injury Archives - Damron Chiropractic & Wellness

What Is Workers Compensation?

July 19, 2017 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

Going to work is a part of life. Once you get to a certain age you work. Depending on the profession, the potential for injury varies. Working in construction in a high rise building or on a road crew is certainly more hazardous than working in an office setting. The safety measures we see today were not always available to protect employees. In fact, it took a book to raise awareness and create change in the workplace. In 1906, Upton Sinclair published “The Jungle” highlighting the extreme dangers workers faced in the Chicago slaughterhouses. His intention was to stir up outrage so as to improve these work environments. His efforts paid off. Wisconsin passed the first workers compensation law in 1911.

Workers compensation is legislation designed to provide medical and wage replacement benefits for injured employees. In exchange for this benefit, the employee waives the right to sue their employer for negligence. An injury can be physical, a pre-existing condition that gets worse while on the job, or even work stress (depends on the state).

The most important thing to remember is to get medical attention as soon as the injury happens. In many cases the first stop is a medical doctor. However, depending on the injury there is more recovery that needs to happen before a person can return to work. While the acute pain and initial healing may have taken place, there may still be chronic pain and lack of mobility. It is very common in these instances for individuals to seek the care of a chiropractor after a work-related injury to address these ongoing issues.

The goal of a chiropractor is to bring the body back in alignment, without pain or limited function. In other words, the body may have morphed into a new position as a result of the injury to compensate. For example, lean to one side to reduce pain. This new position changes the natural alignment of the bones, not to mention the muscles and tendons surrounding them. In order to correct this situation, a series of spinal adjustments combined with massage therapy and rehabilitation are required. Just as it takes time for a wound to heal, the same applies to what lies beneath the skin.

Remember, if you are ever in a workplace accident, think of your recovery in two phases. The first is the immediate phase where medical attention is necessary for survival. The second phase is intended to get your life back on track once again through the benefits of chiropractic care.

Stopping the Domino Effect With DCW

June 16, 2017 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

There is a major commonality between the people who attend a sporting event, concert or even a race. The energy one’s feels is almost palpable. If it’s a highly contested game, the last few minutes are deafening from all the cheering. It seems like everyone in the stadium is caught up in the quest for victory. Or at a concert, the final act can bring every person to their feet, singing the song in unison with the artist. At a race like the Flying Pig Marathon, all the runners in the ques are eagerly awaiting the starting gun. The common excitement on each face is obvious.

In all three situations, there is a common feeling. This shared interest has momentum and creates a sense of belonging. Sometimes life throws us a curve ball that derails us from living fully. It could be chronic pain from a past injury, extra weight hindering our mobility, or type 2 diabetes causing lifestyle changes. At this point in our life, we have two choices. The first is to do nothing, accept the situation as it is and let the chips fall where they may. It certainly is the easier of the two because it requires zero effort on our part. However, there are consequences with any choice and this choice is no different.

Choosing to do nothing creates a domino effect. If we are suffering from chronic pain and choose to do nothing about it, we may put on even more weight because we are more sedentary. More weight only exasperates the problem causing quality of life issues. And so the dominoes continue to fall.

The other option is choosing to act, choosing to change the situation. In other words, never letting the dominoes fall in the first place. If we are overweight or obese, we choose to seek help. We choose to surround ourselves with other like-minded people who share the same goals. This shared interest gives us momentum and support, much like we find at a concert, game, or race. At Damron Chiropractic & Wellness (DCW), this is exactly what you will find.

Wellness is a state of mind, but also a personal journey. The team at DCW will walk beside you every step of the way. We have helped countless individuals just like you. Dominoes don’t need to fall. You have the power to prevent that from ever happening. Come and experience the DCW difference. This is a choice you won’t regret.

Improving Senior Health Through Exercise

May 26, 2017 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

Trends in obesity rates, especially in older adults, suggest a misconception that it’s too late to get healthy. In fact, more than a third of Americans over 65 are obese. There exists a falsehood that it is normal to lose good health as one ages. Perhaps it is due to the fear of falling or other injury, leading to a more sedentary lifestyle. Aches and pains associated with aging, also contribute to a decrease in activity. Unfortunately, this mindset only exasperates the increase in obesity. The truth is senior do benefit from exercise, no matter what their age.

