Carpel Tunnel Syndrome

In today’s world we find ourselves spending a lot of time on tablets, laptops, cell phones, and other electronic devices – constantly texting typing and doing other similar activities. The frequency of carpal tunnel syndrome since the invention of computers and electronic devices has gone up dramatically. This stands to reason considering the overuse of the forearm muscles.

Most carpal tunnel problems come from inflammation of the nerve. Because of that inflammation, quite often there is severe muscle spasms in the forearm muscles just below the elbow and sometimes even in the triceps muscle in the back of the arm.

For the last 15 years while treating this condition, I’ve found that not all carpal tunnel syndrome problems are equal. I’ve been surprised to find out that most can be treated through stretching of the forearm muscles and a physical therapy technique called a-stem. It is designed to reduce the amount of adhesions in the connective tissue in your forearm muscles.

One of the many things you can do to help alleviate the connective tissue problem is limit the amount of time you spent texting and typing. Massaging of the forearm muscles is a treatment that reduces adhesion and fascia problems. This in turn will reduce inflammation and take pressure off the nerve. Applying an ice pack to the wrist area to reduce inflammation and then heating the forearm muscles quite often reduces the symptoms significantly. Even making sure that you take regular breaks from typing or texting for 1 to 2 minutes is also a fantastic way to prevent the problem in the first place.

Prevention really is the best way to keep inflammation from occurring. I found that even if someone has carpal tunnel surgery, problems can come back if they don’t deal with the problem that caused in the first place. Take these preventative measures to take care of your hands, and if the problem has already occurred, these can help provide relief.

Live pain-free and enjoy life.

Dr. Milton Carroll

Shoulder Pain Treatment at Home (UPDATED)

If you’ve ever watched a baseball pitcher wind up to throw a fastball, you may marvel at how much flexibility and power is generated through the shoulder. The shoulder is a very dynamic and mobile joint. It is the only joint in the body that can rotate through nearly 360° of motion. Because of this you can have a wide array of problems to occur.

When people come to my office complaining of shoulder pain and tightness, one of the main causes of pain is muscle spasm throughout the rotator cuff muscles and of the supporting muscles and structures associated with it.

The shoulder has a little over 14 muscles that either move or stabilize it. Muscle spasm or an injury in anyone of these muscles can cause a cascading effect to the other surrounding muscles. An easy way to understand this (and a common analogy that I like to use) is by imagining a rope tied between two trees: As long as the rope is loose, there is play and the ability to move the rope. As soon as you tie several knots and create tension, the tension affects both sides of the rope and the trees they are attached to. A tear in the muscle could release the muscle spasms, reduce the strain on the muscles, and possibly give them the opportunity to heal. But if the muscles continue to stay tight, that tension can further tearing of the muscles, just like a partial cut in the rope tied to the tree: this will cause the rope to continue to break if the tension remains. Bottom line, we don’t want torn muscles!

We will be doing an updated video that we will post on Facebook and on our website to show you how you can treat your shoulder through exercise mobilization and releasing of muscle spasm. If you would like to receive updates on this post and similar future posts, follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NeboChiropractic/

Live Well,

Dr. Milton Carroll DC

How Water Affects Your Wellness

On this post I wanted to discuss the importance of hydration. A lot of problems that people experience can be traced back to their hydration habits. First, let’s look at how water helps our bodies function.

Water is used for many of the body’s chemical processes and is the major component in dealing with oxidative stress and free radicals. Oxygen (which makes up a water molecule) has the ability to lend electrons to other molecules. When there are positively charged free radicals floating in our system, oxygen can bind with them and keep them from damaging our DNA and cells. Without proper hydration and an adequate supply of oxygen in our system, our body can’t eliminate waste materials from the cells and the free radicals that are created. This is the reason why drinking a sufficient amount of water each day makes a difference. I learned this lesson the hard way when I did my very first Iron Man event.

I was down in St. George and the day of the race the temp spiked at just over 94°. At these temperatures, even drinking as much water as you can, your body can’t keep up with the water loss as you’re exercising outside. I became so dehydrated that I was on the verge of heat stroke when the race was over. It took me almost 6 months to recover from this event.

Some of the first signs and symptoms of dehydration or chronic dehydration is chronic muscle tension and spasms, headaches, neck pain, and low back pain. Over a long period of time, chronic dehydration can lead to degeneration of your intervertebral discs, arthritis and a myriad of other problems.

The daily amount of water you should intake is determined by your bodyweight. I currently weigh 200 pounds, which means I need to intake half that amount in ounces of water per day. That means 100 ounces per day. That does not include the increase that you need to have if you are exercising rigorously for up to an hour a day. For each 20 to 30 minutes of rigorous exercise you should increase your water intake by another 20 ounces to help deal with the water loss that occurs when you sweat. Not only do you need that extra water to keep from dehydrating, you need to replenish your stores because you continue to lose water at an increased rate for several hours after you exercise. When you do this, it allows your immune system to function better, you have increased healing, and your recovery time is decreased significantly.

