If you’ve been wondering about the benefits of ultrasound therapy, you’re not alone. People are always asking about the ways in which this type of therapy can work together with chiropractic care in order to reduce pain and inflammation within the body. Let’s take a look at how it works and if it might be for you.
How Does It Work?
Here’s the theory of how ultrasound therapy works. As the sound waves pass through the body they vibrate cells, namely cells that contain collagen. As you probably know, when something vibrates it tends to heat up. This heat not also gives a therapeutic (pain reduction) effect, but it also draws more blood flow to the area. With more blood comes more oxygen and the healing properties that come along with increased circulation.
Ultrasound is also thought to stimulate collagen production in the body, which is a primary protein component of soft tissues such tendons and ligaments.
What Injuries Is It Good For?
Ultrasound therapy can be used for a wide variety of soft-tissue problems, including ligaments and discs. It’s most often used on backs, arms, and legs, and is used to treat injuries in athletes’ limbs.
How Is Ultrasound Therapy Performed?
You’re probably familiar with the idea of ultrasound machines that give an image of children in the womb. Those machines have both a transducer and a receiver in the head, allowing the waves to bounce back and produce an image.
Ultrasound therapy machines do not have the receiver portion in the head, and the sound waves are at a different frequency. A conduction jelly is put on the area of the body in question in order to form an airtight seal against the skin, ensuring the best transference of waves from the transducer into the body. The length of the waves can be changed depending on how deep (i.e. the amount of tissue it has to penetrate before it gets to the damaged tissue) the problem at hand is.
Is It Painful?
Not at all. In fact, you won’t be able to feel the sound waves internally at all. At most you’ll feel a slightly warm area at the point where the conduction wand is rubbing against your back, as well as the stickiness of the lubrication jelly. The wand is there to deliver the soundwaves, not to massage your back (or other parts of the body). Most people enjoy it because it gives them a chance to lay down and relax without having to move.
Is Ultrasound Therapy Safe?
Absolutely. There’s no ionizing radiation given off by ultrasounds as there is from other types of medical imaging. No x-rays, no CT waves, and absolutely nothing to worry about as you get ultrasound therapy.
Need further proof that ultrasounds are safe? They’ve been used hundreds of millions of times to check unborn children without a single instance of anything going wrong.
Is Ultrasound Therapy Right For You?
Ultrasound therapy has many uses, so don’t be surprised if your chiropractor suggests using it in addition to traditional chiropractic care if you have an injury. If you’d like to give it a try, call our chiropractic clinics in Columbia or Lexington today!
Do you suffer from back pain, neck pain, or frequent headaches? Depending on the cause of your pain, there’s an alternative therapy that could bring you relief and it’s called dry needling. For people who have never heard of dry needling before, it can sound a bit scary. Many wonder if it’s the same thing as the traditional Chinese therapy called acupuncture. In today’s post from Flex Chiropractic, we’re going to discuss the differences between the two and why one may be a safer and more effective alternative to managing pain. Keep reading and then contact Flex Chiropractic if you have additional questions or would like to schedule an appointment.
What is Acupuncture?
Many people have heard of acupuncture, but you might not be familiar with how it works or the theory behind it. Acupuncture is deeply rooted in Chinese traditional medicine. It is believed that pain and illness are a result of an imbalance in the energy or qi (pronounced “chi”) within our body. In order to restore balance and promote health, an acupuncturist uses very thin needles and inserts them into strategic points that are intended to help rebalance the flow of energy.
Some people have found relief from various ailments including back pain, respiratory disorders, osteoarthritis, and headaches, but there are some risks. First, science has yet to prove the effectiveness of acupuncture and there is little evidence as to why it may work for some. Second, many acupuncturists have little formal training and some complications have been reported from the use of nonsterile needles and improper delivery of treatments.
What is Dry Needling?
Dry needling is a safe, pain-relieving treatment performed by a trained, skilled therapist. Dry needling uses extremely thin, monofilament needles to penetrate the skin for the purpose of eliciting a twitch response and treating underlying muscular trigger points. Although it may sound scary or painful, there’s no reason to be afraid. The needles used are so small that it’s virtually impossible to feel them.
Although dry needling may sound similar to acupuncture, it is in fact very different. Acupuncture is rooted in Chinese Medicine and functions to “restore energy balance.” Dry needling, however, is rooted in Western Medicine and uses the understanding of the musculoskeletal system to treat patients by stimulating the myofascial trigger points that are causing the problem.
Dry Needling to Reduce Pain
If you suffer from chronic or acute pain as a result of injury, arthritis, or poor posture, dry needling may be able to help. It not only helps to relieve pain by stimulating the trigger points that cause pain, but it also helps to activate the immune system and increase blood flow.
Although many patients have found relief with dry needling, it can be more effective when used in conjunction with other treatments like chiropractic treatments, ultrasound, and massage. All of these treatments seek to heal the body from within instead of relying on potentially dangerous and risky alternatives like surgery and opioid medication. With regular treatments, dry needling can be a very effective and safe way to manage pain and improve range of motion.
Contact Flex Chiropractic
At Flex Chiropractic, we take a holistic approach to wellness, which is why we offer several alternative therapies to help our patients find relief and restore their health. At the Flex Chiropractic office in Columbia, we offer dry needling as well as ultrasound, cold-laser therapy, massage, chiropractic adjustments, decompression, and more. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you live a life free from pain, contact our office today. We’ll schedule an appointment at a time that works for you so we can discuss your needs and concerns.
