“I woke up yesterday morning with severe neck pain that radiates down my right arm to my hand and I can barely move my neck without producing the shooting arm pain.” Or, “…for the last few months, I’ve had this nagging pain in my neck and when I look up, my arm goes numb.” Or, “Every time I bend my head to the left, my left arm goes numb. I’ve noticed when I lift weights, I can only curl 15 lbs with my left arm compared to 35 lbs with the right....(continued)

Abigail was competing in a gymnastics tournament last year and during one of her floor routines, noticed a sharp pain in her low back after performing a series of back hand springs. She said she landed crooked on the last of four back hand springs which resulted in immediate pain in the middle of the low back at the beltline.  She has had pain in the low back before and initially, didn’t think this was any different from past episodes but when the pain didn’t improve after a week...(continued)

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or CTS, is the most common of the peripheral nerve conditions where the median nerve is compressed or pinched at the wrist.  The resulting symptoms of numbness/pain in the wrist, index, third, and forth fingers, multiple sleep interruptions, frequent shaking and flicking of the hand/fingers, difficulty in gripping or pinching such as buttoning a shirt, threading a needle, lifting a coffee cup, frequent dropping of objects, the inability to perform work duties - especia...(continued)

There are many conditions that can be attributed to specific causes with a clear origin and means of diagnosis.  However, there are also conditions that are obscure and can only be diagnosed by eliminating other, more common conditions.  Fibromyalgia (FM) is one of those conditions where the degree of pain and disability can be profound and life quality interrupting, yet all the tests come back negative and there are no other conditions to explain the collection of symptoms.  It is at that...(continued)

There has been a debate for years regarding the use of spinal manipulation and its benefits in the treatment of low back pain.  Since the founding of chiropractic in 1895, the initial reaction against the early pioneer chiropractors resulted in doctors of chiropractic (DC’s) being incarcerated for “…practicing medicine without a license.”  But chiropractors kept forging ahead and because of obtaining good results and helping millions of people, by 1971, Medicare adop...(continued)

“I can’t believe how much my low back hurts! I don’t know if I can go to work with it like this!”  Does this sound familiar?  Have you ever missed work because of low back pain?  Well, if you have, you’re certainly not alone!  In fact, over 80% of the general population seeks some type of health care provision at some point in life because of low back pain and many of those lose work time.  Lost work time is often associated with not being able to tolerate c...(continued)

Fibromyalgia (FM) has a long reputation for being a controversial diagnosis.  Some health care providers (HCPs) feel FM is a legitimate condition that warrants treatment and research while others feel it’s a “garbage can diagnosis” that HCPs throw patients into when they’re not sure what diagnostic label to use for a patient’s condition.  Regardless of the personal beliefs of individual HCPs, there have been two general classifications of FM - primary and secon...(continued)

There are many treatment options for those suffering from neck pain.  There is conventional medical care where the family doctor will usually prescribe a muscle relaxant, anti-inflammatory, and/or pain killer to help patients through episodes of acute neck pain.  However, many patients with neck pain have been through the process of treatments associated with medications and simply cannot tolerate the adverse side effects of stomach pain common with anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen...(continued)

What is it? Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) occurs when a nerve on the palm side of the wrist is pinched.  It is named after the area of the wrist from where the symptoms occur.  The Carpal Tunnel is basically a horseshoe shape made from 8 small carpal bones and the ends of the horseshoe are connected with a ligament thus completing the “tunnel.”