Articles ⋆ Seasons Chiropractic

By Dr. Jacob Wooten 0 Comments Uncategorized Concussion, Injury

What is a concussion?

“Where am I? What in the world just happened? Oh, I am in my car. Now I think it’s starting to come back. Am I bleeding? No? Oh good, I guess I’m okay.”

And it’s always great if you’re not bleeding, but are you really okay?

One of the most commonly missed diagnoses is concussions during a car accident. Everyone thinks of whiplash and neck pain in car accidents. But if we don’t hit our head on the door or steering wheel or we don’t “remember” blacking out (sounds like a tough thing to remember happening if you aren’t conscious during it doesn’t it?”, then we as people and many medical providers don’t often think to check if we have a concussion.

But what is a concussion? A concussion is an injury to your brain that messes with how your brain works, but a CT scan or normal MRI can’t see any large structural damage. The damage that happens is very small.

Your brain is made up of billions of neurons (brain cells) with trillions of connections to each other by axons. A concussion is when some of those axons, which can be thought of as strings that connect your brains together, shear or rip.

How can it happen if I don’t hit my head?

A concussion can happen when your brain is moving one way, but the rest of your skull moves another. If you are at rest, and you get hit by a car, then your body moves with the car, but your brain is different. Your brain is floating in a fluid called cerebral spinal fluid, one of the purposes of this fluid is to protect your brain from hitting against the hard edges of your skull and get damaged. This works pretty well in most average activities.

But driving is not really normal for humans to do.

And I don’t just mean those people who try to drive when they are all over the place and their blinker fluid is low, or those depending on their guardian angels to get them through a busy intersection while texting!

Our bodies weren’t designed to handle getting hit by thousands of pounds and in two thirds of a second be thrown around like a rag doll. To paraphrase Isaac Newton, “an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by some external force”. So if you’re sitting in a car, at rest, minding your own business, and then WHAM, another car unexpectedly hits into yours, your car and body will be flung around a bit. But that cerebral spinal fluid will suspend the brain and delay its movement. This is still protective, but doesn’t protect you 100%. When your head stops whipping around, your brain will crash into your hard skull bones causing some of this bruising damage. This can cause a multitude of different symptoms that we will go over in our next blog, Part 2 of Concussions..

If you were in a car accident, it’s important that this key problem doesn’t get missed as it too often does. Please get checked by trained specialists who know what to look for in an accident. We are certified by the Personal Injury Training Institute. We are always happy to help in any way that we can.

Drive safe and stay healthy my friends!

Dr. Jacob Wooten, Chiropractic Physician

By Dr. Jacob Wooten 0 Comments Uncategorized Injury, Joint Health, Pain Relief

How Seniors Benefit From Chiropractic Care

Pain relief and general bodily comfort are important factors for everyone, but those at or above senior age might be in even greater need. The human body has a tougher and tougher time dealing with wear and tear as it gets older, and pain and discomfort become more common. At the offices of Dr. Jacob Wooten, we provide chiropractic services for all ages, and these services can be a major benefit to seniors. Whether it’s a simple back adjustment or a larger set of considerations, a chiropractor can help provide much of the relief and comfort seniors often seek. Let’s look at a few of the specific benefits we can offer to seniors.

Motion and Coordination

Chiropractic care can increase range of motion in multiple areas, not just the neck and spine. It has been shown to improve motion in other extremities, which often allows seniors to regain the ability to complete tasks they may have been unable to recently. On top of this, balance and coordination are often some of the biggest issues that plague seniors. Many of these issues relate directly to degenerative problems in the back, many of which can be stabilized through chiropractic care.

Joint Health

The spine is really just a series of joints, but if the spine is badly aligned, these joints will wear down over time. Chiropractic limits cases of bad alignment and helps reduce stress on joints.

Overall Health

The way a senior feels is often one of the most important parts of their aging process, and chiropractic care is a vital asset here. It helps people feel energetic and healthy while making simultaneous bodily adjustments and can lead to major improvements in senior quality of life.

Pain Relief

Finally, pain relief is likely the number one benefit of chiropractic care for seniors. Painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs work for periods at a time, but they don’t offer the kind of long-term relief that a chiropractor does. Chiropractic care also doesn’t come with potential dependency or large refill expenses. For more on how you or a loved one might benefit from chiropractic services, speak to the caregivers at the offices of Dr. Jacob Wooten today.

By Dr. Jacob Wooten 0 Comments Uncategorized Moving

Moving is Living

Moving is living. Not moving enough is not living enough. Not moving well is not living well. And moving excessively is living excessively. There’s a sweet spot to it, sometimes we find it ourselves, and sometimes the right doctor can find it with us.

There are some scenes from our lives that live stronger in our memories than others. Sometimes it’s memories that have a strong connection out of love, sometimes we don’t know why, and sometimes there’s a strong fear connection that helps us remember these events. You’ll know which one I’m talking about as I tell this story from 3 years and 3 months ago.

I just finished a 16-hour drive in a rickety old moving truck heading from California to Washington. As I was unloading the truck at the end of my family’s journey I was carrying an awkwardly large and heavy cardboard box off the ramp. And off the ramp I went; just at the wrong place; thud! I fell off the ramp. Fortunately, maybe, I landed on my heels and saved the valuable box, but I felt this sharp pain in my back. I went about unloading for another 30 seconds and something came upon me like an anaconda in the Amazon, and like Indiana Jones, I hate snakes, and I hated this moment. I dropped to my knees and dropped to the floor and couldn’t move, could hardly breathe. My low back had seized up and every thought came through my head. “Hey at least your going to start chiropractic school in 2 weeks.” “What did I just do to myself?” “Did I break something, did I mess up my discs or spinal nerves?” “How is this going to end up?” “I hope it isn’t permanent” “Why is this so debilitating?” “Why can’t I get off the floor?” “How am I going to unload everything else?!”

