individuals who are under chiropractic care stay healthier. To put it another way, as you get older, chiropractic treatment is good for what ails you!
Chiropractors are experts when it comes to the health of the musculoskeletal system, from the small, growing frame of an infant to the full-grown body of a mature adult. Your chiropractor is experienced in working with the aging process of the body and has singular observational and diagnostic skills that help in locating spinal misalignments and joint degeneration. In fact, a chiropractic examination can frequently reveal certain age-related changes before they’ve begun to create noticeable pain. Furthermore, your Ventura Chiropractor can assess your posture and check your gait to determine if there are any faulty patterns that might cause more arthritic changes in the future.
So, if you have been feeling your age lately, and you’d like to feel a whole lot better, see your Ventura Chiropractor today!
Knee X-ray
Research done by Tufts University School of Medicine has found that individuals that are at least 65 years of age or older who suffer from knee osteoarthritis (OA), and who practice Tai Chi, enhanced their physical capability and encountered less pain. Osteoarthritis is a common form of arthritis that produces an erosion of joint cartilage. Chiropractors provide therapy for quite a few individuals suffering from OA in a number of areas of the body, including the joints of the knee. Second only to spinal problems, knee pain and disability is one of the most commonplace conditions of the musculoskeletal system. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) there are a surprising 4.3 million people in this country over 60 years of ag diagnosed with knee OA, and the CDC predicts that by age 85, half of the people in America may incur symptoms of OA. The consequences of knee osteoarthritis are pain, mobility limitations, dysfunction and disability, and a reduced quality of life.
You may be wondering why so many people develop OA. Excessive stress over the years is a major determinant in the majority of musculoskeletal problems that develop as we age. Therefore, as people get older they are more likely to develop OA in their joints, including the knees. Incorrect mechanics of the knee, improper gait, compensatory foot mechanics as a consequence of foot pain, and overload of the knee joint all create excessive stress on the knees. Over time arthritic changes in the knee joint develop. In addition to chiropractic therapies, chiropractors enthusiastically endorse natural, drug-free practices, such as Tai Chi (Chuan), that can decrease knee pain. A traditional style of Chinese martial arts,Tai Chi features slow, rhythmic movements that produce peace of mind, as well as increased balance, an augmentation of strength, and more flexibility.
In otherwise good health, the 40 men and women with confirmed OA that were picked for the Tufts study were on an average 65 years of age and overweight. Patients were randomly selected to take part in 60-minute “Yang style” Tai Chi sessions twice weekly for 12 weeks. Each session included a 10-minute self-massage and a review of Tai Chi principles, 30 minutes of Tai Chi movement, 10 minutes of breathing technique, and 10 minutes of relaxation.
Tai Chi incorporates many of the current exercise recommendations for OA, such as range of motion, flexibility, muscle conditioning, and aerobic workout. As an added benefit, researchers observed that the “mental aspect” of Tai Chi promoted a sense of well-being, life contentment, and impressions of health that assisted the participants in dealing differently with chronic pain. Significantly, the group practicing Tai Chi exhibited a considerable decrease in knee pain compared with those in the control group.
Full findings of the study are published in the November 2009 issue of Arthritis Care & Research, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology.
If You Suffer From Tension Headaches or Migraines, Your Ventura Chiropractor Can Help
Posted by: | CommentsYour Chiropractor in Ventura knows that if you suffer from tension headaches or migraines, you are painfully aware of their disabling effects on your life. From his years of experience he knows the difference between the origins and symptoms of both tension headaches and migraines and, most importantly, he knows what to do to help you. Here’s what you should know:
Tension headaches: We all know that life can be a pain, on occasion, and result in a tension headache. Many people have suffered from more than one. If you’ve had a tension headache, then you probably experience it as a dull, aching head pain that is frequently accompanied by a feeling of tightness or pressure across your forehead or on the sides and back of your head. Sometimes, you might feel a tenderness of your scalp, neck and shoulder muscles, and occasionally you may lose your appetite.
Tension headaches are usually described as mild to moderately intense. The severity of the pain varies from one individual to another, and from one headache to another in the same person. Tension headaches can occur infrequently or you may have them quite frequently. If your headaches happen fifteen or more days a month for at least three months, they’re viewed as chronic. If tension headaches are interrupting your life, chiropractic treatment may be the answer.
