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Proudly Announcing the Renewal of our Award for Excellence in Patient Partnership

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PPQM 2016

Here it is, all shiney and bright, and lovely!  Our PPQM renewal!

PPQM stands for Patient Partnership Quality Mark.  It’s awarded to clinics that meet the Royal College of Chiropractor’s strict standards of excellence in meeting patient expectations.

We work really hard towards being the best that we can be, and to provide the best care that we possiblty can to each and every individual patient.

It makes us very proud to achieve recognition for this from the RCC, and to be able to give you that extra bit of peace of mind.

Well done team.

Leah Rose

PS – apologies for the dreadful photography, it was my best effort!!

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Award Winning Clinic and Chiropractors – That’s Us!!!

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It’s exciting times for the Longlevens Chiropractic & Sports Injury Clinic!  On 30th January 2013 we will be awarded the prestigious Patient Partnership Quality Mark (PPQM) 2013 – 2015 by the College of Chiropractor’s, who were themselves recently awarded Chartered status by the Queen.

The College of Chiropractor’s states: “The College of Chiropractors believes that chiropractic services should be centred on the users of those services. The College supports the delivery of services that are flexible and responsive to the needs of patients, acknowledging them as partners in their own care.” (Tim Jay DC FCC, President)

The award recognises the achievement of outstanding levels of care and service provided to patients, in areas including cleanliness and safety, communication and patient education, privacy, accessibility and record keeping.  More information will follow and of course pictures, after the 30th January ceremony!

In addition to the PPQM award, one of the Longlevens Chiropractic & Sports Injury Clinic’s Chiropractors, Danny Adams, will be presented with an award identifying him as Outstanding PRT Chiropractor of the Year on the College of Chiropractor’s postgraduate Training Scheme, under Mentor and Clinic Director, Simon Rose.

Congratulations also to Danny (who has been busy!) for recently achieving his International Chiropractic Sports Science Diploma, awarded by the International Federation of Sports Chiropractic.  This post doctoral qualification ensures extremely high standards of theoretical and practical competency in treating sports injuries and qualifies him to participate in major national and international events such as the Olympic Games.

More information will follow soon about all of the above.

 

 

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What is Whiplash?

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Whiplash – you hear the term used all the time but do you really know what it is and why it occurs? Here it is for you, put simply by Danny Adams, Chiropractor at Longlevens Chiropractic & Sports Injury Clinic:

Studies show that a rear-end collision of as slow as 5 Mph can result in what is known as a “Whiplash Associated Disorder” (WAD). (This is the correct term for whiplash used by medical professionals). Classically, most people will tell you that a rear end car collision is what leads to Whiplash. However, this is not the case, as you can see from the term ‘Whiplash Associated Disorder’ Whiplash can occur in many different ways. If you follow the definition you would be forgiven for thinking that Whiplash can only be as a result of hyper flexion and hyper extension. However, what is more common is that when a person experiences whiplash it is as a result of the person’s neck not being prepared correctly for the rapid change in movement. Whether the impact to the persons body came from behind or the sides. This is because the muscles of the neck are not prepared correctly to brace the neck bones and tissue (usually because the person was not expecting to injure themselves). Then by the time they have braced it is too late and the damage has been done. Also, mistakes are made in treating, where it is commonly thought that the ligaments surrounding the facet joints (little joints that connect each segment of the spine) get sprained due to hyperflexion (too much flexion) and subsequent hyperextension (too much extension) whereas, in fact, a large amount of joint compression occurs as the neck gets taken through and ‘S’ shape curve just after impact seen in the middle picture below.

Here is the classification of WAD injuries just to show you how different each Whiplash injury can be. There are a few different classifications though this one is most common at the moment, designed by ‘The Quebec Task force”. If you have suffered Whiplash then you would have fallen in to one of these graded categories.

