![]() This is Dr. Bob Salamon! Welcome to the Lowcountry Chiropractic blog! We hope you’re doing well and staying cool! As we approach midsummer and begin preparing for fall, the imminent arrival of fall sports might be weighing on your mind, especially if your child participates in an organized sport. Along with the routine of daily practice and the thrill of Friday night games, there’s also the added worry of potential injuries. Today, we’ll discuss the importance of chiropractic care for young athletes, as well as how regular adjustments can prevent injuries and improve performance. In the United States, more than forty-five million children participate in organized sports. Seventy-five percent of families have at least one child in organized sports. And, between the ages of five and twenty-four, there are two-point-six million emergency room visits every year due to sports-related injuries. That’s a lot of ER visits! At the professional—or even collegiate—level, athletes are afforded medical expertise by some of the most renowned specialists and physical therapists available. They have free reign of top-notch facilities and expensive treatment options. When they’re injured, they’re put on a special time-bound rehabilitation routine. Most young athletes who participate in school or club sports only have access to their coaches. If they’re in an especially well-equipped program then they might have access to a sports’ medicine resident or doctor. These individuals are on hand in case of an injury, not to prevent injuries. Often, the best they’re able to offer is an ice pack and a few tablets of over-the-counter pain medication. With chiropractic care, the goal is to prevent injury, as much as possible. Our main proposition is that with regular care and proper technique, an athlete’s body should be able to manage the stress of physical activity without injury. Our secondary proposition is that with regular care and proper technique, an athlete’s body should be able to repair an injury which has occured due to strenuous activity. The Impact of Sports on the Body Young adults and children are, in more ways than one, particularly vulnerable to injury. Due to increased growth velocity and the closure of growth plates during adolescence, young athletes are susceptible to traumatic and overuse injuries. Traumatic injuries are sudden physical injuries which require immediate attention. These include blunt force trauma, bone fractures, concussions and spinal cord injuries. Overuse injuries are caused by repetitive trauma to a muscle or joint. These include conditions such as tendonitis, shin splints and stress fractures. Overuse injuries are caused by training errors—such as taking on too much physically strenuous activity at once or training without proper form. Overuse injuries are common in young adult sports because they are often unregulated in terms of practice hours, practice frequency, repetitions of exercises and rest times. As a result of adolescents’ quick expansion of both muscles and bones, tension develops across the growth plates, the apophyses (sites where tendons or ligaments attach to the bone) and the joints. This increase in tensile force makes these points vulnerable to injury. As well, during adolescence, athletes can display notable decreases in flexibility, coordination and balance. As you can imagine, these deficiencies translate into more frequent injuries. In the event of an injury, child athletes can sometimes be pushed back into competing before they’re fully healed. Children do heal faster than adults—except in regards to concussions—but coaches and guardians must take into account their immature skeletons. Premature returns to competing can result in chronic pain, lessened performance and repeat injuries. How Chiropractic Care Prevents Injury As previously stated, prevention is always preferable to treatment. Chiropractors have the knowledge and expertise to adjust joint segments to enhance mechanical motion. An increased range of motion, for anyone, will lessen the likelihood of a potential injury. This means adolescents can kick, run, jump and flip—as their coaches expect—without constantly fearing a pulled muscle or herniated disk. As well, soft tissue techniques can improve blood flow and muscle tone. Both of these combined could lead to an increased ability to perform and compete. If a young athlete is out-of-alignment, they may experience headaches, disrupted sleeping patterns, fatigue and general soreness. These uncomfortable conditions don’t have to be a side effect of organized sports. With regular adjustments, many of these secondary ailments can be reduced or alleviated entirely. How Chiropractic Care Rehabilitates In the unfortunate event an injury does occur, chiropractic care can be essential in the rehabilitation process. When an injury happens, scar tissue forms around the site, restricting motion, reducing blood supply and trapping nerves. Soft tissue techniques can bring blood flow back to the site and reduce adhesions around injuries. This, in turn, speeds up the process of recovery and allows the body to heal faster. Chiropractic care is a non-invasive form of treatment for musculoskeletal issues and its benefits are innumerable. In addition to increasing range of motion, chiropractic care can reduce pain, lessening the need for over-the-counter or prescription pain medications. Post-practice soreness might not be able to be avoided, but pain which persists for longer than three days may be the beginning of an overuse injury. A short break from training is recommended, as well as a check-up with your favorite chiropractor. While there is a risk of children being injured during practice or play, the benefits of participating in organized sports often far outweighs the negatives. Organized sports help break up the cycle of inactivity which has become more prevalent in children these days. Consistent activity has both physical and physiological benefits; improves caloric expenditure and social development. Youth participation in sports also decreases the likelihood of their participation in high-risk health-related behaviors (such as smoking, using illegal drugs). Young girls who take part in organized sports have a decreased chance of developing breast cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease and obesity. Sports also have a positive impact on their self-confidence and body image. If your child is going to participate in sports, make sure they have what they need to be successful and safe. The right chiropractor will be knowledgeable about which injuries your child might be susceptible to developing and recommend treatment based on your child’s needs. Before and after injuries, chiropractic care is the best option for an adolescent participating in organized sports. If your child is experiencing discomfort or having trouble recovering fully from an old injury, chiropractic care may be the solution. We are here to help! Reach out to set up your first appointment. We look forward to assisting in your or your child’s recovery process. We’ve got your back covered! Thanks for reading! Take care
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![]() 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.
