Welcome readers! Dr. Bob and the rest of our team hope you’re doing well and living your life to the fullest! If you’re not, and if that may be because of pain or discomfort, we’re ready to give you two words that may change your health outlook: Referred Pain. 

Referred pain is whenever you feel pain or discomfort in areas of your body that’s actually originating from a different source elsewhere in your body! Referred pain can be caused by a wide variety of things, but we like to look at it as one of the many ways our bodies communicate with us! A couple examples of referred pain can be a heart attack that triggers pain in your jaw, or an injured organ causing you pain in your back. Isn’t that fascinating?

To put it plainly, referred pain occurs because the nerves within the human body are all connected. The human nervous system is one of the most elaborate, complex aspects of our bodies, and because of it we are all able to experience the world around us in different ways. Your nerves are what help you interact and communicate with your environment, by letting you know when a pot is too hot, when the weather outside is about to turn, or if someone bumps your shoulder as you pass. So how does all of this connect to chiropractic care?

One of the main parts of the nervous system, the central nervous system, is housed by our spines! The human brain and spinal cord are known as the central nervous system and that is essentially the command center for the human body overall. From the central nervous system, your peripheral nervous system and autonomic nervous system connect and tangle throughout the body like winding rivers or roots. These nerves are so delicate and numerous that if the adult nervous system in its entirety was to be stretched out, it could reach up to 100,000 miles! 

As the spine protects the spinal cord, there are spaces in between the spines’ vertebrae that allow nerves to reach out around your back. Do you remember our previous blogs and videos discussing subluxations? When a vertebrae presses or pinches down on a nerve, the result can be pain and discomfort and this is known as a subluxation! The purpose of chiropractic care is to correct and reset subluxations by adjusting the vertebrae to get off those pinched nerves. 

As nerves spread throughout your body and help communicate all kinds of stimuli back to your brain, your brain communicates ‘back’ by making you feel pain or discomfort when something goes wrong. Have you ever heard about how whenever people get in car accidents they have different levels of pain or injury based on their level of awareness during the incident? It’s truly interesting; people who are aware they are about to be in an accident tend to ‘tense up’ as a response from the brain letting them know the impact is coming, but those who are unaware have no visual stimuli response and their muscles are more relaxed during the accident. The more tension that resided in the muscles before and during the accident, the higher likelihood of experiencing injury! You may not be aware of this, but your nervous system operates at an unprecedented speed. The amount of time it takes for you to see a car coming, realize it’s going to hit you, and either react or prepare for impact can all take place in portions of a second. We wanted to share this with you because not only is it an amazing feature of our bodies, but it explains so much in relation to chiropractic care and maintenance.

As amazing as it is in the many connections and structure, the human body is imperfect and requires regular care and maintenance. Chiropractic care is most effective with regular treatments to keep adjustments’ in place despite our day-to-day activities. Subluxations can occur with even the slightest movements, such as getting in or out of your car, stepping down stairs, reaching up high for something, playing a sport or exercising! The really miraculous thing about the spine and the nervous system though is that if you’re experiencing a subluxation, your nerves may communicate that pinching by ‘enabling’ pain in related parts of your body! Referred pain can be traced along specific nerve paths to specific areas of the body; some nerve paths connect directly to your ankles and feet, whereas others flow down to your wrists and fingertips for example.

Dr. Bob has knowledge about what kind of pain or discomfort displays itself through referred pain based on the different vertebrae in the spine! If you’d like to learn more about a few examples of this, we recommend you follow the link below to one of our recent Facebook videos where Dr.Bob discusses referred pain and how it connects to chiropractic care!

If you’re experiencing discomfort that you’re not able to find a solution for, it may be time to turn to chiropractic care! Dr. Bob would love to see you and help you feel well again; all you have to do is reach out to us to set up your first appointment!

We look forward to helping you heal, and we’ve got your back covered. Take care!

​Do you experience arthritis or think you or a friend may be developing it? 

Arthritis is a condition that affects more people than you may believe, and it’s not just for the older generations. Many people seek relief from arthritic pain on a regular basis in order to improve their overall quality of life! There are several different kinds of arthritis, but the general name is typically understood by the everyday person.  When people speak about arthritis, they are most commonly referring to osteoarthritis.

