Chiropractic Research
Read the latest news and research on how chiropractic care can benefit you and your family!
Chiropractic and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
What is Ehlers Danlos Syndrome? Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes (EDS) are a group of rare inherited connective tissue disorders. The most common symptoms include: Joint hypermobility. Stretchy skin. Fragile skin that breaks or bruises easily. EDS can affect people in different ways. For some, the condition is relatively mild, while for others their symptoms can be disabling. Can I be adjusted safely if I have EDS? This tends to be the most important question for new practice members who are coming in with a diagnosis of EDS. When it comes to getting adjusted with EDS, it is safe to receive chiropractic care, but you'll want to let your chiropractor know of your diagnosis in case they want to modify the way they adjust you based on your diagnosis and symptoms. What type of chiropractic technique should I try? In our experience, if your EDS symptoms are moderate to severe, you will want to receive chiropractic care that involves a technique that uses less force. For example, you may want to avoid manual adjustments and instead try instrument-assisted adjustments. In our office we use a chiropractic technique (Torque Release Technique) which uses a gentle, specific, and effective tool to deliver adjustments. What are [...]
Why Should We All Assess the Health of Our Nervous System?
How much do you know about the nervous system? You probably know that it includes our nerves, brain and spinal cord, and you also probably know that pinched nerves are not fun. Other than that, most people aren’t aware of the function of the nervous system and the huge role that it plays in our body and health! The Nervous System in a Nutshell: The nervous system consists of the brain in our skull, the spinal cord that is housed in our vertebral column, and the complex branching of nerves that go to all the tissues and organs in our body: from the skin in our scalp to the tips of our toes! And truth be told the nervous system is way more complex because it can be further divided into the central nervous system, peripheral nervous system, the somatic nervous system, the autonomic nervous system, cranial nerves, and much more, but this is all beyond the scope of today's goal! The nervous system’s job is to work as a messenger in your body through electrical impulses. Through these messages, the nervous system allows you to have voluntary control of your body. For example, it allows you to move your [...]
Can Chiropractic Help With Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia: Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain condition characterized by widespread pain throughout the body. It affects twice as many women than men and it affects about 2% of the population or 4 million adults in the United States. Fibromyalgia can also be flared up by illnesses, physical trauma or emotional stress. According to the CDC, fibromyalgia symptoms can include: Musculoskeletal pain and stiffness, often through the entire body. Fatigue and tiredness. Depression and anxiety. Sleep issues. Memory, thinking or concentration issues. Tension headaches or migraines. Digestive issues (i.e. irritable bowel syndrome) Pain in the face or jaw. Tingling or numbness in the hands and feet. What Causes Fibromyalgia? The cause behind fibromyalgia is still uncertain, but the most researched theory behind fibromyalgia pain is that at some point in a person’s life, their nervous system changes in a way that this person experiences an increased sensitivity to pain. This can happen numerous ways, such as: One can have increased levels of chemicals that signal pain, resulting in inaccurate pain signals. Pain receptors develop a memory where they overreact to both painful and non-painful stimuli. How can Chiropractic Treatment Help? The nervous system coordinates and regulates the function of [...]
What’s Making Us Unhealthy and How Can Chiropractic Help?
In the world we live in, there are as many emerging things to do to be healthy as there are things to avoid doing so as to not become unhealthy. It can be pretty overwhelming, but we believe that understanding the big-picture elements affecting our health is a great place to start before we start talking about how your health is related to chiropractic. So let's get into it! There are 3 Types of Stress Bombarding us Chronically: Physical stress: This type of stress can encompass a wide scope of physical elements, big and small. On one side, we've got macro-traumas that can have an immediate impact on our body, such as: Motor vehicle collisions Slips and falls. Injuries. On the other hand, we have microtraumas that have a subtle, yet effective effect on our body over time, such as: Our posture. Sitting for long hours in one position. Having a physical job. Repetitive movements in sports (i.e. swinging a golf club, kicking a soccer ball, swinging a baseball bat) or life. Gravity. Chemical stress: This type of stress involves the toxic substances that our body is exposed to that then affects our levels of inflammation, our body's ability to [...]
Can Chiropractic Help with Insomnia?
Anyone who has had a rough night of sleep knows that sleep can play a significant role in how you feel on a given day. But for those who deal with insomnia, getting a good night's sleep can feel like an impossibility. But what is it about sleep that affects our body's ability to function so much? Why is Sleep so Important? Sleep is vital to maintaining good health. It is essential to every process in the body and allows your body to function physically and mentally as it should. Sleep helps your immune system, digestive system, metabolism, mental health, mood, and so much more. In children sleep is even more critical in that it helps them develop mentally and physically. Poor sleep in children has been associated with difficult behavioral issues, difficulty learning and retaining information, and even poor eating patterns. While your body sleeps, your brain gets a chance to process and perform healthy brain functions like storing new information in long-term memory, clearing the cortisol that has built up from the day's activities, and recharging mentally so that you can think clearly tomorrow and maintain good mental health. Physically our bodies get a chance to rest and [...]
