Arthritis is a disease that causes the joints to swell, resulting in pain, stiffness, and loss of function, particularly in the hands, knees, feet, hips, and spine.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of the disease and is a degenerative disorder of the joints.  It occurs primarily as people ag and the joints “wear out”; it sometimes occurs due to physical injuries that permanently damaged the joints.  Chiropractic has been proven remarkably effective in treating arthritis and its symptoms, both genetic and non-genetic related forms of arthritis.
Chiropractic for arthritis approaches the practical issue of getting the body to move more freely.  Once the body is aligned to move with fewer restrictions, the need for pain relieving medications lessens, or disappears altogether.
On going chiropractic care will also help prevent arthritis, or at least its damaging effects.  This form of prevention is probably the most crucial benefit in treating the disease.  The basis for Chiropractic care is centered in the body’s ability to heal itself.  By correcting Vertebral Subluxation, a chiropractor helps increase range of motion in the body, which assists in movement.  Chiropractic and its complementary treatments, which include nutrition and lifestyle choices such as exercise, can be used as a preventive measure in developing arthritis or to help relieve the serious mobility issues.  Because Chiropractic focuses on adjustments, joint can be directly in order to reduce pain.  In general, the stiffness and pain that can result from various forms of arthritis can be alleviated with chiropractic care.
Once arthritis occurs, chiropractic’s use of spinal adjustments can result in the diminishing of pain by assisting the overall physical health, resulting in greater ease of movement and decreased fluid buildup in the joints that often accompanies arthritic conditions.
Using chiropractic instead of prescription medicines for pain relief can reduce the chances of experiencing harmful side effects from long term use.  It offers a non invasive method of maintain physical health and addresses such conditions as arthritis in a way that will offer freedom of movement without the deteriorating effects that might come with medications.
The best management of arthritis is of course prevention and involves taking care of one’s joints at an early age:

• One should always make sure that all injuries to joints are properly managed to insure proper healing to avoid future disability.
• People involved in occupations that require standing or walking should wear proper shoes that provide good support and shock absorption.
• Excess body weight can cause increase stress upon the weight bearing joints of the body
• Avoid kneeling on hard surfaces to do housework as this can put strain on the sensitive structures of the knee.
• Eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables as they contain natural vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants which are essential for the health of the joints as well as the rest of the body.
• Nutritional supplement Glucosamine can help with arthritis and can possible help rebuild joint cartilage.
• Exercise such as stretching, yoga, tai chi and other gentle mobilizing activities is also helpful to maintain arthritic joints.
• Chiropractic adjustments are safe and effective for arthritis and can help restore proper mobility and function to the spinal joints.

original article posted by Dr. Mike Frias, of http://www.friaschiropractic.com/ on Oct 28, 2009

ARCH SUPPORTS HELP CORRECT BODY POSTURE

Today I really need to tell people and my patients about the importance of our feet and the arches.  Most everyone has some sort of problems that develop in our feet, and these problems always end up causing other conditions that we have and we do not even know they are developing. 
Most people can take a good look at the bottom of their shoes and they will see uneven wear of the heal of the shoe or even the sole of the shoe.  Some people will even see that they are running the shoe over the side in the heal or the forward portion of the shoe either to the inside or outside of the shoe.  This is showing that there is a definite foot condition.  This will cause the patient or the person to develop early knee conditions or hip and spinal conditions, or they may start to develop muscle cramps in the lower leg.  While this is taking place you are slowly causing the arches of your feet to collapse.  There are three arches in each foot which most people or even some doctors over look.  There is a lateral, medial and a transverse arch right behind the ball of the foot, all three of these arches play a very important part of keeping the rest of our body in good balance and to avoid spinal, pelvic or knee conditions from developing.

I have treated hundreds of patients in the last 39 years for spinal conditions and at times have had a hard time getting the patients spine to get stable due to foot problems and arch problems and once we have scanned their feet and gotten the right arch supports in their shoes their spinal conditions became stable and held in place much better.

