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New York, NY
Back Pain NYC
02/12/2020
Our Guide to Different Types of Sciatic Nerve Pain – What to Know
Out of all the nerves, sciatica nerve pain is arguably one of the most debilitating as the sharp, numbing pain can disrupt a person’s daily life. It can put a halt in one’s actions once the pain hits the sciatic nerves – from eating a meal, driving the car, to working at a nine-to-five desk job.
If you feel like you have sciatic nerve pain, the guide below should clue you in on what you need to know to help re-direct you to proper treatment options.
What is Sciatica?
The sciatic nerve is the longest in the body as it runs from the lower back, through the hips, buttocks, down each leg, and to the end of your toes. Sciatica, on the other hand, refers to the irritation of the sciatic nerve, which can send pulsing pain that radiates along the path of this nerve.
The pain can be pulsing or burning, though the intensity of the pain varies from patient to patient. In most cases, sciatica only affects one side of the body, though doctors will need to determine the type to uncover the root of the problematic condition.
What are Different Types of Sciatica?
There are two broad categories of sciatica, such as the following:
- Neurogenic Sciatica – This type of sciatic triggers one the sciatic nerve gets squeezed or flattened, both of which can happen in various ways. This sciatic nerve pain typically manifests along with the length of one leg, though some experience bouts of lower back pain. Patients suffering from neurogenic sciatica may also deal with numbness and muscle weakness, both of which are red flags that indicate sciatica.
- Referred Sciatica – This sciatica counterpart indicates sensitivity in specific areas of the body near the sciatic nerve. This means that developing problems in the spine or pelvis can trigger a numbing pain along the path of the sciatic nerve, though it doesn’t weaken the muscles like neurogenic sciatica.
Sciatica is Radiculopathy
By categorizing the different types of sciatica in two major problems, doctors can track the root of the problem to the source of the pain in common areas like the following:
- L4 Nerve Root – As the moniker suggests, it refers to the L4 vertebra of the lower spine. Once the L5 slips over the L4 vertebra, it can compress the nerves and lead to sciatic nerve pain. Those suffering from sciatica in the L4 nerve root may struggle with shooting pain in their foot and lower leg.
- L5 Nerve Root – Once the doctor finds the L5 nerve root as the source of the pain, they can determine how the sciatic pain will affect the patient’s top foot and toes.
- S1 Nerve Root – Patients suffering from sciatic nerve pain in the S1 nerve root, which is in the lower spine, can expect a burning pain along the outline of the foot.
The Bottom Line
Unfortunately, five to ten percent of people who suffer from lower back pain highly likely struggle with sciatic nerve pain too. While the pain attacks can often be paralyzing, the upside is that most patients have high chances of recovering within six to 12 weeks so long as they undergo proper treatment.
If you’re looking for sciatica physical therapy in NYC, get in touch with us to see how we can help.
11/13/2019
5 Ways to Relieve Adult Scoliosis Without Surgery – Our Guide
Scoliosis
Scoliosis is a condition in which the spine curves to the side, creating a C- or S-shaped back posture. It can appear at any age, but it usually manifests during growth spurts in children. Common symptoms include pain, respiratory problems, and limited physical capacity. There are different treatment options available, such as bracing, physical therapy, or even surgery. In most cases, though, the spine can correct itself with growth.
Adult scoliosis, however, is a very different matter. Older people who develop symptoms often feel neglected and blamed for not addressing their condition when they younger. However, it is crucial to understand that scoliosis is usually idiopathic, meaning the cause is not known. Interestingly, more adults are struggling with scoliosis than children. Their cases are merely ignored and shelved away until the symptoms progress to other more severe spine problems in later stages.
If you are battling this painful condition, there are ways to relieve its symptoms and improve your posture without having to undergo surgery. Here are five ways you can correct your spine:
1. Physical Therapy
For milder cases, exercise and physical rehabilitation techniques help to reduce pain. The exercises during the sessions are targetted to strengthen your back and core muscles so that your spine gets better support. These physical activities should be done under the supervision of your chiropractor or doctor. After a full exam, they will draft a rehabilitation program tailored to your strengths and weaknesses to help improve your symptoms.
2. Whole-Body Vibration Therapy
For patients who have more severe curves, their pain could get excruciating whenever they exert too much physical effort. Whole-body vibration therapy is an excellent alternative for such cases. Vibration boards are short balance beams with a motor at the bottom. The speed is adjustable based on how fast or slow a patient can tolerate. Standing on this for as little as 10 to 12 minutes a day will do wonders in strengthening one’s bones and muscles.
3. Massage Therapy
Aside from its relaxation benefits, massage therapy has numerous benefits for adults suffering from chronic back pain. While it won’t cure scoliosis, it provides pain relief and restores balance to the muscles. It works as an additional treatment, often done before or after chiropractic sessions.