Does Everyone Get Chiropractic Adjustments the Same Way?
As you might expect, many people don't get adjusted the same way (the same adjustment, with the same technique and the same treatment plan) because there are many factors that determine what an adjustment looks like for someone. Let's dig deeper into why this can be! Chiropractic Technique: In the chiropractic world, there are many different techniques that allow a chiropractor to analyze someone's spine as well as to execute an adjustment. Depending on the technique that your chiropractor uses, your adjustment could include: Manual adjustments Drop tables Instruments Distraction tables Sacro-Occipital Technique blocks Soft tissue therapy Others Age/Stage of Life Expectedly, how you get chiropractic care as a baby is not the same way that you get care as a child or an adult. Babies are not tiny adults, which is why their adjustments looks different! When it comes to babies, their adjustments are much gentler and there is a more neurologically-based approach instead of a musculoskeletal one. Additionally, a young adult with a simple case of neck pain may be adjusted very differently than someone past their seventies who has a tougher time getting on the table, shifting positions or whose body is more sensitive to certain [...]
Can Chiropractic Help with High Blood Pressure?
High blood pressure is a fairly common condition, with the NHS estimating that 18% of adult men and 13% of adult women have elevated blood pressure. Furthermore, they state that half of the people over 75 years of age have high blood pressure. But what is high blood pressure, and what does that mean for our bodies and our health? What is High Blood Pressure? The ideal blood pressure is typically 120/80 mmHg. What does that measurement mean? Blood pressure is measured by the amount of pressure that blood traveling through your body will exert on the artery walls holding it. It is measured in millimeters of mercury or mmHg. The two numbers represent systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Systolic blood pressure refers to the pressure exerted on the blood vessels when your heart beats and pushes the blood flow through your arteries, and diastolic blood pressure refers to the pressure in between each beat of your heart. High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is defined as having a sustained blood pressure of 140/90 mmHg or above. How does High Blood Pressure affect the body? Often, people with high blood pressure will not know that they have hypertension, as [...]
Non-Cardiac Chest Pain & How Chiropractic Can Help
Having pain in your chest can be scary—most people immediately assume the pain is related to a heart attack and rush to the emergency room. While this isn’t a bad idea since it’s better to err on the side of caution, heart attacks typically only cause about 5% of total chest pain. If you experience chest pain that has been confirmed as non-cardiac, it’s important to explore all your options to resolve the pain and get to the root of the problem. Dr. Ronnie Bolar of Vital Life Chiropractic has experience with non-cardiac chest pain and can help you find relief with neurologically-based chiropractic care. Getting to the Root Cause of the Pain One of the aims of chiropractic care is to find the true origin of discomfort and dysfunction. Dr. Bolar is not satisfied with just treating symptoms or putting a hypothetical band-aid on a problem for temporary, short-term relief. Instead, he wants to figure out what is causing the non-cardiac chest pain that you’re experiencing so that he can help resolve the issue fully and permanently. Most commonly, the cause of non-cardiac chest pain is related to the ribs. When the rib cage is out of alignment or [...]
Slip and Fall Accident
If you’ve been involved in a slip and fall accident, you likely have a lot of things on your mind. You’re thinking about your physical pain levels, insurance costs, and doctors’ appointments. If your accident happened at work, you’re dealing with workers’ compensation claims, conversations with your employer, and figuring out how to make ends meet while you’re out of work. While many traditional treatment methods are utilized to speed up healing after a slip and fall accident, you may be surprised to find out that a chiropractor can play an important role in your healing as well. Spinal Subluxations A subluxation in your spine is simply a misalignment of one or more of the vertebrae. Several of these small bones make up your spine, and any of them can get twisted, turned, or shifted out of alignment from a slip and fall, and this can bring about a lot of health problems, pain, and discomfort. Not only do spinal subluxations cause back and neck pain, headaches, and muscle soreness throughout the body, but they can also cause dysfunction in other systems of the body. Since the spinal cord travels through the spine and is an important part of the [...]
Chiropractic Care Can Help Make VBAC Deliveries Possible
No matter how much planning you do, there is no way to account for everything that can happen when you give birth. In many cases, C-sections and other interventions may become necessary. You may have heard that this means all your future deliveries will be similar. However, having a C-section at one birth doesn’t mean that one will be necessary in any future births. In fact, it’s been shown that C-sections are often performed when they are not needed for the situation and it can be better to have a VBAC, or vaginal birth after cesarean. One of the benefits pregnant women can experience from visiting a Lithia Springs chiropractor is a higher chance of a vaginal birth in the future, even if she’s had prior cesarean sections. Why Try for a VBAC? It has been shown in a number of studies that a large number of interventions during birth, such as forceps, vacuums, or C-section deliveries, can actually be detrimental to the short- and long-term health of a baby. Jaundice and feeding problems are among the top concerns for intervention-related risks, though others can occur. In some cases, a C-section can be a lifesaving procedure and is very medically [...]