Sciatica is a term used for a pain that shoots down one or at times both sides of the legs. This is a cause from irritation or compression of the sciatic nerve. This is a common issue with people suffering from sciatica hence why many have heard of this term before. In this blog we will be talking about the common causes of sciatica and how we can manage this condition!
Common Causes Of Sciatica
Disc protrusion in the lower back causing inflammation and compression of the sciatic nerve
Bone or disc degeneration in the lower back region
Spondylolisthesis
Tight Piriformis Muscle causing compression of the sciatic nerve – most common cause due to over-sitting
3 Ways To Manage Sciatica
Avoid prolonged sitting and get moving more!
Stretching and exercising the lower back and glute muscles to reduce tension within the area!
Seeing a chiropractor! Chiropractors are able to alleviate symptoms of sciatica by decompressing the spine and reducing tension within the piriformis muscle if its causing symptoms.
*Our Chiropractors are upskilled in many areas of rehabilitation. If you are someone who is suffering from sciatica or sciatic like pains book an appointment today or give our team a call today on 9376 2002 at The Melbourne Chiropractor to find out how we can help you out today!
Posture pole’s are a long foam roller that can be cut in half to lay flat on the floor. The goal of the foam roller is to be long enough to rest on the full length of your spine up to the back of your head.
How To Correctly Position Yourself On A Posture Pole?
The correct way to position yourself is to lay with your knees bent whilst resting on the posture pole with the back of your head touching and the bottom of your pelvis touching the length of the posture pole. It is then as easy as laying with your arms outwards in a scarecrow position with your palms facing up towards the roof.
Posture Pole Positioning
What Are The Recommendations?
The goal is to lay on the posture pole for as long as 10 minutes at a time. Usually at the beginning it may be uncomfortable meaning that 2 sets of 5 minutes may be better to start with or even 3 by 3 minutes throughout the day. A maximum of 15 minutes is enough to get the body stretched out for the day.
Why Use The Posture Pole?
The reason for using the posture pole is to eliminate tension, increase flexibility and allow the body to relax. It also helps you focus on something other than your electronic devices. Use this time to focus on your breathing and relaxation.
Poor posture can limit breathing capacity and cause increased tension within the upper back and shoulder region. A prolonged posture that is not corrected can lead to uneven weight distribution throughout the body and be a cause of increased wear and tear on bones, discs and joints. This is what our team of chiropractors aim to correct and make changes to so that joint dysfunction and degeneration can be avoided.
Poor posture decreases the amount of capacity within the lungs. This is because the area becomes compressed not allowing the lungs to fill adequately and limits the amount of strength the diaphragm has to operate effectively.
Sports chiropractors pride themselves on exercise and wellbeing when it comes to daily activity. Whether you are a professional athlete or someone that has a sporting hobby, sports chiropractors are able to treat specifically for your injury! The main goal for a sporting chiro is to get you back on track using various techniques and exercises to help strengthen the areas of concern.
Sports chiropractor’s have studied rehabilitation methods for injured athletes and help to guide the patient to achieve ongoing mobility and healthy wellbeing. Sports Chiropractors also aim to prevent sporting injuries from reoccurring again in the future!
What Is The Difference Of A Sports Chiropractor?
Different to your traditional chiropractor who will take a holistic approach to your healthcare a sports chiropractor will be more specific to injuries from sports and will target those areas as best as they can. They are also more than likely going to give you strengthening exercises and stretches to help build the strength within the area.
*Our Chiropractors are upskilled in many areas of rehabilitation. If you are someone who is suffering from a sporting injury book an appointment today or give our team a call today on 9376 2002 at The Melbourne Chiropractor to find out how we can help you out today!
Fibromyalgia is a condition that causes chronic fatigue and cognitive issues. The reason why our team of chiropractors work with people suffering from fibromyalgia is because the symptoms that follow with it are arthritic-like or that of inflammation (especially in joints).
It is common to be hypersensitive to both hot and cold temperatures and have an increased sense of smell. Unfortunately there is no definitive cause of how fibromyalgia starts although it is more common in those with auto-immune conditions or substance abuse.
Can You Cure Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia is a condition that you will never be able to get rid of unless there is a new miracle drug that helps. At this very point in time fibromyalgia can only be managed by using a few particular methods!
Of course! Our main goal as chiropractors is to reduce the pressure throughout the musculoskeletal system. This enables us to reduce inflammation and allow the body to settle itself down. Fibromyalgia is a condition that over exerts the bodies receptors hence why the nervous system needs to be settled!