Migraine Headaches: Migraine headaches are different from the common tension-related headache. According to the National Headache Foundation, migraines frequently take place on one side of the head only. The throbbing or pulsating pain is accompanied by nausea or vomiting. Auras, visual disruptions an hour before a migraine attack, and disturbances such as pulsating light, lines or dots, are experienced by one-fifth of migraine sufferers.
Are you someone who experiences the painful symptoms of migraines? If you are, you know the upsetting, debilitating effects that this sort of condition can have on your life. Sadly, you likely know by now that standard over-the-counter medications are ineffective, and prescription drugs generally have harmful side effects. Still, the pain of a migraine can incapacitate you for hours, days, even a lifetime. It’s time to finally get rid of the pain and get your life back! Chiropractic management has proved to be highly beneficial in relieving and eliminating migraine headaches.
Make an appointment with Dr. Alff, your Ventura Chiropractor, today. He can help!
Ventura Chiropractor: Breakthrough Treatment is Now Available for Fibromyalgia
Posted by: | CommentsVentura Chiropractor offers breakthrough treatment for fibromyalgia. You don’t need anyone to tell you about the difficult symptoms of fibromyalgia if you suffer from the pain produced by it. The deep aching that radiates, shoots, burns, and even gnaws within your body can be extensive, affecting areas above and below the waist, and frequently including both sides of the body.
As if the markedly painful symptoms of fibromyalgia weren’t enough, a disproportionate ninety percent of fibromyalgia sufferers also experience chronic fatigue syndrome, perhaps you may be one of them. This “double whammy” can result in your not only suffering from pain and fatigue, but also melancholy, headaches, numbness and tingling, dizziness, sleep disturbance, swollen feeling in tissues, stiffness, sensitivity to noise and stress, and cognitive impairment.
If you are suffering from one, or both, of these two pernicious conditions, you may find it difficult to take part in even the simplest activities in life, and you may even be feeling depressed and defeated. The good news is that your chiropractor can help you. Chiropractic treatment has been proven to be highly beneficial in reversing trauma-induced injuries by reducing inflammation to the nerves in the brain stem and spinal cord that can cause pain, neuromuscular dysfunction, and fatigue.
What do “trauma-induced injuries” have to do with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome? The connection may surprise you.
While the specific cause of these syndromes is unknown, current research has pinpointed traumatic neck injuries, like whiplash and concussion, for example, as risk factors for the onset of both fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. And, here’s the thing: even though the pain and fatigue generated by spinal injuries can be triggered immediately, often it can take quite a long time, perhaps months or years to develop. By the time fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms arise, these injuries may not be remembered.
When it comes knowledge the spine and how to take care of it, your chiropractor is an expert. Chiropractic care has been proven to be highly effective in reversing trauma-induced spinal injury. See your chiropractor today to see if chiropractic treatment the pain and suffering you’ve been experiencing from fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Your Ventura Chiropractor is an expert when it comes to problems of the spine and offers highly effective treatment for disc challenges, including sciatica. sciatica is an extraordinarily painful condition. If you suffer from sciatica, you are, sadly, all too acquainted with the deep pain that is constant during your waking hours and interferes with your daily activities.
Sciatic pain commonly travels from your low back, through the buttock(s), and down the large sciatic nerve in the back of your leg(s). Many times, the pain can even travel into your knee. Sitting, as well as motion, can generate pain. Occasionally lying down will reduce, or perhaps temporarily get rid of the pain. However, sciatica will not be remedied without suitable care.
The clinical diagnosis of sciatica is referred to as a “radiculopathy”, a medical term that means simply that a disc has protruded from its usual position in the vertebral column and is putting pressure on the radicular nerve (nerve root) in the lower back, which forms part of the sciatic nerve. Such pressure is especially painful.
Added pressure on the intervertebral discs, as well as imbalances in the muscles encircling the spine, can occur during and after extended sitting, especially in a awkward position. In general, a precise event or definite injury doesn’t produce sciatica, instead it tends to come about over time as a by-product of general wear and tear on the structures of the lower spine. Eventually the lower spine loses its capacity to function normally during everyday stresses.
Ultimately, the intervertebral disc develops small fissures, or cracks, which then allows the soft nucleus to extend the disc outward. If the disc presses on sensitive tissues, it generates the pain that is often referred to as a ruptured disc. If the disc puts pressure on the spinal nerve, an individual can develop sciatica.
Most disc challenges, including sciatica, can be corrected with chiropractic adjustments and therapies that frequently includes postural exercises. If you are suffering from sciatic pain, it is essential for you to seek help from your chiropractor.
