Hi! Welcome to the Spinal Solutions Chiropractic and Rehabilitation Blog. We’re going to be sharing a lot of awesome health tips and posing some questions that you may have, doing our best to provide you with answers and direction. Subscribe now and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to learn even more about ways to stay healthy. There’s a lot of health information out there, so finding the right source is crucial. We use credible information coming from evidence-based research. If you have questions, feel free to comment, email, message on social media, or reach out in any way. We’re here to help!
About Dr Nick Venturini:
Dr. Nick is a chiropractic physician that specializes in joint bio-mechanics and the way we are designed to move, as well as the integrity and function of surrounding soft tissues (muscles, ligaments, tendons, connective tissue, nerves, and skin) that ultimately make up the neuromusculoskeletal (NMS) system. A lot of pain and problems can reside in this system and it is often the most common reason to seek care. As a chiropractor, we offer one of the best approaches to conservative care and should be the first option for anyone with pain or dysfunction in the NMS system.
Movement Is Key To Health - Even More So When We Move Correctly.
We are designed as a system of interconnected parts that functions to serve the whole. Chiropractors can be likened to an engineer (of the human body). Our muscles act as pulleys and levers on a skeletal structure that acts as our architectural foundation with optimal angles that is designed to work in a very specific way. When everything functions correctly, we experience our best selves. Unfortunately, after years of abuse, injury, or habitual changes, we can deviate from optimal and just do what “feels” normal, leading to poor movement patterns that ultimately cause pain or symptoms until we finally seek help. These poor patterns present as clues in the body, an overly tight muscle or an inability to move a certain way, that can be detected and corrected. Once we identify the problem, correct and retrain our body to move the as it was designed to, the symptoms go away and stay away. As a chiropractor, one of the most significant ways we help is through correcting movement (a key nutrient for joints and nerves) and adopting better habits. When we learn how to perform and move optimally, we reduce our chances of future NMS problems. In our office, we take each individual through a movement screening to determine possible areas of dysfunction.
Why Chiropractic?
As a chiropractor, we also spend a lot of time and emphasis addressing spinal health. Our spine is made up of 25 individual bones (including the sacrum) that forms a canal for one of the most important structures in our body, the spinal cord. The spinal cord is an extension of the brain and allows us to function at such a high level. Throughout the spine there are 31 pairs of spinal nerves (from the top cervical nerve to the lower coccyx nerve) that come off the cord and exit each segment. Over time the spine undergoes changes and can become out of aligned, leading to increased inflammation and decreased motion. This leads to less than optimal function of the nerves and joints of the spine leading to other potential problems in the body (besides local back pain). Chiropractic addresses these issues and helps people experience better spinal health.
Chiropractors work with and on the body to detect and treat abnormalities, especially as it relates to muscles, nerves and joints. Injury or dysfunction of the musculoskeletal system is one of the top causes of missed work and persistent pain. Prior to seeking more aggressive treatments, which are necessary at times, it’s best to start with conservative treatment. To give a simple analogy: If we felt a tooth ache, we wouldn’t rush to an aggressive form of treatment and seek an endodontist (root canal), we would go to the dentist for an exam and see if they can help first. This is how we should look at most health related things. Start with the least invasive, see what they can offer, give it a try, and then reassess. If we get better, than we’re more likely to stay better because our body was part of the process - the treatment was most aligned with what our body would have done on its own and therefore is considered natural. Furthermore, understanding what caused the problem in the first place, and avoiding or correcting that, is a big part of what we do as chiropractors.
The conservative approach increases our ability to adapt and respond to future occurrences, because our body has “seen this before.” If we resort to medication or surgery, or any other form of more aggressive treatment, before a trial of care with less invasive treatments or natural methods, than we’ve jumped to the top tier and there is no additional treatment (besides more of the same) that we can try. Now our body starts to rely on that treatment and less on itself. Of course we can go back down and try the conservative options, and this is how some people are able to come off their prescriptions and experience better health, but it will take longer for our body, which is now processing synthetic drugs, to respond.
Healthcare: A New Lens
It’s important to understand that when it comes to our health, we need to take an active role in the process before seeking stronger, more passive treatments and utilizing the healthcare system, which should really be categorized as sick-care. Health care should look to promote healthy individuals, mostly through prevention and education, not by treating symptoms repeatedly to maintain a state of being without pain (or symptoms). An absence of symptoms does not make someone healthy, it makes them tolerable. Tolerable to themselves and others.
Health Care is Self Care.
Taking an active role in our health is not always easy, in fact it usually never is (this does not mean it has to be complicated or complex though), and often requires more time or energy than say, popping a pill. Although it requires more effort on the front end, and therefore seems difficult, the long-term benefits far outweigh the short-term discomforts. The healthiest people are the ones that stay active, eat right consistently, and have a fulfilling life of family, friends, and purpose; not the one who take the most prescriptions, have had the most surgery or visit the hospital regularly.
Homeostasis.
A body taken care of will do its best to take care of “you”. This is an inborn ability – to heal and experience balance — but only when we provide our body with the tools and capacity to do so. The best tools come from proper nutrition, which is unique for each tissue. Joints and muscles love movement as its nutrient source. Movement nourishes them by providing stimuli and increased function.
Conversely, if we bog down our body with harmful substances that must be processed regularly, then it doesn’t lead to balance but imbalance – which appears outwardly as pain, inflammation, or disease. This dysfunction can manifest anywhere in the body – joints, muscles, organs, senses, etc. and is the reason we have a doctor who treats each area of the body.
Instead of looking “out there” for some cure or fix, understand that what’s “within” is usually capable of working itself out. Now obviously if you need medical attention or are dealing with an emergency or life-threatening condition, then seek a medical doctor, but don’t anticipate a cough coming on and rush out to get over-the-counter medication. See if you can overcome it naturally. The more you rely on yourself for health and wellness, the less you rely on outward interventions and the more effective those interventions will be when needed.
My Mission.
It is my mission to provide the absolute best care and treatment for the neuromusculoskeletal system so that we can live a life free from pain and injury. Not only correcting the problem, but teaching ways to maintain or prevent future problems from occurring. I have witnessed and experienced first-hand what chiropractic can do, from improving recovery time and better healing of an acute injury, to eliminating chronic complaints such as low back or neck pain.
The health conscious individuals are those that understand action (or sometimes avoiding an action, as in “NOT eating that doughnut”) is required to experience our fullest, healthiest life possible. Everyday we’re faced with choices that either move us towards health or away from it. Which will you choose?
Our services are aimed at: eliminating pain and dysfunction, promoting a higher functioning human body, and giving you the tools to achieve and maintain higher levels of health.
Thanks for reading! Check back for additional posts and health tips.