New research is suggesting that overweight and obese senior citizens who want to lose weight should pursue aerobic exercise, strength training, and a healthy diet. A study conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine involved older, obese older adults who scored in the “frail” range on a standard test. This group of 141 individuals were broken into three groups. One group did only aerobic exercise such as walking on a treadmill. Another focused on strength training, and the other on doing both. Lastly, there was also a control group that only attended nutrition classes, but did not diet or exercise.

The study ran for six months, with each non-control group exercising three times per week. At the conclusion of the study, all non-control groups lost weight. In fact, the average weight loss was 19 pounds. The most significant finding, however, was the improvement in frailty scores. Follow up testing involved mobility tasks such as walking up stairs, standing up, and picking up a coin. All three non-control groups improved their scores. The most improved was the combination group of aerobic exercise and strength training at 21%. The other two non-control groups averaged a 14% improvement.

So, what’s the lesson learned here? That it is never too late to get healthy. Older individuals can do more to help themselves live independently as they age. Plus, do it safely, without risk of injury. Age does not matter when it comes to living a healthy life.

Myth #3: Chiropractic Care Is Only for Adults

April 7, 2017 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

Myth #3: Chiropractic care is only for adults.

In many fields of care there exists a separation between adult and children. Whether it is dental care, hospital care, general medical care, or even skin care. There is nothing wrong with the approach. For example, sometimes a dentist just doesn’t want to deal with a squirming child as a patient. Or perhaps a doctor prefers to work with children rather than adults. And while the approach to an adult and a child are different, fundamentally, the needs are the same. Both have teeth, a body, and skin.

A chiropractor should not be synonymous with adult care. Rather, a chiropractor should be synonymous with family care. That’s right. Family care. From a pregnant mother, to a newborn, toddler, teenager, adult, and senior citizen. And while the techniques might be slightly different depending on the age of the patient, the end goal is always the same – optimal spinal health.

Since chiropractors have the ability to effectively work with both the young and old, we should address the benefits for each age group. First of all, let us begin with the benefits of chiropractic care to the pregnant woman:

providing pain relief to the back, neck and joints;
helping to control symptoms of nausea;
and potentially reducing the time of labor and delivery.

For the newborn and infant, the benefits of chiropractic care include:

better sleep patterns,
healthy brain development,
and a strengthened immune system.

Toddlers can benefit with:

behavioral improvements,
proactive treatment for acute trauma from falls and accidental injuries,
and with correcting bed-wetting.

When the child becomes a teenager, regular chiropractic visits can help with:

recovery from a sports injury,
reversing text neck,
and improving poor posture.

While as an adult, maintaining good health is the ideal. Adjustments assist with this by:

reducing headaches,
stimulating the immune system,
and lowering stress.

Finally, for our senior years, visits to the chiropractor are beneficial for the following reasons:

to improve mobility,
to provide better balance and coordination,
and help with pain relief.

In conclusion, chiropractic care is truly for everyone. And, yet, while every patient has specific needs, the treatment given is modified to match them. This is the perfect partnership for an individual to live a healthy life.

Seems like this is one field that does not need to separate the care between an adult and child. As a result, you get all the care you need for your entire family under one roof.

Avoid the “Perfect Storm” of Disease-Care

January 5, 2017 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

In 2000, George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg starred in the movie “The Perfect Storm”. It is based on the true story of a commercial fishing vessel lost at sea during a storm. This storm was exceedingly rare due to the combination of adverse weather factors. In the chiropractic world, we see a lot of people who got caught in a perfect storm. Negative and unpredictable factors affect their lives in such a way that their quality of life is significantly diminished. Factors such as:

a sedentary lifestyle
car accident
work related injury
smoking
poor diet
diabetes
obesity
chronic pain

Some factors can be self-made, others can be simply bad luck or hereditary. Either way, these factors can create a perfect storm that equates to illness. At Damron Chiropractic & Wellness our goal is wellness for life. We take a person’s perfect storm and work with them utilizing chiropractic, rehabilitation, massage and nutrition.

We hear a lot about disease care with people suffering from chronic conditions. Rarely is there any press on wellness. Wellness means that a person is feeling good and looking good. In our world, being well means the perfect storm is over and that person can get back to doing what they love with a higher quality of life.

Life can give us lemons, and lots of them. But we do have a choice. We can choose to settle for what life hands us or decide to seek help. This does not mean using a band-aid approach either, as tempting as that might be. Rather, it means finding a resolution once and for all by ignoring disease-care. Disease-care actually cares for the disease and not finding out what is causing it in the first place. The presenting symptoms may appear to be coming from the leg, but it is really nerve interference in the spine. Treating the leg pain with disease-care does not address the nerve interference in the spine. Consequently, the leg pain will return. That is not wellness.

