October was National Chiropractic Health month and a good time to remember that pain is often the very last symptom to appear. It is a great idea to look out for some of the possible earlier signs and address things quickly. This prevents small problems from becoming larger problems. This is sometimes called proactive care and can help lead to faster and better results. This article will go over what that type of care looks like and the steps involved. From the examination through some of the goals that patients have. For proactive care the goals are often very specific and can even include patient goals of specific exercises. Making sure that small problems don’t turn into big problems can have a lasting positive impact on your flexibility, strength, posture, and the longevity of your joints. We will also cover early warning signs, benefits of long term mobility, and how we customize care to the individual patient.
Early Warning signs to watch out for
One of the most common early warning signs is persistent tension. Meaning tension that can be on both sides or on just one side that isn’t just from an extra hard work out or something different you did the day before. This type of tension stays with you over weeks. This is often found with unevenness or asymmetry of several types. Most commonly, differences in strength, mobility and flexibility. So for example, maybe you can reach further with one arm then you can with the other when reaching for something above your head. Perhaps it’s easier to get off the floor pushing off with your right leg versus your left or maybe it’s easier to get your jacket on if you start with your left arm. Perhaps nothing hurts but you’re already changing how you’re moving based on which side works better. You might also notice that you prefer doing tasks or activities of daily living in a specific way. We all have preferences and most of us are either right or left handed. However, these are tasks that should be able to be done with either hand. For example, driving a car, opening a door, and carrying groceries. If you’re always loading up one side of your body and not the other there’s probably a reason why.
Other clues are small pains that come and go. Maybe it only bothers you for a few minutes once every couple of months but these are warning shots telling you that something isn’t moving correctly. They’re easy to dismiss and move on with life, but paying attention to them can save you a lot of pain and time in the future. Additionally, stiffness, especially in the mornings, and body exhaustion at the end of the day when you don’t have any other reason for it are both common indicators.
The power of proactive care
Have you ever heard the old saying ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’? Why wait until you can’t lift your arm above your head or sleep on your left side? Focusing on fixing something that isn’t completely broken yet is always a good idea. Specifically for body movements and Chiropractic, coming in for treatment earlier rather than later usually means that you will get better faster. Often that way, treatment doesn’t take so long which will translate the majority of the time to also being less expensive. We tend to lose abilities slowly over time and without always realizing what we are giving up. So for example we don’t notice little changes that we make just to get things accomplished such as changing how we tie our shoes or always getting up with one leg supporting us as opposed to being able to do it both ways.
These don’t seem like a big deal at the moment, but they tend to escalate over time. The body gives us warnings that things are not moving as they should be long before we have consistent and significant pain. Almost like a light on your car dashboard lighting up, even though the car seems to be running just fine. Some of these changes in movement are difficult to notice on yourself. Perhaps a friend or spouse has noticed and mentioned a change you have made or something like one shoulder being higher than the other. Chiropractic care is a fantastic non-invasive option to prevent potentially longer down time as well as pain, degeneration, and probable increased costs down the road.
What proactive Chiropractic looks like
Proactive care, like any care will begin with an initial office visit to determine what is the problem. Any changes or asymmetries that you have noticed are helpful to tell the doctor. However, they will usually be able to find them even if you are not sure if anything has changed. If you come to IHS for proactive care the first thing we will do is a fully functional exam. The purpose of the exam is to look for asymmetries, loss of mobility, any pain that you might feel with touch such as tenderness or pain with specific movements. We also will look at the range of motion and check orthopedic tests for the surrounding areas. We will look at what movement patterns are not ideal and even though there may not be pain to tie it to, we can prevent pain and injury by returning the movement pattern to the ideal way of moving. So for example, we would still give rehabilitation exercises to retrain whatever the pattern is that needs to be retrained. Ultimately, the goal would be for you to do the movements and activities that you want to do and also be able to do those things correctly.
