Chiropractic Care for Repetitive Strain Injuries
Chiropractic Care
Chiropractors depend on their ability help those who suffer from injuries. These chiropractic care services can be both preventative and curing. Though major injuries often occur from a single action, there is a whole range of actions that can lead to a chiropractic trip for care. This type of injury occurs in a wide variety of settings, from sports players to office and construction workers. These are what’s known as repetitive stress injuries, and they can become a major problem over time.
Construction and manufacturing jobs are prevalent in the Puyallup area, with companies like Fastenal and Pro Sales employing many local residents. And while manufacturing jobs are good for the economy, they are bad for workers’ bodies. Back injuries, repetitive motion pain, and neck problems develop despite these companies’ efforts to mitigate them.
What is a repetitive strain injury?
There are wide range of injury types that fall into the repetitive stress injury category. These are typically caused by repetitive motions, poor positioning, mechanical devices, exertions, and vibrations that affect a specific part of the body. Just some of the injuries that fall under this label include:
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Edema
- Tennis Elbow
- Radial Tunnel Syndrome
- Intersection Syndrome
- Golfer’s Elbow
- Tendinosis
- Focal Dystonia
- Thoracic Outlet Syndrome
How do repetitive stress injuries affect the body?
Depending on the type of injury the affect that occurs may vary. The most common injury types are inflammation like tendonitis and the condition known as bursitis. These are both similar in nature but where tendonitis is inflammation of the tendons (connective tissue that allows for movement), bursitis is the inflammation of cushioning sacs that help lubricate areas between bones and tendons. This is part of the reason so many individuals suffer arthritis of the joints. Bursae are often found at these joining intersections in order to help the body cushion these often moved areas.
What are the symptoms of repetitive stress injury?
Pain typically occurs at the site and you may suffer from pain as you are performing a specific action. For instance, when pain is sports related like tennis or golfer’s elbow, pain occurs during a specific motion that extends and flexes an area that is inflamed. Tennis players may suffer from this when they are bringing the racket back and tilting their wrist backwards. Golfer’s may suffer from this as they hit the golf ball, feeling pain in both the elbow and wrist. The area may also be warm to the touch, and sufferers frequently experience swelling, pain, and redness. Putting additional weight or strain on the area can cause it to hurt even more.
When should you seek help?
If the pain occurs with movement, tenderness doesn’t go away, or your regular activities are interrupted you should seek medical help. Medical practitioners can diagnose your problem and many of the stress injury related chiropractors receive are due to referrals. That’s because when it comes to injuries, chiropractic and traditional medical practitioners work in tandem for the betterment of the patient, and chiropractic care can do more for your stress injuries than you may have even realized.
Chiropractic Treatment for your Stress Injury.
With so many different stress related injuries chiropractors have to be able to adapt their treatment to the patient. One of the first things you and your chiropractor will discuss is the location of your pain, when it occurs, and what you believe has caused it. Establishing this helps determine the nature of the injury before diagnostic imaging is taken. Chiropractors use a number of different measurements to determine the extent of the injury, and how to go about treating it.
One of the things you’ll get with chiropractic care that traditional medicine doesn’t always offer is individualized care. There is no one size fits all option a chiropractor can use across multiple patients. That’s why recovery, treatment, and therapy efforts are based around the individual needs of the patient. Your chiropractor will likely take extensive notes and test for a number of things like blood flow to the area, flexibility, where and when pain occurs, and what range of motion can be safely executed without the fear of pain.
Specific treatments available from your chiropractor.
- Adjustments – This is what most people think of when they think of chiropractic care. When nerve endings are compressed by incorrect spinal alignment it can cause symptoms throughout the body. This can result in inflammation and pain and may directly contribute to or mimic repetitive stress conditions. With proper adjustments these can be fixed over time resulting in partial or complete recovery though ongoing treatment may be necessary.
- Decompression Techniques – Decompression methods involve stretching out certain parts of the body in order to separate the joint surfaces. Since many stress ailments occur around joints or are joint related, this can be used to great effect. It may be combined with ongoing stretching at home in order to help limber the affected area and restore a more complete range of motion when mobility is affected.
- Massage Therapy – Many chiropractic offices also have a massage therapist on hand. Massage therapy has been a long running treatment practice for many ailments related to stress including those caused by repetitive actions. Tightening muscles can cause a number of different problems from chronic pain to inflammation. Massage is an excellent way to work out the affected areas and help muscles that won’t relax on their own.
- Acupuncture – Though acupuncture can’t be found at every chiropractic clinic, it can help a wide variety of conditions. Acupuncture works by stimulating certain nerve endings. These meridian points reach all across the body, and when certain points are hit it can reduce pain in other areas. This is great for repetitive problems like arthritis and extended motion pain as well as pain caused by office jobs where employees are forced to sit in the same position for long periods of time.
Finding the right Chiropractor for your needs.
Now that you know what services to look for it’s time to identify the right chiropractor for your stress injury treatment. There are some important questions you can ask your potential chiropractic clinic in order to determine whether or not they are right for you.
Ask your chiropractor:
- How long have you been in business and where did you go to school? This will allow you to check the credentials of the University if you desire.
- What services do you offer? Determining the scope of service and whether or not any additional practitioners operate out of the same building can help you find a chiropractic center that offers all of the services you need in one place.
- Have you ever had any complaints? Finding out whether or not there are any complaints lodged against your chiropractic office of choice can help you weed out poor practitioners. Just like other medical fields the quality of the services can vary. When poor service can result in greater problems, you want to take the time to vet your chiropractor.