Poor posture reflects poor spinal alignment and that affects the flow of information from your brain, along the spinal nerves to the rest of your body. While this may only cause aches and pains in the short term it may have a negative affect on your overall health in the long term.

Back and Neck Pain
Often associated with prolonged sitting and driving and repetitive tasks “Simple” back or neck pain has many causes. Spinal misalignments and fixations can cause irritation and stress of the surrounding tissues such as the facet joints, joint capsules, ligaments and muscles. It is often also the first sign of a bulging disc which may go on to be altogether more serious.

“Slipped” Discs / “Trapped” Nerves
Widely used unspecific terms used to describe many different causes of back/leg and neck/arm pain.

Hip/Knee/Foot Pain
May be caused by local problems such as wear/osteoarthritis of the joints, problems in the muscles and tendons in the area or maybe referred from elsewhere. Many problems are caused by misalignment of the pelvis.

Arthritis “wear and tear”
The most common form is osteoarthritis which is “wear and tear” in the joints. This condition is seen clearly on x-ray and is not reversible.

Migraines and Headaches caused by neck problems
Throbbing headaches are usually caused by a stretching or increased sensitivity of the blood vessels within the skull. Typically these headaches get worse if you move your head suddenly. Migraines are an example of this type and are preceded by face numbness, seeing light or some other visual disturbance. This is the vessels first shrinking then over-expanding.

Non-throbbing headaches often start at the sides or back of the head where the spinal muscles attach to the head. If the neck bones are misaligned the brain sees this as a threat to the delicate structures in the area and the muscles tighten like tightening guy-ropes in a storm. If this continues the muscle tension and joint pain refers into the scalp and is felt as a headache. Both mental and physical stress can be an aggravating factor in these headaches.

Palliative Care – a helping hand
There are many conditions where chiropractic can not help the primary condition. However, we can often help with secondary symptoms which are a “bye-product”. For example multiple sclerosis suffers often develop mechanical spinal problems as a result of their altered walk. They may even have some totally unrelated problem that might improve with care.

Chiropractic for children
The physical emotional and chemical stresses placed upon a baby's head, delicate spine and nervous system during the birth process often cause the first subluxtions (joints that lock up and loose their normal movement pattern). As your child grows and developes they often fall and bump themselves all of which can alter spinal movement and thus possibly nerve function. Children generally respond quickly to chiropractic care, because they heal rapidly and they haven't yet developed long term altered movement patterns and spinal degeneration. Chiropractors modify their techniques to suit children of all ages.