A Chiropractor is a health practitioner that focuses on making changes to the bodies musculoskeletal system. Chiropractors are primary healthcare practitioners which enables them to provide comprehensive healthcare long-term and can be seen without a referral from a general practitioner.
Chiropractors are doctors of their field and use various methods to find the underlying cause of your body. Some methods may include a thorough medical history as well as an understanding of your general health and wellbeing. Orthopaedic tests and other types of examinations are also conducted to get a better understanding of what is restricted or suffering in regards to function. There can also be times when chiropractors may refer for an X-ray. Most times X-rays are done when there is concern for fractures or severe spinal anomalies. When it comes to your health we don’t like to guess what may be the cause and this is when X-rays may be handy.
Education And Qualifications For Chiropractors?
Chiropractors in Australia need to complete a five year university degree which encompasses subjects such as neuroscience, physiology and anatomy, microbiology, pharmacology and toxicology. Chiropractic students also require supervised clinical hours to gain experience and confidence in chiropractic adjustments and other low force methods before graduating.
Does the Chiropractor have a particular area of interest that suits your needs?
Some Chiropractors complete additional training in other areas after finishing their studies. For example, some move into paediatric care or pregnancy chiropractic care, while others move into sports rehabilitation. Finding a Chiropractor that specialises in these fields may help you find a better suit for your needs as a patient.
Does The Chiropractor Complete A Thorough Initial Consultation?
If your Chiropractor takes the time to complete a thorough initial exam you can be sure that they are interested in finding the underlying cause to your complaint and what they recommend moving forward will be of benefit.
Does Your Chiropractor Focus On Symptoms Or Function?
Do you want to be pain free? Or do you want to find out the cause of your pain and stop it from coming back over and over again? As discussed symptoms are the last thing to come about and is usually due to an underlying cause inside our body that needs to be addressed.
Does The Chiropractor Create A Plan To Help Achieve Your Health Goals?
You need to have a goal and and understanding of what your care involves so that you are on the same page as your chiropractor. Being able to understand if you are improving and what each treatment entails will allow you to benefit from the experience.
Does Your Chiropractor Address Your Concerns And Questions Relating To Your Health/ Complaint?
You need to be understood by your chiropractor. You have to feel like you are in the right place to discuss your problems and get them checked out.
Does Your Chiropractor Explain Your Condition And How They Will Help You With Chiropractic Care?
A Chiropractor that wants to explain and show you the reasoning behind your pain is essential. This ensures that you understand what is going on during the process and that you are seeing someone who cares about your complaints.
The importance of good, straight posture can’t be down played. However, by simply sitting up straight you will not correct incorrect postures.
5 Reasons Why Posture Is Important:
1) Good posture helps you perform better 2) Your body position looks and feels better 3) An optimal posture helps your body function at a higher level 4) Good posture limits abnormal wear and tear on joints throughout the body 5) Your internal organs are able to function better/no unneeded compression through the ribs affecting lung capacity
Given that these benefits are associated with good posture habits, who wouldn’t want to have good posture! Here at The Melbourne Chiropractor, we meet patients who need help correcting postural problems, including sway back. military posture and text neck. As chiropractors our goal is to help manage and correct these postural issues.
Some Common Posture Problems We See Include –
Sway back posture
Lumbar lordosis
Thoracic kyphosis
Forward head posture.
Bad postures tend to put extra pressure and stress on your spine, shoulders, hips, and knees.
Can you relate to any of the postures in the image below?
Sway Back Posture also known as hyper lordosis exaggerated the curve in the lower back increasing pressure. When standing the stomach looks to pull forward and the hips tilt forward to compensate.
Chiropractic adjustments and mobilisations help to increase mobility and functional capacity through the affected joint segments
Soft tissue therapy allows us to decrease the muscle tension throughout the areas of concern and in turn improve postural areas.
An exercise and rehabilitation program that is specific to the area which will include a series of stretches and low force exercise to begin with before getting into strengthening the area of complaint.
Usually there is a reason for first coming into the chiro. Whether it is because you have lifted something in a funny way or twisted suddenly and heard a noise there is always a reason for coming into your first visit. Maybe a family member or friend have recommended a chiropractor in the past and have told you about their results or maybe you feel like their is more to the problem than just a “tight muscle”
Our Job as Chiropractors at The Melbourne Chiropractor is to find the underlying causes to your complaint and giving you an idea of how we can better the problem at hand. Usually symptoms that include pain are just a way of letting the body understand something is wrong. The problem with this is that we don’t know exactly how the pain started unless there is a mechanism for the injury or we do a little more digging to figure out what you could be doing to create this issues with daily activities.