Arthritis is an inflammatory condition that affects the joints and causes symptoms such as swelling, pain, stiffness, and decreased mobility. These symptoms may come on suddenly and leave as quickly as they appear, or may make themselves at home in different places of your body for longer periods of time with a range of severity. Some individuals have noted that arthritis gets worse over time as you age, and may result in chronic pain that inhibits your favorite daily activities or lifestyle.

This inflammatory condition can cause changes to your joints over time if not cared for or treated in some way. Individuals who neglect their condition may develop knobby finger joints or may cause subluxations in their spine by unknowingly favoring one foot or side over the other as they walk.  Did you know that more than 50 million adults and around 300,000 children have some form of arthritis? It is typically more likely to occur with women and older generations, but this condition is not exclusive in its behavior and existence.

We are often asked whether or not chiropractic care is good for arthritis and we’re here to tell you that yes, it is! Chiropractic care is a form of alternative healing and treatment meant as a supporting role in recovery and a healthy lifestyle. Chiropractic care helps find the causes of issues to correct and adjust, rather than simply treating the symptoms themselves. According to the Arthritis Foundation, “If you have back or neck pain due to osteoarthritis, chiropractic is one of the safest therapies you can use.” 

A giant misconception about chiropractic care is that chiropractors just ‘snap crackle pop’ your back or neck in a session and that’s all. There is so much more to the chiropractic field than your typical neck adjustment, we assure you! Chiropractors like Dr.Bob are trained to use a variety of techniques to help relieve pain, tension, and discomfort by addressing the root cause. This allows chiropractors to treat people of all ages, occupations, and transitions in life for the variety of conditions they may experience through life! 

As an example, and something that’s not often realized by those who are new to chiropractic, chiropractic care can be exceptionally helpful to pregnant mothers! Dr. Bob has an adjustable table specifically made to be able to create room for a mother’s body shape and still be able to treat her for regular chiropractic care. We all know that the act of carrying children can put a strain on a mom’s lower back, so chiropractic care for pregnant mothers is incredibly helpful! For more information about that topic, we recommend checking out our blog that dives more into it:
https://www.drbobchiropractor.com/blog/how-chiropractic-care-can-benefit-pregnant-women

At the root of things, chiropractic care works exceptionally well for arthritis when it pertains to specific joints. If the structure or mobility of a joint is impared due to arthritis, chiropractic care is one of the best ways to address and adjust it. We often have patients who come in for adjustments for their arthritis and after consistent upkeep and regular appointments, they can start to see the benefits and relief! Releasing subluxations in your spine and adjusting those arthritic joints can often provide pain relief even after a single adjustment, believe it or not!

When you first visit Dr. Bob here at Lowcountry Chiropractic you will receive a thorough consultation, exam and x-rays. Dr. Bob will review your x-rays with you on the next visit, and if he feels he can help you, he will begin treatment to help you get back on track.  He will manually adjust the spine and other joints if necessary with the technique that best suits your body’s needs!

To further dive into how chiropractic care can help arthritis, osteoarthritis is the specific form of arthritis best treated by chiropractors. This condition relates directly to the bones and joints of the body and slowly wears them down over time.  As this condition continues to develop, joints may become more likely to get out of alignment or have trouble ‘sitting’ where they should. As chiropractic care is specifically designed to adjust bones and joints, you can trust a chiropractor to know the right techniques and adjustments to correct your joints and keep them aligned.

You deserve to live your life without pain and discomfort!  If you experience aches and pains related to arthritis and arthritic conditions, chiropractic care can give your body a second chance! Regular adjustments can help keep your joints in line, and we also provide massage therapy within our office to assist with muscular healing and pain! If you’re interested in signing up for one of our massage therapy sessions, be sure to ask about it at your next appointment with Dr.Bob (and mention this blog when you do!).

Chiropractic care is a great option for a nonsurgical, nonmedicinal, natural alternative to arthritic pain treatment!  Dr. Bob Salamon is skilled in recognizing misalignments and joint issues in the human body at every appointment, and we can guarantee you’ll feel the difference when you leave! Over time, the outcome of seeing us for regular adjustments can lead to increased flexibility, improved strength, improved sleep, improved mobility, and importantly, exceptional pain relief!

Today's blog is going to be focusing on chiropractic care for the bones in your body other than your spine! 

