Back Pain During Pregnancy

Low back pain can make a woman’s pregnancy absolutely miserable.  It makes it hard to get out of a chair, walk or move around.  Not to mention how much harder it makes labor and delivery.

The extra weight of the baby can cause posture problems, especially if your posture wasn’t too good before you were pregnant.  These posture problems create more strain on the muscles of the low back creating muscle spasms and pain.

The hormones of pregnancy soften up the ligaments that hold the bones of the spine in place.  So, as pregnancy progresses, the bones of the spine can slide out of place and pinch nerves.  This can create, back pain, sciatica, neck pain and even headaches.

If you are pregnant, options are limited.  You can’t take medication due to possible side effects that can hurt your baby.

Chiropractic is a great option because it is safe and effective.  Some pregnant women are afraid to see a chiropractor because they think they might get hurt.  Or worse, it somehow might hurt the baby.

According to research, chiropractic is safer than aspirin.  And during pregnancy, it’s a God-send.  You can get immediate relief of pain and you will move around and stand better than ever.

My wife is very thankful to be adjusted during pregnancy.  She was checked and treated any time she needed it with both my kids.  And, she gets treated now for our third.

I created a little video that shows the type of procedures I use.  You can see that they are very gentle and easy on the body.  The results are immediate, as you will see.  Check it out at:  http://www.vimeo.com/28359805

For a free consultation for your pregnancy related back pain, neck pain or headaches, call Jennifer or Pat at 262-251-8306.

Do Chiropractors Get Along With MD’s?

You may have gotten the idea from some of my blogs that I don’t like medical doctors.  Well…if I don’t like an MD, its usually because I don’t like him or her as a person.  It wouldn’t matter what they did for a living, I wouldn’t like the person.  I have several friends that are medical doctors, and I refer patients to MD’s when they need their help.

I have a tremendous respect for the medical doctors, they have a very difficult job, they work under tons of pressure and the American medical system they work in, sucks.  Sorry for the word, I just can’t think of a better one right now.

That brings me to my point.  The American medical system is probably the greatest in the world when it comes to trauma and medical emergencies.  If you get in a car wreck, suffer a bad fall, or have a heart attack, there is no better place to be.  Medicine does things here that are unbelievable.

But, as far as getting people healthy and keeping them that way. Americastinks.  Bring up any health statistic you want and we are last or next to last.  Obesity, infant mortality, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, depression, ulcers, heart disease, cancer, physical disability and on and on….we are in trouble.  The real kicker is, we spend more than any other country on health and we get the worst results.

American medical philosophy is basically: eat like a pig…eat whatever garbage you want as long as it tastes good to you…treat your body anyway you like… wait for a problem to happen and treat it with drugs.   If the drugs don’t work…remove the offending part with surgery.  It may sound like I’m exaggerating, but if you look around at what is happening, and think about the messages you receive in the media…I think you will see my point.

I can’t think of a more corrupt government agency than the FDA.  They are the ones that are supposed to protect us.  Yet they allow food companies to put things in food that are making people sick, and then turning around and approving drugs to counteract the effects of the trashy food.  The doctors employed by the FDA are totally bought and paid for by food and drug companies.  There is no ethics at all.

The average MD is put in a system where he doesn’t have the time to talk to a patient about good health habits.  He or she, doesn’t have time to learn about natural health, because they need to keep up on all the new drugs coming on the market.  And…to top it off… can’t practice natural health anyway due to standards of practice laws that prevent them from doing anything that differs from standard medical practice.  Their hands are tied.  And, I mean tight.

So I sympathize with my medical colleagues.  I rip on the system, but not the doctors.

What you need to know, is that you can’t totally depend on your MD to safeguard your health.  Likewise, you can’t depend on me either.  You need to have a team around you that can give you the help you need.  Chiropractic and nutrition before you get too ill or injured.  Medicine if and when you do.

That’s how I do it, and I hope you do it that way too.

For more information on chiropractic and nutrition, log on to: www.painfree-greatposture.com

How To Sleep When You Have Back Pain

How you sleep is probably one of the main contributors to back pain.  During sleep, back muscles relax and rejuvenate.  The discs between the bones of the spine regenerate and refill with fluid.  And, any tissues that were damaged during the day, will repair at night.

None of the above will happen if you sleep in a contorted or unsupported position.

When you were a young child, you could sleep just about any way you wanted.  Your bones weren’t fully developed, your discs were more pliable, and your muscles rejuvenated quicker.