Next, depending on findings, appointments will be scheduled with some sort of regularity that matches the issue at hand. Once the ideal movement patterns and functions have been achieved, the patient can be released from care. Additionally, we go over at home movement patterns and even workplace ergonomics to make sure that the issue doesn’t return. Sometimes that is all that is needed. Occasionally the patient will have something in their life that will continually exacerbate or irritate their issue. This might be a movement pattern at work that really can’t be changed. Such as a dentist sitting forward and leaning left. Or someone who drives a car as part of their job. That posture is fairly fixed; we can’t change that. In these instances we try to give tools to ‘undo the job’ so that we can minimize the effects of the bad work posture or pattern. This allows for the closest return to ideal patterns and gives the best outcomes.
Benefits for long-term mobility
Maintaining movement patterns that are based on the correct way that humans are supposed to move is beneficial for long-term mobility in several ways. First, it helps us not over utilize certain muscles while under utilizing other muscles. That keeps the muscle tone balanced which also helps keep our joints balanced and moving correctly. Improper mobility and activation of muscles is the number one reason for degeneration of joints. When a joint isn’t balanced, the bone often contacts areas in the joint with less deep cartilage and the wear and tear affects it faster. This is an example of repetitive micro-trauma and can have the same effect as major trauma with time. Additionally, these changes can affect posture as well as joint alignment.
Therefore, making sure that you are moving correctly will literally affect the longevity of your joints. They’re supposed to last you your whole life! Replacement parts are never as good as the original. In addition, improper patterns will cause increased muscle tension, knots and adhesions in muscles and fascia. Those changes cause pulling and tension that change how the lymphatics flow in that area. This can lead to superficial circulation changes as well. This can also affect flexibility due to the same mechanisms. In fact, even energy and sleeping comfort and quality can improve with these changes. These changes tend to snowball and can have positive changes that were not even intended. For example, working on core strength and stability to help lower back tension can also improve upper back movement and shoulder mobility as core strength is fundamental to all movements.
Fixing issues when they are small keeps things from escalating and becoming more serious and painful issues. There is an ideal posture for each joint in the body and we should be able to perform most of our movements moving through that posture. When we consistently use our bodies in a way that deviates from that, we get acceleration in the degeneration of those areas.
When we move how we are meant to move best, our body and joints last the longest they can.
How we customize care
All care at Integrated Health Solutions is customized to each individual based on their exam, how they describe their day-to-day, including the tasks that need to be done each day, as well as their goals of what they want to be able to do. For example, one patient who is joining the military needed to be able to do the heaviest possible dead lift in order to improve his score and thus help him with his military career. So for him, we specifically trained past our normal rehabilitation exercises and geared later exercises toward that exercise. Some patients have an upcoming trip or vacation and they need to be able to walk a lot farther than they normally do or perhaps it’s a new parent that needs to be able to get a baby out of a crib many times a day. In the past, I have trained patients to a particular exercise that they wanted to be able to do but were unable to do. For example, runners who can run a certain distance just fine, but when they try to increase their mileage they get lower leg tension. Improving core stability allows them to run further, sometimes that’s the difference between comfortably running a mini marathon or a full marathon.
This targeted treatment consists of a combination of several types of therapy. Chiropractic adjustments to segments of the spine or other joints that are not moving as they should be. Soft tissue works to release adhesions and muscle tension at muscles where the movement is altered. Dry needling, usually with Tens attached, to release trigger points and re-activate muscles that are not firing when they should. Finally, specific functional rehabilitation exercises to change the movement patterns so that the changes are lasting and integrated into regular everyday movements.
Proactive care can have an impactful and lasting effect on your mobility, strength, and even the longevity of your joints. Beginning as soon as changes are noticed can lead to faster results and help avoid future injury and pain. Treatments can be tailored to a specific exercise or movement pattern and can help patients reach their activity goals. Customized care can result in specific outcomes that may not have been possible without intervention. Results from proactive care can improve sleep quality and overall posture. Don’t wait to feel poorly to get better! If you notice imbalances or have some chronic tension, come see us! We would love to help.
Content provided by Dr. Elizabeth Bouse