After people get their initial concern dealt with they will tend to find that there are other areas that may be effecting them throughout daily life. Usually posture is the biggest issue when continuing care. This is when we try to reverse poor posture and release tight areas that may be causing ongoing stress.
Maintenance Care
Chiropractic Maintenance care involves fortnightly or monthly treatments depending on severity and intensity of your daily activity. You may find that seeing a chiropractor to get on top of pain/stiffness will help rid you of any aches or pains and allow you to continue living to the best of your abilities!
FIFO also known as fly in fly out is an occupation that enables people to travel out to the jobsite whether it is in mines or deep sea waters with rotating rosters. This means that there is usually no set schedule for the year unlike most jobs you might not get certain holidays or may be working in interstate for weeks on end before getting a short break. Majority of these jobs are highly strenuous and involve operation of heavy machinery and tools for long hours to get the job done.
Common Health Concerns Of FIFO Work Include
Inconsistent Sleep
Heavy lifting and
Overuse of certain body movement
Fatigue
Headaches
Low Back Pain
Long Periods of sitting
Being in awkward positions on the job
Mental Health implications from being away from home
Can Chiropractic Care Help?
Chiropractic Care is a great way of dealing with aches and pains. Due to the ongoing pressures working as a FIFO worker it is common to see the common headache and migraine like symptoms as well as neck and low back pain.
Chiropractic adjustments to help decrease those aches and pains.
Using a pillow that suits you best
Try and find a job that works with your family’s lifestyle.
An exercise and stretching routine to help decrease tension and increase mobility
Deep breathing exercises
What Can Our Team Do To Help?
Depending on the severity of the injury or area of concern our practitioners in our Broadmeadows, Westmeadows and Fawkner Clinics will treat accordingly to your complaint. Treatments that may be provided but are not limited to include:
The Melbourne Chiropractor Fawkner provides specialised therapeutic techniques to help with all types of musculoskeletal problems. Our team of chiropractors strives to decrease pain, increase function and create solutions to your problems which will be long term. Our team strives to get patients back on their feet as quick as possible with ongoing support if it is essential.
Our Fawkner and broadmeadows clinics offer chiropractic services which also include modalities such as dry needling, cupping, sports taping, trigger point therapy, Stretching and exercise prescription.
Our Fawkner chiropractic practice also accepts referrals from GP’s for chiropractic services. If you are given a CDM or EPC plan you are eligible for up to 5 chiropractic visits per year!
The Melbourne Chiropractor Treament Room
Chiropractors Education
Five years of university training, along with ongoing research and training has increased our teams ability to give you the right advice. Evidence based practice increases our safety and effectiveness.
What Is Chiropractic?
Chiropractic Care is internationally recognized as being a way to help alleviate pain and increase a person’s functional well-being. A chiropractor may help you achieve a healthier lifestyle by giving you strategies to overcome stress, injuries, pain, and other musculoskeletal conditions.
The Melbourne Chiropractor
What Can Chiropractic Help With?
Both our Fawkner Chiropractors and Broadmeadows Chiropractors can help you with various conditions including:
What Can You Expect On Your First Visit To Our Clinic?
First Visit or First Treatment at either of our Fawkner or Broadmeadows health clinics includes a case history, posture scan, movement analysis, pain assessment, orthopaedic testing and a full body treatment. Referral for X-ray imaging (if required) is bulk-billed through Medicare.
Our FawknerClinic
Our Fawkner Clinic is spacious and easily accessible by car, bus and train. Onsite Parking is available and is within 10km of Melbourne CBD
7 Facts About Fawkner
Population 14,274
Fawkner was first established in the 1908
Average age is 34
Fawkner’s area is 5.1 km²
Fawkner is 12 km north of Melbourne’s Central Business District
Fawkner is named after an early settler
Suburbs We Service
Predominately Northern Suburbs but not limited to:
Craigieburn
Roxburgh Park
Greenvale
Tullamarine
Essendon
Niddrie
Ascot Vale
Moonee Ponds
Aberfeldie
Fawkner
Cambellfield
Mickleham
Reservoir
Epping
Lalor
Wollert
Clarkefield
Airport West
Attwood
Westmeadows
Meadow Heights
Jacana
Glenroy
Pascoe Vale
Hadfield
What Can Our Team Do To Help?
Depending on the severity of the injury or area of concern our practitioners in our Broadmeadows, Westmeadows and Fawkner Clinics will treat accordingly to your complaint.
*Note: If you are someone who is looking for help or wants to find out more about our services don’t hesitate to reach out to our team of practitioners! Online bookings are available online and we are available 7 days a week at our Broadmeadows, Westmeadows and Fawkner Chiropractic Clinics! https://themelbournechiropractor.com.au/book-now
