Omaha’s Leading Family Chiropractor

Chiropractors treat conditions related to our body’s structure to relieve pain and improve function. However, they don’t prescribe medications or perform surgery. Instead, they adjust or manipulate your spine and other body parts to get them properly aligned.

Here are just a few of the more common issues your chiropractor treats:

Lower Back and Neck Pain

Low back and neck pain are the most common reasons people visit a family chiropractor. These annoying pains get experienced by three out of four adults during their lifetime. Lower back and neck pain presents themselves when ligaments, which are the bands of tissue that hold bones in place, become overstretched or torn. This issue occurs when you lift too much, take part in strenuous sports activity, or bend over or turn your head incorrectly during regular everyday activities.

Degenerative Disc Disease

Degenerative Disc Disease is an issue typically connected to the aging process. The intervertebral discs are the pillow-like cushions that wedge between your vertebrae. These discs, as you age, degenerate or break down due to years of strain, overuse, or misuse. As a result, these discs become thinner, have a decreased flexibility, lose elasticity, and present a lower ability to absorb shock as we walk, run, and play our way through the years.

Herniated Disc

Herniated discs typically occur in the neck or lower back and are another major cause of pain for those areas. A herniated disc, also called a bulging, slipped, or ruptured disc is when a fragment of the disc center, named the nucleus, is pushed out of the annulus into the spinal canal through a rupture. The annulus is the tough circular exterior of the intervertebral disc that surrounds the soft inner core. Discs that become easily herniated are more often in an early stage of degeneration. In addition, a herniated disc can cause pain when the annulus or nucleus presses on a nearby nerve root.

Sciatica

Sciatica occurs when the sciatic nerve or a branch of the sciatic nerve becomes compressed or irritated. The sciatic nerve, almost finger-width, is the longest and thickest nerve in the body, starting in the lower back region through the hips and buttocks and down each leg. The telltale sign of sciatica is a moderate to severe pain that travels down to below the knee area of one leg. Often people with sciatica use vocabulary like shooting, sharp, and shock-like to describe the plaguing pain.

Myofascial Pain

Myofascial pain is a pain disorder that places pressure on the sensitive points in the muscles known as trigger points and causes a deep, aching pain in what seems like unrelated parts of the body, known as referred pain. Sometimes myofascial pain feels like a tight knot in the muscle and occurs after extremely repetitive use. Myofascial Pain, often considered a chronic condition, lessens considerably with treatment.

Cervicogenic Headaches

A Cervicogenic headache, often caused by referred neck pain, is pain from nerves felt in unrelated parts of the body, as mentioned in the previous section. Pain from this type of headache presents itself at the back of the head, eyes, and temples. A cervicogenic headache is often mistaken for migraines or cluster headaches. Sufferers from cervicogenic headaches experience symptoms typically referred to as side-locked, meaning they occur on one side of the neck, head, or face.