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Don’t Let Tension Define Your Life
Tension is always accumulating
At a certain point, doing nothing becomes not an option. Back pain, however mild or severe, is often the last symptom of systemic dysfunction. Tension in the surrounding musculature is always accumulating and we are very good at ignoring it. It’s why you can go years with vague tightness in the neck and shoulders, or months with non-specific lower back pain, without necessarily doing anything about it. As we ignore, this tension is pulling our spines out of alignment, devastating our posture and putting untold pressure on intervertebral discs. The degeneration that is likely to result will be painful which is why we always ask: why is the standard policy to ignore, ignore, ignore.
Start Retraining Your Spine Today
Are you training your spine into an unhealthy holding pattern?
The less we pay attention to posture, the more our spine suffers. It’s amazing how much damage is caused by sitting- in fact, it is more than damage. It contributes to a full-on restructuring of our musculoskeletal being-shortening certain muscles, letting others waste away from lack of use; all of this pulls our spine out of alignment and creates systemic tension that takes us down the road toward spinal pain and degeneration. So how do we start retraining our spines out of these horrible holding patterns? The answer starts in your very own home.
The Power of Pelvic Stability for Runners
Runners should think more critically about the pelvis
There are several joints that connect at this crucial junction between lower and upper body:
- The sacroiliac joint
- Iliofemeral joint, aka hip joint
- Pubic symphysis
True, all of these joints need to be able to move fully (they need full range of motion), in order for you to run effectively. But this movement must also be stabilized. Without stability in the pelvis, these joints are susceptible to excessive motion, and this is where the problems begin. Think about its location: the pelvis is at the base of the spine, meaning that if this region is sliding around uncontrollably, the rest of your body is destabilized. Spinal alignment is threatened and the forces being transferred from lower to upper body while you run wreak havoc.
Taking Your Neck Pain Seriously
A sore, stiff neck is not normal!
It is your body telling you that something is wrong- and most likely it is something to do with your lifestyle. The head is the heaviest single structure in your body, weighing between 10 and 12 pounds. In normal circumstances, this weight is being pressed downwards on the spine, creating a compression that strains intervertebral discs. The cervical spinal segment is the first section of spine to receive this compression, and the strain manifests itself in stiffness and neck pain. If you then add poor posture, like text neck, to the mix, you increase the amount of downward pressure that your head causes to your spine. Over time, cervical discs become more susceptible to this pressure and, if they succumb to it, conditions like herniated discs become a reality.
The Role of the Psoas Muscle in Lower Back Pain
A little-known muscle that can cause a lot of back pain
When it comes to lower back pain, the region where the spine connects to the lower body is of critical importance. There is an intricate network of muscles, structures and nerves which connect at this crucial intersection; thus, there is a lot of potential for tension, misalignment and injury to disrupt your body’s natural balance and cause pain. Today, we are going to focus on one muscle in particular that flies under the radar: the psoas.
The Best Sleep Position for Pregnancy
Sleeping well is a key element of a successful pregnancy
When it comes to sleeping during pregnancy, not all positions are created equal. To begin with, your natural sleeping position may no longer feel quite right- many women find that getting comfortable enough to fall asleep is a new challenge. A growing abdomen, back pain, restricted breathing and even heartburn are all common reasons that make it hard to fall asleep during pregnancy; indeed, insomnia is considered a side-effect of the pregnancy process. The truth is, that the position you choose to sleep in can then compound these problems and make it even more difficult to sleep. So what should you do?
Using Your Intuition For Spinal Decompression
It’s pretty clear that your spine needs a stretch…
…but you simply don’t know how to go about it. Many of us let back pain carve out a place in our lives in exactly this way; through the passage of time, and our lack of proactivity, back pain compounds upon itself and becomes chronic. We become aware that every day is dogged by back pain and stiffness; we ask ourselves what did I miss along the way? What we find is that we missed a lot of opportunities to provide our spine with the stretches it needed to remain mobile. Thanks to gravity, the compression on our spines is ever-present; because our spines are not designed to last forever, we have to take daily action to mitigate the severity of spinal compression.
Using Yoga Effectively to Account for Back Pain
Yoga is a godsend for back pain sufferers
Yoga is an amazingly versatile tool that can be individualized to accomodate even the most severe back pain. It can be used to target very specific parts of the body to ease your overall pain profile and the best part is that you are totally in control of the intensity. That being said, there are a numer of yoga poses that can actually increase your back pain! It is always important to check in with a health care professional before beginning a workout regime to account for your pain. At Family Chiropractic & Natural Healing Center, we are Milpitas‘ musculoskeletal specialists and we want to help you develop a plan that will ease your back pain without making the problem worse!
Pregnancy Poses Challenges for Pelvic Stability
Why should we accept pain in pregnancy as a foregone conclusion?
To be sure, there will be some degree of pain, as there is a growing weight inside of your belly! Carrying such a weight around 24/7 places a unique stress on the lower back which leads toAs ligaments at the base of the spine loosen to make way for delivery, the support network for the base of your spine becomes destabilized. Add to this the growing weight of the child and you have the perfect recipe for a number of spinal problems including:
- Lower back pain
- Tenderness in the ligaments and muscles that support the core
- Sciatica symptoms in the lower extremities
But this pain doesn’t have to be a foregone conclusion! You can control the extent to which your pregnancy creates back pain by using chiropractic, exercise and stretching.
The Brutal Reality of Text Neck
Startling statistics that show how damaging cell phones have become for our spines
Cell phones have moved into our lives to stay. Until we can migrate cell phone functionality into our actual brains, this office of chiropractic can’t see our reliance on handheld devices becoming any less prevalent. But it is worth checking yourself to determine whether your heavy cell phone use could be hurting your spine. Here are some stats that apply to the general population:
- The average person spends between 2-4 hours a day looking at their phone
- 26% of car accidents involve phone usage
- 75% of cell phone users start their day by looking at their phone
Do you check your phone in the shower or while you are going to the bathroom? How about sleeping with your cell phone on and close to your pillow? The stats show that we are using our cell phones more than ever, and in more situations than ever. Because we are chiropractors, we like to focus on the effects of cell phones on our spines. Unfortunately, this is one of the parts of the bodies that receives a disproportionate amount of damage from cell phone use.