Headaches are one of the most common health complaints, and when they strike, they can significantly derail your life. While medications can help ease the pain, they don’t always tackle the root causes. That’s where chiropractic care may step in.
How Chiropractic Care May Help
Chiropractic care focuses on the spine, muscles, and joints, the areas that play a big role in headache pain. By improving movement, easing tension, and supporting overall function, chiropractic treatment may offer relief by:
· Improving spinal and joint function
· Reducing muscle tension
· Supporting posture and movement, including guidance on ergonomics, posture tips, and exercises to help prevent triggers
What to Expect During a Visit
When you visit a chiropractor for headaches, you can typically expect:
· A full assessment of your spine, posture, and movement
· Spinal adjustments and soft tissue techniques (if appropriate)
· Personalised advice on exercises, posture, and lifestyle habits to help reduce headaches
Chiropractors often take a holistic approach, helping you consider factors like workstation setup, sleeping positions, and daily habits that may impact your health and comfort.
What This Means for You
By focusing on spinal health, muscle balance, posture, and movement, chiropractic care may help cut down the frequency and intensity of headaches. If headaches are interfering with your daily routine, consulting our chiropractors could be an effective step in your care plan.
As chiropractors, we often emphasize the importance of maintaining proper spinal alignment while sleeping. One essential element that can significantly impact your sleep quality and spinal health is the pillow you use. While there are various types of pillows on the market, I’d like to shine a spotlight on the benefits of Flexi pillows and why they might just be the best pillow for a restorative night’s sleep.
Back Sleepers: Those who sleep on their backs require a pillow that supports the natural curve of the neck without thrusting the head forward.
Side Sleepers: Side sleepers need a loftier pillow that fills the gap between the neck and shoulders, maintaining alignment with the spine.
Stomach Sleepers: For stomach sleepers, a flatter pillow is often best as it prevents the neck from turning excessively and helps keep the spine aligned.
Understanding your sleep position is the first step toward finding the right pillow.
The Benefits of Flexi Pillows
1. Adjustable Loft
One of the standout features of Flexi pillows is their adjustable loft. Many models come with removable layers, allowing you to customize the height and firmness to suit your specific sleep position and personal comfort preferences. This customization promotes optimal spinal alignment and can relieve pressure points, leading to a more restful sleep.
Many Flexi pillows are made from breathable materials that promote airflow, reducing the risk of overheating during the night. Our sleep quality can be significantly affected by temperature, and a breathable pillow can help you maintain a comfortable sleeping environment.
4. Versatility
Flexi pillows are often malleable, allowing you to shape them according to your needs. This versatility provides more support regardless of how you move during the night. If you experience discomfort or find a specific position awkward, you can easily adjust the pillow for better support.
5. Ideal for Allergies
Many Flexi pillows are made from hypoallergenic materials, making them suitable for allergy sufferers. They resist mold, dust mites, and other allergens, promoting a healthier sleep environment. If you have sensitivities, choosing a Flexi pillow can help mitigate any nighttime reactions.
Choosing the Right Flexi Pillow
When selecting a Flexi pillow, consider the following factors:
Material: Look for high-quality foam or memory foam options that offer durability and support.
Adjustability: Ensure the pillow has layers or zippers to allow for height adjustments.
Cover: A removable and washable cover is essential for easy maintenance and hygiene.
Investing in a quality pillow is as crucial as selecting a comfortable mattress. With various types of pillows available, Flexi pillows stand out due to their adjustability, support, and breathability, making them an excellent choice for individuals seeking better spinal alignment and overall sleep quality.
As chiropractors, we encourage you to assess your sleep habits and invest in a pillow that suits your needs. Remember, a good night’s sleep is foundational for your health and well-being, and finding the right pillow could be a game-changer. Sleep well, and wake up refreshed!
Dowager’s hump, also known as upper thoracic kyphosis, is a common postural condition characterized by an abnormal rounding of the upper back. This condition often affects older adults, particularly postmenopausal women, leading to a noticeable hump at the base of the neck. While it can be attributed to various factors, including osteoporosis, muscle weakness, and poor posture, chiropractic care offers a promising approach to improve this condition and enhance overall spinal health.