But as you age, tissues that once were soft, start to stiffen up.  You can’t just sleep any old way anymore.   If you do, you will feel it in the morning.

So, here’s what you need to do.

-Avoid Stomach Sleeping-when you sleep on your stomach, you turn your head to the side to breathe.  This puts pressure on the neck and will cause neck pain and headaches.

-Sleep on your side or your back.  When on your back, use a very small pillow or no pillow at all.  When on your side, the pillow height should be high enough that you feel your head is slightly propped up, but not too high that you feel pressure in your neck.  When your pillow height is correct, you won’t need to put a pillow between the knees.

-Always use a firm surface.  Soft mattresses do not support the spine properly and put your body in a contorted position.  There is no need to use any “gadget” mattresses.  A firm mattress with the right pillow height works every time.

If you are having back pain, someone should be working with you on how you are sleeping.  Unfortunately, most medical doctors, chiropractors and therapists do not focus on it and people suffer un-necessarily from pain.

If I ran the world, it would be malpractice to not teach a back pain patient how to sleep.

I once worked with a husband and wife who both had the same back surgery.  No one ever told them that their 20 year old mattress, that was noticeably sagging for the last 5 years, was the cause of their pain.  All the pain suffering and surgery could have been avoided with conservative treatment and a new mattress.

To find out how I treat back pain log on to: www.newbackpainreliefinfo.com

Does Weather Make Pain Worse?

Any doctor who has treated people in chronic pain will hear the patients say that they feel more pain when the weather is bad.  Especially cool humid weather.

Is this all in the patient’s head or is there some scientific cause for it ?

Well a study done in the journal, Spine, in 2004, studied 26,862 patients from 23 different health centers in the National Spine Network.  They concluded that changes in barometric pressure caused people to have lower scores on general health surveys.  (SF-36).  This meant that people rated their general health, physical function, bodily pain, mental health, social function, fatigue and emotional health, lower when the barometric pressure changed.

A study in the Journal of Rheumatology in 1985 showed that falling barometric pressure indicative of a coming storm, increased arthritic symptoms in patients.

Another study noted that 76 to 83% of patients could predict rain by their arthritic symptoms.  (Ann Rheum Dis 1990;49:158-9)

Patients with higher self-reported pain were more weather sensitive.  (Pain 1999;81:173-7)

So there is a definite link to weather and chronic pain.  Research findings suggest that abnormal nerve impulses generated at injured areas could cause increased pain and that these impulses are sensitive to and aggravated by weather.

But the pain is not directly caused by the weather.  An injured or arthritic area is the cause of the pain.  The weather changes merely aggravate the problems.  It is important to get injuries and arthritis treated properly so your pain levels go down and you aren’t as sensitive to weather changes.

For more information on how I treat chronic pain, log on to www.stopyourfibronow.com or www.newbackpainreliefinfo.com.

Back to School Shoes- What do you look for?

Everyone is starting their back to school shopping.  Most kids will need new shoes.  But what kind of shoes are best ?

The best shoes for human health are flat, wide and flexible.

It is totally un-necessary and often detrimental to have shoes with arch supports in them.  Arch supports encourage heel striking, which increases the amount of stress put on the joints.  Arch supports cause a postural problem called forward head posture, where the head juts out in front of the shoulders causing back pain, neck pain and headaches.  A recent study by the British Journal of Sports Medicine reviewed all the research on arch supports and concluded that there is no evidence that arch supports treat or prevent injury.  So stay away from arch supports and other gadgets in shoes.

1. When you choose a shoe, look inside the shoe and make sure it is level from side to side.  No lump in the arch.
2. Make sure the area of the shoe where the toes lay, is wide so it doesn’t constrict the toes.  If the shoe is too pointy, it will cause balance problems.
3. Make sure the very back of the heel is the highest point on the shoe.  If the arch area or any other part of the shoe is higher than the back of the heel, it will cause the shoulders to slump forward when standing.
4.  Walk or jog a little in the shoes and make sure you don’t feel off balance, limp or walk funny.
5. Stand in the shoes take a few deep breaths, relax and let your body go limp.  If your body falls forward more in the shoes, the shoes are causing posture problems and will make you more prone to injury.  They may be right for someone else, but not for you.
6. If you wobble when you stand in a shoe, get rid of it.  It is a sign that your body is struggling to stay upright, and you will be more prone to injury.
7. Do not buy shoes with the boat shaped “rocker bottoms”.  Several lawsuits have been filed against the makers of these types of shoes due to hip fractures and other disorders.