In the Mahnke Chiropractic Center we have a scanner that we use to scan the feet to see how the arches are being affected and from this we can generate a four to five page report of how your foot problems are affecting your body and your spine.  At the end of this report we then have a choice of three different arch supports that could be used to help make the corrections.  It will give us the best possible support and then the next best and then the lease best support to use for these corrections to be made..

If you have read this article and have noticed wear and tear on your shoes that are not even or have spinal conditions of knee conditions, I would highly recommend that you talk to our clinic staff and inquire about having your feet scanned.  It does not cost you anything to have the scan done and get the report, then if you would like to go with the supports then you will only have to pay for the cost of the supports.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article, now that you have come to the office and have your feet scanned so the corrections can be made to help your body have a better place to live.

WHY CHIROPRACTIC CARE IS SO IMPORTANT TO THE HUMAN BODY

In my opinion and not because I am a Doctor of  Chiropractic, the profession of Chiropractic should be seeing 90% at least of the population.  My reason for being so bold would be that the spinal column and the nervous system is the life line of the human body.  There is not one function in the human body that can work without 100% of nerve energy.  Yes I know there are functions that the body can do with some limited nerve energy to that part of the body, but in turn you also get limited function of that part of the body if the nerve tissue is working with limited impulse.  One of the main reasons a nerve will work with limited impulse is because the nerve is being pinch and not working 100% so thus the part of the body the nerve goes to works with limited ability.  As mentioned in previous writings it was the father of medicine that said look well to the spine for disease.  He understood that the body functions had to have 100% of nerve energy to function to 100% capacity.  It is really amazing that for some reason they got away from that philosophy.  I should really be happy about that, but then again if they would have stayed with that philosophy we may not have as many sick people in the world today.  I do see the thinking of the the people changing and more and more people are starting to look at a more natural way of health, but there is a long way to go.

I know there is a need for some medications so do not get me wrong.  There are some health conditions that need medications besides Chiropractic care.  However I do believe if the people of the world would start their children out right away with Chiropractic care their children would grow up with a more normally functioning nervous system then what we did due to the lack of proper care of our own nervous systems with Chiropractic care.  You see Chiropractic is one of the main and only health care systems that treat pinched nerves in the spine that are causing our bodies health to decrease in it's abilities to function to 100%.

See our bodies are not much different then our own cars, the car has an electrical system that keeps everything working as long as the battery and the wires in the car are in good working condition.  Our bodies are the same as long as the nervous system is working to 100% the body part that the nerve goes to is functioning at 100%, however if a nerve becomes pinched in the spine then that nerve will not function at 100% and that part of the body will not work AT 100%.  You can see by this that it only makes sense to keep the spinal system balanced so the nerves are not being pinched and start to malfunction.

In my practice of Chiropractic I will treat a patient on a series of visits to get the spine balanced and free the nerves and once this has been done I will talk with the patient and try to help them understand how important check ups are to keep the spine correct and the nervous system from being pinched.  Why get your spine corrected and then let everything start to fall apart because if some of the things we do on a daily bases that can cause a spine to go out of balance and then wait until the pain takes over or for an organ to start to malfunction.  This does not make a lot of sense to live life that way.

We spend time sometimes taking better care of our cars then we do with our own body.  We make a point of getting the car serviced so it keeps working at 100% but we spend very little time taking care of our bodies unless we develop pain or some other health condition, at that time we may think why did I let this happen.  Most of the time if we just listen to what our bodies are telling us most of the health problems could be avoided.  We have to remember that most of our health problems start with a pinched nerve that is not allowing our body parts or organs to work at 100% and if left go long enough then disease will set in then the medications and surgeries are very necessary to have.  We also need to remember that pain tablets and simple medications are like frosting on a bad looking cake, they simple kill the message to the brain that there is a problem and when we stop the medication most of the time the condition comes back but much worse then it was at first.

So as the father of medicine once said look well to the spine for the source of disease.

