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

Research Shows Chiropractic Helps With Neck Pain and Headaches

For many years, patients with neck and headache pain in Estero, Bonita Springs have been helped by the chiropractic adjustments of Dr. Green. Our success is supported by a recent review done in Canada that found that non-invasive, non-drug treatments are the best choice for neck and headache pain.

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

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

We Can Help Clients Find Comfort From Neck Pain and Headaches

If you're struggling with neck pain or headaches, Dr. Green and our staff are here to help you heal. Give our Estero, Bonita Springs office a call today at (239) 495-1166 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 headaches that start in your neck.

Dr. Green sees a lot of patients in our Estero, Bonita Springs office who are suffering with frequent, reoccurring headaches. Luckily, chiropractic adjustments can often help, potentially reducing these types of headaches by 50%, and research confirms it.

Research Supports Chiropractic Helps With Cervicogenic Headaches

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

The patients 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 patient was assessed based on head pain, neck pain, and disability prior to the study and 12 and 24 weeks after treatment was complete. The researchers 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.

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

We Can Help People Find Relief From Head Pain

Dr. Green has helped many patients who were suffering from headaches in our Estero, Bonita Springs office. Call us today at (239) 495-1166 for more information or for an appointment.

Reference

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.

Dr. Green sees many people weekly in our busy Estero, Bonita Springs chiropractic office who are searching for relief from the pain and distress they feel due to herniated discs. Our experience isn't unique; the scientific literature confirms that chiropractic is a successful way to treat herniated disc pain.

Don't Suffer! Dr. Green and Chiropractic Care Helps With Disc Herniation

One particular research project involved 27 people, 8 male and 19 female, who had magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) confirming a disc herniation in either their neck or lower back. The patients reported that they were experiencing pain, reduced range of motion, and sensory issues bad enough to keep them off work.

Over the course of the research period, the subjects were treated using one of two common chiropractic methods: traction for herniated discs in the cervical area or flexion distraction for the men and women who had herniation issues in the low back.

Each person was seen four or five times per week for the first two weeks, then three times each week, and then as needed for the remainder of the study. Based on the severity of the disc herniation, treatment varied anywhere from six weeks to six months, with MRIs being carried out at a variety of stages to identify what effect, if any, the chiropractic care was having in regard to the disc herniation.

Research Proves Chiropractic Helps With Back Pain and Herniated Disc

The investigators found that 80 percent of the patients experienced a "good clinical outcome," meaning reduced pain and a reduction in other symptoms, such as numbness. Additionally, 77 percent of these subjects also showed MRI evidence that their disc herniation was either reduced or resolved completely. This resulted in 78 percent of the study participants being able to return to their place of employment and led the authors to conclude that chiropractic care is both "safe and helpful" for disc herniations.

If you have a herniated disc and suffer from chronic back pain and are near Dr. Green in Estero, Bonita Springs, contact our office today to see what chiropractic can do for you!

Reference
BenEliyahu, DJ. Magnetic resonance imaging and clinical follow-up: study of 27 patients receiving chiropractic care for cervical and lumbar disc herniations. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 1996;19(9):597-606.

In our Estero, Bonita Springs practice, we see a lot of patients who are troubled with back pain, and some of these people have been advised they might need surgery to recover. Thankfully, Dr. Green has helped many people get relief without the need for any type of surgery. The scientific literature confirms the results we see in our practice. One research study published in the medical journal Spine found that consulting with a chiropractor as your first move in overcoming with your back pain may actually keep you out of the operating room.

In this study, medical experts from Dartmouth reviewed statistics from 1,885 workers from Washington state who first saw either an orthopedic surgeon or a chiropractic doctor for their low back issues. They then used three years' worth of follow-up medical information to ascertain whether the subjects wound up having back surgery in an attempt to correct the problem.