If you suspect a perfect storm in your life there is a solution. Life happens, but wellness does not, unless you decide to seek it out.

Good Health Does Not Equal a Diet

December 29, 2016 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

One of the most successful women in the world is Oprah Winfrey. From her early days as a talk show host to a producer and actress later. As her career evolved so did her weight. On the television screen we have seen Oprah’s weight fluctuate between the extremes as she tried different diets. Most recently, this legendary woman has done something we can all learn from. She has let go of the hold food has had on her and instead uses it to nourish and sustain her. But, most importantly, she uses it to connect herself with others.

As we approach the new year and the habitual pull of the need to commit to a resolution, perhaps it’s time to change it up. The top resolution for last year, according to Statistic Brain, was to lose weight. While that may not be surprising, what is is the failure rate. Only 8% of those surveyed who made a resolution succeeded. We learned from Oprah’s visibility that a special diet simply does not work in the long run. While weight loss is initially achieved, it is simply not sustainable. Why? Because life happens.

Even our best intentions cannot stop life from happening. Our schedules change at the last minute, we get sick, sustain an injury, travel for business. Non-sustainable diets reveal themselves because we don’t have what we need when we need it, leaving us to find something else to eat. We cannot live in a vacuum. Oprah teaches us that our relationship with our wellness is an intimate one. Food is an essential piece of our overall health. It is the fuel that sustains us, ideally for the long haul.

However, probably even more important than Oprah’s food message is her new perspective on her own health. Being healthy is not about being skinny. It is not about losing weight for the sake of losing weight. Rather, it is about honoring you. Honoring your uniqueness and not trying to force a square peg into a round hole. Being active, eating a healthy diet, getting sufficient sleep, being joyful, not smoking and drinking in moderation are all important steps in living well. Healthy does not equal skinny. It actually equals a lifestyle.

In this new year, change your perspective on what it means to thrive. Feed your soul, nourish your body. Treat it as the temple it really is. With honor and respect.

Is Weight Holding You Back?

December 27, 2016 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

Quality of life not only affects the individual but also those around them as well. Take the reality show My 600-lb. Life. While the show centers around the person with the weight problem, the family is also involved. Children, spouses, significant others, parents. The problem affects them, too, because the family unit is tied to the care of the obese loved one. While this is an extreme example, it reveals the ripple effect of a chronic condition on the person themselves to those who surround them.

This is a different perspective on resolutions as we approach the new year. Typically we hear others say they want to lose weight or get in shape or take better care of themselves. Reality tells us that most resolutions fail. But maybe they wouldn’t if we upped the ante. If our success or failure at living better only seems to affect ourselves, then win or lose, we only have ourselves to blame. However, if our success or failure affects our children, spouse, or family, then that’s a different story altogether, isn’t it? We hurt others by failing to live a healthier life. It could be the extra weight that prevents us from being active or chronic pain that limits our mobility. Living on the sidelines as our family plays in the game of life. Don’t we owe it to them to be the best version of ourselves?

Whether it’s extra weight, pain, weakness, or an old injury that is holding us back, chiropractic care can help. There is a root cause to your problem. Drop the excuses, look around you and ask yourself these questions:

“How is my quality of life affecting those around me?”
“Have I really tried everything in my power to improve my situation?”
“What am I afraid of?”
“Am I really living my best life?”

Honest answers is the goal, because anything less is a disservice to you and those who love you. Resolve to change your situation in the new year rather than make excuses. You can enjoy the quality of life you deserve by making that resolution.

Why Student Athletes Need Rehabilitation

December 15, 2016 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

Over a million high school students play a sport, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations (August 2016). The highest percentage play football, followed by track and field, basketball and soccer. Farther down the list is volleyball, baseball, cross country, softball, tennis, plus swimming and diving. This is great news in light of the current health crisis in the rise of obesity. However, this is also a warning. Injuries within the student athlete group cannot be overlooked nor minimized.

Unfortunately, in many situations they are, due to various reasons:

a state title is on the line,
the fear of losing a college scholarship,
missing out of the competition and fun,
or the pain isn’t “that bad.”

There are long term ramifications for this mindset. Therefore, advocate for your student athlete by closely monitoring their sport participation and actively look for potential problems.