Sciatica

Let us talk about a very common condition called Sciatica.  It seems to be a condition that can scare a lot of patients when you tell them what they are suffering from.  There are times when I can see how patients can get very worried about this condition.  Most patients that have come to my office for this condition, have been dealing with the pain of sciatica for some time.  As I start to question them on their pain and how it started there have been may different explanations on the type or severity of their pain, and at the same time many different ways they have told me how they developed their condition.  After treating hundreds of these type of patients you still find a very common thing that seems to evident.  I would have to say that about 90% of the patients that I have treated with the condition of sciatica have all noticed after several questions that they have had lower back pain for months that would come and go.  After a period of time though this low back pain started to be and every day thing but not severe in nature but more of an achy feeling every time they would sit for a period of time and then go to get up, or maybe they had this achy feeling and stiffness when ever they bent over to lift or pick things up from the floor and they would just think that it was sore muscles and take some tablets for pain or get some muscle relaxers to help them.  Then one morning they got out of bed and started to feel pain into the buttocks and then later in the day it was moving into the upper leg and then evendually down to the lower leg and the whole leg was starting to ache and became constant.

After talking with them the average patient would say that they woke up with this and they did nothing to cause this pain down into the leg.  They forgot that their body was trying to tell them that things were not working right and they were just covering their condition up with the tablets that they have been eating like candy so they would not feel the pain.  The average case of sciatica starts with pain in the low back and then as time goes on and not having proper treatment it starts ti spread to the leg and down the leg to the toes.  Sciatica does most generally start due to spinal subluxations in the lower spine and this is causing compression of the main nerve roots that make up the sciatic nerve, which is the largest and longest nerve of the human body.  This being said should help patients understand why it takes a series of treatments to get this condition under control and healed.  To help patients understand the way this condition starts and progresses and later heals I use a very simple explanation that helps patients make some sense out of the condition and that is to think of a hose attached to a fire hydrant.  When the hydrant is turned on and has full power, that is like a normal nerve, it is nice and thick and has a 100% of power going through it.  Once you turn the power down on the hydrant it causes the part of the hose that is attached to the hydrant to start to shrink in size and as the water pressure is decreased then the hose starts to shrink in size down the length of the hose.  This is the same thing that happens in the nervous system when a vertebrae is subluxated and pinching the nerve it starts to cut the power in the nerve and the nerve then starts to atrophy or shrink, or you might say it is starting to die out.  This then causes the pain or inflammation at the top of the nerve to spread down the length of the nerve.  When you start to get this condition treated by correcting the subluxation of the vertebrae and relieving the pressure on the root of the sciatic nerve then the nerve has to start to regenerate from top down.  Depending on how severe the nerve was affected will depend on how long it will take the nerve to heal all the way down.

What the patient has to understand is first how long they have been having this condition prior to starting their treatment, then on how sever the pain is.  Once they understand these things then they can understand why it takes time to heal from this condition.  There is one other thing the patient has to understand and that is to stay with their treatment until the whole nerve has heeled and the subluxations in the spine are completely corrected and balanced with the vertebrae above and below the vertebrae that was causing the condition to start.  If the patient stops their treatment before that then the condition will return and be even worse if you thing that could be possible.  This condition needs to be check regularly while the nerve is healing all the way down to the end of the nerve to avoid the condition from returning.  In way what is taking place is the sciatic nerve is healing from above down, or you might say from inside out.  The pain will leave the back and then the hip and then the upper part of the leg and then the lower part of the leg and then out of the foot like it is going to just blow out the toes.  Like mentioned this condition can take time to heel, the patient will need to understand this from the doctor and the doctor is going to have to reinforce this with the patient, this is like a lot of different health conditions they take both the doctor and the patient working together to get the results that are needed, there will be things the patient needs to do and proper ways to do the things that need to be done for the heeling to take place.  This is where good communication with the doctor and the patient is very important, and if done there can be great success and other problems then can be avoided.