Chiropractic Ventura: Eliminate Hip Pain Now!
Posted by: | Commentschiropractic Ventura knows a lot about hip pain and how to relieve it. Here’s what you need to know: Does hip pain wake you up in the night and make it impossible to get a good night’s sleep? When you get up in the morning, or when you get out of your car, are you stiff and do you find it initially hard to move your legs? Do you feel pain in one or both hips whenever you twist or rotate them or when you cross your legs? If you answered “yes” to any or all of the previous questions you are likely suffering from imbalances and alignment problems in the lower part of your body that, in addition to generating hip pain, can eventually bring about degenerative hip joint disease if not addressed.
Even though hip pain and related problems commonly point to age-related degenerative conditions, especially osteoarthritis of the hip joint, osteoarthritis isn’t always the “bad guy”. In fact, rather than being the original source of the problem, osteoarthritis of the hip joint can be the ultimate result of damage to your hips at a previous time.
Gait changes as the result of biomechanical issues such as an ankle sprain or knee strain, can generate hip pain. Moreover, your gait may reposition to counterbalance new activities such as a job change, an alteration in the way you sit, a new sport or activity, or if you start driving for long periods of time on a regular basis.
In addition, gait asymmetries can occur from carrying a baby or small child on your hip, leg length variances, or foot pronation conditions. The point is, anything that generates an asymmetry or imbalance when you are moving can cause painful hip problems.
Along with your adjustments, as part of the chiropractic management of your hip problem, your chiropractor may determine that you require orthotics. Your chiropractor will also offer suitable progressive rehabilitative exercises that include muscle stretching and strengthening.
Hip pain won’t disappear on its own. Hip pain indicates that something needs correcting. Your Veutura chiropractor can help to get you out of pain, get back into balance, and get your life back!
Chiropractor Ventura believes strongly in pediatric chiropractic and offers this important information: From time to time, it can seem tiring attempting to keep up with a five-year-old. If you have an active child of this age, or if you’ve ever been around one for any length of time, you may have found yourself hoping that the kid would just stop moving for a moment. However, recent research is validating the long-term health benefits of this whirlwind of activity. In fact, according to a new University of Iowa study, rather than trying to slow these little ones down, five-year-olds should be encouraged to be as active as possible. Why? “Because it pays off as they grow older,” said Kathleen Janz, lead author of the study and professor of health and sport studies in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Being active at age five helps kids to avoid excess fat as they get older even if they don’t continue to be as active later in childhood. “We call this effect ‘banking’ because the kids benefit later on, similar to having a savings account at a bank. The protective effect is independent of what happens in between,” Janz went on to say.
Using a special scanner that accurately measures bone, fat, and muscle tissue, and an accelerometer that measures movment every minute, the UI team tested the body fat and activity level of 333 kis at ages five, eight, and eleven. The kids wore accelerometers to record their activity level for up to five days, affording much more reliable data than relying on kids or parents to track minutes of exercise.
The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, indicates that kids who are active at age five end up with less fat at age eight and eleven, even when controlling for their accumulated level of activity. The average five-year-old in the study got thirty minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per day. For every ten minutes on top of that, kids had one-third of a pound less fat tissue at ages eight and eleven.
Although further investigation is necessary to discover what happens to the bodies of the active kids that keeps them in better shape down the road, Janz said that it could be that the active 5-year-olds didn’t develop as many fat cells, improved their insulin response, or that something happened metabolically that offered some protection even as they became less active.
However, as exciting as this study is, weight moderation is not the only benefit of early exercise. As a chiropractor I have noticed over the years that active kids don’t have as many common childhood health challenges, such as catching colds and the flu. Chiropractic treatment is, of course, particularly beneficial in helping kids to stay healthier. But, in addition, the stimulation to the brain that occurs during activities, especially those that require “cross pattern” motor movements of the larger muscles, i.e., right hand/left leg and left hand/right leg, such as crawling, running, climbing, and skipping, also boosts the autoimmune system and keeps kids healthier.
Many children nowadays are overweight and unhealthy. Though part of the problem is an unhealthy diet, lack of exercise is also a major contributing factor. If you have a five-year-old who chooses to watch television or play video games rather than participating in more active play, help your child to get up and get moving into healthier activities. Moderate to vigorous activity will not only benefit your child now, but will help to build a healthier future. You can bank on it!
