Headache

So you have a headache....Your eyes hurt, your forehead is pounding, your neck is sore and tight, your scalp feels as if it is being slowly removed, lights bother you, noise sets your teeth on edge, and then there are your children, the house, dinner, your husband/wife and the daily demands of life. You would like to stop the world and get off!

Thousands of children and adults are afflicted with this headache "thing". As a matter of fact, headaches are the most common reason people seek chiropractic care. Headaches have been sold to the public as a problem which needs to be "treated", as a disease, or some sort of condition. We have gingerly been taught to believe that headaches need to be remedied. Millions of dollars of advertising are spent annually on the benefits of drugs for the treatment of headaches. And we have bought into this carefully contrived thinking.

So let’s look at this "headache thing" from a different perspective.

The word "Headache" simply means - ache in the head. It is NOT a disease. It is simply an ache. A pain. A symptom. I am not even remotely making light of it though - this symptom can be severe and debilitating. It is said that there are different types of headaches; migraines, cluster, tension, occipital, sinus, etc. All of them seem to have a different pattern, location, severity, and, of course drug, to deal with it.

There seems to be no weight given to the idea that there might be a reason why a person might be experiencing headaches - no weight as to the "WHY".

Let’s look at this closer.

I mentioned that a headache is a symptom. It is simply your body literally "talking" back to you. We need to be able to interpret that language. Most people I meet are so busy treating their pain, they forget that it has a reason for being. A headache is a sign your body produces to let you know that it is having a difficult time handling something. The vast majority of headaches are found at the base of the head or in the region of the temples or over the eyes.

As a profession we have found that the vast majority of headaches are simply signs of a vertebral subluxation - a distortion of some of the vertebrae of the neck area mostly affecting the function of the nervous system. You would be surprised to learn that most of all subluxations I see in adults and children, can be traced to a difficult delivery. We call this Traumatic Birth Syndrome. Even an average, uncomplicated delivery can be traumatic for a child and can produce vertebral subluxations.

These subluxations affect the manner in which the nervous system transmits information and can be very catastrophic. When this occurs, certain neck muscles are called into play to protect the nervous system from damage and you experience a "tension" headache. Very often, pain is transmitted to the face and people have been trained to think it is their sinuses at fault. They reach for sinus medication and the profit cascade begins. And then there is the temple, pounding pain - a migraine; again different drugs. And the headaches which come in clusters - cluster headaches; more drugs.

I am describing the vast majority of headaches. There are others, however, that are not caused by subluxations. These can be caused by diet and poor nutrition - hypoglycemia, for instance. I see many of these in my practice. Some are caused by an aneurysm, a disease process, toxicity, a tumor, etc. The point I am making is that no headaches should be taken lightly - it is always a sign that something is not OK.

If you or your child is experiencing headaches, it would take a case history, comprehensive examination and possibly x-rays to determine the reason for your headaches.

Case Study: Help for Child with Developmental Delay, Colic and Acid Reflux

The Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health just published a case study on a 15 month old girl that presented with developmental delay to a chiropractic office.  Her developmental delays included not standing, walking or talking for her age group.  It was noted that she had previously had chiropractic care for colic and GERD (basically acid reflux) which had resolved quickly. 

Subluxations were found by the chiropractor in the upper neck and very low back.  After 18 visits this little girl was able to walk unassisted and speak 3-4 words in Greek and English. 

This is an example of how chiropractic care can help make a world of difference in a young person's life.  Chiropractic care is more than pain management, it is about identifying areas of the body that are not functioning as they should and training them to work correctly again.

How Does Chiropractic Care Help with Ear Infections?

For anyone who still associates chiropractic care only with back pain, they have a hard time understanding how an adjustment can have any effect upon an infection in a child's ear.  It comes down to the fact that the nerves are responsible for communication in all areas of the body.  Simply, if the nerve coming from the brain and going to the tissue around the Eustachian tube (the tube that drains the fluid from the inner ear) is being irritated, it can cause inflammation around the Eustachian tube and not allow it to drain properly.  When the fluid, that is naturally present, is not allowed to drain it builds up in the middle ear.  This excess fluid is a great place for microbes like viruses and bacteria to grow.  If an antibiotic is given, it may kill the bacteria but will do nothing for the fluid.  Chiropractic adjustments on the other hand restore the normal communication of the body, reduce the inflammation and allow the fluid to drain.  If the fluid is not allowed to build up the microbes have nothing to grow in.

