Direct trauma to the knee from falls, motor vehicle accidents, and other sources also lead to acute knee conditions. Poor alignment, over-use, genetic weakness, disease, and malignancy lead to chronic knee conditions. With both chronic and acute knee conditions, a Doctor of Chiropractic can be an invaluable resource in the diagnosis and treatment of your knee condition.

Knee problems can develop in and around the knee joint and can be caused by dysfunction or disease in the patella (kneecap) meniscus (knee joint) or in the surrounding ligaments or tendons. The muscles that attach to the knee may also experience problems. For instance, a quadriceps strain (the big muscle that runs down the front of the leg) can cause difficulty and pain when bending the knee joint.

A knee will experience undo stress when the joint is unable to glide in a nearly straight line. Over time, excessive side to side motion (shearing force) can cause serious joint problems. One of the more common problems from improper knee tracking is called Runner’s Knee. The over-use stress and jarring of routine running activities coupled with a poor tracking ability of the kneecap will wear down and inflame the knee joint cartilage. The result will be pain, swelling, and dysfunction. Left untreated, these inflammatory knee disorders will lead to arthritis.

Your Doctor of Chiropractic can determine how your knee is tracking while watching you walk or run. In addition, a measurement called the Q-Angle can be made to help determine how much tracking stress is being exerted on a knee joint. The Q-Angle is measured as the deviation that exists from an imaginary line drawn made between the hip, the knee, and the ankle. The more inward or outward the kneecap is in relation to the hip and ankle, the greater the tracking stress on the knee joint will be.

Knee alignment can be improved though therapeutic measures. Such measures include joint manipulation as well as stretching and to strengthening the muscles that support the knee. In addition, proper footwear with special attention to arch support, cushioning, and hyperpronation reduction (rapid turning in of the foot while walking or running) may greatly improve a knee condition.

As just mentioned, hyperpronation of the foot can contribute to your knee joint problem. A simple check to see if a foot is hyperpronating can be easily done as follows: Simply examine the heels of your shoes and look for patterns of wear. If a heel is worn off excessively at the outside edge, hyperpronation is evident. This excessive heel wear is caused from exaggerated rolling in of the foot. After the foot comes down normally on the outer edge the foot should gradually begin to roll inward to disperse the shock of heel strike. This is normal pronation. When the foot rapidly rolls in, hyperpronation is present. This rapid rolling in effect sands off the outer edge of the heel, which gives the uneven wear appearance when your shoes are examined. Hyperpronation of the foot translates to poor tracking of the knee joint and may result in the onset or contribute to the worsening of a knee condition.

Whether a knee condition is acute (injury related) or chronic (wear and tear related) the importance of getting a good diagnosis and receiving the proper treatment cannot be understated. Although analgesics can help relieve some pain and swelling, it takes proper corrective measures to address the underlying cause of the problem. A Doctor of Chiropractic is specially trained to treat these types of conditions at this level. A consultation with a chiropractor could help you determine just how much you can do to improve the condition of your knees.

The post Knee Pain Relief in Denver first appeared on Performance Sports Medical Center.

There are many causes of lower back pain but the most common cause is mechanical stress. Mechanical stress can be considered the action of movement under the presence of weight. For instance, when you bend forward with the knees straight, pick up an object, and twist while lifting that object, you apply a great deal of mechanical stress to the lower back. This is especially true if you lift the object with your arms away from your body.

Anyone who has ever suffered an acute episode of lower back pain is also acutely aware of how mechanical stress (movement) affects the lower back. For instance, some back pain sufferers will notice it hurts more when sitting than while standing. This is because sitting actually places 50% more weight on the lower back and more weight (pressure) equals more pain. Other back pain suffers notice an increase in pain from mechanical stress due to bending, stooping, lifting, or even from coughing or sneezing.

Performance Sports Medical Center in Denver helps many patients with mechanical types of back pain, which usually presents as when the bones of the spine, called vertebrae, are out of alignment. This misalignment between vertebra creates a mechanical stress that causes inflammation to the area that surrounds the nerves. When the nerves of the back become irritated, pain and dysfunction are the end result. We help provide low back pain relief.

Lower back pain comes in many forms. Pain can range from mild stiffness or the difficulty or inability to move, bend, sit, or walk. Back pain can be constant or intermittent (come and go.) The pain can be dull and aching or sharp and stabbing. There may also be numbness, tingling, a sensation of heat, or weakness in one or both of the legs. In some cases, leg symptoms will present with or without back pain. This is due to a specific type of irritation to the sciatic nerve, called sciatica.

A disc bulge can cause back pain and may be accompanied by symptoms of pain, tingling, burning, or numbness down a leg. Sometimes a disc bulge will only cause the leg symptoms. A disc acts like a shock absorber and a pivot point between the two vertebrae. When a disc gets overly stressed or injured, it begins to bulge. In the lower back, a disc bulge in the side of a disc is more likely to cause leg pain as the predominant symptom. A disc that bulges more to the middle is more likely to cause back symptoms, rather than leg symptoms.

Although back pain is most often caused from a mechanical stress, it could also be caused from other problems such as genetic conditions of the spine (conditions you are born with), nutritional disorders (osteoporosis), malformation of the vertebra (improper bone growth), infection, or even malignancy (cancer).

No matter how back pain presents, if it persists, you should seek professional help to find out what is causing the pain and why it will not get better. However, if your pain happened due to an injury, you should seek attention as soon as possible. As with most any health condition, treatment outcome can be greatly improved by early treatment of the injury. Here are our treatments.

There are many types of treatments for back-related pain. For those of us who would like to avoid taking medication, which only masks the symptoms, there is a leading alternative choice of treatment called chiropractic care. The Doctors at Performance Sports Medical Center are highly trained in the diagnosis of back conditions. Through careful history, examination, and the aid of imaging such as x-rays, CT (computerized tomography), or MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) a Doctor of Chiropractic can often determine the cause of your back pain and begin a course of corrective treatment. We also offer the most advanced back braces with the latest technology to aid recovery and provide low back pain relief.

We commonly adjust (manipulate) misaligned vertebra (the bones of the spine) to provide low back pain relief. When the alignment of the vertebrae is improved, the stress on the soft tissue and nerves in the surrounding area is relieved. This allows the natural healing process in each of us to overtake the adverse effects of the misalignment. Continued treatment, good posture, proper rest, and exercise will help the healing process continue. Disc problems have also been successfully treated with manipulation or by specialized chiropractic treatments with flexion-distraction (a mild traction technique that helps to reduce both disc bulges and small disc herniations.) Advances in the chiropractic care of disc cases has given many back pain suffers a desirable alternative to costly back surgery. PSMC Denver may also utilize physiotherapy such as massage, acupressure, moist heat, ice, or ultrasound, to help facilitate healing and ease your discomfort.

You may be advised to avoid certain activities that could hurt your recovery. You may also be advised to do back-strengthening exercises, to help prevent re-injury. (A little known fact is that injured tissue heals first as a glob of fibers that patch the injured area, but over a two-year period of time, with the proper care, strengthening, and stretching exercises, this patch can be organized into tissue that is almost as good as new.)In addition to helping your body through a physical approach, Performance Sports Medical often help their patients further by providing qualified nutritional advice, which can promote healing and result in over-all improved strength of the back and entire body. If you are one of the many whom suffer from back pain, you may want to consider the benefits of modern chiropractic treatment and take the first step towards putting your back pain behind you.

The post Low Back Pain Relief first appeared on Performance Sports Medical Center.