SOHMA Integrative Medicine

We offer the best of Eastern & Western medicine without using drugs or surgery

Chiropractor

How Can Chiropractors Help With Common Car Accident Injuries

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Car accidents can be devastating for anyone. Whether you were at fault or not, a chiropractor can help you feel better after a car accident. Many people don’t think about visiting a chiropractor. While seeing a specialist for fractures, a chiropractor can help heal the damage caused to soft tissue such as muscles and tendons.

In today’s article, we’ll review five ways a chiropractor can help with common car accident injuries.

Injuries Aren’t Always Obvious

After a car accident, many people experience a surge in endorphins and adrenaline, which can hide initial symptoms. This can occasionally result in a delay in the onset of injury symptoms. Because of the masking effect of the hormones released by the body, some people may not be aware of injuries for as long as 48 hours. 

Whiplash is a typical example of a delay in symptoms. It’s not uncommon for those who had an accident, even what would be considered a seemingly minor accident, to wake up the following day experiencing stiff neck and upper back pain. Other delayed injuries can include:

  • Abdominal Pain
  • Back Pain
  • Numbness
  • Shoulder Pain
  • Neck Pain
  • Headaches or Migraines

Visiting your chiropractor after an accident can help reduce some of the symptoms you may deal with. At the same time, others may be symptoms of more severe and potentially life-threatening conditions, such as abdominal pain being linked with internal bleeding.

Reduce inflammation

Swelling is a common symptom following a vehicular collision. An accident can cause extreme forces to pass through the body, resulting in many micro-tears in the muscles and other soft tissue. This can lead to feeling tense and noticing a loss in mobility. 

A chiropractor can adjust and manipulate the affected soft tissue to help alleviate tension and promote healing. The adjustments may also tell the body to release more endorphins, our body’s naturally occurring pain killer.

Improve mobility

As previously stated, car accidents can result in swelling and a buildup of tension. The body tensing up is a normal response to trauma, though it does more harm than good when trying to recover. When swelling occurs near or around joints, you lose some mobility. This can make it difficult to do everyday activities, and in some cases, simply getting out of bed can be a painful experience.

Reduce Scar tissue

Scar tissue can develop on the muscles inside the body after a car accident injury, causing additional swelling and stiffness. A chiropractor may be able to identify and target the damaged areas. They can break up the scar tissue more efficiently through adjustments and manipulation than just letting it heal on its own.

Reduce and Manage Pain

Typically, there may be pain associated with a car accident. Depending on the severity of the accident, it’s possible for some patients to have to manage with pain for long periods. If left unchecked, this pain can become chronic, which can take more time and effort to manage.

Chiropractic care can relieve pain through careful adjustments that give you relief and promote healing without the need for potentially addictive painkillers. While medication will often only mask the symptoms, a chiropractor will attempt to heal the root injury and not just cover up the symptoms.

Take the Next Step In Improving Your Health by Contacting SOHMA Integrative Medicine

Our goal is to help you improve your health. You can contact us and ask about the Myers Cocktail, IV Therapy, Chiropractic care, or how our other health service lines can help you with your journey to improved health. 

Located in Long Beach, CA, we help individuals from the surrounding cities.

We look forward to helping you take the next step to better health.

Chiropractors Help With Common Car Accident Injuries – Google Search

5 Myths About Chiropractic Care

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Chiropractic care has become a widely accepted practice over the years. Many myths and misconceptions have deterred people from participating in chiropractic care during that time. Many people have reported on the health benefits of chiropractic care and how it’s a great alternative to drugs and surgeries for managing pain and aiding recovery.

Today we’ll review five of these myths and clear up some misunderstandings about chiropractic care.

Myth # 1: Chiropractic Care is Only for Back Pain 

Chiropractors are most commonly known for dealing with back pain. While they can help you manage your back pain, there are many reasons to see a chiropractor. Chiropractic care is used to treat many common ailments, such as:

  • Neck Pain
  • Back Pain
  • Knee pain
  • Leg Pain
  • Headaches
  • Dizziness
  • Nausea
  • Breathing Issues
  • Joint Pain
  • Insomnia

With a wide variety of ailments, chiropractic can help with, be sure to ask the helpful staff at SOHMA Integrative Medicine at Long Beach, CA, to see if chiropractic can help treat your specific issue.

Myth # 2: You’ll Need Chiropractic Care for Life

A common misconception is once you’ve begun chiropractic care, you’ll have to rely on adjustments for the rest of your life. They are concerned their body can unlearn how to preserve the correct alignment a chiropractor sets. They fear that without consistent visits, their symptoms may return. There is some truth in that spinal problems may need a program with frequent stops, but as you progress through your regimen, the visits will be more sparse.