What the researchers determined was that about 43% of the men and women who first saw a surgeon for their back problems ended up with surgery in that 3-year time frame, whereas only 1.5% of those who first consulted with a chiropractor had the same fate. The authors wrote:

"Even after controlling for injury severity and other measures, workers with an initial visit for the injury to a surgeon had almost nine times the odds of receiving lumbar spine surgery compared to those seeing primary care providers, whereas workers whose first visit was to a chiropractor had significantly lower odds of surgery."

These are remarkable results. Consulting with a chiropractor significantly decreases your odds of getting back surgery, plus the chiropractic patients in this scientific study "had lower odds of chronic work disability" and they also had fewer expensive MRI tests.

Let's also take note this important detail: this study was carried out by orthopedic surgeons from Dartmouth College, and printed in the world's most distinguished medical publication on spinal injuries.

Why You Should Avoid Surgery

Any surgery has risks, but a serious problem linked to spinal surgery is that there's a very high rate of failure. In an important analysis in the European Spine Journal, researchers wrote:

"Failed back surgery is a problem that has become sufficiently widespread to even warrant its own special conferences, with recent reviews reporting failure rates ranging from 5 to 50%."

The experts in this same study concluded:

"It is extremely difficult to identify unequivocal predictor factors that can be used to accurately predict the outcome of surgery."

As a chiropractor, Dr. Green is convinced that surgery should be the absolute last resort for treating back pain. Chiropractic works to restore your spine to its normal function--without the need of high-risk surgery or drugs--and many research studies have established the effectiveness of chiropractic for back pain.

If you live in Estero, Bonita Springs and you need relief for your back pain, give our office a call today at (239) 495-1166 for a consultation or an appointment. We'll help get you back on the road to a pain-free life!

Studies

• Keeney BJ, Fulton-Kehoe D, Turner JA, Wickizer TM, Chan KC, Franklin GM. 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.
• Mannion AF, Elfering A. Predictors of surgical outcome and their assessment. European Spine Journal 2006;15(Suppl 1):S93-S108.
  

If you are suffering from shoulder pain after a car crash, don't worry. Dr. Green sees this type of problem often in our Estero, Bonita Springs office. Chiropractic care can be very helpful for shoulder pain symptoms after a crash. Let's see what causes shoulder pain and why chiropractic works.

There are at least two ways that you can develop shoulder problems after a car crash: by direct injury to the shoulder or by referred pain from the neck.

Direct injury can be caused by striking your shoulder on a hard surface in the car during the crash, or can occur if you have a tight grip on the steering wheel during a rear end collision. With this type of injury, you'll often be aware of the pain soon after the crash.

More commonly, Dr. Green finds that shoulder or arm pain doesn't immediately appear after a collision, but begins a few days or weeks after the trauma. This type of shoulder pain actually starts in the neck. Injured muscles or ligaments in your neck can tweak nerves in your neck, causing tingling, numbness, or soreness in your shoulder, elbow, or wrist.

We've treated both types of shoulder problems in our Estero, Bonita Springs office. This process involves chiropractic adjustments to restore your spine's natural mobility and exercises that strengthen your neck and shoulder.

If you've been injured in a car crash and you're experiencing shoulder pain, Dr. Green is here to help. Dr. Green will first determine what's causing your pain and then work to restore your body to its natural functioning. Ready to make an appointment? Give us a call at (239) 495-1166 and we'll get you back on the road to health.

Asthma is a serious concern for many people in Estero, Bonita Springs and for a society as a whole, since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that this problem currently affects almost 19 million adults and 7 million children in the US. A full-blown asthma attack likely means a emergency room visit. Fortunately, Dr. Green has helped many folks in Estero, Bonita Springs get relief from asthma symptoms.

Research Proves Chiropractic Helps With Asthma

The scientific research verifies what we see in our office. For example, a study published in Clinical and Experimental Allergy evaluated 31 adult asthma patients after getting four weeks of chiropractic adjustments. The researchers reported that the individuals who received chiropractic adjustments had a 34% decrease in asthma symptoms.

The Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics printed another asthma-based study, except this one involved children. In this article, the 36 participants ranged from 6 to 17 years in age and their asthma was considered either mild or moderate in severity.

