Pain Management Mother & Infant Children Structural Correction Athletes Accidents Wellness

For over one hundred and thirteen years a little less than 10% of the public has known that chiropractic care can help patients with acute or chronic pain. However, that figure is changing as more patients are looking for more conservative treatments, as opposed to using drugs, usually for life or having surgery. Return to Wellness welcomes the opportunity to help you if you have an acute episode of neck or back pain or suffer from chronic pain, including fibromyalgia.

In the unfortunate event that these conservative treatments fail. These patients might qualify for manipulation under anesthesia (MUA). This procedure is usually done in an outpatient facility, three days in a row. The procedure takes about 30 minutes with good results.

Many people always ask about the evidence, ironically because of so many years of controversy, chiropractic manipulative therapy (adjustments) are extremely well documented and published in prestigious journals such as Spine, The Spine Journal and the Journal of the American Medical Association. Review of the recent literature according to the latest articles in the Journal of Manual and Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT) show that Spinal Manipulation is beneficial for neck pain as well as for the treatment of low back pain.

Our wellness center utilizes a combination of conservative treatments including the full legal extent of acupuncture and chiropractic care. Chiropractic care includes usage of latest Cox Flexion-Distraction© technique for those patients who have herniated discs in their neck (cervical) or low back (lumbar). We tell all of our pain patients that we should effectively reduce their pain by at least fifty percent (50%) with in four weeks of care, if they follow the nutritional protocols we establish for them and keep all their appointments.

Acupuncture has been used for much longer than chiropractic care and encompasses a totally different approach to pain management. For years acupuncture has been used to alleviate acute and chronic pain from conditions such as arthritis, sports injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome and chronic knee pain to name a few. In addition to reducing inflammation it balances out areas of energy blockage or excess in the body.

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Regular chiropractic care is an integral part of the prenatal and postpartum care during pregnancy. It helps keep mom feeling good and assists her in coping with the physical stresses of an ever changing body. More and more women are discovering the many benefits associated with chiropractic care throughout pregnancy.

In the Mother
Neck and back care during pregnancy is safe, gentle and reduces pain. Special tables and pillows are utilized to allow room for a developing baby and increased comfort for the mother. Women with a breech or occiput posterior presentation can also be helped with the Webster technique. Treatment helps to balance the pelvic basin and align ligamentous structures for an easier birthing process.

Chiropractic care:

• Facilitates proper motion of the spine and pelvis, thus reducing low back or pubic pain related to the altered biomechanics of pregnancy
• Prepares the pelvis for an easier pregnancy and birth by creating a state of balance in pelvic bony structures, muscles and ligaments.
• Removes tension on the ligaments that support the uterus thus reducing torsion (intra-uterine constraint) to the woman’s uterus
• Reduces interference to the mother’s vital nerve system which controls and coordinates all of her systems and functions
• Allows for a safer, easier birth for the mother decreasing the potential for intervention

Acupuncture care:

• Reduces bouts of morning sickness
• Increases energy
• Improves digestion
• Reduces low back pain

In the Infant
During the process of birth the cranial bones shift upon one another to allow passage through the birth canal. Vacuum extraction, forceps delivery, or maneuvering during a C-section can traumatically torsion delicate cranial and cervical structures. A growing spine has not completely ossified (become fused as bone) and is susceptible to cartilaginous compromise. Kids are notorious for slips and falls, as well as outright trauma. Gentle adjustive forces and cranio-sacral work are used to address these issues. Neonates and Children respond very fast to chiropractic, and generally require less care, than their adult counterpart.

Chiropractic care:

• Allows the baby the room to develop without restrictions to its forming cranium, spine and other skeletal structures
• Offers the baby the room to move into the best possible position for birth
• With proper fetal positioning, there is a significant decrease in dystocia (a difficult birth) and the resulting birth trauma caused by intervention.

The Webster Technique
The Webster technique is a specific system of chiropractic analysis and adjustment that reduces interference to the nervous system and balances pelvic muscles and ligaments. This in turn reduces the cause of intra-uterine constraint and allows the baby to get into the best possible position for birth.

Chiropractic care during pregnancy has been shown to significantly reduce the length of time a woman labors. First time moms averaged a 24 percent shorter labor, while mothers who have already given birth experienced a 39 reduction in the average labor length, compared to controls (Fallon, 1991). Chiropractic adjustments during pregnancy can also reduce the likelihood of experiencing back labor (Diakow, 1991). Regular chiropractic adjustments can safely continue up until the time of birth (Penna, 1989).

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The New England Journal of Medicine stated that over 20 million babies and children visit a chiropractor each year in an article written back in 1988. By now in 2008, these numbers have already increased and will continue to grow as more families are returning to a more holistic approach which ultimately attempts to restore proper function to the body, without utilizing drugs or surgery.