This myth may have begun to circulate simply because many patients continue to use chiropractic care after their original program is done. This can be because they want to work on other body parts or to maintain a healthy posture. The human body can become misaligned at any time during our day-to-day life, and many patients who previously used chiropractic care may return for some maintenance.

Myth #3: You Need a Referral for Chiropractic Care

Although communicating with your primary care provider about your physical well-being is always a good idea, you don’t need a referral to receive chiropractic care. You can walk right into SOHMA and ask about receiving chiropractic care.

Depending on your condition, your primary care provider may consider prescribing pharmaceuticals to help manage your pain until you either show signs of getting better or decline. This can sometimes lead to the need for surgery. It’s best practice to have multiple opinions from a variety of professionals. A chiropractor can assess your symptoms using similar techniques as most medical practitioners and begin an adjustment program to help manage pain.

Myth #4: Chiropractic Care Hurts

Chiropractic care is designed to manage or eliminate pain, not cause it. During adjustments, there should be little to no pain. A patient may often anticipate pain and be startled by the sudden movements. Although some patients have reported minor discomfort after chiropractic adjustments, most leave feeling much better than when they arrived. At worst, most patients may feel sore for a couple of days afterward, but this is normal. A licensed professional shouldn’t cause you any pain when adjusting your back. 

Myth #5: Chiropractic Care can be Dangerous

The worst misconception is that chiropractic care is dangerous to patients. The main danger comes from unlicensed chiropractors performing adjustments. This is why it’s essential you only work with licensed chiropractors. Chiropractic care provides a safe way to manage pain. There is no data surrounding injuries caused by chiropractic adjustments.

Though it’s not without risk, while sporadic, some patients have experienced a stroke after manipulation. Vertebral dissection is when the inner lining of the vertebral artery tears, which can lead to a blood clot causing a stroke. However, vertebral dissection can result from car accidents, contact sports, roller coasters, and mechanical stress. If you notice slurred speech, difficulty walking, sensory loss on one side of your body, or trouble swallowing, call 911 immediately, as every minute counts.

Take the Next Step In Improving Your Health by Contacting SOHMA Integrative Medicine

Our goal is to help you improve your health. You can reach out to us and ask about the Myers Cocktail, IV Therapy, Chiropractic care, or how our other health service lines can help you with your journey to improved health. 

Located in Long Beach, CA, we help individuals from the surrounding cities.

We look forward to helping you take the next step in your journey to better health.

5 Benefits of Seeing a Chiropractor

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Visiting Chiropractors can help prevent and treat common pains.

It’s not uncommon for people to decide to visit a chiropractor after an injury or accident. And although chiropractic care is a great choice for treating some injuries, seeing a chiropractor regularly can have many benefits as well. It can be an excellent source of preventative maintenance for your body and help with recovery.

Join me as we go through 5  benefits of seeing a chiropractor you may not be aware of.

Minimize Migraines and Neck-Related Headaches

Chiropractic adjustments can help with chronic and acute headaches and neck pain. By manipulating the bones in your neck a chiropractor can release the build up of tension in your vertebrae and neck muscles. With less tension in your neck you may notice a decrease in neck related pains including tension headaches.

Some cases of migraines can leave some people unable to get out of bed, they can cause pain, nausea and sensitivity to light and in severe cases can be physically debilitating. Chiropractic care has been shown to help decrease the intensity of migraines in some patients. While others have noticed a significant drop in frequency of migraines. 

Improves Your Posture

Many people ignore their posture and tend to slouch when working long hours in the office or walking for long periods of time. By having poor posture you inadvertently leave your spine and joint miss aligned which can cause pain and soreness. 

By making adjustments to your shoulders, and spine a chiropractor can slowly move your joints back into the best position for good posture. Granted it is still up to you to maintain proper posture in order to avoid future problems. 

Reduces Pain and Improves Range of Motion

As we get older our bodies tend to lose some of our flexibility. But that shouldn’t be something we should accept all together. Yes, we’ll lose some range of motion, but many people see this and give up. They accept the loss of flexibility as a fact of life and won’t put the effort into maintaining the flexibility that they do have.

We still have the ability to keep much of our range of motion and flexibility; it’s just a bit more difficult to maintain. That’s when chiropractic adjustments come in. With regular chiropractic care many patients notice a return of range of motion and flexibility of their joints.