If you are having any type of musculo-skeletal pain, your shoes will play a part in the condition and will need to be corrected for the condition to heal.

For more information on how I treat foot pain, log on to:  www.stopyourfootpain.com

Please continue to browse for more information on www.painfree-greatposture.com

How Can You Prevent Dowager’s Hump?

I have patients tell me on a regular basis that they are afraid of developing Dowager’s hump.  The hunched-over posture like the picture above.

Hunched-over bad posture is called forward head posture by chiropractors and orthopedists.  It can be caused by multiple things, including trauma, bad habits, depression, bone disorders and smoking, just to name a few.

The problem happens when the bones of the spine mis-align in a direction the body can’t self-correct.  The direction is straight forward.  The bones will not self-correct because there are no muscles pulling in the direction needed.  There are no muscles behind you that will pull a bone straight back.  So when an injury happens that pushes a bone of the spine forward, it gets stuck.  Muscles can’t pull it back into alignment.

Over time, people get more and more spinal bones out of alignment forward.  And, the bones creep farther forward.  At first, you feel like its harder to stand up.  Then, it gets to the point where you can’t stand straighter no matter how hard you try.

As you get into old age, the combination of the bones being out of alignment and weakness of the bones (osteoporosis) can cause fractures in the spine.  These fractures drive the person even farther forward, leaving them hunched over permanently.  This gives you the Dowager’s hump.

I’ve seen many exercise programs that attempt to correct Dowager’s hump, but they do little or nothing about it.  Anyone who puts out an exercise program for Dowager’s hump has an incomplete understanding of the problem.  You see, you have no muscles that pull in the direction needed to get the bones re-aligned.  If there were, the body would correct it on its own, or a even little exercise would work.  But it doesn’t happen.

How can Dowager’s hump be prevented ?

First, get your posture corrected by a chiropractor that is trained to correct forward head posture. (not all are)  Even if you have bad posture problems already, much can be done to get you standing straight, relaxed and pain free.

Second, do all the things you know are good for you.  Eat right, don’t smoke, take vitamins and exercise.  That will keep your bones from getting weak.

If you or someone you care about has posture problems, you can get a free no-obligation consultation from me, Dr. Paul Kramer at Pain Free Great Posture.  Just call Jennifer or Pat at 262-251-8306 and you can get an appointment.

For more information on how I treat posture and back pain, log on to: www.painfree-greatposture.com  or  www.newbackpainreliefinfo.com

Chronic Back Pain- Treatment Can Reverse Abnormal Brain Function

Anyone who has been in pain, knows how quickly their mood can change.  You can get symptoms like fear, grouchiness and depression.

It is well-known that low back pain is the most common form of chronic pain among adults.  Lesser known is the fact that those with chronic pain also experience cognitive impairments and reduced brain size. Patients can experience the emotional components of pain, like depression and anxiety from the brain shrinking.

If the pain is treated, can the problem be reversed ?  YES.  Researchers fromMcGillUniversityfound that patients in chronic pain who showed loss of brain tissue and brain activity, regained the brain matter and its normal activity when the chronic pain was relieved.

The senior author of the study, Dr. Laura Stone, said “If you can make the pain go away with effective treatment, you can reverse these abnormal changes in the brain.”

This means that if you have been in pain a long time, and you are getting symptoms of anxiety and depression, these symptoms will go away when your pain goes away.

The problem is, most treatments for pain involve drugs and surgery.  Surgery can be risky and if it doesn’t go right, can lead to long term debilitating pain.  Drugs have side effects and don’t treat the cause of pain, only the feeling.

Relieving back pain can be achieved through non-drug, non-surgical means.  For more information, log on to:  www.newbackpainreliefinfo.com

Does Stretching Help Back Pain?

Back pain sufferers are often told to stretch as a way to alleviate pain.  Stretching back muscles that are in spasm,can sometimes help relieve the spasm and alleviate some of the pain.

However, anyone that has tried stretching for back pain will tell you that the stretches only help temporarily.  They don’t solve anything.  This is also backed up by research.  There is nothing published that says stretching will help back pain beyond temporary, mild relief.  In fact, some research on stretching has shown that it may be detrimental.

Professional athletes like Dwayne Wade, Dean Karnazes and many pro tennis players, do not stretch at all.  This is due to the many published studies that show stretching decreases athletic performance.