Now, another very common mistake to make with Whiplash is that the injury only occurs within the bony part of the neck and local tissues. In fact a large part, if not the majority of your pain will be coming from the surrounding musculature that braced the neck too late. What happens is that the muscles that failed to respond quickly enough at the time of impact are kept in a state of neurologically controlled hypertension (too tight!) as they form their own protective brace around the bones and tissue of the neck. Don’t get me wrong, there may have been bone, joint and tissue damage but it is usually the muscles that are responsible for the long term effects of Whiplash. Often the segments of the spine, their joints and local tissue have often healed while the muscles can stay in a state of unnecessary tightness for years after.

A simple but frustrating mistake I hear time and time again when advice is given for Whiplash is “use heat to relieve the pain and symptoms”. For the life of me I do not know why this is suggested, if you get a bruise or you tear/strain a muscle why would you want to encourage the inflammation with heat in the early stages?  Heat feeds inflammation, if you read the physiology behind inflammation you will see that inflammation is a genius evolutionary process but essentially quite crude. The body does a great job with inflammation breaking down and clearing out dead and diseased tissue, though it often goes too far and can in fact damage it’s own healthy cells, thus prolonging the recovery of an injury. By applying heat you will get relief at the time of application due to the over riding of the ‘pain gate’ at the damaged region. However, a few hours later the pain often will return and sometimes it can be worse. I’d suggest using ICE 10-15 minutes every 2 hours and observe the difference.

If you would like further information on whiplash please contact us on 01452309372 or email contact@longlevenschiro.com.  See more of Danny’s articles here.

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So, How Can A Chiropractor Help Treat My Headache?

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There a variety of different headache types, evidence shows that chiropractic can help treat two of the most common types, these are migraines and cervicogenic headaches. During a consultation a chiropractor will assess you and form a working diagnosis as to which type of headache he thinks you are suffering from. They will then inform you as to whether they feel you would benefit from chiropractic treatment.

Treating ‘Migraines‘

Although migraine attacks affect a significant number of people, the triggering processes for the headaches are not fully understood. Many different triggering processes have been noted by sufferers in the past and finding the one that affects you may be the key into helping you prevent them reoccuring.

What is known about Migraines are that they have been found to be due to changes in the function of the blood or nervous systems in specific areas of the brain as well as due to changes in chemical balances within the body. With Chiropractic care, migraines may not be cured completely, though the frequency and the severity of the headaches has been found to be reduced (Ruegg, Shaw and Descarreaux et al, 2011), the mechanism of why this happens is currently unknown though there are theories.

One high quality research paper suggests that the relief of stress as a result of chiropractic care may be one of the reasons chiropractic treatment helps migraines they found that “83% of participants reported stress as a major factor for their migraines.” they then continue “It appears probable that chiropractic care has an effect on the physical conditions related to stress and that in these people the effects of the migraine are reduced.” (Tuchin, Pollard and Bonello, 2000)

Treating ‘Cervicogenic headaches‘

Cervicogenic headaches are headaches that are as a result of pain and restriction within the neck. Cervico- means cervical region of the spine (the top 7 vertebrae that make up your neck) and -genic means the beginning (as in genesis). The second most commonly treated problem by chiropractors after lower back pain is neck pain and dysfunction. By using a variety of techniques a chiropractor can help treat your neck’s joints and musculature which in turn can have a profound effect on relieving cervicogenic headaches by treating the true cause.

If you suffer from pesistant reoccurring headaches, try arranging an assesment with a chiropractor. You may be very surprised as to the difference chiropractic treatment can make to your quality of life.

References:
Ruegg R., Shaw L., Descarreaux M., Sorra K., Bryans R., Duranleau M., Marcoux H., Potter B., Watkin R., White E.. (2011). Evidence-based guideline for the chiropractic treatment of adults with headache. Clinical Chiropractic. 14 (4), 173-174.

Tuchin P.J., Pollard H., Bonello R. (2000). A randomized controlled trial of chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy for migraine. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. 23 (2), 91-95

I hope this has helped you understand a bit more about your body and Chiropractic, If you have any questions on this topic send me an e-mail at danny@longlevenschiro.com

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Why Do I Need to Use Ice?

