Low-back pain can be a mysterious and often confusing riddle to solve. Even among some of the most elite scholars there is still a tremendous debate regarding the best approach. Statistically speaking, the low-back pain epidemic accounts for 264 million lost days of work, and it is the single leading cause of disability. One-half of […]

Friends and family often request advice for when they should seek medical care after they have sprained their back or neck. Patients frequently come into the clinic who have taken visits to the Emergency Room, sometimes even twice in the same day when they just can’t get the relief they are looking for. That question […]

The dilemma of using hot packs verse cold packs after an injury still seems to be a topic of great discussion.  Doctors, PA’s, nurses and even some PTs still are saying different things. For some reason, the hot verse cold debate still rages on despite the physiological advancements and understanding that exists today.  So, let’s […]

Science has long believed that stress can be a causative factor for physical pain, but can stress be the sole driver of pain? If it can be, then the remedy for stress induced pain does still seem to be an enigma. It is estimated that 72 percent of adults report they have health impacts due […]

Many people put a lot of stock into stretching and blame injury on lack of stretching or not being flexible.  Ironically, I have found that a fair number of clients have actually injured themselves by over stretching.  When I get into the details of how they were stretching, it is clear that they are not […]

Over the years, we have seen many patients with balance deficits or patients who have asked questions about balance. Poor balance affects so many different aspects of life, so it is not surprising that people would wonder what they could do to help improve it. Balance is actually controlled by three main systems: vestibular or […]

Don’t feel bad about skipping that yoga class, truth be told, it most likely is bad for you anyway.  Contrary to popular belief, injury rates in yoga have been showing an upward trend for some time now.  I recently ran across a resurfaced New York time article from 2012 that substantiated my long-time belief that […]

I have a similar conversation multiple times a week with neck patients regarding this question: “Is that a knot?” I work on many patients with neck pain. Patients come in with all types of diagnoses such as cervicalgia, spondylosis, radiculopathy, Levator scapulae syndrome, myofascial pain syndrome, and upper back pain to name a few. Ironically, […]

Muscle imbalances in the neck and shoulders are very common and can cause a multitude of problems, including chronic neck pain. Traditionally, when we think of muscle imbalances we think of syndromes in which some muscles become inhibited and weak and others become short and stiff. Chronic muscle imbalance can bring changes in soft-tissues, which […]

When a healthcare practitioner uses the term “alignment” when it refers to your spine, it can be a bit misleading.  The reason lies in the fact that the prevalence of people seeing chiropractors has grown tremendously in the last few decades.   Twenty-two years ago, when I started in the world of physical therapy, maybe […]