Sciatica? Really, is that the best you can come up with?

Sorry for the tone of the title. It mostly reflects my attitude toward diagnosing these days and the overemphasis on trying to categorize illness as opposed to focusing on health and restoring or maintaining it. Don't get me wrong, a diagnosis can be critical in certain situations. However, a diagnosis like "Sciatica" is completely useless!

Here is why. How would you feel if you took your car into the mechanic because there is a pinging sound at 50 mph and he came back and told you that you have "Pingatica Pentavra." When you ask him what that means he says you have a ping in your engine at 50 mph and then hands you a pair of ear muffs so you can't hear it anymore? Oh, and the bill, of course.

The only thing the mechanic did was give you a fancy name for something you already knew and then gave you a remedy that didn't really solve anything. And yet, you are supposed to be comforted by both. Are you? We settle for this all the time in our sick care society.

So what about sciatica? The sciatic nerve is the biggest conglomeration of nerves in the body. It forms in the back/buttock area and runs down the back of the thigh to about the knee. If it is irritated, it is painful and they call it sciatica. Sciatica is not a diagnosis; it's a fancy word that describes your symptoms.

The real question is what is causing the sciatica. Is it a bulging or herniated disc? Is it inflammation around the vertebrae and therefore the nerve roots which will form the sciatic nerve? Is it dysfunction of the sacroiliac joint? Is the piriformis muscle (or any other muscle in the area) tight or have lesions? Is the chair the person sitting on hitting the sciatic nerve and causing a direct irritation to it?

Furthermore, we need to ask what is causing all of the above mentioned things to happen! Why is the disc bulging or herniated? Why is there inflammation? And the list goes on. Then, we need to ask at what level do we want to treat? Do we mask the symptoms and hope the body will figure it out? Do we help the body restore function? Once we have, do we try and maintain or prevent?

At the end of the day, health is a sliding scale. There is proper function at the high end and improper function at the other. So often we try to pinpoint a single cause of dysfunction when the reality is that there are almost always multiple and complex causes. With that in mind, does it really matter what we call the symptoms if the goal is simply to restore function?

Let Freedom Ring From Your Aches and Pains, Through Chiropractic Care!

If you have been suffering, please use this certificate and let me show you how chiropractic can help! You can print this out or just mention that you saw it on this blog. By the way, there are no strings attached. Your first exam, x-rays, report of findings and first adjustment are all free with this offer. All I ask is that you let me help educate you on how you can live healthier. You only have better health to gain!

-Dr. Jared Thomas

Tyreke Evans, NBA Rookie of the Year, and Sacramento King, gets adjusted! So should you!

Going Paperless! My Journey Into the Realm of Electronic Health Records

I finally did it! I got new software that allows me to keep your records digitally so that I don't have a bunch of paper files. The advantages are great but the learning curve is killing me. It is so much easier to hand write a few sentences, that only a few select people will probably ever decipher, and call it good. Now, however, I have detailed, thorough, professional notes in typewritten print that I can pull up with the click of a mouse.

So, the next time you come into my office and I am cleverly toting around my iPad and slowly trying to figure out how to input your concerns, taking more time than you or I am used to, just remember, when I get it all figured out, you will have pristine records... that no one will probably ever read.

Does Chiropractic Heal You?

I had an interesting conversation last night. The gentleman with whom I was speaking (he may even read this) had never seen a chiropractor and was a little skeptical. His comment was that it doesn't really seem like chiropractic heals anything; only gives temporary relief of symptoms. He was partly right!

Chiropractic doesn't heal anything, and neither do chiropractors. The body heals itself. The goal of chiropractic is to restore function of the joints and the nervous system that is directly connected to the joints. When there is proper function, the body will heal itself.

As far as his claim that chiropractic only brings temporary relief, that depends. I will concede to that being true if a patient just gets adjusted for temporary relief one or two times. Healing is a process and restoring function takes time. It's not like your body is a machine where you can just go in and change the parts. In order to restore function, one must go through a course of adjustments that will eventually lead to proper function. The tricky part is figuring out how long one can maintain proper function considering all of the things they do to hamper it. This is why in the beginning a patient may get adjusted 3-5 times a week. After some time, however, the time in between adjustments increases and the goal is to get down to a maintenance of approximately once a month. Of course, if your lifestyle is such that you readily create dysfunction in your body, then once a month might not be enough.

In short, shy of performing a miracle (which is an entirely different topic), healing is a process that not only takes time but occurs every second in our body as we navigate mortality. Chiropractic is a great tool to help promote this constant healing and combat the constant degeneration!

How to Safely Stretch Your Hamstrings

Tight hamstrings can cause low back dysfunction and low back dysfunction can cause tight hamstrings. Either way, they need to be stretched daily. The trick is to hold for at least 30 seconds. This video demonstrates the proper technique.

TMJ

The other day I had one of my favorite patients on my table complaining of a tooth ache. She asked if I knew a good dentist so I told her about my mine, Dr. Ashish Arya, and how great his staff, Lena and Corby are. I proceeded to adjust her neck and jaw, etc. and gave her a card for Dr. Ashish.

I followed up with her last night and she told me that when Dr. Ashish did the exam, not only was there nothing wrong with the teeth, but she did not have any discomfort or pain. He gave her some stretches for the jaw and sent her on her way.

Though not an every day occurrence, a tooth ache that is really jaw dysfunction does happen frequently. The technical term for the joints of the jaw are the temporomandibular joints (TMJ). Dysfunction is known as temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) or TMJ syndrome. (Side note: I hear people say they have TMJ, a lot. I always chuckle because everyone has TMJ. What they mean is that they have TMJ syndrome.)

TMD or TMJ Syndrome can be very painful. The temporomandibular joint is a very sensitive joint. Dysfunction can cause headaches, tooth aches, mouth pain, face pain, popping or clicking, and even earaches.

Chiropractic adjustments have been very effective in managing TMD. I work on the jaw and surrounding musculature on a good portion of my patients with great success. So, the next time that you get an earache, headache, or toothache, check with your chiropractor, it could be your jaw!