How The Joint Salt Lake City Chiropractors can help your Golf Swing

As I write this blog, I am also simultaneously keeping track of the scoring at the US Open (golf).  The 2017 US Open Tournament is starting today and I will be glued (in one way or another) to the TV or Internet Coverage of the event.  I grew up playing golf and love when the Majors are played.

The bad part of this whole thing is that the golf swing is one of the worst things you can do for your spine.  The reason it is so bad is because you are putting your spine through 3 different planes of motion all at the same time.  If you go through 1 plane, or even 2 planes of motion at the same time, your joints are better able to deal with that motion and stay healthy.  When you add the third plane of motion, that starts to put too much torque on the joints and damage starts to occur (see Tiger Woods & back surgeries).

These are the planes of motion that cause damage:

1.  Flexion and Extension (bending forward and backwards).  In the golf swing, most of your swing occurs in flexion (forward bending) which puts a lot of pressure on the front side of the spinal joints which is where the discs are.  In and of itself, the forward bending isn't too bad, but when you add in the other motions of the swing is when you start to hurt yourself.  Years ago, the golf swing was taught to end in what was referred to as a "reverse C" curve where you were leaning back a lot as your swing came to an end (see Johnny Millers swing).  It's not taught that way much any more, so the extension part of the swing isn't causing many problems anymore.

2.  Lateral Flexion (side to side bending).  The second plane starts to put a pinch on particular areas of the disc because you are squeezing both the front and side of the disc.  That pinch decreases the ability of the disc to move and fluctuate like it should which allows for any pressure to start to damage the disc.

3.  Rotation (side to side turning).  This is where the damage occurs.  Once the disc is "pinched" and immovable, then the player rotates and instead of the disc allowing the rotation...the fibers that protect the outer portion of the disc start to tear.

This process repeated thousands and thousands of times wear down the disc and eventually, damage it to the point that symptoms will begin to occur and if that damage is not dealt with and treated properly...Bulging and Herniations of the disc will occur.  Which may lead to surgeries.

Chiropractic care is meant to help the joints of the spine function properly and allow for as much movement as possible.  The golf swing is still bad for the spine, but with regular chiropractic care, your back will handle your game a whole lot better.

Is a Fast Chiropractic Adjustment Good?

Does time inherently equal quality?  Another way of asking this is:  Does time and quality have a linear relationship when viewed on an X/Y coordinate graph?

Any quick pondering over these questions should logistically reveal the answer to be no.  You can spend a long time on some project, and still have a poor quality result.  On the opposite side of the spectrum, you can observe an expert spend a short amount of time on their craft, and get masterful, high quality results.

 https://www.thejoint.com/utah/salt-lake-city/sugar-house-45001

Sometimes I overhear patients complaining along the lines of… “Last time I was here, the other doctor that worked on me seemed kind of rushed.”

My first response to that is one of sympathy.  But at the same time, I feel the need to question them.  Do you not feel the adjustment was still accomplished?  Do you not realize that at The Joint Sugar House, we see around 130 patients per day?  And that second question isn’t brought up to say, “We don’t have time to see you for more than X amount of time…” (even though, generally speaking, this is true)… But rather, it’s brought up to help patients recognize that we’ve seen it all! 

There’s a saying that says after you’ve spent about 10,000 hours practicing your craft, you’ve become a master.  Well, our doctors at our clinic have spent at least that much time practicing chiropractic, and then some.  And once you become a master/expert, it doesn’t take time to get it done.  We don’t want to waste your time.  We understand you have places to be.

Within this same context, I’ll see patients (either myself, or on the other table with the other doctor) who ask for more attempts on an area that’s already been adjusted.  Why???  It’s like they’re fooling themselves into thinking more “pops” can happen if they have “more time” spent on an area.  It could be said that if a placebo experiment were done on some of these patients with this reputation, they’d get the same result.  In other words, if (and that’s a big if, as this is only hypothetical) we were to give a purposefully lousy adjustment on a patient, but spend a lot of time doing so, the patient would be equally satisfied as their other high quality visits (wherein they unnecessarily asked for more work on already adjusted areas).