 

Infantile Colic Help

One of the most frustrating situations that new parents can find themselves in is trying to console a child suffering with colic. A study conducted in South Africa by Mercer and Cook may point them in the right direction. Thirty infants who had been diagnosed by a pediatrician with colic were randomly divided into two groups. One group received chiropractic care while the other group did not. All infants in this study were newborn to 8 weeks old. The framework of the study was that the infants receiving chiropractic adjustments received care for a two-week period with a maximum of six adjustments.

The results of the study were very impressive. In the group that received chiropractic care, 93% of the infants had complete resolution of their symptoms within the two-week period. Even more impressive was that in a follow up survey performed one month later, none of the infants had experienced a recurrence of problems from colic. The chiropractic care rendered in this study was spinal adjusting.

Chiropractic adjustments to an infant consist of gentle pressure to restore the normal motion of the individual bones of the spine.  Although the goal is the same as with adults, to allow the body to function properly, the technique is quite different.  I have been trained with the ICPA and have had many years of experience adjusting infants and newborns with colic.

How Early is Too Early?

So how early is "too early" for a newborn to be adjusted? 

As soon as they have misalignment in their spine they are able to be adjusted.  There was a study done to assess the percentage of deliveries that resulted in trauma to the newborn's neck.  The researchers found that 12% of the babies born at that hospital, had demonstrable neck trauma.  If your child falls into that 12% the number is way to high. 

A simple check at the chiropractic office on the way home from the hospital, or the first trip out if you deliver at home, and you can set that newborn on the road to better health.  Chiropractor's who are trained to assess infant's spines for subluxation can easily let you know if there was any trauma done to your little one's spine.  If adjustments are needed we are also well equipped to start correcting the damage that was done and head off problems that may have been in store for him or her.

Back Pain in Pregnancy

Are you having back pain in your pregnancy? You have probably been told that that is a normal part of pregnancy and that you should just try to deal with it the best you can. Obviously with your body changing as much as it has been it is experiencing different stresses than it has before. That does not mean that you have to suffer through it or that you have to take medications that may effect the health of your baby. Here are some simple things that you can do to try to relieve the pain naturally. By the way it is a good idea to start practicing now, since the stress on your back doesn't usually just go away when you start carrying your baby on the outside.

1. Stay active: Always consult about exercise with you health care provider. If you were exercising before pregnancy, continue. If you were not, try to do some short walks while focusing on you posture. Keep the buttocks tucked in and the shoulders back and down as you walk. This helps to train the muscles to hold you in that position. If you have access a pool can be a great option for prenatal exercise.
2. When you are sitting don't cross your legs, slightly elevate your feet and change positions often. Watch your posture here also. Keep your shoulders back and your chin tucked in so that your head is over you shoulders. Also try to get up and move around about every 15-20 minutes, even if it is to just walk around you chair and sit back down. This will keep the muscles active.
3. When you sleep, sleep on your side with your knees bent and a pillow between them. This takes some pressure off of you low back. Also try using another pillow or a body pillow to rest your arm on to prevent twisting of the spine.
4. Limit what you lift. This one is much easier said than do usually, but if you do have to lift something squat with your legs instead of bending at your waist. If you have to hold a small child, do what you can to avoid lifting them up. Allow them to climb on a chair (if it is safe for them to do so) and the take them into your arms.
5. If the pain that you are feeling is a sharp, hot, acute pain try icing it for 15-20 minutes (with a thin towel between the ice pack and your skin). If the pain is more of a dull ache try a hot water bottle or a warm bath. If you are not sure how to describe the pain, err on the side of icing it.
6. Many moms-to-be find benefit with massage therapists that specialize in caring for pregnant moms.
7. Support belts can be helpful in certain situations, but I would recommend them as a last resort and only under supervision of your prenatal health care provider.
8. If you are still experiencing back pain after trying a few of these suggestions, consider contacting us for a free consultation, if you are in the Twin Cities area. If you are not please contact the ICPA for help in locating a chiropractor in your area that cares for mothers during pregnancy.

