MDs Admit Low Confidence In Diagnosing Musculoskeletal Complaints in Children

No one in the medical or chiropractic community should be surprised to learn that MD’s have low confidence in their own abilities to properly diagnose musculoskeletal complaints in children.

Let’s look at the educational background of an MD (medical doctor) vs. that of a DC (doctor of chiropractic). I am not making this comparison to say one is better than the other – in fact that would be incorrect. I simply want to point out that MD’s are well-trained in knowing which pills to prescribe and chiropractors are well-trained to recognize and address problems in the muscles, joints, and nervous system. Due to that obvious difference in training and education, MD’s aren’t very adept at diagnosing musculoskeletal complaints and chiropractors are very good at making those diagnoses.

Hours spent on anatomy and diagnose of musculoskeletal courses in Medical and Chiropractic school:
Anatomy/physiology – Chiropractic: 456; Medical: 215.
Physiology – Chiropractic: 243; Medical: 174.
Diagnosis – Chiropractic: 408; Medical: 113.
Orthopedics – Chiropractic: 168; Medical: 2.

Full Original Article Here:  MDs Admit Low Confidence In Diagnosing Musculoskeletal Complaints in Children

References Here:
1. http://www.chiro.org/ChiroZine/ABSTRACTS/Low_Confidence.shtml
2. http://www.chiro.org/pediatrics/ABSTRACTS/Safety_and_Effectiveness_of_Pediatric_Chiropractic.shtml
3. http://www.chiro.org/ChiroZine/End_Medical_Mis-Management_of_Musculoskeletal_Complaints.shtml

Frederick Chiropractors Show How Chiropractic Can Help Sciatica

Two chiropractors in Frederick that are practicing at Park Bench Chiropractic are known for helping their patients get rid of nagging sciatica, a type of pain caused by pressure or irritation of the sciatic nerve. This nerve that is found in the low back, buttocks, and leg can cause sharp pain, tingling and numbness, or other problems. Frederick chiropractors Dr. Romano and Dr. Schooley are trained in methods to reduce or eliminate back or leg pain or numbness due to sciatica.

Frederick Chiropractors offer treatment for Sciatica Pain

From a recent patient (N.R.):

At a recent visit to their warm and inviting office in Frederick, Dr. Romano showed how patients can get relief from low back or sciatic nerve pain. I was examined to make sure that the problem really is the sciatic nerve, and what exactly is causing the nerve pain, and then a treatment was recommended involving chiropractic adjustments. Sometimes the problem is caused by a muscle, sometimes by the disc, and sometimes just by the bones being misaligned and causing inflammation. I never knew it could be all those things! For me, it was the disc and this involved coming in to the office three times per week for a few weeks and being “adjusted”. The doctor places you on a padded table and adjusts your low back with his hands. Sometimes there is an audible “pop” and sometimes there isn’t.

It isn’t as scary as I thought it might be, and the relief is amazing. While chiropractic isn’t what everybody needs for their sciatic nerve pain, for me it sure did the trick. Both doctors are very similar in the way they treat patients, and they are very gentle – much more gentle than I thought this would be!

If you are suffering from sciatica or low back pain, stop by or call our office to set up a consultation. Park Bench Chiropractic is located in Frederick, Maryland at 1780 North Market St. Our office phone number is (301) 378-0334. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Hurt Your Back Snow Shoveling?

Snow shoveling is bad for your back because it involves bending over and twisting from side to side. This can cause injury to the joints and discs of the back. If you’ve hurt yourself shoveling out of that Frederick snow then head over to Park Bench Chiropractic and we will get you back out there and feeling better.

Low back injuries, especially those involving the discs, become more difficult to treat the longer you wait. At now and save yourself some pain later on down the road.

The Spinal Stabilizing System – Frederick Chiropractor Discusses Spine & Disc Pain

The “Spinal Stabilizing System” is a complex biomechanical anatomical system that allows the body to dissipate force and allow safe spinal motion without injury.

The Tensegrity model explains the stability of the spine. The curving nature of the spine means that, if there were no attachments to it (like muscle and ligaments) it would not be able to stand freely, it would instead topple over. Instead of being alone, though, the bones of the spinal column are connected in a very complex manner by hundreds of ligaments and dozens of muscles, as well as discs, arteries, veins, lymph vessels, and nerves. These soft tissues create a matrix-like network of attachments that create stability with a mixture of tension and compression.

The Sacroiliac (SI) Joints: the SI joints are the two knobby bulges on either side of the base of your spine. At these joints two types of forces, form and force closure, combine to stabilize the SI joints to let it properly accept force from the upper body to the head or downward, and from the lower extremity to the trunk and upper extremity. Without proper SI function, forces will not be transferred correctly.

The spinal column is a stabilized axis. Without muscles to stabilize the spine, a small amount of weight (less than 20 lbs.) can cause the spine to collapse. The inherent stabilizing system in the spine is meant to carry loads, protect the nervous system, and allow movement.

