G'day guys, Dr. Michael from Charlton Chiropractic. Today, I want to talk about headaches. When I say headaches, I mean headaches, migraines, you name it, the lot. They might be at the base of the skull here, they might be around the front, they might be around the side. And really they just suck. I mean, I've had headaches before. Obviously, there's many causes of headaches. Most common is relating to your neck, and how the neck works, and how the neck is shaped and structured, and the effect on the nerves from that.
                               
My experience is that obviously we've got to consider other things like diet, and exercise, and lifestyle. But all that being equal, if you do the right things in that, and your alignments out, and you have a straight neck, that you're gonna have recurrent problems. You're more than likely, you're gonna stretch the spinal cord. In fact, Alf Breig, a neurosurgeon who did a textbook, Adverse Mechanical Tension in the Central Nervous System.
   
Hey, you don't need to know that, but when you lose the curve in the neck, you stretch the spinal cord five to seven centimetres. So that to me, if you're stretching that spinal cord, we've got the brain stem here, we've got the brain up here, kind of makes sense that you'd have headaches. Maybe that first alignment issue caused from a whiplash or from a sporting injury. Or maybe back as a kid, as a toddler, you slipped and fell, and what would seem not like a big issue at the time, has caused you to have some irritation in the neck.

Also, somewhat commonly, we have the birthing process, where there's forceps. There's 140 pounds or about 70 kilos of pressure put on around the skull. And nowadays, they're smarter now, they've realized it's not so great, and they use vacuum extraction. So they pull off the top of the head, and it's still quite extreme, but better. So, we've got to think, you've got that whole body being pulled by the upper neck, and it makes sense, and there's documented evidence of upper neck strain and injury from the birth, from this sort of stuff.

So, it sort of makes sense that if these aren't resolved at each point in time, that maybe when you're 30, maybe when you're 40 or 50, that you're going to have headaches, and you're going to have them recurrently. Your sleep's going to be bad, your energy's going to be bad, quality of life's isn't going to be great. But our job is to get you in better alignment as best we can. Now if you have some wear and tear and damage, then it's going to limit how much change we can have, but it shouldn't limit the ability for you to live a better quality of life. Then we've obviously going to maintain it just like you maintain your car going forward, so that you have the best quality of life possible and really enjoy the most energy, the better sleep, the better relationships with your friends and family. All of those things pair off. As men and women, we've got a headache, life just sucks. Life's too short to suck. You want to have a good life, right?

So if you have any troubles with headaches, please let me know. Or if you want to get checked and you want to say, "Hey, maybe's it's a good idea to see where my spine's at and see if I can be healthier than where I am now." And really get it at that point before you're having the headaches down here. But really understand that maybe a health should be worked on from a point of view of prevention, and dealing with issues before they become a big issue like a headaches that's an ongoing issue. So, I'll say, have a lovely day. Call us and schedule a checkup. Have a lovely day. 

​Good day, everyone. It's Dr. Michael from Charlton Chiropractic. Look, today I want to talk about the three top reasons why people have persistent hip troubles. The first thing is, they're not really addressing the issue at hand. If we take a spine and pelvis, here, they're feeling the pain around the hip, around the side of the hip, up around the buttock there, or around there. So, what do most people do? They look at the hip. They look here. They examine here because the pain's here. Now, what's the issue with that is, is some bursitive muscle. Yeah, that can cause you a lot of pain but you're going to notice things like lying on that side will be really tender, but most people are looking at the hip itself.

As a chiropractor, we think about you globally. We think about you holistically, and we want to really know what's the health of your spine and pelvis is and the nervous system. So, what we look at, we obviously want to look at the hip and make sure there's no degenerative change or any disease process occurring, but most times I find in my experience that there might be troubles with the sacroiliac joint that's irritating nerves and that's causing you to have pain in the hip itself, or they might be ... The second problem might be that it's an alignment issue. You might have a short leg and that's causing that to be out of alignment and it's putting more pressure on the joint and more pressure on the hip. Over time, as you walk and as you move, it's putting more and more pressure on that and it's not being resolved, so they'll do things to treat the symptoms of the hip but they're not doing things to address the alignment.

The third thing is not addressing the, I guess the same idea, but it's not addressing the underlying dysfunction in the spine. We can have referred pain from the spinal nerves, so there can be an alignment issue in terms of the shape of the back or from the front, like there's something like a postural change or a scoliosis where there's an alignment issue. If that's not being addressed, you can do things to feel better like getting a massage or even getting adjusted until you feel better, but that's not addressing the problem properly. We want to address the alignment changes, address the alignment damage that might be there, get it as best we can so you can live your best life. You can live the best quality of life, not just get out of the symptomatology.