Definition of the Webster Technique

Below is the official definition of what the Webster Chiropratic Technique is (from the ICPA website):

Chiropractic care benefits all aspects of your body's ability to be healthy. This is accomplished by working with the nervous system--the communication system between your brain and body. Doctors of Chiropractic work to correct spinal, pelvic and cranial misalignments (subluxations). When misaligned, these structures create an imbalance in surrounding muscles and ligaments. Additionally, the resulting nerve system stress may affect the body's ability to function optimally.
Sacral misalignment causes the tightening and torsion of specific pelvic muscles and ligaments. It is these tense muscles and ligaments and their constraining effect on the uterus which prevents the baby from comfortably assuming the best possible position for birth. The Webster Technique is defined as a specific chiropractic analysis and adjustment that reduces interference to the nerve system and facilitates biomechanical balance in pelvic structures, muscles and ligaments. This has been shown to reduce the effects of intrauterine constraint, allowing the baby to get into the best possible position for birth.
Dr. Larry Webster, Founder of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association discovered this technique as a safe means to restore proper pelvic balance and function for pregnant mothers. In expectant mothers presenting breech, there has been a high reported success rate of the baby turning to the normal vertex position. This technique has been successfully used in women whose babies present transverse and posterior as well. It has also successfully used with twins. Any position of the baby other than ROA may indicate the presence of sacral subluxation and therefore intrauterine constraint. At no time should this technique be interpreted as an obstetric, "breech turning" technique.
It is strongly recommended by the ICPA instructors of this technique that this specific analysis and adjustment of the sacrum be used throughout pregnancy, to detect imbalance and optimize pelvic biomechanics in preparation for safer, easier births. Because of the effect the chiropractic adjustment has on all body functions by reducing nerve system stress, pregnant mothers should have their spines checked regularly throughout pregnancy, optimizing health benefits for both the mother and baby.
The International Chiropractic Pediatric Association offers classes of instruction and issues its qualified attendees a Certificate of Proficiency in the Webster Technique. Only those doctors on our site maintain recognized certification status with the ICPA.

Ways To Help Prevent Ear Infections

Chiropractic care can do wonders for children who suffer with ear infections (or otitis media), but of course the best thing for the infant is to never get the ear infection in the first place. There are many things that you as a parent can do to help reduce the risk of your baby getting an ear infection. Here are just a few suggestions:

Breast feeding is probably one of the best ways to prevent not only middle ear infections but also other types of infections in infants. Breast milk contains an antibody called “secretory IgA” that is very effective in fighting off infections. This antibody is not made by infants in significant quantities, but is plentiful in mother’s milk. There is a protein found in breast milk that prevents the attachment of bacteria. If a bacteria cannot attach its ability to cause an infection is severely decreased. There is evidence that the two most common ear infection causing bacteria, H. influenzae and S. pneumoniae, are prevented from attaching by this protein.

If you are bottle feeding your baby, whether with pumped breast milk or formula, try to mimic the nursing position as best you can. This will allow her to be more upright and reduce the risk of the milk backing up into her Eustachian tube (the tube that normally drains the middle ear). If baby is allowed to drink the bottle while lying on her back, say in a crib or playpen, the chances of formula backing up and providing growth material for the bacteria, greatly increases.

Another preventative measure that you can take is to improve the air quality in your home. When there is a high level of allergens and irritants in the air, they can cause inflammation in the nose and throat area. Inflammation in this area can lead to blockage of the Eustachian tubes. The use of an electrostatic furnace filter (significant investment $100-200, but long life-span), and negative ion generators can eliminate many of the airborne allergens and irritants. Identify and eliminate sources of dampness in your home, and do everything possible to limit your baby’s exposure to smoke, whether cigarette or wood smoke. The link between exposure to smoke and ear infections in infants is too great to ignore.

Preventative chiropractic adjustments can play an important role in avoiding ear infections in your baby. Not only have the been shown to increase immune system function but they also help to keep the Eustachian tube open and functioning optimally.

I hope that this is helpful in your pursuit to raise a healthy and happy child.

Ear Infections and Chiropractic Care

"My son has had 6 ear infections over the last 4 years and he is only four and a half years old. We have always given him the antibiotic that the doctor prescribed, but it seems that the ear infections just keep coming back. The doctor wants to put tubes in his ears now, but I am worried since he is so small. Maybe the doctor is right and we need to put the tubes in."

I have heard this same story over and over in my 10 years of practice. The only thing that changes is if it is a boy or girl and how many courses of antibiotics they go through before the ear tubes are recommended. It is such a difficult situation to hear about because you are presented with a parent that cares deeply for the health and welfare of their child, have done what they were told by their pediatrician and now are faced with a situation that may put their child at risk. Are there alternatives to antibiotics and surgery? Why do the ear infections keep coming back if they are getting the antibiotic? and What causes an ear infection in the first place?