Muscle Weakness: Weakening of the back muscles can exacerbate poor posture.
The combination of these factors can lead to discomfort, decreased mobility, and a reduced quality of life. Fortunately, research highlights how chiropractic care can effectively address the underlying issues associated with dowager’s hump.
The Role of Chiropractic Adjustments
Chiropractic adjustments aim to restore proper alignment of the spine, improve posture, and alleviate pain. A number of studies have shown the efficacy of chiropractic care in managing postural issues, including dowager’s hump.
Research Findings
Improvement in Posture: A study published in the Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain demonstrated significant improvements in spinal posture and curvature through chiropractic adjustments. Participants receiving regular spinal manipulation showed increased thoracic extension and better postural alignment, which directly corresponds to the alleviation of symptoms associated with dowager’s hump.
Pain Reduction: Another study published in the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine examined the role of spinal manipulation for cervical and thoracic spine issues. Results indicated that patients reported significant reductions in pain levels after undergoing a series of chiropractic adjustments. This is particularly relevant for those suffering from discomfort associated with dowager’s hump.
Enhanced Mobility: Research in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation explored the effects of chiropractic adjustments on mobility and functional outcomes. The findings suggested that individuals who received chiropractic care experienced improved mobility and functional capabilities, contributing to an overall better quality of life.
Muscle Strengthening: A study in The Spine Journal examined the relationship between chiropractic adjustments and muscle strengthening. Participants who engaged in chiropractic care along with tailored exercise programs demonstrated enhanced strength in their back muscles, which is crucial for supporting proper posture and combatting the effects of dowager’s hump.
Patient-Centered Care: Chiropractic care is individualized, allowing practitioners to tailor treatment plans to each patient’s specific needs and conditions.
Non-Invasive Treatment: Chiropractors provide a non-invasive alternative to pain relief, reducing the reliance on medications and surgical interventions.
Chiropractic care presents a valuable option for individuals suffering from dowager’s hump. Through spinal adjustments, targeted exercises, and lifestyle advice, chiropractic practitioners can help improve spinal alignment, reduce pain, and enhance mobility. If you or a loved one is dealing with the discomfort of dowager’s hump, consider consulting with a licensed chiropractor to explore how adjustments can support better posture and overall health.
Always consult with a healthcare provider before beginning any new treatment plan, and remember that consistent care and attention to posture are key components in managing dowager’s hump effectively.
With the right support and care, dowager’s hump can be effectively managed and improved in most instances, leading to a more comfortable and active life! Book online today or call us on 9302 1023 to make your appointment today and eliminate the hunch!
Head pressure and eye disturbances are common complaints that can significantly impact daily life. Whether you’re experiencing a sensation of fullness in your head, throbbing headaches, or visual disturbances such as blurriness or double vision, these symptoms can be concerning. Often, patients seek solutions through various medical channels, but one approach that might be overlooked is chiropractic care.
The Connection Between Head Pressure and Eye Issues
Head pressure often arises due to various factors such as tension headaches, sinus issues, or migraines. These conditions can exert pressure not just on the head but also on surrounding structures, including the eyes. When blood flow is restricted or nerves are irritated, patients may experience visual disturbances. Here are a few possible connections:
Migraines: These severe headaches are often accompanied by visual symptoms known as aura, causing disturbances such as flashing lights or zigzag patterns.
Sinus Pressure: Sinus infections can lead to inflammation and swelling, creating pressure that radiates to the head and eyes, resulting in discomfort and visual symptoms.
Understanding these connections is crucial in finding relief. While medication can provide temporary relief, it often doesn’t address the underlying issues contributing to head pressure and eye disturbances.
How Chiropractors Can Help
Chiropractic care focuses on the relationship between the body’s structure—primarily the spine—and its function, aiming to promote the body’s natural ability to heal itself. Here are several ways chiropractors can assist with head pressure and eye disturbances:
Spinal Adjustments: Misalignments in the cervical spine can contribute to tension in the neck and shoulders. By realigning the spine, chiropractors can help alleviate tension in surrounding muscles, thus reducing head pressure.