3 subsystems of the spinal stabilizing system:

  1. Passive musculoskeletal system – the spinal column (including discs and ligaments)
  2. Active musculoskeletal system – the spinal muscles
  3. Neural and feedback system – the neuromuscular control unit

Normal function of the spinal stabilizing system should provide sufficient stability to match instantaneously varying demands due to:

-postural changes

-static loads

-dynamic loads

An important consideration is that movements of the extremities (arms and legs) are perhaps the most profound inputs of stress to the spine.

Degradation of the spinal stabilizing system occurs due to:

  • Injury
  • Degeneration – 2 causes of disc degeneration: immobilization (subluxation or fixation) and the application of abnormal forces (injury to the back or neck)
  • Disease

All processes or injuries that affect the stabilizing system of your spine can cause back pain, either due to a disc putting pressure on a nerve or from a spastic muscle. Prompt chiropractic care can help resolve this and reduce the pain.

A chiropractor trained in addressing spinal instability and can perform herniated disc treatment services should treat these types of conditions. Call Park Bench Chiropractic at (301) 378-0334 to discuss your health with Dr. Rob and set up a free consultation. Our warm and inviting office in Frederick, Maryland looks forward to helping you achieve a new level of health and wellness.

The Cycle of Injury to Joints

Why joint injuries need to be addressed in order to make sure they don’t become chronic.

When you injure a joint (for example, common places to injure a joint include your spine, your shoulder, hip, knee, wrist, elbow, or ankle) there is also damage to the ligaments that help that joint function properly. Before I explain what exactly ligaments do, let’s quickly go over some terminology:

Joints – this is a place where two bones meet and they can move in relation to each other.

Muscles – these go from one bone to another bone, and when a muscle contracts it brings the two bones closer together.

Tendons – muscles attach to bones with tendons. As the muscle nears the bone it transitions into tendon, which physically attaches the muscle to the bone.

Ligaments – ligaments go from one bone to another bone, but they do not have the ability to stretch like muscles and tendons. They are used to reinforce a joint, to prevent motion in certain directions, and to guide movement in the correct direction.

So, when a joint is injured there is a good chance that the ligaments that hold it together were also injured. To illustrate this, when you sprain your ankle, the actual injury is to the ligaments of the ankle joint. When there is a sprain it is an injury to a ligament.

That injury to the ligament always initiates a process beginning with two things: joint instability and proprioceptive deficit.

1.       Joint instability – as explained above, the ligaments guide and limit the movement of the joint, and without stable ligaments you will not have a stable joint.

2.       Proprioceptive deficit – this is a fancy way of saying that your nervous system will have a decreased ability to monitor and control the movement and position of that joint and the bones that the joint includes.

a.       This proprioceptive deficit then causes decreased neuromuscular control. That means that your body has a decreased ability to properly control your muscles. It is called decreased “neuromuscular” control because the nervous system deficit means that the brain and body aren’t properly communicating and that perfect control of your muscles you usually have is lost. Your brain and the nerves in your joint just can’t get the messages across with 100% accuracy if there is an injury to the joint.

Now, all the issues I mentioned above lead to a common result: functional instability. An unstable joint and a decrease in nervous system control over that joint will combine to cause a loss of functional stability. Functional stability is the overall stability of your body or your body part as it does what it is supposed to do. Using the example of the ankle again, functional stability would show itself as trouble with walking correctly, putting more weight on one foot, or tip-toeing around to avoid pain. These are all changes in how the joint is functioning due to the injury.

We are talking about a cycle, and this is the important part. If you are getting by with an injured joint, but it is not healed correctly, then you are forcing your brain and body to utilize coping strategies like limping or leaning (or avoiding activity altogether). All these strategies are meant to help you avoid re-injuring the joint, but they all predispose the joint to re-injury quite often.  After all, using a joint or a body part incorrectly is a good way to injure it in a new way or just plain exacerbate the existing injury. As a chiropractor I quite often have patients who describe things like severely injuring a disc in their back because they were trying to shovel snow without standing up straight all the way…because they already had back pain to begin with!

So, now we have an injured joint become a repeat injury. Once you re-injure the joint it is typically more difficult to resolve and get back to 100% pre-injury status. You can see this entire process I just described in the picture below:

Cycle of Injury to a Spinal Joint

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So, why is a chiropractor talking about this? Because chiropractors manipulate joints. At Park Bench Chiropractic we work on all the joints in your arms and legs as well as adjusting spines. By locating and correcting vertebral subluxations we help your entire body function better. When we find problems in how other joints are working, such as wrists, ankles, and jaws, we will manipulate those areas as needed. Call our office at (01) 378-0334 to schedule an examination or consultation with Dr. Matt or Dr. Rob in our friendly Frederick office.