This week I wanted to chat about a little about injuries, and what I can provide to help you not only prevent, but recover and get back to your life and activities efficiently.
For those of you that are current patients, you know that I usually don’t have time to focus a whole lot on injuries in my office during treatment appointments, and I do have some great referrals for times when you need more care.
However, I do want to briefly explain some things that I can offer if you experience some of these injuries, as well as tools in the office that are available to use.
Let me split it into a couple of different categories:
- Musculoskeletal Injuries often times are caused by a weakness or (inhibition) of a certain muscle. What this means is that the nerve firing the muscle is inhibited in some way….meaning the muscle isn’t firing as well as it should.
- Other times it can be from repetitive use, in which you have just use that joint/muscle too much and now it has become injured.
- Lastly, they can be caused by specific trauma to that area as well that is usually unexpected, other times say for the woman during childbirth, trauma is afflicted to the pelvis and causes injury.
So what do you do if you are injured? Walk it off?
Well.. It really depends on the injury.. of course. However, a universal fact is that the longer you wait to get help for injuries, the longer it takes to heal, and sometimes the damage from waiting too long can’t be recovered.
There are different ways to look at healing. First, you want to make sure that those muscles that were turned off get turned back on.
What causes them to be turned off? stress, nutritional deficiencies, infections, improper movements, not great form with exercise, your body is out of alignment, ect.
It’s my job to investigate what your actual cause is.
Nutritionally, there are many things you can do to accelerate the healing process, decrease inflammation, as well as lay down new bone/collagen tissue.
There are also things you can take daily to decrease your chances of injury by making your bones/muscles/ligaments strong. One of my favorites is bone broth protein. The reason being is that if you supplement with actual real bone, collagen and tissue your musculoskeletal system will be very resilient to injury. We just don’t eat enough bone marrow/broth like our ancestors, but this is a great way to build your body, and well as helps your gut.
I specifically have a protocol for bone fractures, tendonitis and muscle injuries that works very well. Again it focuses on using real bone to heal bone, real tissue to heal tisse, and herbs/vitamins to decrease inflammation.
**Alignment wise, If you have an injury you will automatically be out of alignment. Most likely what caused the injury in the first place(unless a trauma) is your body not being in alignment, and then your muscles react. So, unless you broke a bone, it’s always important to make sure joints are in place (chiropractic) before doing a much of rehab. *Often times why physical therapy alone doesn’t work. Unless…. say their is too much motion, like a sacroiliac sprain, rehab must be done first.
Because… if you don’t fix the movement problem in the joint, the muscle will go right back to the position it was in.
What I will share with you is some rehab tools I have in the office that can also help speed up recovery.
1. corrective exercises– I will admit, I usually don’t have a ton of time to do these with patients, as I’m doing a million things. However, I can offer more if you make separate appointments.
It’s important to be specific about what exercises will work for you and YOUR recovery. Just doing the same exercises that everyone else does doesn’t always work, because you are unique and different.
One awesome tool we’ve added in the office is a vibration plate. This is an awesome rehab tool in that while you are on the device you can use it for strengthening, relaxing or even stretching the muscle at different frequencies.
While on the plate, it stimulates every single muscle fiber, which makes the exercises 10x more difficult. It also stimulates what are called proprioceptors in your body which help with balance. Best yet, an hour workout you did at the gym would only take around 20 minutes because of the ability to fire all the muscle fibers.
I use this for rehab, for stretching, and releasing tight muscles. Doing a custom workout routine on the machine can also increase your balance, strengthen injuries, and prevent further injuries. It’s a lot safer alternative as well if you haven’t been exercises from an injury to get back into.
I also use bands for corrective exercises. However, if more work is needed, of course I have a great referral system.
2. Graston Soft tissue. When you have any injury in your fascia/muscles/tendons it creates scar tissue. This scar tissue can be a huge source of discomfort and prevent you from healing.
By using a stainless steal tool, you can actually break up that scar tissue which over time helps decrease the scar tissue, decrease inflammation and create more movement within that muscle/joint. Sometimes it can be a little painful breaking it up, but it’s worth the pain for the outcome.
I also use some other active release muscle methods without the use of a tool to help decrease scar tissue as well.
3. Cold Laser. This has been a lifesaver for many patients, but cold laser is an extremely effective modalities that decreases pain, inflammation and promotes healing in injuries.
It’s not like a surgical laser, this is a therapeutic laser, you don’t really feel much with the treatment other than a little warmness. The goal of laser therapy is to deliver light energy units from red and infrared laser radiation, called photons, to damaged cells. It is the consensus of experts is that photons absorbed by the cells through laser therapy stimulate the mitochondria to accelerate production of ATP. This biochemical increase in cell energy is used to transform live cells from a state of illness to a stable, healthy state.
The quality of the laser is always important, but in general within just a few treatments most patients see results.
4. Rocktape. This special tape can be used to decrease pain, inflammation, delay muscle fatigue and normalize muscle tone.
More specifically, it runs interference on pain. Ever whack your shin and rub it, and suddenly realize you feel better? RockTape on the skin can interfere with painful signals which are directed to the brain.
When the signals arriving to the brain are altered, it does not produce the sensation of pain. When kinesiology tape is properly applied, many of our customers call it “magic” or think that it fixed their injury instantly. In fact, it helps to change how your body interprets pain, turning down the pain “volume” that your body hears.
When RockTape is applied to the skin, it has a microscopic lifting effect underneath the skin and between the many layers. This allows the by-products created by inflammation to be removed more quickly.
It delays fatigue
Research has shown that RockTape on skin can attenuate muscle fatigue. In rehab, this is very important, not only for the parts of your body that are currently hurting, but also for the surrounding areas as they help to pick up the slack for muscles that are currently not working well.
When someone is injured, fatigued, sick, or inflamed, the symphony of muscle action that normally takes place with great accuracy often falls out of tune. This can happen all over the body. For instance, research has shown that people who sprain their ankle tend to have altered activity of their hip muscle as a result. RockTape helps bring dormant muscle back to life and help calm down the overactive muscles. It helps your body coordinate movement as if it weren’t hurt, hence allowing it to heal properly.
Unlike conventional taping, which prevents movement – RockTape allows full movement of a taped area. Through elastic properties and quick recoil, RockTape can help distribute forces to other nearby areas through the fascia, ligaments, and even bones.
5. Live O2. This is the most recent rehab tool that has been added to the office.
Live Oxygen is extremely simple. It can be used to prevent or address health problems caused by poor oxygen delivery. Increased levels of oxygen provides stunning results in terms of cell health. What is true for hyperbaric treatment (HBOT) is exponentially true for Live Oxygen Therapy.
Live Oxygen is healing without drugs or chemicals and without surgery or invasive techniques. Hyper-oxygenation gets oxygen into the body’s cells which have already turned to fermentation for their energy needs. Live Oxygen starts a healing and restorative process where normally there would be none, because there is no cellular energy for it.
Oxygen therapy is fantastic because more oxygen translates into more cellular energy, more healing energy and more overall energy to help us feel good and perform better in life.
Oxygen provides a completely natural way to heal and to be your physical and mental best. Increasing your oxygen levels can and will make huge differences in your state of well-being. It also has dramatic anti-aging and weight-loss effects.
Live Oxygen is about inflammation and the best, most straight-forward way of addressing it. Live Oxygen restores the blood micro-circulation and consequently we see a permanent elevation of oxygen influx and uptake.
_______
So there you have it. These are all tools that are available for you to no longer be in pain! Don’t live in/with pain. There are always ways to move and be your best self!