9/22/10
Just think today is the last day of summer and if you are like me you are not ready for fall let alone to have winter to come.  It is kind of like people who have problems with their back or what we call the spine in the business of chiropractic.  What I mean by this is the fact that our bodies always gives us a little sign here and there that there is something going wrong in our bodies.  It is kind of like those nights when we have some discomfort in our back and we think it is just some tight muscles and it will go away, but I will help it by taking some pain tablets and that will fix it.  We as humans have a very wrong belief that pain tablets and anti-inflammatory tables fix our problems in our bodies.  All these tablets do is cover up the problems by killing the pain message for a period of time and during that time we keep aggravating the condition.  Then all of a sudden we bend or lift or fall and then we have a great increase in the pain, or we wake up some day and have this large increase in the pain and can not get out of bed.  Then we think what do I do now?  If you have been a good chiropractic patient you would call your Doctor of Chiropractic.  If you have not been or never been to a Chiropractor you may call your MD.  He or she may give you more pain pills or a shot, then send you to therapy, once the shot or pills wear off you get the same pain or no improvement from the therapy over a long period of time.  Finely after weeks of do this you make your mind up to maybe try Chiropractic, once you have been examined and x-rays have been taken you find out you may have to have a series of treatments to get the help and relief you have been looking for over all the weeks you have been hurting.  There is one problem most of us want to get over the pain right away and can understand why it is going to take a period of time and treatment to get the help.  Maybe it is because we have been having to pain so long and we just want a miracle, those are the exception.  Your body has been dealing with this condition for months to years and has been trying to tell you but you may have relied on the pain tablets to much for your relief so your body had to keep adapting to try and protect you from the severe pain.  Your body can only do that so long and then it just has to let you know that you should have done something sooner.  Once the Doctor of Chiropractic starts to help you, then you have to stay with it to finish getting it balanced so the condition does not return in a month or two.  Some patients that I have seen did not follow trough with the treatment and then they end up back in the office with the same or worse condition which should have not happened if they would have just followed trough with the recommended care the first time.  Once you are over your condition and your pain it is highly recommended then to stay with some sort of preventive check up to avoid future conditions.  It is much easier to keep someone in good shape then to keep trying to rebuild their spine from neglect or from not doing preventive care.

I have had some people tell me that they do not go to the Chiropractic office because they have heard that once you go you have to keep going.  There is a whole miss understanding of that, you have to go for a series of care just to fix the problems, they have to be fixed a little at a time so the muscle system can balance properly with each treatment, and once that has been done and you are over your condition it is for prevention care.  This prevention care is up to the patient if they want to do that, and it is highly recommended.  If you think about the comment of once you go you always have to go, that is what happened when I went to my dentist, the dentist always makes me come back and asked why?  They stated it was to help prevent future problems, man does that sound similar to what I just wrote?  The funny thing is most people do not look at that the same as going to the Doctor of Chiropractic which really surprises me, I could live without my teeth but if my spinal cord and spine were not fixed I could even die from that since the spine and spinal cord are your life line for the body.  Think about it, I not saying I would look good without teeth, but I could live and do the things I always do without them, but the spine and spinal cord damage would make iot hard to live the way I want or even at all if they were severely damaged because then the rest of my body could not get the nerve supply it needs to function, everything would start to fall apart. 

9/17/10

Good morning from the Mahnke Chiropractic Center in Fremont NE.  This is the new blog that we have just set up so we can keep in touch with our patients and at the same time maybe even get some much needed Chiropractic education out to our patients on different conditions that people have with their health and their spine.  The big thing that people need to understand is how important their nervous system is to their health and where this nervous system is housed.  Several hundred years ago the Father of medicine said look well to the spine for disease.  There is not one function that your body can do with out some nerve function.  Every function of your body then has to be started with an impulse from a nerve that has to pass through your spine, and if that nerve is not passing through the spine without pressure on it that function is not going to happen correctly due to pressure from a vertebrae that has been displaced or subluxated.  As you should be able to see or understand from this simple explanation there is a large need for all people to make a visit to a Dr. of Chiropractic to help keep the bodies communication system open and help keep the body healthy.

As time goes on with this blog we are going to start to help patients understand the need for spinal disc decompression treatments to help solve bulging disc in the lower spine.  There are way to many patients that end up getting lower spinal surgeries that are not needed if they just do spinal disc decompression along with their chiropractic spinal care.  Our office has an average of 92% successes when using spinal disc decompression with a lower spinal disc bulge and chiropractic care.  For now I will be signing off, there will be more to come at another date.  Please enjoy our new blog.