After 12 weeks of chiropractic care, as a whole, the children reported a higher quality of life and a decreased level of severity. As a bonus, they also indicated that they relied less on their bronchodilator and these positive effects lasted one year after chiropractic care was complete.

We Can Help Patients Find Relief From Asthma

So, whether you're 8 or 80, if you have asthma, be sure to contact Dr. Green in Estero, Bonita Springs and make an appointment today. We'll do what we can to help you breathe easier!

Sources

• Asthma. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Bronfort G et al. (2001, July-August). Chronic pediatric asthma and spinal manipulation: a prospective clinical series and randomized clinical pilot study. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics;24(6):369-77
• Nielsen N et al. (1995, January). Chronic asthma and chiropractic spinal manipulation: a randomized clinical trial. Clinical and Experimental Allergy;25(1):80-8

We tend to a large number of patients in our Estero, Bonita Springs office, and Dr. Green has helped many people eliminate a wide array of health problems. Even so, a frequent worry that seems to prevent a lot of men and women from seeking treatment is whether or not chiropractic care is safe. Luckily, according to three different studies (out of countless on the issue), the answer to this question is a clear: "Yes! Chiropractic is safe!"

Australian Study: Chiropractic is Safe

The first study(1) was published in Spine and included 183 women and men between the ages of 20 and 85. Each participant reported suffering from some kind of back pain, and half of the patients received real chiropractic care while the remaining patients were given two fake chiropractic treatments. Information was gathered after each real or fake adjustment to identify whether or not any unpleasant reactions were caused by the actual chiropractic treatments.

The doctors reported that no participants reported any serious adverse side effects in any way after receiving one or two sessions of chiropractic care. Some individuals did report that they got a headache (9% of patients) or muscle stiffness (37 percent) post-treatment, but the effects were not of a serious nature.

Nationwide Survey Reports that Chiropractic Adjustments are Safe

The second article(2), also published in the influential medical journal, Spine, was done in an attempt to determine the safety of chiropractic. The test group was much larger -- 20,000 individuals. Each participant received chiropractic adjustments of the neck, with over 50,000 total adjustments for all study participants.

Once again, the experts discovered no serious negative side effects. The experts determined the risk of total adverse reactions to be approximately 6 out of every 10,000 consultations or every 100,000 treatment sessions. Plus, just as with the first study, some volunteers did report non-serious, milder, side effects such as dizziness (less than 2%) or a headache (4 out of every 100), and this caused the researchers to conclude that "the risk of a serious adverse event, immediately or up to 7 days after treatment, was low to very low."

Chiropractic Care Is Safe for Children

The third research paper(3) is different from the previous two reports, as it concentrates on the safety of chiropractic care for children. In this case, the authors analyzed results reported by both chiropractors and parents involving 816 children who participated in 7,173 chiropractic treatment sessions.

Out of 5,438 chiropractic appointments made for the young ones, chiropractors responding to the survey reported only three cases where there were negative side effects. When parents were surveyed, they indicated only two adverse side effects out of 1,735 visits. Furthermore, both chiropractors and parents reported "a high rate of improvement with respect to the children's presenting complaints."

Based on these three studies (and many more!), chiropractic has been deemed safe and effective for everyone. To find out what chiropractic can do for you, call our Estero, Bonita Springs office and schedule an appointment today at (239) 495-1166.

References

1. Walker BF, Hebert JJ, Stomski NJ, Clarke BR, Bowden RS, Losco B, French SD. Outcomes of usual chiropractic. The OUCH randomized controlled trial of adverse events. Spine 2013;38(20):1723-9.
2. Thiel HW1, Bolton JE, Docherty S, Portlock JC. Safety of chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine: a prospective national survey. Spine 2007;32(21):2375-8.
3. Alcantara J, Ohm J, Kunz D. The safety and effectiveness of pediatric chiropractic: a survey of chiropractors and parents in a practice-based research network. Explore NY 2009;5(5): 290-5.