Soft Tissue Therapy: Chiropractors are skilled in various soft tissue techniques that help relieve muscle tightness and tension. This can reduce pain and discomfort associated with head pressure and diminish its impact on vision.
Postural Correction: Poor posture can lead to increased tension in the neck and upper back. Chiropractors often provide guidance on maintaining better posture to reduce strain on the spine and surrounding muscles, which can alleviate head pressure.
Lifestyle and Ergonomic Advice: Chiropractors often provide recommendations for lifestyle changes and ergonomic adjustments, such as proper workstation setup, exercises, and stretches that can help mitigate symptoms.
Holistic Approach: Chiropractors view the body as a whole and often incorporate complementary therapies, such as nutritional advice or stress-reduction techniques, which can address the multifaceted nature of head pressure and eye disturbances.
Seeking Help
If you’re experiencing head pressure and eye disturbances, it’s essential to consult with a healthcare professional to determine the underlying cause. If you suspect that your symptoms may be related to muscle tension, spinal alignment, or posture, a chiropractor may be a beneficial part of your treatment team.
Head pressure and eye disturbances can be debilitating, but they are not always a reflection of serious health issues. A chiropractor can offer valuable support through spinal adjustments, soft tissue therapies, and lifestyle advice. By addressing the root causes of your discomfort, you can find relief and improve your quality of life. If you’re struggling with these symptoms, consider scheduling an appointment with a chiropractor for a thorough examination and personalized care plan. Your journey to relief and wellness could start with a simple visit—one that focuses on holistic health and the body’s natural ability to heal itself.
Chiropractors use techniques to adjust the spinal joint that is stuck and inflamed. This is the usual cause of Torticollis and in turn muscles tense up to protect the joint that is in strife.
If you are someone that is suffering from Torticollis our team of chiropractors at The Melbourne Chiropractor are able to help with your debilitating neck pain! We use various methods to help free up the muscles and reduce the tension of the joint!
Easiest way to stop headaches is to find out how and when they will begin. Sometimes there is a common trigger. Maybe you woke up with a headache? Maybe you didn’t drink anything today or maybe you twisted suddenly and strained your neck! All reasons that should be looked into and can cause headaches!
If you are currently suffering from headaches and it has become to far gone to diminish its symptoms our team of chiropractors can help! Not all headaches are preventable from the above due to other types of headaches caused by other factors such as sinusitis, vestibular headaches or even aura like migraines. To book an appointment call us on 9302 1023 or book online today to get yourself assessed and find the correct plan to suit your needs!
The TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint) can become one those areas that makes an annoying clicking sounds to one that brings on excruciating headaches and face pain. It is the main joint that connect your jaw to your skull and has many ligaments, muscles and nerves associated with the region. Most common causes of Jaw pain are due to stress, trauma, arthritis, grinding your teeth, clenching or joint dysfunction.
Our Chiropractors may use adjustments on your jaw if we see there is a need to. Most of the times only 5 to 10% of cases need to be adjusted as muscles in the area are usually the main problem.
Exercises or Stretches
We recommend certain exercises or stretches to help alleviate tension within the region. Usually due to the extreme tightness within the jaw gentle stretches and exercises can help out allot, especially with preventing flareups of the region.
Chiropractors may use soft tissue release techniques especially trigger points in the area as muscle bundles tend to form. Surrounding musculature may also be involved and will be treated accordingly based on the examination findings.
Our Chiropractors will also look at your posture and check for any related issues to the problem. Sleeping habits and lifestyle changes such as standing desks or better sitting ergonomics can go a long way especially with upper body tension and tightness.
Tips To Help Reduce TMJ pain
Using Heat or Ice packs help to relax the facial muscles surrounding the TMJ area.