Many of my patients are surprised when they find out that I don’t suggest stretching exercises.  My clinical experience agrees with the scientific literature that finds it to be detrimental.  I have found that people who do a lot of stretching, have really bad mechanical problems in the spine.  One of my early mentors, Dr. Fred Barge, wrote a book on scoliosis treatment in the early 1970’s.  In it, he observed that gymnasts have a high rate of scoliosis.  (A fact that has been confirmed later by other authors)

Here is why stretching the spine is bad:  Muscles around the spine get tight for a reason. They are trying to stabilize a weak mis-aligned area of the spine.  If the muscles didn’t contract, the bones would move further out of place, causing damage to nerve tissue, ligaments and discs.  The tight muscles eventually get tired and sore.  That’s when the patient feels pain.  Simply stretching the muscles to relieve the pain, does not address the cause.  The cause, is the bones being out of place.

The bones do not re-position themselves because there are no muscles that pull in the direction needed.  In short, there is no way to self-correct the problem.  The problem needs to be corrected from the outside by someone who is trained to do it. (ABC chiropractic) Then the muscles will relax, and the pain goes away.

If you start a stretching program and find that you get weakness, dizziness, shooting pains, numbness or headaches, it is because you have removed your body’s defense mechanism (tight muscles) and bones are now irritating nerves, ligaments and discs.  Stop immediately and see someone who is trained to fix the problem.

For more information on how I treat low back pain, log on to: www.newbackpainreliefinfo.com

The Back Pain Secret Most Doctors Don’t Know About !

There is a secret to treating back pain, most health care professionals don’t know about.  The secret is this: the body works as a coordinated single unit.

Most doctors only treat the areas that are painful, and that is a mistake.  You can’t separate parts of the body to treat them.  You must treat the body as a unit.

Here is a little test that illustrates my point.  While you are sitting there, turn your head to the left and see how far it goes.  Now turn it to the right and see how far it goes.  Now, scrunch up your toes in your shoes like you are making a fist with your feet.  Now, test how far you can turn your head.  You will notice that it changed.  For some it will be easier, for some harder.  It may be easier one way and harder the other.  The point is, it changed.

Your feet changed how your neck works.

You can do other tests like this and find the same type of thing.

If you have back pain, you can’t just treat the area where the pain is.  If you have low back pain, you are going to have problems elsewhere that need to be addressed.  Your chest could be rounded forward, putting more strain on your low back. Your feet could be misaligned, causing you to walk funny, throwing out your low back.  You could have a neck issue that causes you to lean forward putting more strain on your back…and on and on.

Treating just the area of pain, and neglecting overall body posture is one of the biggest reasons low back pain becomes chronic.  If the whole body is treated and good posture is restored, back pain can be eliminated without drugs or surgery.

For more information on how to eliminate your back pain log on to: www.newbackpainreliefinfo.com

Sketchers Shoe WARNING

I’ve been warning people not to use Sketchers Shape-up shoes.  The type of shoes you wear has a profound effect on your posture and how you walk.  It even effects how you breathe.

I was at a seminar last year where myself and other doctors tested the Shape-ups, by having someone who was newly adjusted and pain free, walk in the shoes.  We saw an immediate change in the way she walked that looked very odd.  And, within five steps, she developed hip pain.

She took the shoes off, got adjusted, and was pain free again.

Evidently, this is more testing than the Sketchers Shoe company has done.

There are multiple lawsuits being filed against them for injuries caused by wearing these shoes.  Watch this video which appeared on ABC news.

Notice the woman developed hip fractures.  Hip stress is what we found too.  Although I can only imagine all the problems they can cause from back pain, foot pain, knee problems, all the way up to neck pain and headaches.

Also, notice the lawyer’s statement that they didn’t do any testing on the shoe to find out if it was safe.  Scary.

The best types of shoes are those that are flat, flexible and give your feet room to move naturally.  No gadgets are necessary.  In fact, arch supports or other gadgets have not been found to work.  No scientific evidence exists that says these things treat or prevent injury.

This whole thing is a shame, because I used to recommend Sketchers shoes to my patients because they didn’t use gadgets in their shoes.  Every Sketchers shoe I tested was fine…until the “Shape up” thing came along.

The good news is all these problems (except the fractures) can be fixed with the style of chiropractic I use.

For more information on foot pain and problems, log on to: www.stopyourfootpain.com or www.painfree-greatposture.com