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! ![]() Acid reflux affects more of us than you might think! This week, I'm here to talk a little bit more about acid reflux and some natural treatment options you can try! Hey everybody! It's Dr. Bob Salamon here with Lowcountry Chiropractic! I hope everyone is staying safe and doing great out there! Today on the blog we are going to be talking about acid reflux. Acid reflux is a condition that affects a lot of Americans, especially in this day and age. The medical term for acid reflux is called "GERD” or Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease. While I generally don't use this word to describe acid reflux because it’s such a mouthful to say every time, I also don't like to use it because acid reflux isn't a disease. Today, we are going to dive a little deeper into what acid reflux is, some common medical treatments, and some of the natural things you can do to get rid of acid reflux or help to manage it. Acid reflux is a condition, not a disease, and a malfunction in your body. What happens with acid reflux is that the acid that gets produced in your stomach and normally stays in your stomach refluxes up into your esophagus. This reflux creates a lot of pain and discomfort. This will usually happen after you eat a meal.Sometimes it can occur when an individual lays down to go to bed at night, and can be so bad that it will wake you up in the middle of the night! The acid in your stomach can reflux to the esophagus and then be aspirated into the lungs, which can be extremely dangerous. This danger is one of the main reasons why we need to talk about acid reflux today! Acid reflux can be painful and annoying, but it can also turn into a very dangerous condition if it gets severe. Acid reflux can cause a condition called Barrett's esophagus, and that is a precancerous condition that can lead to cancer of the esophagus. This is because the walls of the esophagus get burned by that acid that has refluxed up into it, so please remember that acid reflux is no joke and is something that needs to be taken seriously. Some very common medical treatments come in the form of medicines like Nexium, Prilosec, Prevacid, and others like it. These medications lower the amount of acid that is being produced in the stomach. This might sound like a good idea because if you have less acid in your stomach, possibly less of it will reflux up into your esophagus. This medication does work, but please remember that your body doesn't do something without a reason! Acid is being produced in your stomach for a good reason, based on the amount and type of food you ingest. A certain amount of acid is needed to break down the food in your stomach so it can be properly absorbed into your bloodstream. This absorption will help you get all the nutrients out of your food that you need. My personal view on this type of medication is that by reducing the production of the acid within your body, your body will not digest food properly, and you won't be getting the nutrients and vitamins out of your food as you should be. Also, in this situation, we are just treating the symptoms of your acid reflux and not fixing the cause of the problem. This is why, in chiropractic, we like to look at what causes the symptoms and fix that cause. In a lot of cases with acid reflux, unless you have a hiatal hernia that is putting direct pressure on the stomach causing the acid to reflux up into the stomach, an important muscle in your digestive system isn't working as it should. Generally speaking, we don't see a lot of hiatal hernias causing acid reflux in the office. What happens when you eat your food is that it goes down into your esophagus and passes through the lower esophageal sphincter. This is a muscular valve inside of your esophagus and is the entrance into the stomach. Once the food goes through the sphincter and into the stomach, that sphincter is supposed to close completely. This closing allows the acid to do its thing and digest your food without getting out. The walls of your stomach are designed to be very strong to withstand this acid. Unfortunately, the walls of your esophagus are not that strong, and they cannot withstand this acid. This is why acid getting into your esophagus is a really bad situation. In a lot of cases that we see with acid reflux, the problem is that the sphincter muscle is not closing properly, or sometimes it is not closing at all when your food reaches your stomach. When this happens, the acid in your stomach is going to reflux into your esophagus. What we want to ensure is that the sphincter always closes when it is supposed to close and opens when it's supposed to open. Guess what controls the opening and closing of this very special valve? It's a nerve! These nerves happen to come out of your spine right around the middle of your back (T5, T6, T7 area). Once there is food in your stomach, your brain will send a signal down to that nerve to say, "Close that sphincter!” In most cases, this nerve will work properly. It will listen to the brain and follow these directions perfectly. However, sometimes the communication between the brain and that valve via that nerve is not working correctly. This is one of the main causes of acid reflux! The valve is not closing properly because the nerve it is connected to is not working properly! What could be causing this nerve to not work properly? If the bones of your