#Backpainduringpregnancy

What Causes The Popping Sound At The Chiropractor?

/ trishulvadi / Leave a comment

So you’ve probably seen my videos where I am adjusting my patients and you may wonder “what is actually making that pop sound?”

I’m not actually caring about the sound effects. That’s the least of my worries. It really comes down to the cause. What I’m actually doing is more movement, therefore allowing the body to function normally again, at its optimum, rather than being stuck, and over working in certain areas more than others.

So I’ll be really looking for those joints that are not functioning optimally, that have a bit more stiffness in them or a reduction in range of movement.

When I find those joints, by putting a specific movement through there, it may create a little popping sound often. The reason is because in those joints, if they haven’t been moving for a while, some gas builds up in the joints. Those tissues are still alive so they release gases in the body anyway. So when I put that movement through the joint, some of the gas can get released and it makes a popping sound.

Often that popping sound has been misunderstood, and instead described as a cracking. I get asked “Can you crack my bones?”

Hopefully not! Because if I do crack your bones, that’s technically a fracture.

So by moving those bones we are adjusting the joint thereby improving its range of movement and achieving optimal function.

Now you may often hear some different pops when you’re moving around some cracks and clicks. In those cases it may be due to some tight tendons flicking over a bone. That’s not quite the same as what we often create in our patients. The noise that you hear is often that the popping sound is created from the joints moving, and the gas releasing from between the joints.

But then also when I put a movement through a joint and I don’t hear a pop it doesn’t mean it didn’t work.

The sound is not the important part. What is important is the movement that we have now achieved in that joint, i.e. the function.

 I also have some people tell me that tell me they crack their joints themselves.

But you to avoid doing that yourself, because even for me, I can’t, and it’s impossible for me to align or adjust my own joints that need them the most.

It’s impossible for me to actually generate the force required on those stiff joints that needs that movement.

Instead I will often go to see my own colleagues to get adjusted, rather than attempt it myself.

I would encourage you to do the same. If you are trying to adjust yourself, it is not really an adjustment. That movement is likely to go through space or a joint has already got too much movement anyway. So all you are doing in the long term is exacerbating the problem.

How To Help Lower Back Pain

/ trishulvadi / Leave a comment

If you are unfortunate enough to be suffering with some sort of lower back pain and it just so happens to be at a time with it’s rather difficult to get hold of a health professional, such as on the weekend, during a national holiday, or when abroad in a remote area.

There are a few things you can do in the interim until you are able to get to a health professional. Remember this is not a fix, but just a simple way to potentially help you through the uncomfortable period.

Even if it starts to feel better it’s still worth taking the time to seek professional advice to be fully sure.

  1. Avoid Aggravation

The first thing you must do is avoid anything that aggravates the pain. Although some general advice says to keep active, if that particular activity is aggravating your symptoms then stop – this is NOT a no pain, no gain scenario (quite the opposite)

  1. Calm The Fire

Most of the time a lot of pain is due to inflammation. That means it’s hot and red, so we need to cool it with ice. Of course make sure you wrap the ice in a thin towel otherwise you may end up with frost bite on top of all the other problems you already have going on.

WIth an area that is inflamed, it’s “flame-atory” meaning it’s hot, so applying heat can potentially add more fuel to the fire.

If it was just muscle tightness then it may be suitable to apply heat – however the real question then becomes “Why is that muscle tight?”

So if you’re unsure go for the ice. The other advantage is your nerves don’t work very well at low temperatures anyway, so this can help give some comfort and relief by dulling the pain.

How To Enjoy A Healthy Pregnancy

/ trishulvadi / Leave a comment

If you are pregnant, know someone who is pregnant, or trying to become pregnant this is for you.

I see a lot of patients who are either pregnant or have happened to become pregnant whilst under our care.

The adult human body changes the most, in the shortest period of time during a pregnancy than at any time. The spine of an expectant mother really goes through a huge transformation. A lot of weight is gained in just 9 months when creating an entire human being!

Aside from weight gain there are a lot of other changes that occur during pregnancy.