I will answer these questions in the reverse order because if we start at the root cause of the ear infection the rest becomes easy to understand. An ear infection or otitis media becomes an infection when a bacteria or a virus grows rapidly within the middle ear. However those microorganisms will only grow in the ear when the conditions are right for them to do so. Every one of us has the very same bacteria and viruses in our ears that is causing the infection in the child's ear. The difference is that in a child that has an ear infection they have a build up of fluid within their middle ear. This fluid which naturally forms in the middle ear to continually wash out the unwanted microbes, will sometimes get backed up within the middle ear cavity. When this happens, the fluid that is present is ideal for the bacteria and viruses to grow in. The primary reason for the back up of fluid is inflammation causing a narrowing of the Eustachian tube. The Eustachian tube is the small passage way that drains that fluid out of the ear and into the nasal passage. The swelling and nervous system dysfunction associated with a spinal misalignment is a likely cause of that Eustachian tube narrowing. Here is a great visual slideshow demonstrating what I just spoke about. Ear infection slide show.

Why do the ear infections keep coming back if they are taking the antibiotic? If the ear infection is due to a bacterial infection the antibiotic will be able to kill the bacteria, but they will not be able to do anything for the fluid that is present. This means that it just takes another bacteria or perhaps a virus, to find its way into the middle ear and start to grow the way that the last one did. This leads to further antibiotic use and the cycle continues on. The next step then is the introduction of tubes in the ear drum to try to relieve the pressure of the backed up fluid.

Is there an alternative to the antibiotics and surgery? Absolutely! Chiropractic care does not directly treat the infection, but gets at the heart of the problem by restoring the proper function of the ear. When gentle chiropractic adjustments are applied to areas of misalignment of the baby's spine, it allows the the inflammation around the Eustachian tube to be removed and the backed up fluid in the ear to naturally drain out of the middle ear. When the fluid is once again washing out the area of the middle ear it no longer gives the microbes a place to grow and thrive.

Stop the cycle of pain and antibiotics, seek help with chiropractic care and get at the heart of the problem not the symptoms.

What is Colic?

The mothers of my young patients often ask me "What exactly is Colic?" That is a good question and there is still some debate as to what causes the inconsolable crying and screaming that a baby suffering with colic has. If you go on the popular site WebMD they will tell you that "Doctors are not sure what causes colic, but it may be the result of a baby's sensitive temperament and an immature nervous system."

Traditionally the word "Colic" is associated with digestive issues such as gas and bloating. However the most reliable information now says that while digestive issues may increase the baby's discomfort they are not the main cause of it. If we go back to WebMD we see that they agree "Colic is not related to health conditions, such as digestion problems. But having gas in the belly can make crying worse." The research is pointing toward the nervous system as the true culprit of the pain and discomfort. This is where we come to treatment options for your baby.

The traditional medical approach has been and still is the prescription of a gas relieving drug such as dimethicone. This approach of course addresses the aggravating factor of colic but not the primary cause. What if you can go directly after the core of the problem that is causing your baby to cry and scream? This is where a chiropractor can help out. The medical community agrees that the likely cause of colic is found in the nervous system, but they do not have a way of addressing dysfunction that can be found there. What they are left with is trying to suppress the symptoms enough so that the parent can survive until the child is older.

Chiropractors on the other had have always worked directly with the nervous system, and to be more precise, removing the dysfunction that can occur in the nervous system. The primary focus of chiropractic care is to make corrective adjustments to the bones of the spine, in order to remove any irritation that the misaligned joints maybe causing on the nervous system. This is the same approach that we take with colicky babies. Of course the adjustments that we perform on babies are even more gentle than with older children and adults.

Babies often respond very quickly and with great results. I remember one mom who brought her son in for care. She looked tired and defeated, and I knew she had come to me as her last option. The morning after the first adjustment she called back and told us that her son had slept through the night! After a few more adjustments he no longer fit the criteria of a colicky baby.

Chiropractic Care and Colic.

Spinal manipulation is effective in relieving infantile colic.