When you're trying to sustain your family, take care of your household, and pay all of your bills on time, every day at work counts. Work injuries can be a serious problem for many folks, and we see many of these types of injuries in our Estero, Bonita Springs office. Dr. Green understands your situation and is here to help.

The benefits of chiropractic care for work injuries are well-documented. A 2013 research paper involving 651 adults who were suffering with either back or neck pain found that the people 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 respondents in this study, two of the major factors 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 Estero, Bonita Springs and you've been injured at work, we can help. Give our office a call today at (239) 495-1166 for an appointment.

Resources

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

Since trauma to the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is frequently quite painful, we do our best to help our Estero, Bonita Springs patients find relief as quickly and effectively as possible. In fact, Dr. Green will tell you that the medical research shows just how much chiropractic can help ease discomfort in the TMJ.

For example, one study published in Physiotherapy Theory and Practice involved 15 people with jaw pain who were treated with neck adjustments, middle-back manipulation, and trigger point therapy via dry needling. Patients were evaluated prior to these methods and at two weeks and two months post-treatment. The authors reported positive results such as reduced pain, greater jaw mobility, and lower disability at both follow-ups.

Another research paper conducted a review of almost 800 papers involving manual and manipulative therapy for conditions such as TMJ and revealed similar results. The group concluded that there is a "fair...level of evidence" that chiropractic care can help ease symptoms associated with jaw pain and other upper extremity disorders.

This is great news since the causes of TMJ are largely unknown. While trauma to the jaw or neck can cause pain symptoms, there are other factors to consider as well, such as bruxism, arthritis, and clenching of the jaw due to stress.

No matter what is making your jaw hurt, call Dr. Green today and schedule an appointment to come into our Estero, Bonita Springs location. We'll do our best to help you smile pain-free!

Sources

• Gonzalez-Iglesias J et al. (2013, November). Mobilization with movement, thoracic spine manipulation, and dry needling for the management of temporomandibular disorder: a prospective case series. Physiotherapy Theory and Practice;29(8):586-95
• Brantingham J et al. (2013, March-April). Manipulative and multimodal therapy for upper extremity and temporomandibular disorders: a systematic review. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics;36(3):143-201
• Oral Care. WebMD. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/oral-health/guide/temporomandibular-disorders-tmd on November 2, 2015

We see a large number of sports injuries in our Estero, Bonita Springs clinic, and Dr. Green is often able to assist these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital reports that over 3.5 million children of the ages 14 and younger are injured each year while playing sports. Add that to the close to 2 million adults injured each year while participating in sports-related activities, as reported by statistics collected by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can start to see the importance of preventing these sorts of widespread injuries. One approach to possible realize that goal, according to a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to receive regular chiropractic care.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg traumas are commonplace, frequently sidelining the players and affecting their team's chance at securing a win. One particular study was administered using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see whether chiropractic could cut down on these injuries and help keep them in the game.

For this study particularly, every one of the volunteers got medical treatment. Additionally, half of them also engaged in chiropractic treatments at the rate of one session per week for the first 6 weeks, biweekly sessions for the next three months, and one session each month for the remaining three months of the study. The remaining participants had no chiropractic intervention at all and acted as the control group to assess the benefits of chiropractic.

Following twenty-four matches, specialists noticed a reduced amount of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Moreover, that same group also missed fewer matches related to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to come to the conclusion that chiropractic should be made an addition to sports training programs to effectively lessen the quantity of leg injuries.

If you or your child are active in sports and you would like to ensure more time is dedicated on the field versus on the bench, call our Estero, Bonita Springs office at (239) 495-1166 and make an appointment today. We will do our best to keep you in the game!

References

• Hoskins, W, & Pollard, H. (2010, April 8). 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, 11(64), doi:10.1186/1471-2474-11-64
• Misra, A. (2014, March 17). Common sports injuries: Incidence and average charges. Department of Health & Human Services.
• Stanford Children’s Hospital. (n.d.). Sports injury statistics.