Hello, everyone! Dr. Bob Salamon here with another exciting and educational blog! I hope everyone out there is staying safe and doing well. Today we are going to be changing things up a bit! We are still going to be talking about chiropractic care, but we are going to be talking about adjusting other bones in your body besides your spinal bones. Don't forget, you have many bones throughout your body that need care too, not just your spine! I have a lot of people who come into my office who don't know that chiropractors can work on your elbows, wrists, shoulders, and other joints in your body that could be causing you pain. There are 206 bones in the human body, and they all have joints of some kind. Any movable and semi-movable joint can be adjusted. The question that is posed a lot is why would you want a chiropractor to work on a non-spinal joint? Very similar to the spine, bones throughout your body can get out of alignment and cause pain and other problems. Non- spinal joints, even though they might not have any spinal nerves coming out of them, when misaligned can create a lot of inflammation, which usually will cause pain.

I'll give you an example. A patient recently came into my office who works in construction.   He had fallen off a scaffold a few weeks before coming to see me, and he fell straight down and landed on his feet. However, he hit his elbow on the brick wall next to him when he was falling. When he came in to see me, he didn't have any issues with his elbow, but he was having some serious issues with his shoulder. I checked his shoulder joint, and he had very limited range of motion and when he tried to move it, it was incredibly painful. Just by looking at the mechanism of the injury, I could tell that by hitting his elbow with such force, it had pushed the humerus or upper arm bone upward into his shoulder socket. 

I typically don't take x-rays on joints if I don’t suspect a fracture. In this case, since I knew the mechanism of injury and did not suspect a fracture, I adjusted the shoulder without x-rays and told him to come back in a few days. Two days later, he came back in and informed me that the pain he had been experiencing had drastically decreased and his range of motion had returned to normal!  I've adjusted him since then and he is basically back to optimal health. If he hadn't come to see me, his options would have been to deal with the pain, go to physical therapy, take medication or get an injection into the shoulder.  I don’t believe the outcome would have been as successful as what we achieved in my office with chiropractic care. In some cases, it doesn't take a ton of work to change the alignment of a joint that is out of position, and to help ease your pain! 

We get a lot of patients in the office who play soccer and who injure their ankles and knees very often. In many cases, we can help them tremendously with chiropractic care. What I do normally with these joints is that I check to make sure that first of all, it's stable, which means that there isn't a tear of a ligament, tendon, or meniscus. If there is a tear of a soft tissue and the joint itself is moving as it should, that's not a situation for chiropractic . In those cases, I would refer out to an orthopedic specialist.

While it might be difficult to decide who you should see first in cases of pain after an accident, or if you're just feeling out of sorts, my advice would always be to come to see me first.  We may be able to help you quickly and avoid more costly or invasive treatments. 

• In addition to relieving non-spinal joint pain, chiropractic care has the following additional benefits: 
• Chiropractic care is an alternative to medication.
• It helps improve your digestion. 
• Chiropractic care can play a huge role in relieving stress.  
• It can help with lowering your blood pressure and helping you to maintain healthy blood pressure. 
• It provides a lot of benefits for expectant mothers both during pregnancy and during and after birth. 
• It can help you sleep better and feel more rested overall. 
• It can help with headaches and acid reflux issues. 
• Chiropractic care can help with back and neck pain relief and as we've discovered today, other joint pain! 

Consistent chiropractic care can help improve your overall physical performance, help you stay optimally healthy, and enhance your levels of wellness and relaxation. 
Chiropractic care can also help with improving your posture, your overall mood, and can be a huge boost to your immune system, which after this past year, we all know to be extremely important! 

As I mentioned above, there are 206 bones in the human body, so I'm sure you can imagine how much stress is put on all of your joints by a normal day's activity, and then imagine how much stress can be added on your body over a whole year and beyond! Chiropractic care can be an amazing solution when relieving this stress off your body and is a low-cost solution, a drug-free solution, and a non-surgical solution for your problems.  We can treat everything from your jaw to your shoulder joints, to your ribs, elbows, wrist, knees, hips, and beyond. The whole point of today's blog is to let all of our readers know that if you're struggling with a joint problem, and you're not getting a lot of relief or success with the methods that you're currently using, just come and see me! Look us up! Visit our website, send us an email, or give us a call and I promise to look at what is bothering you, evaluate the joint, and if I can help you I will, and we will begin working right away!  Until next time, I'm Dr. Bob and I've got your back and joints covered!