The goal is to prevent serious injury, in addition to keeping the body working at it’s peak performance. Also, not creating a ripple effect of other injuries, too. This approach allows the student athlete to enjoy life, long after their sport years are over. Pain-free.

Football is a dangerous sport, even with all the protective gear. The older the player, the harder the hits. Sustaining even a mild injury creates future problems if not addressed immediately. However, all too often, the player jumps right back into the game, never giving the injury time to heal. With the body already compromised, the additional micro-traumas add up faster.

In these situations, rehabilitation is essential. With a shoulder injury, the student athlete might notice a popping sound while lifting weights as he conditions. This popping sound is due to weakened muscles and tendons that can no longer hold the shoulder in place. With proper rehabilitation, those muscles and tendons can be strengthened to hold the shoulder in the socket and eliminate the popping.

The best approach is to align your student athlete with a professional that specializes in rehabilitation. Most of all, be proactive in an investment in your child’s future.

Athletes, Performance and Chiropractic Care

October 25, 2016 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

Kids start playing soccer at the age of 4, if not earlier. It’s almost comical to watch a game at this age because most of are running simply because everyone else is. There are always those players who “get it”though. They are the ones who score all the goals and running ahead of the pack.

Youth sports plays an integral part in the social life of many families starting at an early age. As these young athletes grow, many parents continue their training by signing up for select and travel teams. Level of play intensifies at each age and it is not uncommon for kids to play the same sport year round. Competition becomes fierce as kids approach high school and college.

With this intensity, the need to be injury-free and performing at the highest level become paramount. Inevitably, however, an injury occurs, either from trauma or repetitive use. When this happens, the athletes primary concern is returning to the game as soon as possible. Other concerns involve elimination of pain and treatment that is non-invasive plus non-pharmacological. Chiropractic care is essential to sustaining this high level performance in a way that meets the needs of today’s competitive athlete.

Parents will invest tremendous sums of money in their child’s lessons, training, camps, equipment, and conditioning. Many times at the expense of anything else, especially if more is at stake such as a scholarship, either in the future or now. There can be a lot at stake in keeping their athlete healthy and well.

If we look at the highest level of sports, you will find a chiropractor on staff. You will also find chiropractors at the Olympic games, too. These professional athletes recognize that chiropractic adjustments have shown to improve performance and pain reduction. They also recognize a chiropractor’s ability to improve nervous system function to enhance faster reaction times. What athlete doesn’t want that?

At the end of the day, every patient deserves to be treated like an elite athlete in the care they receive.

Why You Should Treat Pain Like an Injury

September 6, 2016 By Pam Rezai Leave a Comment

Have you ever wondered why many of us do not treat our pain like we treat an injury we sustain? It’s important to understand why we should view them equally.

Remember when you were growing up and your parents would send you upstairs because they were entertaining? The expectation was that you would not interrupt the evening unless there was an actual emergency. To head downstairs because your brother or sister was hogging the television simply would not cut it. To make it crystal clear your parents would say something like, “Unless someone is bleeding or the house is on fire, do not come downstairs.” That was some serious business. There was no question as to what constituted a situation that needed immediate attention. If only the rest of life was that crystal clear.

Pain is one of those things that would be much easier to deal with if its source was obvious. Unfortunately, we usually decide to dismiss the discomfort, take medications, or simply live with it. But what if we decided to treat pain like we would an injury, such as a broken bone or other trauma? If we did that, far fewer people would willingly accept settling for a lower quality of life. The cause of symptom would be addressed correctly and the needless suffering would be over. Perhaps it’s time to change our perception of what defines an injury and how to go about true healing.

What we don’t realize is that there are solutions to resolving our pain. Solutions that many of us have never considered because of misconceptions and misinformation. One solution in particular is the care provided by a chiropractor. This specialist takes a holistic approach, where the nerves in the spine communicate with every part of the body. An interruption in any of these nerve communications creates symptoms such as pain. With chiropractic treatments such as:

adjustments
decompression
therapeutic massage
traction
electrical stimulation and
rehabilitation

the body heals and relief is found. Pain can be optional, but only if we treat it as such.

What Is Workers Compensation?

Stopping the Domino Effect With DCW

Improving Senior Health Through Exercise

Myth #3: Chiropractic Care Is Only for Adults

Avoid the “Perfect Storm” of Disease-Care

Good Health Does Not Equal a Diet

Is Weight Holding You Back?

Why Student Athletes Need Rehabilitation

Athletes, Performance and Chiropractic Care

Why You Should Treat Pain Like an Injury

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