So, if you want to really understand more about this and maybe you're having some hip troubles and you really want to make out why, then please shoot us a message or give us a call and we'll have a look at you and see what we can do to help. It's surprising how many people don't look at these things, even chiropractors, and it's not to have a go at them and it's not to say that they're not doing a good job, but maybe there's another perspective that we should look at, or it's not just the hip but it's maybe the pelvis, it's maybe the spinal joints, or maybe it's the level of the tailbone, so the leg length.

Of course, people make the mistake of when they feel better, they stop. Now, it's human nature, but what we know is that pain will go within probably a couple weeks to a couple months, depending on the case. But to address these underlying structural changes, probably it can take six to 12 months, which is like braces with teeth. They take two or three years, so we have to be quicker than that generally. But to get you in the best shape we can, it might take six to 12 months but it will mean that we address this properly and get this damage under control, stop it progressing hopefully, and give you the best life possible. So, any questions or if you want to get ​a checkup, please call us, but in the meantime, have a lovely day.

​Good day guys. Dr. Michael from Charlton Chiropractic. Happy healthy Tuesday. Today I want to talk about a really important topic, and that's your neck, and your neck posture, and how that relates to neck problems. So people having neck pain, neck tension, shoulder tension, things like headaches, migraines. The three reasons why it's recurrent for people.

The first thing to think of is what a normal healthy spine looks like. And what we want is a nice curve in the neck. That's probably not the best model, but you want a nice C shaped curve. You got the brain on top, spinal cord running down the back, the nerves coming out towards you. They go down your arm, they also supply into things like your diaphragm. So they control and coordinate the movement in your neck, shoulders, arms, as well as the feeling and sensation.

So they're pretty important. Your brain is kind of like a super computer, and it's always monitoring things. The nerves are kind of like an electrical cable sending signals back and forth to your body. So when you go out of alignment, and can go out of alignment in a few different ways, but the most common is a loss of the curve of the neck. You'll actually stretch the spinal cord.

A neurosurgeon, Alf Breig in the '70s found five to seven centimetres of stretch with the loss of the neck curve. So that can certainly be important. We can also lose alignment in the joints, or a jammed up joint. Or they can get immobilized, and they can wear out. Now, my experience is that most people, when they get care for something like a neck issue. They'll wait 'til they hurt, number one. And when we consider that potentially the first time that you have an alignment issue with your neck can be the birthing process. From forceps deliver, from vacuum suction. We're talking 70 kilos of pressure pulling on the upper neck. Now, when you consider that as a baby, they're not going to say hey, I've got a bit of a sore head. They're going to be irritable. So that's also why we check kids.

Or then, you might have, as a toddler you might be running around and doing slips, and bumps, or falls. Or even then as an adult, things like a car crash, or sitting at a desk where you have that poor posture, that can all contribute to an alignment issue of the spine.

I guess the first problem that people face is that they don't understand that the pain is not the problem. The pain is the symptom of what's going on in their spine and nerves, from the damage that's occurred previously. So what they'll do is they'll do things to address just the symptom, they'll go to physio or a chiropractor, or a massage therapist. And they will work until they feel better. It might be a week, to two weeks, three weeks, four weeks treatment. But, they're not really doing things to address the underlying changes.

Now of course, if there's changes and damage in the spine shape, or there's damage in the wear and tear of the spine, it's going to limit your ability to make improvement. But, what you do is make the best of the scenario so people can get as best they can. And of course, it's just like brushing your teeth. If you haven't brushed your teeth since you were young, since you got those second stage teeth, there's going to need some care to get them back up to scratch, and get them working properly, and a healthy mouth.

It's just the same with what we do. And then once we get you there, our job, quite simply, is to keep you in check, and to keep your spine moving well, and keep your nerves functioning well, or the best we can.

The second thing is they'll do things just to address the joint issues, or the muscle. They won't do anything to address the curve in the neck, or the loss of curve. So again, they'll do some care, and they'll do some treatment that will help improve their symptoms, but then they won't do the things to change the curve of the neck. Obviously without the curve change, what have we got? We've got tension on the spinal cord, we've got tension on the nerves. And that compression, has not changed. So that's important. We need that alignment better.

Now the third thing, is people will think it's something else. Well maybe my shoulder's a little sore, I need a massage. Look, I get a massage regularly. It's certainly beneficial, but is it addressing the alignment issue in the neck? Is it addressing the nerve feedback from your brain, through the spinal cord and then out through the nerves? Is it helping that improve? Now remember, our muscles are told what to do. What are they told what to do by? It's our brain and the coordination's from the nervous system.

So if we don't address this, then the muscles are going to be tight and tense. And of course, the things like the loss of curve in that forehead postural might make you feel tight and tense as well.

So this is really sort of a summary understanding for you, but really helping you see why we want to really address things properly for you. We want to really make the best care possible for you. So that not only that you will get the relief, but you'll get the functionality, you'll get quality of life, and hopefully quantity of life from what a healthy spine looks like.

So, if you have any questions feel free to let me know, but have a wonderful day, and a healthy, happy Tuesday.