This is the conclusion of a study done in Denmark on the effectiveness of chiropractic care for infants with colic. The researchers found a decrease in the number of hours of crying by 67%. They compared this to only a 38% decrease in a second group that was treated with dimethicone over the same time period. An interesting note is made in the discussion of the study that there were 9 drop outs in the dimethicone group and none in the adjustment group. The authors comment on this "inspection of the data in the last infantile colic profile completed before dropout show clearly that for all where information is available, the dropout was due to a genuine worsening of symptoms and not parents' bias." The effect of the drop outs and the removal of their data likely, according to the authors, made the data on the dimethicone appear better than it would have if they had remained in the study. The authors concluded their discussion with this statement: "Spinal manipulation is normally used in the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders, and the results of this trial leave open 2 possible interpretations. Either spinal manipulation is effective in the treatment of the visceral disorder infantile colic or infantile colic is, in fact, a musculoskeletal disorder, and not, as normally assumed, visceral. This study does not address this issue."

References:

Wiberg JMM, Nordsteen J, Nilsson N. The Short-Term Effect of Spinal Manipulation in the Treatment of Infantile Colic: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial with a Blinded Observer J Manipulative Physiol Ther 1999 (Oct); 22 (8): 517-522

Can Chiropractic Care Keep You From Getting Sick?

For years chiropractic patients have told about their families having fewer illnesses while receiving chiropractic care. They report fewer cold and ear infections in their children and decrease in allergies and sinus infections in themselves. Is this a legitimate benefit to simply having adjustments to your spine?

Here is an article from the magazine Psychology Today. It tells about how during the flu epidemic of 1917 and 1918 it was discovered that those people who were under chiropractic care had significantly reduced rates of dying from the flu compared to people who were not being cared for by a chiropractor. The writer, Katie Gilbert, also mentions a study in which patients infected with the HIV virus underwent six months of spinal adjustments and experienced an increase in their white-blood cell count. In the study the researchers compared these results to another group who received no chiropractic care. The second group had a decrease in the level of their white-blood cells over the same time period.

If people facing a deadly flu epidemic and with an active HIV infection experience such results, what can chiropractic care do for your family? Should chiropractic care be part of your plan to fend off the seasonal flu or the H1N1 virus?

Great News Article on Chiropractic and ADHD

Here is a video of a news article on how chiropractic can help children with ADHD. Dr. Rosen is a wonderful doctor, he was one of my instructors when I was studying with the ICPA.

The point that is being made is that if there is spinal misalignment that is irritating the nervous system, the results of that can look like what is commonly called ADHD. The child is irritable, agitated, cannot sit still, has a hard time concentrating, all of the classic symptoms of ADHD. Think about how annoying it can be to have something caught between your teeth. It is all that you can think of and your tongue just continues to go to that spot almost without thinking about it. Now just imagine how you would behave if there were always something that was irritating the nerves in your back. That signal of irritation continually being transmitted to your brain over and over again.

Often parents think that the nervous system cannot be the source of their child's distracted or hyperactive behavior because they never complain about pain in their back or any where else for that matter. One of the biggest misunderstandings about chiropractic care is that it is just for the relief of pain. The focus of chiropractic is not the relief of pain. That is often a pleasant side-effect, but not the main result. What we are trying to do is to remove spinal misalignments so that the nervous system can function the way that it was designed. What are some of the functions of the nervous system? Sensory (everything that we think of with the five senses, including pain), motor (provides the stimulus to contract muscles, both muscles like the biceps and also the muscles in the stomach), and autonomic (which means that it controls all of those bodily functions that we don't think about but are necessary for us to live). The pain sensing fibers of the nerve only make-up about 10% of the nervous system. In other words approximately 90% of the time that a nerve is being irritated by a spinal misalignment there is no pain involved.

A child may have no pain at all, but yet be experiencing irritation on their nervous system that is effecting other parts of their body.

Breech Pregnancy Help

Did you know that chiropractic care can be used on expectant mothers with their baby in the breech position? Certified pediatric chiropractors are trained in the Webster Technique, which is a technique that addresses specifically the alignment of the pelvis and therefor also the ligaments that are attached to the pelvis. Some of these ligaments are also attached to the uterus to help support it within the pelvic cavity. When those ligaments become torqued they alter the shape of the uterus. With the uterus twisted the baby inside finds the most comfortable position possible with the space available. Often that will be a position that is commonly called a breech position. Gentle chiropractic adjustments can correct the misalignment in the pelvis and relieve the torque on the ligaments allowing the baby to find a new position of comfort.
The official definition of the Webster Technique from the ICPA is that the Webster Technique is a specific chiropractic technique designed to help correct sacral misalignment, balance pelvic muscles and ligaments which in turn removes torsion to the woman's uterus, its resulting constraint to the baby, and allows the baby to get into the best possible position for birth.