Reduces Symptoms of Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common forms of arthritis among Americans affecting over 32.5 million Americans. This doesn’t mean you should be relegated to dealing with this pain. For osteoarthritis, chiropractic care is usually safe, natural, non-invasive and an effective treatment to reduce pain in your back, arms and legs. Chiropractic care can greatly improve the function of arthritis joints

Arthritic conditions caused by inflammatory disease like rheumatoid arthritis should practice caution. Speak with your primary care provider and make sure it’s safe for you to have chiropractic done.

Treats Minor Neck or Spine Injuries

If you’ve ever been in a  car accident you understand well how painful whiplash can be. In general neck injuries can result from sports injuries, falls or other traumas. Symptoms of whiplash don’t appear right away, typically a day after an incident some symptoms can develop while other symptoms can appear days after.

Chiropractic care can be beneficial for neck injuries and sprains. A chiropractor will identify which spinal joints are being restricted or show abnormal motion. Using a gentile thrust technique they can stretch the soft tissue and stimulate the nervous system to restore normal movement to the spine.

Take the Next Step In Improving Your Health by Contacting SOHMA Integrative Medicine

Our goal is to help you improve your health. You can reach out to us and ask us about the Myers Cocktail, IV Therapy, Chiropractic care, or how our other health service lines can help you with your journey to improved health. 

Located in Long Beach, CA we help individuals from the surrounding cities.

We look forward to helping you take the next step in your journey to better health.

3 Risks of Chiropractic Care

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Chiropractors are licensed practicioners.

Generally speaking there are very few risks associated with chiropractic adjustments when performed by licensed and trained professionals. Chiropractic care has an excellent safety record. Many of the risks with adjustments are temporary and minor. Though there are a few risks that involve the patient’s health prior to the adjustment.

This is what we are going to go over today. Join me as we go through 3 risks of chiropractic care, how to minimize those risks or how to avoid them all together.  

Temporary Discomfort in Treated Area

When you go to the chiropractor, they are manipulating your spine, and joints. It’s common for some patients to experience discomfort in the treated area. Typically this manifests as achiness and soreness in the muscles and tendons around the joints being manipulated. The soreness usually only lasts a few hours post-treatment. In some patients the discomfort can last 24 to 48

 hours, but only on rare occasions.

One of the best ways you can reduce the amount of time you feel sore is by applying moisture and heat to your sore muscles. This will let your joints and muscles relax, another fantastic way to help ease soreness is through a warm Epsom salt bath.

Can Cause Low Back Injury

Although chiropractors are there to help treat back pain, there is a risk that there can be lower back pain injury. Usually this occurs when patients have underlying medical conditions that either the patient is unaware of, or doesn’t disclose those underlying conditions to the chiropractor. For those with those conditions, it’s important for you to discuss chiropractic care with both your chiropractor and primary care provider. These conditions include:

  • Severe osteoporosis
  • Multiple myeloma
  • Bone tumors
  • Osteomyelitis
  • Broken or fractured bones
  • Severe arthritis

Bleeding disorders, or structural instability issues can also be cause for concern so be sure to properly communicate any conditions you have.

Chiropractors want to improve your condition so you can get back to enjoying your day. As a patient, being upfront with existing conditions, health issues or challenges you have can greatly diminish any risks involved. You may think they are “small” or “no big deal” however we recommend letting your chiropractor know about any and all pre existing conditions you may have.

Risk of Stroke

This is possibly the rarest risk involving neck manipulation, but it is a possibility. Once again it is a rare risk, some high-velocity neck manipulation may result in a vertebral artery dissection, which can lead to a stroke.

A vertebral artery dissection is when the inner lining of the vertebral artery tears. This artery is located towards the back of our neck and is one of the 4 major arteries that supply the brain with blood. Once torn blood can enter the arterial wall and for blood clots. If a piece of the blood clot were to break off or the expanding artery wall can narrow to the point of restricting blood flow which can result in a stroke. Vertebral dissection can be caused by multiple reasons, not just chiropractic adjustments. Other causes of vertebral dissection include:

  • Automobile accidents
  • Contact sports
  • Roller-coaster rides
  • Mechanical stress

Vertebral artery dissection can also happen spontaneously, though usually the patient has an underlying connective tissue disorder that affects the blood vessels.

Symptoms of vertebral artery dissection may occur days or weeks after the tear, these include:

  • Slurred speech
  • Vertigo or difficulty walking
  • Sensory loss of an arm or leg on one side of your body
  • Trouble swallowing

If you have these symptoms after any blunt force trauma, not just after a chiropractic neck adjustment call 911 immediately as every minute counts.