Parents want to know if chiropractic care is safe for kids. The answer is an emphatic yes. There are many methods of chiropractic adjusting for children and they all share one commonality; these adjustment styles are all very low force and extremely gentle. The skeletal and neurological anatomy of a child, while smaller and in some ways different from adults, is still generally similar to adults and gentle adjustments to a child's spine can benefit children with neck and back pain, but also with certain neurologically based conditions.

Literature now exists to show how chiropractic care helps with asthma, bed wetting, colic and headaches in children. There are many post-graduate courses and programs in chiropractic that specialize in pediatric care. Pediatric chiropractic has become an extremely popular form of treatment for many Doctors of Chiropractic.

Despite the amount of pediatric information we have, it would be very difficult for us to keep this website totally updated with the latest news regarding pregnancy, infants and children. Therefore, we recommend all our patients to visit the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA)

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Scoliosis and postural treatment is an endeavor that should not be undertaken lightly. Do not expect miracles to happen overnight! Although the chiropractor can correct the position of the bones very rapidly, it takes up to 12 weeks to rehabilitate the postural muscles, and the chiropractor cannot do your exercises for you!

In an untreated scoliosis, the ligaments that hold the vertebrae in place are very tightly coiled. The first key to reducing a scoliosis is to relax the tissues that are holding the scoliosis in place.

However, this also means that if you stop doing your exercise halfway through treatment and do not keep your appointments, the scoliosis will worsen more rapidly than before. With persistence and determination, your scoliosis can be permanently corrected, adding life to your years.

This is a specialized form of rehabilitation. The structure of the spine is addressed in a specific method reducing abnormal loading of the spine from a gravitational perspective. Mechanical engineering and mathematical principles are utilized and applied to the spine to approximate a more appropriate configuration toward the normal and ideal values.

X-Rays
How an x-ray is taken affects how the bones appear on the film. If the person being x-rayed is turned even slightly to one side, the position of the bones appears to be very different than if they were facing straight ahead. Precision x-ray analysis refers to a system designed to remove all traces of subjectivity from x-ray analysis, so pre and post x-rays can be compared with scientific accuracy. At Return to Wellness we utilize precision x-rays, allowing us to determine if the treatment plan is being effective. If you have posture issues or scoliosis, you should never allow someone to adjust your spine unless they know exactly where they are moving it too.

Spinal Exercises
Because muscles attach to every bone in your body, it is absolutely necessary that we balance out the strength of the inner core muscles of the body to maintain the spinal correction. The only way to strengthen the core muscles is through isometric exercise. Isometric means, “without motion,” and is the opposite of isotonic exercise, which is done with motion (e.g., lifting weights).

Isometric exercise is performed against resistance, and held for a short period of time. Because weak muscles will fatigue and recruit stronger muscle groups during isometric exercise, it is important that you take your exercises very seriously. Doing and exercise half-heartedly can be worse than doing no exorcise at all.

To achieve maximum benefit from your exercise, pay close attention to the assistant as he or she demonstrates them for you, and be sure to ask questions if you are unsure about how to do an exercise.

Chiropractic Adjustments
Practitioners of different chiropractic techniques each have their own unique methods of adjusting the bones of the spine back into place. At Return to Wellness, we utilize clinically researched techniques, selectively incorporating only the quickest and most effective methods from The CLEAR INSTITUTE and PETIBON SYSTEMS to restore your optimum spinal health.

Misaligned vertebrae in the neck can impair your body’s ability to relate gravity, and lead to hip & gait problems. Scoliosis is a rotation and compression of the spinal column; the body has added another curve to brace itself against gravity. By adjusting your neck and low back, we put curves back into the spine that will improve how it relates to gravity, and reduce the body’s dependence on the scoliotic curve.

Vibration
Therapy We may use a variety of vibration therapy equipment to achieve several different goals. A slow, gentle frequency of about 4 pulses per second will relax the ligaments and tendons that connect the muscles to the spine.

Faster frequencies will stimulate the bones and muscles themselves, rebalancing the loads upon the spine much like gravel being shaken down to a level surface, and also improving the flow of nutrients into the discs between the vertebrae.

Side effects from vibration therapy are minor and tend to be limited to temporary dizziness and/or nausea as toxins from the muscle tissue, such as lactic acid, are released and mixed with bradykinin in the blood stream.

Despite the amount of postural / scoliosis information we have, it would be very difficult for us to keep this website totally updated with the latest news regarding the latest techniques and advances with structural correction. Therefore, we recommend all our patients visit the CLEAR INSTITUTE or PETTIBON SYSTEMS, in order to further enhance your postural education.

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Sports injuries can be a very real problem for all athletes. If you consider yourself to be an athlete, you have probably suffered from one of the following: muscle strains, ligament sprains, tendonitis, bursitis, tennis elbow, golfer's elbow, frozen shoulder, back pain, neck pain, shin splints— the list goes on.

