Australian Chiropractors

Do you feel pain in one or both hips whenever you rotate them or when you cross your legs?  Does the pain wake you up in the night and make it impossible to get a good night’s sleep? When you get up in the morning, or when you get out of your car, are you stiff and do you find it an effort, initially, to move your legs? If you answered “yes” to any or all of the previous questions you are likely suffering from imbalances and alignment problems in your lower extremities that, in addition to generating hip pain, can in the course of time lead to degenerative hip joint disease if not addressed.

Even though hip pain and related problems are often signs of age-related degenerative conditions, especially osteoarthritis of the hip joint, osteoarthritis isn’t always the “bad guy”. In fact, instead of causing the original problem, osteoarthritis of the hip joint can be the ultimate result of damage to your hips at a previous time.

Gait changes caused by biomechanical problems such as an ankle sprain or knee strain, can produce hip pain. Also, if you change jobs, alter the way you sit, take on a new sport or activity, or start driving for long periods of a regular basis, your gait may alter to compensate for these new changes.

In addition, gait asymmetries can occur from carrying a baby or small child on your hip, leg length dissimilarities, or foot pronation problems. The point is, anything that produces an asymmetry or imbalance when you are in motion can bring about painful hip problems.

Along with your adjustments, as part of the chiropractic management of your hip problem your chiropractor may determine that you require orthotics. Your chiropractor will also offer applicable progressive rehabilitative exercises that include muscle stretching and strengthening.

Hip pain won’t diminish on its own. Hip pain is an indication that something needs to be corrected. Your chiropractor can help to get you out of pain, get back into balance, and get your life back!

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At times, it can be draining making an effort to keep up with a five-year-old. If you’ve been around an active child of this age, or if you have one of your own, you may have found yourself wishing that the kid would just “veg out” for a little while. But, new research is affirming the long-term health benefits of this whirlwind of activity.

In fact, according to a new University of Iowa, USA, study, rather than making an effort to slow these little ones down, five-year-olds ought be aided in being as active as possible. Why? “Because it pays off as they grow older,” said Kathleen Janz, lead author of the study and professor of health and sport studies in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Being active at age five assists kids in staying lean as they age even if they don’t continue to be as active later in childhood. “We call this effect ‘banking’ because the kids benefit later on, similar to having a savings account at a bank. The protective effect is independent of what happens in between,” Janz went on to say.

Using a special scanner that accurately measures bone, fat, and muscle tissue, and an accelerometer that measures movement every minute, the UI team tested the body fat and activity level of 333 kids at ages five, eight, and eleven. The kids wore accelerometers to record their activity level for up to five days, providing much more reliable data than relying on kids or parents to track minutes of exercise.

Even when controlling for their accumulated level of activity, the study (published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine) indicated that kids who are active at age five end up with less fat at age eight and eleven.  The average five-year-old in the study got thirty minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per day. For every ten minutes on top of that, kids had one-third of a pound less fat tissue at ages eight and eleven.

Although further research is required to determine what happens to the active kids’ bodies that keeps them in better shape down the road, Janz said that it could be that the active 5-year-olds didn’t develop as many fat cells, improved their insulin response, or that something occurred metabolically that supplied some protection even as they became less active.

Weight moderation, however, isn’t the only benefit of early exercise. As Australian chiropractors we have observed over the years that active kids have far less ordinary childhood health challenges, like catching colds and the flu. Chiropractic care is, of course, exceptionally beneficial in helping kids to stay healthier. But, in addition, the stimulation to the brain that occurs during activities, especially those that necessitate “cross pattern” motor movements of the larger muscles, i.e., right hand/left leg and left hand/right leg, such as crawling, running, climbing, and skipping, also boosts the autoimmune system and keeps kids healthier.

A large number children today are overweight and unhealthy. Though part of the problem is an unhealthy diet, lack of exercise is also a major contributing factor. If you have a five-year-old who prefers to watch television or play video games rather than participating in more active play, help your child to get up and get moving into healthier activities. Moderate to vigorous activity will not only benefit your child now, but will aid in building a healthier future. You can bank on it!

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Your shoulders work hard for you. They are relied upon to execute many different movements in the course of your day. Whether you’re working or playing, this array of complex motion assists you to do what you need to do. If you’re feeling shoulder pain, it’s likely that you’ve been asking too much of your shoulders. In other words, you might be participating in repetitive activities such as lifting and other arm actions, particularly those done overhead, like throwing a baseball, swinging a golf club or tennis racket, or merely putting things on high shelves. Nerve irritation, joint stress, and wear and tear of the tissues surrounding the shoulder joints can occur as the consequence of these kinds of repetitive motions These repetitive movements shouldn’t actually produce pain if your shoulder is healthy. However, if you are experiencing pain in your shoulder, it is an indication that there’s a dysfunction that needs to be corrected.

When the nerves are irritated, your shoulder muscles can become tight, even weak, and movement is painful and confined. This often occurs in the ligaments and a group of muscles (and their tendon attachments) referred to as the rotator cuff. These muscles and tendons join your upper arm bone with your shoulder blade and also help hold the ball of your upper arm stably in its shoulder socket. It is the consequence of this elegant combination that affords the opportunity for the greatest range of motion of any joint in your body.

The intensity of this shoulder impingement syndrome can extend from a slight “catching” pain with activity (particularly lifting your arm overhead), to a nearly entire inability to use the shoulder. Do not, under any circumstance either ignore your shoulder pain or continue an activity while in pain. It is crucial for you to attend to your shoulder problem as quickly as you’re able because the pain will only go from bad to worse. Unfortunately, if disregarded, some shoulder conditions, such as Rotator Cuff Syndrome, often end up needing surgery and extensive rehabilitation.

Your chiropractor is an authority in the area of muscular-skeletal conditions, and is very knowledgeable about what to do to relieve your suffering. Because chiropractic care focuses on the reason for your shoulder pain, it is treated at its source. Your chiropractor will assist in restoring healthy mobility to your shoulder joints, and will also talk to you about rehabilitation exercises that will not only support you in getting rid of the shoulder problem you have now, but will help you to avoid shoulder problems in the future.

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