Recent Posts

Over 2 million people are injured each year in motor vehicle collisions in the U.S. While most people are able to heal from their injuries relatively easily, others are left to deal with chronic pain and disability. We see many of these patients here in our Gadsden, AL office. Fortunately, Gadsden Family Chiropractic is here to help you recover from your auto injury.

Research Supports Chiropractic Helps Prevent Chronic Pain After an Auto Accident

The science confirms what we see in our office: A British study was carried out on 28 people diagnosed with chronic whiplash syndrome. Each participant received chiropractic adjustments and 93 percent of them found relief following their adjustments, even though 43 percent of whiplash sufferers overall usually never find relief. This confirms that chiropractic is a great way to avoid long-term pain after an auto injury.

It's important to remember that studies have also found that delaying care after a car crash can adversely affect recovery time, so getting in to see Gadsden Family Chiropractic as soon as possible is key to having a quicker recovery.

We Can Help People Find Relief From Pain After a Car crash

Gadsden Family Chiropractic has helped many auto injury patients, and we're here to help you, too. Call our Gadsden, AL office today for more information or an appointment.

Resources

• Association for Safe International Road Travel. Retrieved from http://asirt.org/initiatives/informing-road-users/road-safety-facts/road-crash-statistics
• Dies S & Strapp J. (1992, September). Chiropractic treatment of patients in motor vehicle accidents: a statistical analysis. The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association, 36(3), 139-145.
• Woodward M et al. (1996, November). Chiropractic treatment of chronic 'whiplash' injuries. Injury, 27(9), 643-645.

Neck and headache pain are common problems that affect millions of men and women around the world. If you suffer from this type of issue, you're not alone. The good news is that chiropractic is the best way to not only treat these common issues, but also help prevent future episodes.

Research Supports Chiropractic Helps With Neck Pain and Headaches

For many years, patients with neck and headache pain in Gadsden, AL have been helped by the chiropractic care of Gadsden Family Chiropractic. Our success is backed up by a recent review done in Canada that found that non-surgical, non-drug solutions are the best choice for neck and headache pain.

The study looked at 15 studies from 1990 to 2015 and found that conservative treatment comprised of chiropractic adjustments, exercises, and stretches was advisable before resorting to drugs or more invasive treatments.

Past studies have shown that chiropractic is effective and safe for neck pain and many other health conditions.

We Can Help Patients Find Comfort From Neck Pain and Headaches

If you're struggling with neck pain or headaches, Gadsden Family Chiropractic and our staff are here to help you heal. Give our Gadsden, AL office a call today at (256) 543-3033 for an appointment today.

Reference

Varatharajan S, Ferguson B, Chrobak K, et al. Are non-invasive interventions effective for the management of headaches associated with neck pain? An update of the Bone and Joint Decade Task Force on Neck Pain and Its Associated Disorders by the Ontario Protocol for Traffic Injury Management (OPTIMa) Collaboration. European Spine Journal 2016; February 6:1-29.

There are many different kinds of headache, but one of the most common types is known as "cervicogenic headache," or those that start in your neck.

Gadsden Family Chiropractic sees a lot of patients in our Gadsden, AL office who are suffering with frequent, reoccurring headaches. Thankfully, chiropractic adjustments can usually help, potentially reducing these types of headaches by 50 percent, and research confirms it.

A study was conducted involving 80 participants who reported experiencing at least five cervicogenic headaches during the prior three months. The goal was to see how effective chiropractic was for this type of head pain, as well as to determine the number of treatment sessions necessary to achieve a positive effect.

The subjects were divided into four separate groups, so that each group was similar in age, gender, number of cervicogenic headaches, and their intensity. Of the four groups, two engaged in chiropractic treatments and two received light massage. Furthermore, one group assigned to each treatment received eight sessions and the other group received twice that amount.

Each person was assessed based on head pain, neck pain, and disability prior to the study and 12 and 24 weeks after treatment was complete. The authors found that those who received chiropractic as opposed to massage reported fewer headaches at the conclusion of the study. Furthermore, improvements were maintained when checked six months after treatment ended.

Furthermore, individuals who were taking medications for their headaches were able to lower their intake after completing the study. Those who received chiropractic adjustments had lower medication usage 24 weeks post-study.

Gadsden Family Chiropractic has helped many patients who were suffering from headache pain in our Gadsden, AL office. Call us today at (256) 543-3033 for more information or for an appointment.

Haas M, Spegman A, Peterson D, Aickin M, Vavrek D. Dose response and efficacy of spinal manipulation for chronic cervicogenic headache: a pilot randomized controlled trial. The Spine Journal 2010; 10: 117-128.

Although some people are still uncertain about chiropractic care, even the American Medical Association (AMA) recommends that adjustments should be tried prior to surgery--the one option that should be a last resort.

