All Pregnant Mothers should receive Chiropractic Treatment

A woman’s body goes through many changes during a pregnancy, while going through these changes almost all women experience back pain, especially in the lower back.  Well look no further Chiropractic is a safe and all natural way to help treat you r back pain.  In addition to relieving lower back pain, chiropractic treatment can also help with the delivery process.  The hands-on techniques used in Chiropractic treatment helps relax the pelvis making it easier to deliver naturally.  Pregnancy should be a wonderful experience let Dr. Cowan and his well trained staff help you.  If you have any questions about pregnancy please come into the office and receive a free consultation from Dr. Cowan.  Both Mothers and Babies give Chiropractic two thumbs up!

Neck Pain Caused By Mobile Devices

Have you noticed increased neck pain, headache or lower back pain since you have been using your laptop, Mobile phone, iPad or tablet? You are not alone. Mobile technology may be costing you more than money; it may be costing you your health. A new study conducted by Harris International took a closer look at pain associated with the use of mobile technology. They studied 2000 people who were over the age of 18 they found that 81% of the participant had experienced either headaches, neck pain or lower back pain. Fortunately, if caught early these problems can be effectively treated with chiropractic care.

You can help decrease your symptoms by reducing muscle fatigue so a good rule of thumb is to take a 10 second break every 10 minutes.

So if you are having headaches, neck pain and lower back pain, call Cowan Chiropractic today at 302 654 0404 your schedule your evaluation. Don’t be a victim of going mobile.

Fewer Episodes of Disabling Lower Back Pain for Patients Under Chiropractic Care

A new lower back pain study by the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine reveals fewer episodes of disabling lower back pain for patients under chiropractic care, suggesting chiropractic is superior to physical therapy care.

spineI found this new study very interesting. For one, this is a study done by a medical journal, not a Chiropractic journal so any agenda or swaying of the results is not likely. Plus, this is a large sample size, almost a thousand people contributed. What the study says in a nutshell is that when patients with low back pain were tracked for a YEAR, patients that utilized physical therapy and/or medical interventions were associated with a higher recurrence of disability as opposed to patients that underwent Chiropractic care. In fact, the patients were TWICE as likely to end up disabled with a physical therapist (PT) and almost 2/3rds more likely to be disabled when partaking in traditional medical interventions.

This study is unique in that it was conducted by the Center for Disability Research at the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety and the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Hopkinton, Mass; and the Center for Health Economics & Science Policy at United BioSource Corporation, London, United Kingdom.
Their objective was to compare the occurrences of repeated disability episodes between types of health care providers, who treat claimants with new episodes of work-related low back pain (LBP). They followed 894 patients over 1-year, using workers’ compensation claims data.

By controlling for demographics and severity, they determined the hazard ratio (HR) for disability recurrence between 3 types of providers:
Physical Therapists (PT), Physicians (MD), and Chiropractors (DC).

The results are quite interesting:
For PTs: HR = 2.0
For MDs: HR = 1.6
For DCs: HR = 1.0

Statistically, this means you are twice as likely to end up disabled if you got your care from a PT, rather than from a DC.

You’re also 60% more likely to be disabled if you choose an MD to manage your care, rather than a DC.

The authors concluded: “In work-related nonspecific LBP, the use of health maintenance care provided by physical therapist or physician services was associated with a higher disability recurrence than with chiropractic services or no treatment.”

Health Maintenance Care in Work-Related Low Back Pain and Its Association With Disability Recurrence. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2011 (Mar 14)

Heat vs Ice to Treat Pain

In an attempt to treat their back pain, most people who are not my patients will pull out the electric heating pad or heat patches and either lay on it in bed or lean back against it while sitting in their Recliner. They will admit that it feels good while it is on but that the pain comes back when they take it off. Out of frustration these people will come into my office and ask “Ok, Doc, which is better for treating back pain: hot packs or ice packs.” I have been in practice for 20 years and this is by far the most popular question I hear. Even within the medical community there is a lot of disagreement as to whether ice or heat is better in treating back pain.

For the purposes of this article I will not bore you with the physiology of pain and how ice and heat work in treating pain. Just remember that if after using ice for about 20 minutes your back feels worse, all you have to do is put heat on your back. But if you start off using heat and the pain gets worse, you cannot reverse the effect by using ice. Why you ask? The reason is simple. If your back feels worse from using heat, you increased inflammation. Typically, ice is used to treat pain due to an injury because ice decreases swelling, whereas heat is used to treat stiffness and soreness by increasing circulation to that area.

Unfortunately, the lower back, and for that matter the entire spine, is a very complicated structure that does not follow the rules of the other joints of the body. The most common question I get is which is better ice or heat. For most people the knee jerk reaction is heat is better. I would venture to say that most health care providers recommend heat as well. But when in doubt use ice. If you use heat on an inflamed joint you will promote swelling. For the simple reason that you can reverse the effects, always start with ice. For some reason even people who get injured in auto accidents and at work are often told by their health care provided to use heat, but that’s not always the best start.