Careers that benefit from regular chiropractic care: Part 3

Careers that benefit from regular chiropractic care, is series I’ve spoken on before, last time out it was health care providers.

In a similar vein, this blog’s careers that can benefit from regular chiropractic care concerns our first responders, our emergency personnel, police, paramedics and fire fighters.

Why would a police officer benefit from regular chiropractic care? Let’s think about some of the tasks a police officer might do on a regular basis. There may be a lot of time spent in a car, wearing a belt that may make an ideal sitting position impossible, both scenarios can lead to lower back pain. The job can be very physical at times and may also be caught unawares. Having properly functioning joints and muscles means that you have reserve capacity in those muscles and joints if a situation places you in a suboptimal position.

careers that benefit from regular chiropractic care
I have many paramedics who come for chiropractic care regularly, if you think about this occupation, there’s a lot of lifting involved. One of my veteran paramedics likes to say, “ they haven’t been making the patients lighter over the years”. Again another situation where having a properly functioning spine is necessary to carry out the duties of the occupation.

As one could imagine, firefighters are not particularly kind to their spines or other joints for that matter. In my internship year I was part of a study to educate firefighters about their spines, basic anatomy, proper postures when able and when to seek help. This simple education session resulted in nearly 75% reduction in days lost to injury. Similar to police officers, we want firefighters to have the reserve capacity to respond in a non-ergonomic fashion should the emergency require it, regular chiropractic care can help to make sure that they are functioning at their best.

A common theme for these three careers that benefit from regular chiropractic care is stress. Regular chiropractic care, regular exercise, breathing techniques, are all ways to reduce the stress of these high-stress careers.

careers that benefit from regular chiropractic care

For my other blogs in this series or other topics visit here

Why does my chiropractor care about my bladder?

Why does my chiropractor care about my bladder?

“Why does my chiropractor care about my bladder? ” Recently while taking a history from a new patient, which included a review of various body functions, including bowel and bladder movements, the patient wondered aloud, “ I’m here for my back why do you care about my bowel and bladder movements”?

On the surface it may seem like an odd question from one who’s known for dealing with back, neck and other musculoskeletal conditions, but there’s a very good explanation , I swear.

Most lower back pain is what’s termed Non-specific Mechanical back pain. This type of back pain is very common and most of us will experience it at some point throughout our lifetime. This type of back pain is typically an injury to any one or more of lower back muscles, joints or ligaments. Here there is no involvement of the spinal discs or nerve involvement.

In some cases as I’ve described in previous blogs, the injury is to one of the spinal discs, or intervertebral discs. Infrequently one of these disc injuries causes compression to nerves that control sphincter muscles (muscles that open/close) of the bladder and bowel. This complication called “ Cauda Equina Syndrome” occurs in only 1-3% of disc injuries, mostly to men in their 40s or 50s who have had a history of chronic low back pain or who were born with a narrow spinal canal.

Thus this syndrome if present with lower back pain may produce symptoms related to bowel and bladder function and numbness in the saddle area ( the area of your body that would touch a saddle if you were riding a horse). Bladder symptoms could be things like, inability to stop or start a urine stream, the feeling of urgency for urination or incomplete bladder emptying. Bowel symptoms might include constipation, loss of bowel control or inability to feel when you need to move the bowel or that you have already moved your bowel.

This syndrome is a medical emergency and requires immediate surgery and even if a surgical intervention is performed some of the damage to the nerves may be permanent.

So there you have it, a pretty good reason for a chiropractor to be concerned about your bowel and bladder habits.
For more educational blogs not necessarily about bowel function go to https://yourpickeringchiropractors.caWhy does my chiropractor care about my bladder?

Is it my back or is it my hip?

Is it my back or is it my hip?

This is a common question I’m asked and the answer sometimes isn’t so easy, so I’ll try to explain with a couple of simple clinical scenarios.
The first scenario, involves a person I’ll call “Bill”, Bill is a 35 year old man who was doing some landscaping around his house, lifting and moving flagstone, digging, planting etc. He recalls bending and lifting a rock and then feeling some pain in his “hip” and buttock area and some pain in his groin. He is uncomfortable bending, standing from sitting and rolling over in bed. He finds some relief when he’s up moving around and walking feels better. Is it my back or is it my hip?

In this case Bill’s problem is his sacroiliac joint, or the joint between his sacrum or tailbone and his illium or the bones your belt sits on (unless you are a teenaged boy, then the belt may really sit on the hip) , this is not really your hip, but this is commonly referred to as one’s hip. A problem in this area will often present as Bill did with one sided lower back, buttock and groin pain, with walking tending to help.

Scenario two, has “ Betty” an energetic 77 year old lady who enjoys walking, golfing and gardening. Betty reports that over the past couple of years she has been getting more sore over her right hip, buttock and groin. The pain can be aggravated by her regular walks, getting out of bed in the morning or if she’s been still for a long period. Is it my back or is it my hip?

In Betty’s case the problem is in her true hip joint (ball and socket joint) or where her femur, the leg bone (the ball) inserts into the pelvis ( the socket), here the cartilage components of either the ball or the socket are wearing out and with weight on the right leg the symptoms become worse, inflammatory effects are worse when initiating movement from rest.

So in short is it my back or my hip?
Backs like to walk and hips don’t

Both conditions will respond well to chiropractic care
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Is it my back or is it my hip?

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominic at FreeDigitalPhotos.net