Some may view this as a rant, or as Dr. Martin complaining about patient requests.  It’s not.  It’s a plea for more patients to trust in the expertise of the doctors.  The biggest reason for this plea?  The patients who DO trust, and have quick in and out adjustments, are the ones who appear to rarely have discomforts and pains, and who have a generally higher level of happiness upon seeing us.  Maybe there’s something to this after all…

How routine Chiropractic Care can help Salt Lake City Residents live a Healthier life

How routine Chiropractic Care can help Salt Lake City Residents live a Healthier Life.

I'm not a big time Facebook user. Yes, I have an account but I don't post much to it. Sometimes I do get on it to check out what's going on and see if there's anything interesting. Most of the time I find some video that catches my attention and the problem becomes that after I watch that video there is other similar videos that appear under the one I clicked on and I click on those as well. Before I know it, over an hour (maybe even two) has passed and I can never get that time back. Therefore, I try to not go on to Facebook very often.

During one of these times that I have got on, I have noticed a certain video that has appeared. I have seen two different versions of it, both with the same message. Maybe you have seen this video as well. It is a video that shows a guy dressed in warmer clothes. He walks out of his house and looks all around at the sunshine, green trees and lawn, and the warm weather. He gets really excited, runs back in the house doing the happy dance. Goes to his room and changes clothes. He puts on his shorts and a tee shirt and tennis shoes. He runs downstairs and goes outside, only to find it covered in snow and freezing. The person who posts these videos says something like, "only in Utah" or whatever state they live in to demonstrate how quickly the weather can change from one moment to the next. It's a funny video and we can find it true in many cases.

The weather is the only thing that can change in a blink of an eye. At The Joint Chiropractic in Sugar House, I get many patients that come in with pain and tell me that they didn't have this pain before yesterday or this morning. They say there was nothing that they can think of to cause this pain they are having. Even this morning, I had one of our regular patients come in with the help of a friend. She was in tears. When she first came to see us a few months ago, it was for pain in her neck & upper back. We aware able to quickly help her get out of that pain and she has been faithful in coming in regularly to strengthen her spine to keep it from coming back. This morning, she was laying on the floor & when she went to get up, she experienced severe low back pain. She was having trouble walking without help. I treated her three time today to speed up her healing and with each treatment, she improved a little bit each time.

What happened to her? I told her I suspected that she was one of the 60% of people that are walking around with an asymptomatic disc problem. That is when there is a problem but no symptoms show. Then one day they come "out of the blue". This is another big reason why we at The Joint Chiropractic Salt Lake City we tell our patients that they should get checked regularly with Chiropractic to improve the health of their spine. As the old saying goes, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". For more information go to:https://www.thejoint.com/utah/salt-lake-city/sugar-house-45001

Stages of Chiropractic Care in Salt Lake City

In chiropractic in Salt Lake City, Utah, there are a few different stages of care that a patient may go through. The stage that most often brings in new patient's if the relief care stage. Relief care is where the focus is on relieving the pain that brought the patient in. Depending on the amount of pain, 0-10 on the pain scale, and the type of pain, sharp, dull, burning, tingling, or numbness, it can be a quick stage, as in a day or two. Or it can be multiple days, weeks or even months. Some patient's may not even be able to advance to the next stage because they neglected there health for so many years. Even with these patients, we are usually able to help the pain decrease, even if we are not able to get the pain all the way gone. Some patients decide for themselves that this is the only stage of care they desire. When I see a patient that hasn't been adjusted in a few years & I ask why they haven't come in, many times they tell me, "I haven't needed it." These are the people that are under the impression that if they aren't in pain, they must be healthy. I sure hope they don't take the same thought process with brushing their teeth or putting gas in their car.