It’s really easy to become dehydrated in the heat of the summer, even when we’re not doing more than just being outside. I hope that you will all take a serious look at the amount of water that you’re taking in and make sure that you’re getting enough so that you can live a healthier and happier life.

Sincerely Dr. Milton Carroll DC

 

Lower Back Pain Treatment at Home

When my kids were younger, I recall many wonderful experiences of playing the game or song of “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”. It’s a great way to get the wiggles out of your kids and teach them about body parts. The movements you make while singing out each body part you touch is also a good way to show kids how interconnected our body is to itself; the head to the shoulders, the knees to the toes – and I’ll stop there before you get it stuck in your head. It’s a shame we don’t say the muscles that connect our head to our shoulders, however the song probably wouldn’t be as catchy as it is.

As I have progressed in my practice over the last 14 years, I’ve noticed that as a culture we compartmentalize our problems and pain. Even as a society we look at things as individuals and not as a whole. When it comes to low back pain, neck pain or any other problems involving our muscle skeletal system, nothing could be further from the truth. There is something called the kinetic chain: it explains how our joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons affect one another and how the body functions. In all essence it is a more sophisticated way of looking at the childhood game of head shoulders knees and toes. In dealing with chronic low back pain, something that should always be evaluated is how the lower extremities are functioning.

There is a condition called lower extremity dysfunction that you should always be evaluated for when you have low back pain. It has to do with proper ankle flexion and tension throughout all of the muscles, especially the posterior muscles, including the calf, hamstrings, glutes, and tensor fasciae latae. It’s a lot of muscle! If you have a trigger point, which is an area within the muscle that is – for lack of a better way of explaining it – knotted up all the time, this can increase tension on both the origin and the insertion of the muscle. It’s like tying a rope between two trees and then twisting the rope in the middle; it creates tension along the whole entire rope and equally places pressure on both trees.

There’s a quick way to test for this problem on your own at home. Simply put your hands above your head with your feet pointing straight forward. Make sure your feet are shoulder width apart, and do a squat. If your knees bow out, or you have to lean far forward so that your backside sticks out, or your ankles are stiff and it’s hard to bend, then you certainly have lower extremity dysfunction, which can lead to low back pain.

Today I would like to explain how you treat this at home. The first step is to work on trigger points. All you will need is a softball.

Exercise 1: Take a softball and sit down on the floor. Put it underneath your calf muscle towards your Achilles tendon and roll it around until you find a sore spot. Let your leg rest on it without moving until the pain subsides. Then continue this process up through your calf till you get to your knee.

Exercise 2: To do your hamstring muscle, sit on a good kitchen chair and put the ball underneath the lateral or outside edge of your hamstring, just barely above your knee. Let the weight of your leg and your body press down until the pain subsides.

Exercise 3: In between your hipbone, your femur bone, and near the glute, you’ll feel a muscle that is called the greater trochanter. While lying on your side, place the softball between that muscle and the ground. Use your arm to hold most of your weight, so that there is gentle pressure on that muscle. Move the softball to the gluteus medias, maximus and tensor fasciae latae muscles. Leave the ball there until you don’t feel like crying anymore. I say that in jest, but it is going to be very tender.

If you can do all of these treatments about three times a week, you’ll notice that your flexibility will improve, tension in your muscles will decrease, and you’ll feel better overall. If you would like to see how all this is done, we will be posting a video in two weeks’ time. Trust me, these exercises are great to know.

Hopefully you have a greater understanding of how your body works and how to take care of yourself. Here’s to good health and freedom.

Sincerely Dr. Milton Carroll DC

(EDIT: 5-31-17) Here is a video to help you better understand the exercises:

Dr. Carroll in the palm of your hand!

Featured

Welcome to Mt. Nebo Chiropractic Clinic! If you’re looking for The Best Chiropractor in Utah, you just found him.

Dr. Milton Carroll is committed to helping people of all ages achieve optimal health and peak performance. He will get to the cause of your problem, whether it is finding relief for your chronic headaches or relieving your back, neck or extremity pain.

Dr. Carroll can also help with painful conditions involving; range of motion, muscles, ligaments, and joints. Any of these can involve or impact the nervous system which can lead to pain and dysfunction.

Our Mobile Website = Your Mobile Resource

Another function of the Mt. Nebo Chiropractic Clinic is to provide information which you can search and utilize. Dr. Milton Carroll not only provides individual treatment plans based on your life style, symptoms and level of activity–he will also educate you on how to prevent injuries from re-occurring and how to move beyond the pain to wellness, both through his office and through this site.

This website is an ongoing project which will grow over time. So take a few minutes to search through this site–use your smart phone, laptop, desktop or iPad. We’re here for you, whether you’re kicking back at home or on the run.

We are here to be of service.