Treated Conditions

Almost everyone gets back pain at some time. A survey carried out by the BCA (British Chiropractic Association) in 2004 found that at any one time in the UK, 33% of the population are suffering with back pain and up to 80% of the adult population will suffer significant back pain at some time in their life.

Direct costs associated with back pain were estimated to be around £1.6bn in the United Kingdom in 1981. In 1955 there were 8 million working days lost to back pain. By 1991 this figure had risen to 81 million! In 1998 back pain was estimated to be responsible for close to 120 million UK work days lost per year.

Staying active, with the help of chiropractic, may well be the best solution.

Repeating daily activities such as bending, lifting and twisting may cause your back problems. Your Healthwise chiropractor can advise you on ways to tackle these everyday movements, as well as being able to help you if you have an injury due to many different causes; a car accident, fall, sporting injury or lifting heavy weights and so on.

Poor posture may also lead to back pain. Your Healthwise chiropractor may advise you to make postural changes if you, for example, spend long periods of time sitting at a desk or computer, watching TV or driving.

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Headaches are common and almost everyone takes the odd one now and again for granted. You may however be suffering with more than you can cope with and chiropractors can treat many of the causes of headaches.

Chiropractic may help to relieve tightness in your neck muscles due to stress and tension in your neck, shoulders and back. Treatment may also be effective in the treatment of headaches that are the result of an injury or repetitive strain to your neck.

Migraine is a severe headache, accompanied by other symptoms. Problems affecting the bones in your neck (vertebrae) can cause headaches and be a contributory factor in migraine.

Your healthwise chiropractor can identify stiffness in the joints of the neck and by treating them, improve their movement and relieve the muscle spasm and nerve irritation that may be causing the problem.

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Your neck supports the weight and movement of your head and also contains the vast majority of nerves that connect from your brain to the rest of your body. With the amount of driving, computer work and other daily activities that most of us do, it is not surprising that we can need a little chiropractic help keep our necks doing their job.

Neck pain can be caused by the long-term effect of poor posture from bending, repetitive lifting or manual work. Losing the proper movement in the joints of your neck may interfere with the healthy working of the nerves that run through it causing irritation to these nerves. This, in tern, can lead to pain where the nerves end – ‘referred pain’.

Your Healthwise chiropractor may treat your neck for problems with your head, neck, shoulders and arms.

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Whiplash injuries need not be the result of car accidents. A slip or fall can give you a whiplash-type injury and sudden movement, especially if repetitive, may cause injury as well. Normally, the joints at the back of your neck glide over each other and are self-lubricated but a whiplash injury forces them together, damaging the surrounding area, which includes nerves, muscles, ligaments and discs.

Damage from a whiplash-type injury can give a variety of symptoms including: dizzyness

• light headedness
• neck pain
• headaches
• arm pain
• fatigue
• poor concentration

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Degeneration of the joints in the body begins without your knowing – it happens to all of us. The general wear and tear of a lifetime results in joints laying down extra bone in an attempt to support a damaged area. In general, our bodies compensate for this and we feel little or no pain, but the slight loss of proper movement in a worn joint may cause nerve irritation and inflammation leading to pain.

Arthritis, spondylitis or rheumatism are names normally given to the pain and stiffness resulting from wear and tear to your joints. They can occur in any joint of your body, including your spinal vertebrae, but chiropractic treatment may often relieve the pain.

There are some types of arthritis - such as rheumatoid arthritis – that also involve periods of inflammation and destruction of the joints causing severe pain. Although chiropractors cannot treat the cause of this kind of arthritis, they may be able to help to relieve the disability that results from it once the inflammatory phase is over.

Other joint problems, caused by repeated trauma, that chiropractors treat include:

• Shoulder pain
• Tennis elbow
• Golfers elbow
• Knee pain
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Repetitive strain injuries (RSI)

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Whether you are an amateur sports enthusiast or a top-flight professional, your body is prone to the same kinds of injuries. Repeated stresses can lead to a slight loss of proper movement in the bones of your spine (vertebrae) and joints, which in turn can interfere with the healthy working of your muscles and nerves. You may have ignored the pain and carried on with your sport for too long without treatment, and now find yourself with a chronic injury. It's not surprising that BCA chiropractors often see patients with:

• Hamstring and calf strains
• Achilles tendon injuries
• Groin and thigh sprains
• Lower back pain
• Neck pain
• Tennis elbow
• Shoulder sprains (rotator cuff injuries)
• Tendonitis
• Sciatica (often confused with hamstring pulls!)

Injury is not the only problem for sports enthusiasts and professionals. Many find that they reach a 'threshold' of ability, and cannot improve further, however hard they work and however much training they put in. This is why so many serious sportspeople consult chiropractors who will work to improve health and well-being.

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Chiropractic can be helpful for people of all ages, including small children and pregnant women.

Pregnancy can often cause uncomfortable effects, including changes in posture due weight gain that cause pain in your back, buttocks, groin and legs. Postural changes may also influence the ligaments and muscles attached to the pelvis and in turn the positioning of the uterus and birth canal.

Although a natural process, birth is sometimes traumatic for both mother and baby and chiropractic may help you and your baby recover.

As children grow, chiropractic can help not only with the strains caused by the rough and tumble of life but also with some of the musculoskeletal problems that children can suffer in their first years.

As far as parents are concerned, bending and lifting children, particularly as they get older, can put increasing pressure on your spine and joints.

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Why do you go to your dentist when you are not in pain or why do get your car serviced regularly, even when it is running well? To see that it goes on running well! Once a chiropractor has helped you back to health, a regular check-up can keep your body in working order.

Like a telephone network, your spinal cord delivers messages from your brain to your body through the nervous system. The vertebrae - the bones of your spine - provide protection for this vital part of your body. As you go through life, a loss of proper function and mobility in the vertebrae may interfere with the healthy working of your spine and the nerves that run through it. This may affect your body's natural ability to recover from injury and you may find yourself increasingly unwell, unable to shake off apparently minor aches, pains and even some illnesses.

Loss of joint movement could be due to the daily wear and tear of life or as a result of things such as sporting injuries, workplace discomfort, stress, poor posture, accident or pregnancy.

Don’t wait for problems to start, see your Healthwise chiropractor to keep your body in check.

Healthwise chiropractors will carry out a full examination (which may include an X-ray) and take a thorough history before advising an appropriate treatment programme for you. Treatment consists of specific adjustments done by hand to free stiff joints and reduce spinal nerve irritation. Your chiropractor may also recommend ice, heat or massage treatment amongst other things. They also support the treatment they offer with individual advice about the patient's lifestyle, work and exercise, in order to help in managing the condition and preventing a recurrence of the problem.

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