The risk of suffering a stroke after chiropractic care is incredibly slim. But we want to make sure you are well informed about the risks of chiropractic care even if the risk is small.

Take the Next Step In Improving Your Health by Contacting SOHMA Integrative Medicine

Our goal is to help you improve your health. You can reach out to us and ask us about the Myers Cocktail, IV Therapy, Chiropractic care, or how our other health service lines can help you with your journey to improved health. 

Located in Long Beach, CA we help individuals from the surrounding cities.

We look forward to helping you take the next step in your journey to better health.

7 Reasons to See a Chiropractor

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Chiropractors help with various ailments that range from small injuries to helping with mobility.

It’s common to see Chiropractors online adjusting and manipulating patients and hearing satisfying cracks. Many times patients will feel an instant wave of relief other times it may take a few chiropractic adjustments to see improvements in your condition.

Chiropractors are healthcare professionals who specialize in manipulating the spine to help reduce pain, treat pain, and improve mobility and functionality of patients. On your first visit you may be asked about your general health, diet, daily activity and what conditions you have been dealing with. 

When should you see a chiropractor though? Today we’re going to give you 7 reasons you may want to consider seeing a Chiropractor.

Back and Neck Pain

The most common reason to visit a Chiropractor is when you’re dealing with neck and back pain. Though neck and back pain is common for nearly everyone, when you wake up several mornings dealing with that pain it may be time to visit a chiropractic office. Oftentimes after having a car accident you may be recommended to see a Chiropractor to avoid long-term damage. 

Difficulty Sleeping

Sleep is one of the most important aspects of recovery. If you are unable to sleep, your body will have a difficult time healing naturally. However, even if you feel like you’ve slept over 7 hours but have difficulty waking up or feel tired after you wake up you may have poor sleep quality. While you’re asleep your body is busy recovering from the day, and if your spine is misaligned it can cause your body to stress over the pain. This can also cause irritation and stiffness in the neck as well as pain in your arms and legs. A chiropractor can realign the vertebrae in your spine to reduce pain, increase sleep quality allowing you to rest better.

Headache Pain

Headaches can be caused by a variety of reasons, some can have them after poor sleep, staring at computer monitors for hours, allergies, subluxations or simply just because you ate too much ice cream. The severity of headaches can range from a mild brain freeze to a crippling migraine. Although you can take an ibuprofen or aspirin to help with the pain you may be ignoring underlying problems if it happens often. For some people headaches occur because of pressure built up in their neck and spine, a chiropractor can adjust the neck to release tension and relax the neck muscles reducing the frequency and strength of headaches.

Alternative Medicine

Many people mask their pain symptoms with pain pills which rarely deal with the root cause of their physical pain. It’s not uncommon for Americans to take over the counter pain relievers in the morning to help them deal with chronic pain.

What if instead of just dealing with the symptoms you do something about the reason for the pain?

Back pain can be caused by compressed or slipped discs, spinal adjustment or spinal decompression can help with long-term pain relief. Chiropractic adjustments can also help improve your posture which can benefit the rest of your body as well. 

Mental Health

When making chiropractic care a regular part of your health routine many patients express how great they feel. Chiropractors relieve pain in your back and neck allowing you to get out of pain and into balance, and back to play. Feeling less pain means you no longer have to fight your body to perform activities and focus on the moment and fun and enjoy yourself again.

Improved Physical Health

While you may not be looking to be a professional athlete, chiropractic adjustments can help you improve your physical health. A Chiropractor understands the human body and how it’s supposed to move and will be able to test your range of motion and determine if you are dealing with any issues. If you enjoy an active lifestyle a chiropractor can help you to continue to enjoy it with less pain.

Overall Health

Chiropractors specialize in the spine, which connects to the rest of your body. Even if you are not suffering from debilitating pains, a chiropractic adjustment may make you feel holistically better. Patients who have regular chiropractic adjustments report improvements in their daily lives. From feelings of well-being and happiness to increased strength and a stronger immune system. 

Take the Next Step In Improving Your Health by Contacting SOHMA Integrative Medicine

Our goal is to help you improve your health. You can reach out to us and ask us about the Myers Cocktail, IV Therapy, Chiropractic care, or how our other health service lines can help you with your journey to improved health. 

Located in Long Beach, CA we help individuals from the surrounding cities.

We look forward to helping you take the next step in your journey to better health.