Relieve Your Lower Back Pain and Get Back to Your Active Lifestyle 

 Chronic lower back pain, which affects thousands of Coloradans each year, is often caused by a sedentary lifestyle or heavy use. This may sound a little like you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t, but you are not! There are many courses of action to treat your lower back pain, ranging from medication to exercise to surgery. Within the active lifestyle community of Lakewood, there are options to aid in the relief of your discomfort. One of the most effective solutions for eliminating back pain is a visit to your chiropractor for an evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment plan. 

Why Is Visiting a Chiropractor the Best Way to Go? 

 A chiropractor’s primary goal is to alleviate your discomfort and to return you back to normal activities as quickly as possible. Following an accurate diagnosis, an effective recovery plan including the necessary treatments from certified physicians, acupuncturists, massage therapists, and/or physical therapists will be made to manage your care. 

Steps to Alleviate Your Lower Back Pain 

There are many different routes one can take to relieve back pain. Starting with an evaluation and diagnosis will help you determine the most effective treatment for your needs. Lower pain relief can be found through: 

 1.) Adjustment & Manipulation

The minor movement of the spinal vertebra is often referred to as an adjustment or manipulation. The objective is to realign the vertebrae that have moved out of place, whether the reason for movement is daily activity or trauma such as an accident. When vertebrae are out of place, there can be overall systematic effect on muscles, the central nervous system, and more. In order to return to peak functionality and to eliminate pain, all nerves and systems in the body and brain must be properly aligned.

 The adjustment process, performed by a licensed chiropractor, is often pressure applied through an instrument or the hands, helping to move the vertebrae back into place. This usually happens with a quick movement, bringing a popping sound created by gases being released from the joints. Adjustments are a great way to relieve pain and keep the body aligned and functioning at its highest level. 

 2.) Therapeutic Exercise 

Therapeutic exercise refers to the range of physical activities that help to restore and build strength, endurance, flexibility, balance, and stability. The goal of therapeutic exercise is returning an injured or suffering person to a pain-free and fully-functioning state. Beginning with a physical evaluation assessment, a chiropractor or physical therapist will determine an exercise regiment tailored to your back pain needs. Therapeutic exercise programs are carefully monitored and emphasize slow progression. 

 3.) Custom Orthotics

Custom Foot Orthotics are a great way to aid in alignment and walking issues, which can often lead to lower back pain. Orthotics can often be prescribed by a chiropractor and can last well over a year, making them an excellent investment towards alleviating back pain. Orthotics generally help with the realignment of the bones within the foot and ankle, relieving pressure and distributing body weight more effectively. Foot orthotics can be worn daily during just about any activity to help relieve stress and pain.  

 4.) Acupuncture Therapy 

Putting acupuncture therapy to use in prevention and treatment is a great holistic way to target lower back pain. Acupuncture is the careful placement of needles along the invisible meridians that run throughout the body. Each of these meridian points has a specific function, and acupuncture can unblock and repair meridians and channels within the body.  Through the stimulation of meridian points, an acupuncturist is able to restore balance and connection to you, aiding in the relief of current pain and averting future injury. 

 5.) Microcurrent Therapy 

An effective way to heal soft tissue and relieve pain is through microcurrent therapy. Through the use of small currents projected through the affected area, signals are produced within the body similar to those produced naturally to aid in the healing process. Microcurrent therapy is great if there is a spasm in the back or any other injured muscle. This form of therapy works quickly to relax the muscle which allows it to return to a normal state, and is perfect for facilitating the healing of acute and chronic pain. 

6.) Electrotherapy 

Interferential electrotherapy is a method that helps the body function through soft tissue related problems like muscle spasms and sprains. Electrotherapy uses very low simulated electrical pulses to target the problem area to reduce pain, improve circulation, and strengthen muscles. When combining electrotherapy with physical therapy or adjustments, electrotherapy could alleviate pain significantly for an individual to participate more actively in exercise. Electrotherapy has been used to address chronic pain in general as well as in relation to fibromyalgia, diabetic nerve pain, bone growth, and migraine headaches. Electrotherapy is also highly effective in alleviating back pain due to its stimulation and release of natural endorphins, the painkillers produced naturally by the body. 

7.) Electrical TheraStim

TheraStim is a unique electrical muscle stimulation. It is great for relieving lower back pain because the use of conductive electrode pads and direct currents, which allow stimulus to penetrate deeper into injured muscles. It’s like administering an electric massage all the way down to the surface of the bone where the charge is drawn to the injured tissue, which also carries an electric charge. Because TheraStim is an active therapy, it’s necessary for you to work the body part into the direction of pain for heightened effectiveness in relief and healing.

Where Can I Begin My Healing Process? 

Being in Colorado and living the active lifestyles many of us do, sometimes injury can be inevitable. If you are seeking relief for your lower back pain, the best place to start your healing process is with Academy Park Chiropractic. From acupuncture to adjustment to electrotherapy, a thorough and effective treatment plan will have you back to your normal activities in no time. Call 303-972-0800 to schedule your evaluation and get on track to alleviate your lower back pain today.