spine are lined up properly, the spaces or foramen in between them are open and will allow the nerves to come out as they should and to act as they should with no interruption in communication between the brain and the body. The nerves in your back control every system in your body, so if one does get blocked or interfered with, you will notice a difference. When your bones get slightly out of alignment, the foramen that allows the nerve to come out closes down and that nerve gets pinched and irritated. This is called a subluxation! A subluxation is a chiropractic term, which is what all chiropractors work on. My job is to find those nasty subluxations in your spine and correct them and keep them corrected. Fixing these subluxations will allow your body to function properly. When it comes to the acid reflux cases that I have seen, I will palpate for the subluxation (usually found in the middle of the back). Sometimes there is actual pain associated with the subluxated area. This tells me that the nerve in that area is inflamed and not working properly. Once I find this, I adjust or treat that subluxated vertebrae. Low and behold, after this treatment, we get pressure off of that nerve and things start flowing again. That nerve starts to become healthy again, that sphincter starts working properly again, and almost like a miracle that acid reflux and its symptoms begin to go away. This whole process is pretty amazing, and while I've seen it successfully work many times in my office. I am still shocked by it. The body is designed to work optimally, and a subluxation of the spine is one of the things that will interfere with the body's ability to stay optimally healthy. If the cause of your acid reflux is spine and nerve-related, then chiropractic care can help with your condition. On the other hand, if it's being caused by a hiatal hernia, that is a completely different story and is more of a medical issue. If it is being caused by a chiropractic subluxation, we can help you. This holds true for all conditions in the body. Every organ and function of your body is controlled by nerves. If there is a subluxation in other parts of your spine, you could be experiencing other conditions and symptoms for which medicine will only reduce your symptoms. Chiropractic is different; we look at the cause of the problem and correct the cause and not the symptom. This way we end up fixing the problem and you won't need to take medications anymore! If you are suffering or know someone suffering from acid reflux and want to be checked out to see if a subluxation of the spine is causing the reflux, please contact us and we will be happy to do a thorough exam. We will take some x-rays and figure out if we can help your issue with chiropractic care. All of this also holds true for other issues, pain included, that you've just had enough of and want to get corrected naturally. I hope this week's blog has helped shine some light on acid reflux and puts things into perspective for you! I hope you all have a wonderful day and I will see you next time! Remember, I'm Dr. Bob and I've got your back AND your acid reflux covered! ![]() Chiropractic care is an excellent form of care for everyone at every age! Today we're going to be talking about chiropractic care for children! Welcome back to the blog, readers! I'm Dr. Bob Salamon with Lowcountry Chiropractic! I hope you are all doing well out there, and that you're staying healthy and safe! Today we are going to be expanding on the idea that chiropractic care is beneficial for everyone at every stage in their lives. We've recently talked about the many benefits that chiropractic care offers to the elderly, and today we are going to turn the tables and talk about the benefits of chiropractic care for our children and younger generations. While their bodies are growing and developing, who better to have their brain function and their immune systems strengthened with chiropractic care than our children? When it comes to the goal of any chiropractor, it comes down to going beyond fixing the many ailments that can be connected to poor alignment and a subluxation. We care for your back, which is connected to the nervous system and your brain. The brain controls every operation in our bodies. While we are thrilled that chiropractic care can help so many different things, our goal is to ensure that the body's nervous system has every chance to work as efficiently and effectively as it can! CHILDREN AND CHIROPRACTIC CARE Many might think children don't need chiropractic care. Their bodies are brand new, healthy, and they haven't had to carry the weight and stress that adulthood and time can bring. While this is true, even before they're born, children can experience stress on their nervous system. These nerve irritations or subluxations are a part of everyday life. You've watched a child learning how to roll themselves over, hold up their heads for the first time, learn how to walk, and take their first stumbles and falls. Imagine the stress that puts on their developing nervous system. Subluxations can occur from bad posture, sleeping on their tummies, remaining in one position for a prolonged period, knocks and falls, and much more. Stress can be put on the nervous system before a child is even born. This can happen due to being in an award position in the uterus, restriction of movement, or birth complications like fast or very slow labor or cesarean