As we progress and start to get the pain under control, we are then ready to move into the next stage of chiropractic care. The next stage is Corrective care. Corrective care is when we start to focus more on making a lasting change in the body. As I have wrote about in the past, the body is amazing and will adapt or compensate so it can still function. This compensation cause changes or habits in the spine. The joints and tissues around it get used to being misaligned. When we go in and adjust the joints to a better position, the tissues around the joint aren't used to that and quickly go back to their compensation pattern. During this stage, the pain is on the low end or even not there. This is the stage where we institute better "habits" of spinal alignment. This stage usually takes a few weeks to a few months, depending on the patient's condition and how long they've been misaligned, along with what they are currently doing that is counterproductive to the chiropractic adjustment. This is the stage where I've seen the best results with seeing the patient about once per week.

The third and final stage is maintenance care. This is where we see what frequency the body needs to be adjusted to keep the optimal functioning of all its systems. We start to spread out the frequency of visit and see where the body responds the best. This is the best stage because the patient isn't in any pain, the visits are quick and don't take much time, so you can get back to life.

As a Salt Lake City chiropractor, I will always give my recommendations of what your body needs in each of the three stages, but it is ultimately up to you to decide how much you will benefit from chiropractic care. Just know that we have very convenient hours and we are open seven days a week to help make it more convenient for you and your health.

To Your Health,

Dr. Tuft

What is your Goal with your Salt Lake City Chiropractor?

During my chiropractic education, I attended 2 different chiropractic schools.  The first was in Marietta, Georgia and the second was in Orange County, California.  One of the things that struck me as interesting when I transferred schools was that the same principles were being taught at both schools... but they were being taught from a pretty different point of view.

Let me explain:

At one of the schools, I was taught that the chiropractors job was to adjust the vertebrae of the spine in order to relieve and remove pressure from the nervous system (nerves) so that the brain could have free and unhindered communication with every cell of the human body (along those nerves).  When the brain can communicate with every cell, the brain can regulate, control, and heal the body without the need for outside influences.

At the other school, I was taught that the chiropractors job was to adjust the joints of the body in order to restore proper function to those joints to allow the body to move properly.  As the joints move properly, there is less (ideally no) "wear & tear" on the joints and no inflammation created because the joint is functioning properly.

It was always interesting to me to see the different points of view being taught about the same profession with Chiropractors in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Now, in practice, we have a lot of people coming to us for help.  We get patients who come in because they are in pain and want to get out of pain.  We have patients who come to us because they want their bodies to function optimally.  We have patients who want to avoid future health problems and are choosing to be proactive about their health.

My biggest question for all patients that I see in our office is, "WHAT IS  YOUR GOAL?"  I want to try and help you achieve your goals.  If I am trying to convince you to do what I want you to do...I don't think our relationship will be a good one.

 

If you are only interested in getting out of pain...I would love to help you achieve that goal.  I will make a recommendation on what I think it will take to help you achieve that goal.

If your goal is to get out of pain and stay out of pain...I will make the recommendation that I think will help you achieve that goal.

If your goal is to maintain optimal function of the spine/joints in order for your body to function to its capacity...I will make a recommendation to help you achieve that goal.

No matter what your goal is...the patient and the doctor must be on the same page and working toward it together with routine Chiropractic Care in Salt Lake City, Utah

Dr. Michael Hill

The Joint Chiropractic Sugar House

Salt Lake City Chiropractors help reduce the source of pain

The Need for Continued Chiropractic Care in Salt Lake City

            “Why won’t my spine stay in?  Why won’t it stay aligned?  Is there something wrong with me?”  For most patients, the faulty reasoning in these questions is easy to conceptually resolve.  For others, some greater basic understanding of their physiology is needed.

            Some patients mistakenly believe that if they’re ‘out’, or, misaligned, they just need to get adjusted once in order to resolve it, and the need for their next treatment is far off into the future.  A healthier understanding begins when we consider the various causes of your misalignments. 