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Its amazing… amazing how many times I have asked patients during our first meeting and consultation if they have iced their injury before coming in to see me. The answer 90% of the time is, “I haven’t” or “I have been using heat but not ice”. In mine and a lot of others opinions, Icing is by far and away the best thing you can do to get yourself back on the road to recovery as fast as possible in the early stages of a muscle or joint injury. Here in this post I explain why…

Probably your whole life you have been told if you have burned or bruised yourself that “you need to put ice or ice cold water on it to stop the swelling”. Well the same rule applies for your muscles and skeleton, this includes your spine by the way!, they all respond to ice in the same way as if you bruise your arm. Let’s take back pain for example, a similar thing is occurring with an episode of back pain that occurs with a bruise. Something in your back has been damaged as a result of weakness or poor function and the body is reacting by trying to protect itself using inflammation. The same as if you had bumped and subsequently bruised yourself.

Inflammation has 5 components; pain, heat, redness, swelling and loss of function. All five are reduced as a result of icing. Ok, now think about what I have just told you and consider this: If you just bruised your arm, would you put heat on it to try to make it better while it is still sore and hurting? (oh dear god, please say no…) Remember the 5 components of inflammation??, that’s right, heat was one of them!, therefore you would be encouraging inflammation if you used it, not good. This again also applies to your back, if your back is in pain it is usually due to inflammation, so don’t use heat!. The only time I recommend the use of heat is during a warm up before performing strenuous exercise and certainly not for someone in pain. Once a person is out of pain and functioning correctly I only encourage heat in the form of giving your muscles a good rub to make them more pliable if you know they are noticeably tight.

Right, now I want you to apply what I have just told you to your day-to-day life. If you had just suffered an episode of back pain, would you now consider it a good idea to have a hot bath?? or a hot shower??, or go in the hot jacuzzi down at you leisure club??. I hope you can see what I am saying here (and no, I am not saying don’t wash, that wouldn’t help any of us!). What I am trying to say is that you may be applying heat to your back pain without realising it, by performing day-to-day activities like those I just mentioned. What I would like you to consider when in an episode of back pain is turning down the temperature. When you have a shower or bath, reduce the temperature a bit (not too much!) and make sure you ice your back straight after for 10-15 minutes or find a cooler alternative to cleaning yourself, like using wash towels.

To conclude, wrap up some ice cubes in a damp cloth or wrap an ice pack in damp paper towels or a cloth and apply to the problem area. Perform 10-15 minutes of icing every 2 hours, five times a day or as close to that as possible. This is the perfect routine to help get yourself through the early stages of injury. I would also recommend seeing your Chiropractor or other manual therapist as there are some instances where the pain may in fact not be coming from the parts of the body you suspect. In which case your Chiropractor or other manual therapist will help you identify the correct place to apply your ice pack whilst also providing treatment, information, advice and guidance to aid the healing process and help prevent it happening again!.

When to use ice: Acute sprains and strains, Acute inflammatory processes: arthritis, bursitis, tendonitis myositis, and neuritis, Acute trauma, Acute and chronic muscle spasm.

When not to use ice: Cold hypersensitivity (test a small non-painful area first if worried), a vasospastic disorder (Vasospastic disorders are conditions in which the vessels of the extremities do not dilate properly.), Systemic complications, Raynaud’s Phenomenon or Certain malignancies (seek advice). Do not apply if you are a weakened individual; Old age, Infancy, Cachexic. Or if you have severe varicose veins, myocardial weakness or high blood pressure.

I hope this has helped you understand a bit more about your body and Chiropractic, If you have any questions on this topic send me an e-mail at danny@longlevenschiro.com

If you live in Gloucester or surrounding areas and are interested my Chiropractic services and what I can do to help you, then book an appointment to see Danny at the Longlevens Chiropractic and Sports Injury Clinic on 01452 309372

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