The benefits of ice treatments have been around since humans have had aches, pains, and injuries. Ice helps reduce inflammation, reduce swelling, and aid the healing process. In the 21st century, cryotherapy has taken the benefits of ice treatments to a superior level — as well as timely with the average treatment lasting only three minutes.
Flex Chiropractic in Lexington offers cold laser therapy sessions to help improve pain, aches, and mobility. In this blog post, we’ll review in brief just a few of the benefits of cryotherapy. Contact us today to get started!
WHAT IS CRYOTHERAPY?
Cryotherapy is a therapeutic technique where the whole body or parts of the body are exposed to extremely low temperatures in order to solicit a response. Below, we’ll examine just a few of the health benefits of cryotherapy.
THE BENEFITS OF CRYOTHERAPY
Cryotherapy and cold laser therapy both work to help patients in many areas of their well-being, from the physical ailments of pain to depression, which afflicts the brain. Flex Chiropractic in Lexington offers cold laser therapy to help patients who suffer from lower back pain. These low-powered lasers will help to increase blood flow and bring in vital nutrients your body needs to rid itself of inflammation and thus pain. Cold laser therapy also works well on joint pain.
THE FLEX CHIROPRACTIC DIFFERENCE
Flex Chiropractic in Lexington is the best local chiropractor. We offer a variety of services, from chiropractic adjustments on all ages, including pregnancy adjustments, as well as ultrasound, electrical stimulation, and cold laser therapy. Begin your road to recovery. Call to speak with one of our expert chiropractors today!
Healing comes from many different sources. Sometimes a medicine will come from a natural source and then be synthesized into a Western medicine. Other times the body can simply take care of itself and doesn’t need any additional treatment, like when you bump your arm and get a bruise. In the most extreme circumstances, a doctor will have to perform surgery in order to set the body straight.
Chiropractic is yet another source of care that has been discovered and proliferated around the world. While our chiropractic clinic offers many different types of alternative medicine that are both traditional (such as massage therapy) and state of the art (cold laser therapy and cryotherapy), today we’re going to focus on the core of our business: physical adjustments.
What Is Chiropractic?
Chiropractic is a form of alternative medicine. It is primarily focused on manipulating the spine in order to treat problems associated with the musculoskeletal system. Some chiropractors believe that its primary usefulness is limited to the skeleton and related system. Others believe that regular chiropractic adjustments can positively affect the entirety of the body, treating anything from diseases to allergies.
Chiropractic is formed from two Greek words: hand and practical. To most ears it sounds like chiropractic should always be an adjective, such as in the phrases chiropractic care of chiropractic medicine. But chiropractic is a noun by itself, so saying “we practice chiropractic” is perfectly accurate.
The Founder
Chiropractic is a relatively new form of alternative medicine, especially when you consider that Eastern practices like acupuncture have been around for thousands of years. But chiropractic is neither ancient or foreign; it began in Davenport, Iowa in 1895.
Daniel David Palmer, also known as D.D., was wary of the traditional medical community. (Considering it was the end of the 19th century, we don’t blame him!) A man named Harvey Lillard told Palmer that he had suffered from severely-reduced hearing for nearly two decades, and that the reduction in hearing had been accompanied by a pop in his back. Palmer, having heard of alternative medicine such as osteopathy and bone setting, gave Lillard a spinal manipulation. Days later Lillard described his hearing as being nearly back to normal.
Both D.D. and his son Bartlett Joshua Palmer were both religious men who were convinced that the revelations of chiropractic had been revealed in order to better align the life force that represents God’s presence in man. He believed that subluxation, or the misalignment of the spine, was the cause of all human diseases.
The Growth
For a few years D.D. Palmer kept his study of chiropractic within the family. But when he noticed the good it was doing for them, he decided to take on some students and open the Palmer School of Chiropractic. This was the first school of chiropractic in the world.
One of D.D.’s students was his son, Bartlett Joshua (B.J.). B.J. was convinced that chiropractic was an excellent alternative to the medicine of the time. Eight years after the school opened, B.J. took over and expanded enrollment. Many of the chiropractic schools of today were founded by graduates of the Palmer School of Chiropractic.
The Pushback
For over a century there has been contention between the American Medical Association and practitioners of chiropractic. D.D. Palmer himself was jailed for practicing medicine without a license. Over the course of around 60 years, chiropractors have won the right in all fifty states to secure licensing that is separate from traditional doctors.
The Splits
The difference between scientifically-minded people and those who retain the mystical or religious aspects has caused numerous splits within chiropractic over the years. Another split was between those who wanted to use devices, such as x-rays, in order to assist with chiropractic. Those who didn’t want to use equipment were known as “straights,” while those interested in using equipment were called “mixers.”
Today
In today’s world there is still a divide in the chiropractic community. While some adhere to its mystical roots, the majority of chiropractors have extensive medical training and many are doctors. Most use a variety of equipment in order to assist, such as drop tables and decompression equipment. A chiropractic clinic isn’t just a place to get the spine adjusted; it’s a place to get a wide variety of alternative medicine treatments.
Visit Us At Flex Chiropractic!
Flex Chiropractic can be found in both Columbia and Lexington, offering you a wide variety of treatments that can help you feel better. Whether you’re in need of traditional subluxation or a more specialized treatment like decompression, ultrasound, electrical stimulation, cryotherapy, or cold laser therapy (or a combination of any of them), we can provide you with the best in alternative therapy. We look forward to hearing from you!
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