Gentle Stretches to the area can help improve joint mobility (Open, close and side to side movements)
Note* If you are currently suffering from any problematic concerns such as jaw pain, neck or back pain, are wondering what we do on your first chiropractic session or would like to make a booking, you can always contact us to find out more! Online bookings available 7 days a week Saturdays and Sundays @ https://themelbournechiropractor.com.au/book-now
How long you have had poor posture is not a reason to think it cannot be changed, the biggest issue, is how it was caused and what other underlying factors such as trauma or medical problems the patient is dealing with. Most times we find that posture can be improved within the first 8-12 weeks if it is a functional cause, although depending on the severity it may take up to 6 months to see changes in areas that are severely degenerated and affected by poor posture. Lifestyle factors and habits will also come in to play as forward posture at the desk from long hours can limit the amount of change from therapy.
Note* If you are currently suffering from postural issues the early you start the better off you will be. If you are wondering what we do on your first chiropractic session or would like to make a booking, you can always contact us to find out more! Online bookings also available 7 days a week @ https://themelbournechiropractor.com.au/book-now
Are you experiencing continuous neck or back pain that seems to come and go? If so, this is a chronic issue that can be very common as the body likes to adapt to certain stressors put upon it that forces the body to change in a way to avoid pain or further damage.
The body developing changes occurs over a period of time in small instances. Patterns begin to develop and this can be from injuries in the past, poor posture, daily activities, work related issues or lack of mobility in an area.
Your musculoskeletal system creates new patterns to help decrease pain although in doing so it tightens up and creates stiffness around the spine in turn altering function. This then creates a problem that can cause postural changes and possible acute episodes of pain. As mentioned before many of these issues may be caused by work posture, lifting incorrectly, a poor pillow or poor sleeping conditions. This can usually cause issues such as neck pain, low back soreness and a decrease in both flexibility and mobility of certain regions of the body.
This can become an issue and should be addressed as soon as possible so that the source of pain can be addressed and a health professional can help correct the issue and influence the body in making the right changes to get back on track!
Low Back Pain Causing a Shift In Posture
What can you do?
Seek advice early as it may help decrease the severity of your chronic episode and also prevent it from getting worse.
Relapses can be minimised by getting regular check ups to ensure mobility through the joints and tension throughout the muscle is decreased.
Being aware of acute episodes or tightness that continues to reoccur and finding a health professional early on before things progress.
Find the underlying cause of pain as at times you may find the source of the pain may not be in the area you are feeling it!
*Note – The longer you take to recognise your pain and do something about it the worse it may get. Getting to the root of the problem early on is ideal as it will help eliminate not only the pain but also enhance overall wellbeing. Get in contact with our team at The Melbourne Chiropractor today and lets get you back on track today!
Chiropractic care is recognized as being a way to help decrease pain and increase overall functional well-being. Chiropractor’s may help you achieve a healthier lifestyle by giving you strategies to overcome stress, injuries, pain, and other musculoskeletal conditions. This can all be done with various methods and not one person is treated the same to the other hence why many modalities are used to make the changes needed to make a difference!
At The Melbourne Chiropractor we bring out the best from our patients by striving to achieving health and wellbeing. Our aim is to reach patient goals and from there do our best to continue to exceed our patients expectations. We always try to offer various treatment modalities and our clinic offers that. Some of the things we bring to the table include both Manual adjustive techniques and low force techniques such as drop piece and activator methods. We also offer dry needling and cupping therapy including remedial massage, soft tissue and trigger point therapies. Our clinic not only offers passive care but we also involve the patient into their own care by creating thorough plans to get them back on their feet long term. We do this by supplying the patient with exercises and stretches and we give various options depending on the situation. Usually to get to such a stage we do a thorough examination which enables us to make an accurate judgment of how to guide you through your healthcare journey.
The Melbourne Chiropractor Treatment Room (Broadmeadows Clinic)
The Chiropractic team at the The Melbourne Chiropractor understand that pain is best managed by creating long term changes! Firstly, the pain needs to be alleviated with adjustive techniques or low force techniques to the spine, soft tissue massage to the surrounding musculature and then be accompanied with an exercise regime to help make the changes needed to influence bad habits and behaviours! Many of our patients seek.
By creating a change to your musculoskeletal system, it will help decrease muscle tension and restrictions through the spinal segments which in turn allow you to use your spine to further strengthen it! If you are seeking treatment which will help restore your structural and functional health our chiropractors at the The Melbourne Chiropractor are here to help get you back on track! BOOK NOW