You truly deserve to treat yourself like the athlete you are, by allowing yourself to achieve optimal results from athletic training. Chiropractic can be of enormous benefit in treating and preventing sports-related injuries and improving athletic performance, as many world-class athletes can attest.

Most American Pro teams either have a chiropractor on staff or, many of the players go to a local chiropractor for treatment of back aches, shoulder sprains, neck pain, sciatica and other common conditions that many of us have. Baseball was one of the last of the major team sports to start utilizing chiropractic care but once MLB started, there was no looking back. Many of today's stars swear by their chiropractor. Over 1/3 of NFL Teams have a chiropractor as an official member of their health care team and over 75% of NFL trainers refer their players to chiropractors. Some of the greatest athletes in the world use chiropractic, Return to Wellness invites you to achieve optimal performance.  

Martial artists have traditionally embraced chiropractic care as a means of restoring the body to optimum condition. Bruce Lee was among the many early adherents to the chiropractic lifestyle in the martial arts. Lee set the tone for martial artists ever after by remaining open minded to all forms of both karate and the healing arts. Chiropractic is effective in correcting misplaced vertebrae in the spine of martial artists after the ballistic effects of the many styles of karate, ju-jitsu, Aikido, wrestling and so forth. Many top ranking martial artists wouldn't think of competing now without a thorough exam and chiropractic adjustment before a tournament.

Sports injuries and rigorous athletic conditioning typically disturb normal body mechanics. These minor and/or major disturbances may negatively affect athletic performance. Because of the expertise and extensive training in musculoskeletal conditions, chiropractic physicians are uniquely skilled in treating the athlete and are sensitive to joint dysfunctions of the upper extremity (shoulder, elbow, wrist) and lower extremity (knee, ankle). In the past decade or so, there has been a huge upswing in non-contact injuries. This is a singularly unique paradigm owing to the high conditioning of athletes in general and larger weights and significantly larger muscle mass most athletes now have compared to before the 1990's. When a joint is dysfunctional, there are also disturbed neurological reflexes which may result in poorly communicated information to the central nervous system. These diminished reflexes may result in slowed reaction time or may cause muscles to be dysfunctional, tight or inhibited. Numerous studies demonstrate enhanced mechanics of a joint in addition to enhanced nervous system function immediately following chiropractic manipulation.

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Auto Crashes are responsible for numerous injuries, leading to acute and at times chronic conditions. Dr. Pena has had post-doctoral training from the Spine Institute of San Diego, leading to certificates in *Whiplash and Brain Injury Traumatology and *Motor Vehicle Crash Forensic Risk Analysis. The Whiplash and Brain Injury Traumatology program covers the entire spectrum from the physics of motor vehicle crashes to human biomechanics to diagnostics and management. Graduates receive the most in-depth, science-based training available today. In addition, participation in CRASH allowed Dr. Pena to observe, first hand, human subject full scale crash testing at the Spine Research Institute of San Diego testing facility. Moreover, Dr. Pena learned about crash testing, crash safety, and related engineering and clinical topics. Following his comprehensive three-day course during CRASH Dr. Pena elected to take the comprehensive examination, which led to his certification.

At Return to Wellness our doctors will specifically design programs on an individual basis, geared toward the repair of injured ligaments, discs, joint capsules, and myofascial structures. Emphasis is placed on tissue healing, regaining lost function and pain reduction.

 

*These post graduate courses in Whiplash and Brain Injury Traumatology and Motor Vehicle Crash Forensic Risk Analysis are not recognized by the Florida Board of Chiropractic Medicine.

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Acupuncture
Regarding optimal health, acupuncture is a perfect addition to your wellness model. It helps to modulate stress related conditions such as anxiety, depression, poor concentration, irritability and fatigue. In addition to boosting energy, increasing immune function and help sleep disorders it facilitates weight management with the usage of seeds (small metal clips) inserted into the ear. These “seeds” function as a reminder to curve appetite; moreover, the patient can stimulate these receptors by themselves for 2 – 3 days. Finally, in addition to pain management, acupuncture has shined in the modulation of side effects of chemotherapy / radiation therapy. It truly has been a great addition to the collaborative integrative medicine.

Wellness Laboratory Profile
This is one of the most advanced preventative laboratory profiles available. This profile will assess cardiovascular function, immune function, liver function, thyroid function, diabetes and much, much, more. Although no test can rule out any and all conditions, when you complete this profile once a year, you can relax and know that you received a very comprehensive profile on your health.

Health Workshops
Return to Wellness offers powerful educational programs designed to provide you with data to empower you to make the best health decisions. These workshops are available for both patients and non-patients. Our workshops are action-packed, interactive and very educational. They last between thirty minutes and one hour depending on the presentation. Call us to see when our next workshop will be held and on what topic.

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