delivery. We all know the importance of a healthy back and nervous system that chiropractic care can deliver, and we know that children deserve this care just as much as adults! Introducing chiropractic care to children at a young age can put them on a course of having a very healthy lifestyle. While many still might believe that chiropractic care is only for adults, it can be even more important for a chiropractor to care for and check on your children due to spurts of rapid growth, changes in their bodies, and development. Also know that chiropractic care for children, while it might be a new idea for some parents, it is not a new idea overall and has been around for some time. According to the American Chiropractic Association (ACA), many parents have feared how their children would respond to treatments and if they were safe. Over the years, many health professionals have sided with these parents. At the same time, doctors of chiropractic have been spending years trying to teach and assure parents that treatments are safe. Any injury or pain resulting from a chiropractic treatment was connected to underlying pathologies. Thanks to these studies and years of hard work, more parents and health professionals have gotten on board with chiropractic care. It is recommended that chiropractors do a very thorough examination and speak with parents about their medical history and their child's before treatment begins. Also, just like I mentioned in my previous blog about elderly chiropractic care, an infant would never receive the same kind of care that an adult would. Their treatment would be adjusted to their needs and age to promote the utmost safety and care! Also, don't forget that chiropractic care is non-invasive and its foundations are based on effective and gentle adjustment techniques that are safe and have been well tested. Remember my blog late last year where I discussed the many myths chiropractors have to constantly disprove? The biggest one is that chiropractors are not real doctors. We busted that myth! Your child's care and health are very important and will be in very confident hands any time they are in a chiropractor's office. THE BASICS What do you remember about your childhood? Before every smart device took over, we were outside running, jumping, climbing, swinging, and playing every game and sport we could think of. This also meant a lot of stumbles, falls, and accidents. They're still learning, still understanding their balance and coordination, and they haven't fallen enough yet to understand the full consequences of their actions. Their bodies respond to these incidents and can carry and hold tension and subluxations just like an adult's body. Chiropractic care can help realign their spine and joints, which is incredibly important as a child grows. These subluxations, remember, can get in the way of the brain functioning and communicating to the body as it should. In a body that is growing and changing every day, they need these connections and communications to make sure the best decisions are made for their health and development. Also, remember that chiropractic care is an excellent way to avoid the use of over-the-counter or prescription medications. According to the ACA, one of the most common reasons why parents take their children to a chiropractor is to help with the care and management of chronic ear infections, instead of them taking a plethora of antibiotics. GROWING BODIES Children and adults have the same joints, but they aren't fully formed in a child's body right away. Due to this, as I mentioned above, treatment will be specifically tailored to their little bodies. The adjustments will be done faster and with much less force, due to their increased flexibility in the developing joints and that they are much smaller. Instead of manipulating joints as chiropractic care can do for adult bodies, chiropractic care helps mobilize the joints in a child's body. When it comes to infants and in utero, it's even more tailored. For babies, many common issues include sleep problems, issues with nursing, colic, torticollis, and plagiocephaly. Chiropractic care has shown drastic improvement with each of these issues, along with helping or preventing any long-term effects. In utero, treatments can help prevent any sort of constraint. If the baby moves in a certain way, they can remain in that one position for several months. Wouldn't that be uncomfortable for you too? According to the ACA, "the goal of treatments is to restore motion to the joints and balance the tissues to keep everything as biomechanically even as possible. Taking the tension off from day one can help allow for optimal growth and development." TOP REASONS AND BENEFITS OF TAKING YOUR CHILD TO A CHIROPRACTOR
Your child's health is in your hands while they are growing and learning! I hope this blog helped explain why chiropractic care is so beneficial for children and to assure you that it is safe. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out. If you would like to talk about your child's chiropractic care, please reach out as well! Until next time I'm Dr. Bob and I've got your back covered! |
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Dr. Bob Salamon
8988 University Blvd., Suite 104 North Charleston, SC 29406 843-553-9383 bob.salamon@lcchiropractic.com |
Office Hours:
M, W, F: 10:00AM - 1:00PM & 3:00PM - 6:00PM Saturday: By Appointment Only Closed T, Th, Sunday |