Gadsden Family Chiropractic has seen many back pain patients in our Gadsden, AL office who have been suffering for years and who are afraid that they might need an operation for their back pain. Gadsden Family Chiropractic has had great success in helping patients recover and avoid risky surgery, and the science backs up our experience.

Recently, in one study conducted on about 2,000 Washington State employees who suffered from a back injury while at work, more than 42% who saw a surgeon first following their injury found themselves having back surgery within three years. That compares to just 1.5% of the people who first sought treatment with chiropractic, showing that this natural approach is extremely effective at keeping you out of the operating room.

There are options to risky medical procedures. Chiropractic is a proven effective and safe way to improve the function of your spine, which is the root cause of back pain. Gadsden Family Chiropractic has helped many patients in Gadsden, AL recover. Give our office a call today at (256) 543-3033 for an appointment.

Goodman DM, Burke AE, Livingston. Low Back Pain. The Journal of the American Medical Association 2013;309(16);1738.

Keeney BJ, Fulton-Kehoe D, Turner JA, et al. Early predictors of lumbar spine surgery after occupational back injury: results from a prospective study of workers in Washington State. Spine 2013;38(11):953-964.

We treat many car accident cases in in our Gadsden, AL office, and a common symptom we see in our patients is thoracic outlet syndrome. The key to recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome caused by a crash is to understand the root cause of the problem and how chiropractic care can help.

The thoracic outlet is a bundle of blood vessels and nerves that travel through your neck and shoulder to your arm. These vessels don't have a lot of space, so they pass under and between the strong bands of muscles that support your head.

In a collision, these muscles can be stretched and strained. If injured, the muscles become inflamed and tender, and they can develop scar tissue which restricts movement and puts pressure on the tissues of the thoracic outlet. Pressure on the nerves can cause tingling or numbness in the shoulder, elbow and even the hand. Pressure on the blood vessels can also cause problems in the arm.

Gadsden, AL Thoracic Outlet Treatment

Chiropractic adjustments can be an effective way to treat thoracic outlet syndrome, as Gadsden Family Chiropractic will help improve mobility in your spine and restore normal nerve function in your neck and shoulder.

Gadsden Family Chiropractic is here in Gadsden, AL to help you recover from thoracic outlet syndrome. We've been helping patients since 2003 and we can probably help you, too. The first step is to get an accurate diagnosis to determine what's causing your pain and then we will determine an appropriate treatment approach. Call us today at (256) 543-3033 if you have questions or would like to make an appointment.

When you're trying to sustain your family, take care of your home, and pay all of your bills on time, every day at work counts. Work injuries can be a serious problem for many people, and we see many of these types of injuries in our Gadsden, AL office. Gadsden Family Chiropractic appreciates your situation and is here to help.

The benefits of chiropractic for work injuries are well-established. A 2013 research paper involving over 600 adults who were suffering with either back or neck pain found that the individuals who didn't see a chiropractor missed work at twice the rate of those who were seeing a chiropractor.

So, why don't more people use chiropractic care?

According to the participants in this paper, two of the major reasons were that they thought they needed a medical referral for chiropractic care (which is typically no longer true) and they overestimated the costs associated with chiropractic treatment sessions by almost 70 percent.

The reality is, chiropractic patients actually spend less on care than medical patients, plus they are less likely to use drugs for their symptoms.

If you live in Gadsden, AL and you've been injured at work, we can help. Give our office a call today at (256) 543-3033 for an appointment.

Sources

"Thousands of Minnesotans with Back and Neck Pain Don't Seek Treatment." (2013, June 12). ChiroCare.

When performing sports activities that require a lot of lower body motion, like football, soccer, and basketball, it's not uncommon to suffer some type of injury to your hips or legs. Between pulled hamstrings, sprained ankles, knee injuries, and more, many people have found themselves sidelined. Gadsden Family Chiropractic has seen all of these problems in our Gadsden, AL patients. The good news is, chiropractic can help prevent some of these injuries from occurring and research proves it.

Gadsden Family Chiropractic keeps current with all of the latest scientific research, and in a report published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, researchers from Macquarie University in Australia studied 59 semi-elite Australian Rules football players. Roughly one-half were placed in a control group and the other half were put in a treatment group that received sports chiropractic care at regular intervals. During the first six weeks, this meant receiving care once every week. The following three months consisted of an adjustment every two weeks before reducing those to one visit monthly for the final three months of the study.

The authors noted that there was a "significant" difference in the number of lower limb strains the players received in the treatment group when compared to the control. Furthermore, they observed that the subjects who engaged in chiropractic also had fewer weeks of missed practice and games as a result of non-contact knee injuries. This led them to determine that sports chiropractic treatment should be added to "the current best practice management."