4. Chiropractic Therapy
Chiropractors specialize in working with the spine, muscles, and connective tissues. Comprehensive chiropractic care is a holistic approach that includes spinal adjustment, stretching, and nerve stimulation. Beyond that, it also focuses on lifestyle and nutritional counseling. Chiropractic therapy has been known to drastically improve chronic back pain, headaches, and joint mobility. For those with scoliosis, these are the same symptoms they often experience.
5. Nutritional Support
Aside from muscle strengthening and spinal adjustments, the symptoms associated with scoliosis significantly improve when a patient makes a complete dietary turnaround. Nutritious food helps to address some of scoliosis’ underlying causes. Increase your intake of foods rich in calcium, Vitamin D, fish oil, and magnesium. Anti-inflammatories such as turmeric, curcumin, and green tea are also proven to be beneficial. On top of your daily food intake, your chiropractor will also recommend some nutritional supplements in the form of capsules.
While having scoliosis is a painful and uncomfortable condition, there are ways to manage it so that you can still perform normal physical functions. These therapies are not quick fixes, but over time, they will relieve your symptoms and improve your quality of life.
If you’re looking for a physical therapist in NYC to help you relieve pain and correct your posture, get in touch with us to see how we can help.
01/30/2019
Preventing and Relieving Winter Back Pains
As the temperature starts to fall in NYC, it isn’t uncommon to feel the back pain creeping in. Whether you get seasonal back pains or you suffer from discomfort all year round, you will want to take care of yourself! The colder seasons can inflame your back pain, so these are the months when you will really want to look after yourself. Here’s what you’ll have to do:
Avoiding Back Pain During Winter
When you’re moving around during winter, try to slow down and pace yourself. If you need to shovel snow or just want to play around with the kids in it, be sure to take it easy. Bend your knees while lifting and layer up with the correct kind of clothes for this weather. Give your feet traction with rubber soles while walking on the icy roads. Remember that colder weather may cause you to huddle up, shiver, and slouch. This may take a toll on your posture and result in more pain, so try to be conscious of how you are holding yourself at all times.
Treating Winter Back Pains
If you hit the gym regularly, it may be a good idea to take a break for a few days. Try to avoid heavy lifting for a few weeks and just focus on lighter cardio instead. Visit a chiropractor so they can give you tips on bettering your posture and alignment for the winter season. If you have any pain, they can assist you with that as well. You will want to protect your spinal health as much as possible.
Winter Pain In The Workplace
Some of our jobs will require us to sit at our desks for long hours every day. This is not good for our backs, and some of us may start to have some symptoms of back pain. You don’t want to miss work, and you don’t want to feel pain. If you can pick, try to get a seat that will properly support the length of your spine. When you are sitting, you should be seated upright and grounded with your feet flat on the floor to take the strain off your back. Don’t forget to stretch every now and then as well. Make a point of taking breaks every so often. Get up out of your desk chair to walk around a bit. This will increase circulation and take some of the pressure off your spine. During winter, it is especially bad to commute to work then contort yourself into one position for too many hours. See a chiropractor and ensure that your back will survive this winter.
Your Baggage
Whether you carry a purse or a backpack, you will definitely want to make sure that everything in it is absolutely crucial to have with you. The weight of your backpack can put significant strain on your spine. Therefore, it’s important that your bag never weighs more than 10% of your body weight. Backpacks or bags with straps that go across your chest are the best design for back health. Keep your head up to avoid straining your back. Do not wear your bag on only one side because it can misalign your posture. Switch back and forth to relieve pressure on each side once in a while.
Are you looking for a chiropractor in NYC? Then come to visit Launchfit™ by Clinicube® today! We specialize in affordable, convenient chiropractic care.
09/12/2018
Back Pain, what is it?
What Causes Back pain
Back pain can be divided into non-radicular pain and radiculopathy. Radiculopathy occurs when there is irritation in the nerve root, causing neurologic symptoms, such as numbness and tingling. Disk herniation and foraminal stenosis are the most common causes of radiculopathy. Non-radicular back pain is most commonly caused by injury to the spinal muscles or ligaments, degenerative spinal disease, or a herniated disk. Spondylosis, or spinal degeneration, occurs when the intervertebral disc undergoes degenerative changes, causing the disc to fail at cushioning the vertebrae. There is an association between intervertebral disc space narrowing and lumbar spine pain. The space between the vertebrae becomes narrow, resulting in compression and irritation of the nerves. There is a weak association between low back pain and facet osteoarthritis, which has been considered as a primary reason for compression of spine nerve roots as they exit the intervertebral foramen.
Back pain can also be due to referred pain from another source. Referred pain occurs when pain is felt at a location different from the source of the pain. An abdominal aortic aneurysm and urethral colic can both result in pain felt in the back.