If we rule out the obvious incidents (accidents, falls, or some other sort of trauma), we’re largely left to analyze your day-to-day habits.  Do you work at a desk?  Do you spend a good amount of time driving?  What about phone time?  Whether you answered yes to any of these questions, or whether there exists another cause for you, there is an inherent common denominator in your seemingly endless pattern of misalignments:  Gravity.

We’re all guilty of slouching and not maintaining a continuous proper posture.  It is a seemingly innocent problem when only done once in a while, but unremitting habits is where we get into trouble.  A primary reason for your muscle tone is to resist the forces of gravity.  And when we don’t have proper posture, our compensating musculature will cause our spine to lock up, as our bodies conservatively seek stability.

So when you get adjusted and aligned, consider the uphill battle your body is up against when we fully weigh in the vast amount of time and muscle memory that existed up until your adjustment.  We are creatures of habit—largely without even being aware of it!  If we are to train your spine to remain aligned rather than misaligned, we need to do just that; TRAIN IT!  You don’t go the gym and work out once and feel satisfied that you’ll be fit forever!  Likewise, you don’t brush your teeth once and figure that you’ll now be cavity-free for the rest of your life!

Please also consider that you don’t usually do things symmetrically.  And as we create our own imbalances (right vs left; front vs back, etc.), gravity wins again.  Do you now see the value and need for Chiropractic Care in Salt Lake City on a Wellness level?  It may seem somewhat daunting at first to think you are in continuous need of chiropractic adjustments, but as your body/spine becomes more and more trained, your treatment frequency will lessen.  Don’t misunderstand, I am by no means saying that the need for treatments goes away, but I am saying that you can be confident that your body has arrived at a higher level of health.  Now just keep it there!

Dr. Kelby Martin

How Salt Lake City Chiropractors help with Headaches

At The Joint Chiropractic in Sugar House, Utah, we get the opportunity to help a lot of patients with many different kinds of health concerns. Those health concerns range from neck or low back pain, to knee or elbow pain, to improved athletic performance and general overall health. Besides those already listed, many people seek chiropractic help with their headaches. I often see patients that have marked headaches on their intake forms. Many times when I asked how often they experience headaches, They say, "not that often", but when I press a little bit for more details, they tell me they experience headaches one or more times a week. Some even have daily headaches.

There are a few different types of headaches. Today I want to discuss the stress headache. Stress headaches can also be called muscle tension headaches. I have wrote before about how stress, physical, chemical, and emotional, is the cause of our aches, pains and ailments in one way or another. This is also true for the stress headache.

There are many muscles that have attachments to the head, neck and back that can play a roll in headaches. The sub-occipital muscles are muscles that attach to the bottom of your skull. Obliquus capitus superior and inferior, and the rectus capitus minor and major are some small muscles that can play a big part in tension headaches. The splenius, semispinalis and trapezius muscles are bigger muscles that also play a part with tension in the neck and shoulders and headaches.

People that work at desks in Salt Lake City  that are not ergonomically set up properly or those of us that find ourselves looking down at our phones or tablets will experience tension in these muscles. That tension can lead to a stress headache. This tension can also lead to muscle spasm and what chiropractors call subluxation, bone out of alignment or not moving properly. Chiropractic can be of great help in relieving the misalignment and tension, but if you don't change the ergonomics of your workstation or how you interact with your mobile devices, you could easily find yourself in a cycle of this muscle tension, spasm and subluxation.

As Salt Lake City Chiropractors, we correct the spinal misalignments, it would be wise for you to use proper ergonomics, as well as, adjusting the way you do things to insure that you have good posture. Doing this will allow your body to hold your adjustments longer, decrease the degeneration of your spine and decrease the frequency, if not get rid of the stress headaches that plague so many people in Salt Lake City today.

To Your Health,

Dr. Tuft