Category: Uncategorized

The pain associated with Arthritis can be excruciating and debilitating, it can affect males and females, young and old. That is right, arthritis is no respecter of persons, it can affect anybody and with over 100 different forms of arthritis we all know somebody suffering from it.

What is arthritis? Arthritis is a condition that causes pain, swelling, stiffness and inflammation of a joint, however, generally affects more than one joint. Current statistics demonstrate that about one in every five people suffer from some sort of arthritis, the two most common forms being Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid arthritis. As there is no cure for arthritis, sufferers rely on various forms of treatment to relieve their symptoms, this is where Chiropractor Adam Meredith comes in, Adam says he has had great results in arthritic pain treatment in North Sydney at his Spine and Health Centre .

The symptoms of arthritis vary in severity from patient to patient, but generally the common complaints include continual, persistent pain in the joint every time they move; stiffness in the joint; inflammation of the joint which creates swelling which can be quite hot too touch and can become very red in color. Very severe cases can result in loss of flexibility and movement; cracking of the joints as you move (crepitus); deformity and even fatigue and fever. It is certainly worth your while to discuss arthritic pain treatment in North Sydney with Chiropractor Adam Meredith and his team as they are having great outcomes with their clients.

Early signs of arthritis are stiffness particularly in the morning and a constant feeling of wanting to stretch the area. Arthritic pain treatment in North Sydney is focused heavily on Posture.

Poor posture has a big affect on arthritis. Generally the first thing to happen with poor posture is that the head goes forward (usually due to long hours sitting in front of the computer). For every inch the head moves forward the effective weight of the head doubles and the muscles in the neck have to work 10 times harder. This increases the load through the neck joints, creates increased strain and accelerates arthritis.

The problem is further complicated as the rest of the spine compensates for the forward head posture. These compensations (ie other joints in the back bone, and the hips , knees, ankle and feet ) are no longer in the right place, and under go more stress and strain. This then promotes arthritis in these joints. So you can see that the forward head posture can affect arthritis in the feet!

Did you know that if you got a finger joint without any signs of arthritis and then bent it forward and sticky taped it so it could not move for 2 weeks and then x-rayed it you would already see arthritis in those finger joints!

Apart from direct trauma, arthritis occurs when the joints don’t move fully! Having a spine and hips, knees and feet that move properly is a great way to prevent arthritis or slow its progression.

How do our joints work? As we can see arthritis affects the joints, the joint is where the bones in our body meet e.g. knee and elbow and Back bones. As well as the bones, the joint consists of five main parts to help it work and they are the muscles; the tendons; the ligaments; the cartilage and finally the synovial membrane. The joint moves around with the help of muscles, these muscles surround the joint and move in different direction so that the joint can move. A tendon is like a tough piece of cord that joins this muscle to the bone; a ligament is like a large elastic band that bind the bones of the joint together; the cartilage is a smooth material that stops the bones from grating against each other and finally the synovial membrane contains fluid to keep the joint moving smoothly.

If you suffer from arthritis or any of these symptom, once you have received arthritic pain treatment in North Sydney or even pinched nerve treatment in North Sydney by Chiropractor Adam Meredith and his team, they will work very closely with you to develop some life-style changes to assist you manage this condition.

Have you ever woken up in the morning with either your arm or your leg feeling numb, and then when the numbness goes away it is replaced with a feeling of ‘pins and needles’, this is generally caused by a pinched nerve and can be so very, very painful.

In fact not only sleeping on a limb will cause these symptoms, any pressure at all applied to a nerve by the surrounding tissue will result in a feeling of ‘numbness’ and ‘pins and needles’ thereby interrupting the nerve’s normal function. The nerves passing over your bones are particularly affected as well as the nerve which travels from your spine to your foot.

With the right treatment, a pinched nerve is usually healed within a few days to a week; more chronic cases may leave permanent problems and Chiropractor Adam Meredith says he has had great results with pinched nerve treatment in North Sydney at his Spine and Health Clinic .

Other causes of a pinched nerve could be an injury, particularly sports injuries; repetitive movements and even additional weight gained during pregnancy with the pressure of a baby on your skeletal structure. Obesity is also a contributing factor; more serious causes could be a slipped disc or a damaged spine.

One of the main reason for the success of pinched nerve treatment in North Sydney is the heavy focus on Posture. Poor posture can stretch the actual spinal cord itself as well the nerves as they pass out of the back bones. Restoring posture to normal can significantly take the stretch of the nerves dramatically reducing the pain.

Once you have experienced this condition and have received pinched nerve treatment in North Sydney by Chiropractor Adam Meredith will be looking very closely at making some changes to your life-style to prevent further injury. If you need to perform repetitive tasks in the work place, you must make sure that you take regular breaks to stretch and perform a range of movement exercise program designed just for you; the most ideal outcome would be to divide up your work functions into smaller functions alternating them with other duties.

If obesity is the cause of your pinched nerve, reducing your body weight may be a contributing factor to minimizing your risk of this happening again. If that is the case, as well as Chiropractor Adam Meredith conducting his pinched nerve treatment in North Sydney at his Spine and Health Clinic, he also has a very successful health & wellbeing program that can assist you holistically.

Do you know what a ‘slipped disc’ is?

First of all you need to know how your body works so that it will help you understand why and how injuries happen and secondly how to stay healthy. The spine is divided into three parts: the neck (cervical vertebrae); the chest (thoracic vertebrae) and the lower back (lumbar vertebrae). These three areas are naturally curved to support the body with strong, flexible muscles and ligaments to maintain the structure. Each disc is tough on the outside with a spongy center with a constant exchange of fluids to enhance our movement.

Slipped discs most often affect the lower back (lumbar vertebrae) and are relatively rare in the neck (cervical vertebrae) and in the chest (thoracic vertebrae) sections of the spine. If we are diagnosed with a slipped disc, it doesn’t really mean that our ‘disc has slipped’ it means that the soft part of the disc bulges through the circle of the connective tissue and that is when you will need slipped disc treatment in North Sydney, Gladesville, Crows Nest and Mosman by Chiropractor Adam Meredith and his team.

What are the symptoms of a slipped disc? Sometimes a slipped disc can be symptom free, we don’t even know it is happening, but other times it causes a great deal of pain generally due to the pressure on the nerve roots or on the spinal cord.

In severe cases, and if you have pressure on the nerve roots, you may experience aralysis in some of your muscles with associated pain radiating to your legs and/or arms. You may also experience a disturbance of feeling in the limbs; muscle spasms or paralysis in some parts of your body. Pressure on the spinal cord can also cause problems with control of the bladder and/or bowel.

For a lot of patients the disc pain comes on with little or no trauma or provocation. Poor posture can dramatically load up a disc creating increase strain and wear and tear. A thorough look at a persons posture can determine if their discs are under increased strain, or if their posture is a causing their disc problems in the first place.

Did you know that forward head posture significantly increase’s the load on your lower back? For every inch your head moves forward the effective weight of the head doubles creating increased load on your lower discs! It’s not uncommon for the clients who have undergone slipped disc treatment in North Sydney, Gladesville, Crows Nest and Mosman, to have had their forward head posture reduced by up to 6 inches.

It is important to go to the appropriate people in order to make a correct diagnosis because several other diseases have similar symptoms, Adam and his team at their Spine and Health Centres understand the link between posture, discs and health and has had great success in slipped disc treatment inNorth Sydney, Gladesville, Crows Nest and Mosman.