Every major sports team in the US and the US Olympic Team has chiropractors on staff for their players, because they know that chiropractic works. If you live near our office in Gadsden, AL and would like to see if Gadsden Family Chiropractic can help you boost your performance or reduce sports injuries, give our office a call today at (256) 543-3033 for an appointment.

Bibliographic Reference

Hoskins W, Pollard H. The effect of a sports chiropractic manual therapy intervention on the prevention of back pain, hamstring and lower limb injuries in semi-elite Australian rules footballers: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2010;11(64).

We work with many back pain patients in our Gadsden, AL chiropractic office, and Gadsden Family Chiropractic and our staff uses an assortment of techniques to help get you out of pain and restore your spine's normal, healthy function. We find spinal decompression to be a highly effective approach.

To help you better understand spinal decompression therapy, think of the discs in your spine like small balloons filled with jello. When you compress them (which occurs due to normal living, sustaining an injury, or other medical conditions), they can protrude, placing pressure on the nerves in your spine. This affects your brain's ability to communicate with tissues in the rest of your body.

If the stress on the discs becomes too high, the discs can herniate or bulge. This reduces the cushioning between your vertebrae and can cause pain. The goal of spinal decompression therapy is to reduce this pressure to help improve your body's function and also reduce your level of pain.

Spinal decompression therapy relieves disc pressure through the use of a specially designed table that gently elongates your spinal column through slow and controlled movements. This reduces the pressure placed on your discs. Some studies report an increase in disc height by as much as 1.3 millimeters after just six weeks of spinal decompression therapy.

If you're wondering if spinal decompression therapy could help you feel and function better, simply call our Gadsden, AL office and schedule an appointment with Gadsden Family Chiropractic today. Your optimal health is our number one goal!

Resources

Apfel CC, Cakmakkaya OS, Richmond C, et al. Restoration of disk height through non-surgical spinal decompression is associated with decreased discogenic low back pain: a retrospective cohort study. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2010;11(155). doi:10.1186/1471-2474-11-155

According to research, approximately 2-5 percent of the population will suffer from painful disorders like frozen shoulder syndrome at some time in their lives. That makes shoulder pain a common occurrence and one that Gadsden Family Chiropractic sees in our Gadsden, AL office on a regular basis.

Usually, this issue is more prevalent for people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and it tends to affect women more often than men. While ice, heat, and gentle stretching can often times help relieve the pain, so too can chiropractic.

As an example, a study released in the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine looked at 50 patients with frozen shoulder who were given chiropractic care. The length of care ranged from 11 days to 51 days, with 28 days being the average.

The doctors found that almost all of the study participants fared extremely well with chiropractic care. The authors found:

• 8 of the subjects reported 50-75 percent improvement
• 25 indicated improvement ranging from 75- 90 percent
• 1 participant had complete resolution of their frozen shoulder pain

Only one participant reported an improvement of 50 percent or less, so studies like this show just how beneficial chiropractic can be when it comes to decreasing shoulder pain and increasing quality of life.

Let Gadsden Family Chiropractic help you decrease your suffering by contacting our Gadsden, AL office and scheduling your appointment today.

Resources

Murphy F et al. (2012, December). Chiropractic management of frozen shoulder syndrome using a novel technique: a retrospective case series of 50 patients. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine;11(4):267-272

In our Gadsden, AL practice, it's common for us to see people troubled with sciatica pain, and Gadsden Family Chiropractic has helped many of these people improve with chiropractic. What makes chiropractic care so helpful to those who suffer with this condition? First, it reduces their healing time and a Norwegian research study confirms it.

In the study, which took place in a Norwegian hospital's orthopedic division, researchers looked at 44 patients who reported sudden low back pain that was identified as acute sciatic nerve pain. The participants were all treated by a chiropractor, with the average follow-up being two years after treatment.

The authors found that all but two patients went back to their jobs after receiving chiropractic care, which is a 95% success rate. Furthermore, the average length of time that the individuals spent off work "was reduced by two thirds as compared with that associated with conventional medical treatment."

Given the fact that the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that over 170,000 workdays were missed in 2013 due to employees dealing with back or spine-related issues, that is almost 112,500 work days that could potentially be recovered each and every year solely by receiving chiropractic care. Not only could that increase productivity, but it could also reduce costs to businesses and employees from lost work.

If you live in Gadsden, AL and you suffer from sciatica, Gadsden Family Chiropractic is here to assist. Give us a call at (256) 543-3033 and we'll work with you to find the source of your sciatic pain and get you back on the road to recovery.

Orlin JR, Didriksen A. Results of chiropractic treatment of lumbopelvic fixation in 44 patients admitted to an orthopedic department. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 2007;30(2):135-139.