Back pain is a common symptom that could manifest along the delicate tissues of the backbone, such as the muscles, nerves, bones, and joints. Internal structures such as glands, pancreas and the aorta, may cause referred pain in the back. When treating back pain, health care professionals often attempt to achieve a decrease in the level of the individual’s back pain so as to reestablish their ability to function in everyday activities, to help them manage symptoms and also to evaluate the effects of therapy choices. The objective is to manage back pain with rehabilitation for long-term pain relief.
Back Pain Non-Medical Treatment:
Back pain is generally treated with non-pharmacological therapy first, as it typically resolves without the use of medication. Superficial heat and massage, acupuncture, and spinal manipulation therapy may be recommended.
- Heat therapy is useful for back spasms or other conditions. A review concluded that heat therapy can reduce symptoms of acute and sub-acute low-back pain.
- Regular activity and gentle stretching exercises is encouraged in uncomplicated back pain and is associated with better long-term outcomes. Physical therapy to strengthen the muscles in the abdomen and around the spine may also be recommended. These exercises are associated with better patient satisfaction, although it has not been shown to provide functional improvement. However, one study found that exercise is effective for chronic back pain, but not for acute pain. If used, they should be performed under supervision of a licensed health professional.
- Massage therapy may give short-term pain relief, but not functional improvement, for those with acute lower back pain. It may also give short-term pain relief and functional improvement for those with long-term (chronic) and sub-acute lower back pain, but this benefit does not appear to be sustained after 6 months of treatment. There does not appear to be any serious adverse effects associated with massage.
- Acupuncture may provide some relief for back pain. However, further research with stronger evidence needs to be done.
- Spinal manipulation treatments. After a complete examination a personalized clinical treatment program is put together & implemented. Your treatment is monitored so your program can be updated so you receive the maximum benefit.
is a widely-used method of treating back pain, although there is no evidence of long-term benefits.
At Clinicube we offer these After a complete examination a personalized clinical treatment program is put together & implemented. Your treatment is monitored so your program can be updated so you receive the maximum benefit.
08/03/2018
Low Back Pain Relief with Chiropractic care
Lower Back Pain Relief
Many times, the underlying causes of a back problem can be subtle, but these are some of the factors that can contribute to back pain:
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Fatigue & Strains –
even a strong back can suddenly become afflicted with pains strains and general weakness. When an especially heavy object
Back Pain
is hoisted, the body distributes the weight and pressure evenly through the bones, joints and muscles. The back takes the brunt of this pressure and if the back were slightly misaligned for some reason, it can react unexpectedly and this can be painful.
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Automobile Accidents –
Even though symptoms after a car accident can take minuets, to hours, to even days to show up you should always go for a checkup at your local car accident chiropractor.
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Latent Injuries and Other Conditions –
You may think sufficient time has passed to rule out your high-school football injury as the source of your pain, but not so. The truth is, without an ongoing plan for complete and total rehabilitation, these conditions can cause the body to compensate with imbalance.
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Bad Posture –
those who spend many hours at their desk or in other relatively inactive postures, such as studying, gaming, etc. can begin to develop structural changes in the back and neck. When muscles are weaker they allow the body to collapse into the most natural form, this can cause flaws in your structural balance and muscular integrity.
As the body adopts improper positions for long periods of time, more pressure is placed on specific bones or spinal discs and muscle strain is greater in one area. If this is not corrected it may cause back pain in itself as the spine is left resilient to sudden injuries.
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Lower Back Pain Relief in a Chiropractic Setting –
With proper spinal alignment being the ultimate goal of your chiropractic treatment, your first visit to the chiropractor
will begin with an evaluation like you would expect in any other medical setting. Depending on the results of your initial examination your chiropractor may require X-Rays to ensure a precise diagnosis and treatment.
After this, you and your chiropractor will develop a plan of ongoing treatment to address your spinal conditions. When working with the spine it is essential that adjustments are small, gradual and gentle. A complete treatment for pain management may require several visits over a specific amount of time to complete.
During the course of your treatment, proper balance and spinal health will be improved through pressure applied to specific regions of your back and body. This will work to correct any flaws in your spines balance and begin a path to better spinal health and reduced occurrences of pain.
Chiropractic treatment is based on the importance of the spine and its correct positioning in addressing back pain as well as enjoying a healthy and pain free life. The central focus of the chiropractic profession is on spinal alignment and manipulation to keep the body’s own regenerative capacities to function optimally.
This pressure used to adjust the spine is always delivered in small amounts with relatively small impacts. Certain massage practice may aid in the adjustments and pain management. It will be important to discuss the techniques applied by your chiropractor with them before beginning your treatment.
In addition to regular the spinal adjustments, your chiropractor may make a few other recommendations for a comprehensive treatment plan for back pain. This may include:
– A change in diet
– Recommendations for physical activity
– Hot and cold packs
That’s where Cliniccube comes in and help make your recovery a quick and easy one!