The phrase, “a pain in the neck,” is commonly thrown around in conversation by those who are joking. But those who actually experience neck pain know just how painfully accurate the phrase can be. Thankfully, there are a couple of solutions to treating neck pain, with chiropractic care being the best option.

Chiropractic care can help patients of all ages and genders with pain in their back, neck, and head as a lifelong treatment plan and alternative to pain medications. Let’s take a closer look at how chiropractors’ cautious approach to treatment can work best to cure neck pain.

It’s Drug-free and non-surgical

Chiropractic care is an excellent option for those who do not want to use any prescription drugs or undergo any surgeries. Chiropractors conduct a hands-on, drug-free approach to health care and will always ask the right questions about your symptoms to determine the correct source of pain.

Chiropractors may also conduct physical exams such as observing your posture, range of movement, movements that causes pain. Chiropractors’ broad diagnostic skills allow them to efficiently determine the cause of pain. They are also trained to conduct a treatment that relieves the musculoskeletal aspects of the condition, and to recommend physical, therapeutic, and rehabilitative exercises.

It provides healing through neck adjustments

Neck adjustment is a common method used by chiropractors. This method reduces joint restrictions and misalignments by applying a controlled force to joints caused by tissue injury. Tissue injury is the major cause of neck pain. Tissue injury can be caused by a sudden forced movement of the head or neck in any direction resulting in injury of tissues in the surrounding area, or through repetitive stresses to the neck.

Neck adjustment improves spinal motion and physical function allowing tissues to heal. Neck adjustment can relieve neck pain naturally without the disadvantages of taking drugs for long periods of time. A study involving chiropractic care for neck pain discovered that 96% of respondents informed that they were either “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with the care they received and that 98% of them responded that they “definitely would” or were “very likely” to choose chiropractic service again if they experienced the same problem. 

It’s cost-effective

Chiropractic services appear to be relatively more cost-effective for the treatment of neck pain. For instance, if you were to buy over-the-counter or even prescription medication for your entire life just to deal with your neck pain, the costs of these purchases immensely outweigh the costs of chiropractic services that treat your pain more efficiently

Moreover, according to The Chiropractic Report, when comparing cost-effectiveness, chiropractic care for treatment of low back and neck pain is highly cost-effective and represents a good value in comparison to medical care. Insurance coverage for chiropractic care is also available for certain chiropractic services. As you can see, chiropractic care is proven to be very cost-effective and it’s one of the reasons why chiropractic care can treat neck pain best. 

If you are currently seeing a healthcare professional for your neck pain, consult with your specialist before considering having chiropractic services. Make sure to note any medication you are taking for neck pain before an appointment with your local chiropractor. If you’re suffering from neck pain and seeking a local chiropractor in the Lakewood area, contact Academy Chiropractic at 303-972-0800.

Headaches are a common illness that affect many Americans daily. Headaches can happen to anyone, at anytime and rarely offer any warning before the pain sets in. Usually people who experience headaches pop an over-the-counter pill to alleviate the symptoms, but popping a pill doesn’t cure a headache – it only acts as a temporary bandage. The good news is there is another, more holistic way, to treat and even cure frequent headaches.

Chiropractic care offers a number of benefits to its patients, one of them being constant headache treatment. Now, you might be thinking, ‘I thought chiropractors only help your back. How can they help my headaches?’ Well the answer is actually rather simple.

While a chiropractor’s specialty concerns the re-aligning of your spinal cord, they also handle the surrounding soft tissue and nerves. This means chiropractors are trained to treat your spinal cord, the surrounding area and the parts of your body that are influenced by your spinal cord such as your head, shoulders and extremities. Your spine consists of vertebrae and disks that support a network of nerves, and runs from your lower back up to your skull. Since your spine connects your lower back to your head there is a strong correlation between frequent headaches in patients and their spinal alignments.

While you may not have thought about this possibility before, the source of your headaches could be related to a misaligned spinal cord. A misaligned spinal cord is not only unhealthy for your back strength and posture, but can also result in a pinched nerve or other muscular or structural problems. It is common that nerve pressure could be the source of your headaches, and a chiropractic adjustment can alleviate your pain and possibly eradicate your headaches all together.

In addition to adjusting your vertebrae so they are properly and healthily stacked on top of each other, chiropractors can also help with muscular and nerve therapy. If your spine has been out of alignment for some time, it’s possible a few weeks of adjustments won’t be enough to completely cure your headaches. There might be some lingering muscular, tissue or nerve irritation that is playing a part in your headache pain. Chiropractors can provide you with stretching and strengthening exercises to help work out nerve pressure and train your spine to stay in place when you’re at home. These exercises can be just as effective for headache relief as an adjustment.

Chiropractors take a holistic approach to their treatment methods. If you choose to see a chiropractor for headaches in Lakewood, be prepared to say goodbye to your prescription or over-the-counter pain meds. Your chiropractor might suggest a change in diet, physical activity and even relaxation exercises for your mental health, but the important thing to remember is that all of these methods are natural and a much healthier option than swallowing a pain pill every 4 to 6 hours.

You will want to talk to your doctor before seeking chiropractic care and to disclose any medications or treatments you are currently taking when you arrive for your first chiropractic visit. If you are looking for a chiropractor for headaches in Lakewood, Colorado, then look no further then Academy Park Chiropractic.