One of the biggest changes is the production of a hormone called Relaxin. It’s role is to soften the touch ligaments of the pelvis to prepare for childbirth.

See when we look at the spine and pelvis, it doesn’t take very long to realise that the space in the pelvis for a baby to pass through during natural delivery is far too small. Relaxin will help add laxity to the touch pelvic ligaments, to allow a little extra space from the baby to pass through the birthing canal. Also to help further, during the birthing process the baby’s skull bones will squeeze just enough to be able to pass through – it really is an amazing process!

However Relaxin being a hormone, it is transported in the blood, so this means it’s affects do not end up being specific to just the pelvic area, but affects ALL the soft tissues in the body. All the other ligaments in the rest of the body also then have increased laxity in them. See, ligaments are great at helping you to prevent injury. If they are not able to function correctly, you can be prone to more injury.

In my experience, the expectant mothers I have see at AVID Clinic have had their muscular system take over the role of some of those ligaments. Muscles require a lot more energy to contract, so doing this for a longer period of time than they are meant can increase to the aches, pains and discomfort.

It may also lead to more pinching on nerves, further adding to unnecessary discomfort and less than optimal function, all whilst growing a new human baby.

Without professional spinal care, e.g. by an Osteopath or Chiropractor, to ensure the body is functioning optimally, all these because a lot more difficult than it needs to be.

It also helps to prepare for life after having the baby. Sleep patterns for the parent(s) will be disrupted with feeding and napping patterns. Posture during breastfeeding, hauling the pram in and out of the car, twisting awkwardly to put the baby in the car seat all have further impact mechanical on the body.

Breastfeeding posture can be quite a slouched position, often for long periods of time. Relaxin hormone continues to be produced in the mother until they stop breastfeeding.

The beauty of Chiropractic and Osteopathy is that they are natural and safe. Chiropractors and Osteopaths don’t put anything new in the body or take anything out, meaning we find where parts of the body are not working optimally and get them to function at their peak, helping the baby, the mother and the family.

How To Tell If Your Condition Is ACUTE or CHRONIC

/ trishulvadi / Leave a comment

I see a number of people in my clinic with some type of injury or pain initially. It often will affect how they can function correctly. They often describe their condition as “chronic”. However they are not always right.

See the word chronic is related to the word chronology, meaning when something has happened in time. It has nothing to do with the severity of the symptoms problem. So if someone say “it feels really chronic today” actually doesn’t make sense because if it is chronic, it wouldn’t be chronic today, it would be chronic anyway.

An acute injury is one that has happened straight away. It would be flared up with inflammation, tension, spasming, really angry, raw and fiery. Pain scales tend to be very hight 8,9 or 10 out of 10 – well actually they would describe their pain as 20+ out of 10.

With chronic conditions most will describe their pain as around 2-4 out of 10.

When you experience an acute injury and don’t get it seen professionally, there’s a good chance it may “feel better” on its own. That’s the thing. Our body is very good at dulling the symptoms so that you can “live with it” and that’s a sign of an acute condition becoming chronic. That really concerns me when I hear “I can live with it” as it will only flare up again in the future at some point.

So you end up in a cycle of a chronic condition with acute flare ups until you seek professional help that can break that cycle and resolve the underlying condition.

You know this as you may have heard someone claim they have been fine for a long time, only to then injure themselves in the most debilitating way by simply reaching to get something. Not everyone who reaches for something has the exact same injury. So that implies that there was already something underlying in the individual who hurt themselves, i.e. a chronic pattern/behaviour which resulted in an acute flare up by reaching out.

It doesn’t matter how old, what gender, what occupation, lifestyle choices that have this pattern. It can affect anyone at any time if they are not having a professional take care of them.

If you had an injury out in the wild your body would dull the pain so that you are able to continue getting to safety from any predators. If you were worried about the pain you would not be able to get to safety and die. That is why most acute conditions end up in a chronic pattern, even now in a modern world.

You see every one of us are so unique, that no two people are alike. So the way I get great results is unravel any compensation patterns, whether symptomatic or not, to ultimately get to an optimally functioning body.