I was laying there on the ground for what seemed like 5 minutes, and probably was 5 minutes. Then a thought came in, “moving is living”. I started everything I could to gently rock back and forth a half-centimeter at a time, after a few minutes of that I was able to get myself off the floor and get back to a tortoise paced work. I went to school and everyone was very excited to hear my story and give me advice and practice getting me better, that was a scary experience. But some people brought up a good point, maybe it was meant to be this way and now I can better relate to those in this pain. Good point didn’t make the pain go away, but good point. Some treatments helped almost immediately, and some things made it worse, it took a long time and many hours interviewing doctors and dusting off books in the library to really feel confident in my diagnosis and the treatment I needed.

I was the most invested person in getting myself better.

All of my treatments that worked involved my having to correctly move, both to prevent it from happening again, which was learned the hard way, and to cause my body to better heal my injury. As I learned about every different condition and circumstance I as a chiropractor would be working with, in almost every case it comes down to “moving is living”.

So my greatest mission since starting my career is sharing this, in every case under the right context, moving well is living well. If I would have changed my sitting posture and taken breaks to walk around when traveling in the moving truck instead of sitting there with tired slouched posture for 16 hours, I could have lessened the risk of 2 and a half years of an injury to recover from. Because sitting while slouched especially for so long, tires out the low back muscles and joints and tissues back there, and when they tire and are called upon to work to protect you, they can’t do their job as well. Or if I would have used a dolly with large boxes, or taken more breaks from moving too much while unloading, I might have had my wits about me a little better and stayed on the ramp when I needed too.

It’s been my mission ever since to use my position as a chiropractor in Sandy Utah, to educate; whether I am getting business from people or not; to encourage the right amount of moving, in the right places of their body, and the right time (A professional medical evaluation will be able to determine when that is). Because moving is living, and moving well is living well.

Take time to take care, Dr. Wooten, D.C.

By Dr. Jacob Wooten 0 Comments Uncategorized Back Pain, Injury

Lessons From the Bear

So there I was, watching The Great Adventures of Winnie the Pooh at 4 years of age, and he bends over to touch his toes and the stitching in his back bursts undone. “Silly old bear,” I think, “it must be because he’s so stuffed with fluff.” Then after 21 years of school, it hit me as I was watching that same movie with my 4-year-old. Isn’t it amazing how in the circle of our lives our perspective can so greatly change? Here is why so many people get injured: repetitive bending at the spine, especially early in the morning. It’s in all the research and textbooks and classes on spine biomechanics. He didn’t get hurt because he’s silly, old, a bear, or stuffed with fluff. It’s because he moved improperly.

The discs in your spine that allow for the appropriate flexibility you need, have a gel in the middle. While you were sleeping, your discs fill with fluid and during the day some of the fluid gets pumped out. This is good because the fluid feeds your spine the nutrients it needs to stay alive. However, this makes the morning a risky time for injury because forward bending too much too early in the day creates even more than normal pressure in your disc and the gel tries to push out in the back where there is the least resistance to the movement.

A noticeable injury doesn’t always happen all at once; little by little, that daily routine and repetition of this poor movement create little bits of damage that don’t quickly heal until at some point, there is injury and it is noticed! Don’t get me wrong, bending forward for this has been an activity done for thousands of years across the world, it isn’t the problem. The problem is that this mandatory and normal movement is added to our unbalanced lifestyle where we compensate and move joints we shouldn’t do. This is to accomplish movements we naturally want to do but don’t have the strength for (motor control, stability) or the flexibility (mobility) in the correct parts of our body that our ancestors had. The answer? Power through it with lots of weight lifting and repetition? Hit it with a hammer? Please don’t! The answer is to learn again how to move correctly. For best results, come see your favorite chiropractor near Sandy UT for your functional assessment of useful movement. But if you don’t have that luxury available, the following may help.

Keep an inward and sturdy low back curve (Neutral/lordotic curve), stick your butt out and up, bend at your hips (thigh to pelvis area), not your back. Build your core with endurance exercises like planks and side bridges, learn how to breathe with your belly as you did as a baby, and strengthen your pelvic floor.

Unlike a stuffed bear, it’s harder for you to stitch yourself back together and go about your honey-loving day. We are made of more than stuff and fluff, but there are still things we can learn from this classic bear. That’s why I’m here as a chiropractor. I saw Pooh Bear doing moving to injury, and I can see it in other people. You just enjoy the movie.

Take time to take care, Dr. Wooten, D.C.

By Dr. Jacob Wooten 0 Comments Uncategorized Back Pain, Injury

When Shoveling Snow, Never Bend or Twist

Winter is amazing! The cold air becomes invigorating, the landscape changes dramatically, the trees and homes transform into beautiful spectacles as they light up the night. The hot cocoa and books reading the snow sledding and skiing begin, the hand holding gets just a little tighter as we take our loved ones down with us on the ice. Winter is coming, and snow will soon be coming with it. Some less amazing parts could be “break out your shovels, wake up even earlier, and drive slower if you want to get to work on time.” But more important than that, we need to maintain our health throughout the process of all snow shoveling so we can go to work and play this season!

Have Good Form

Snow is coming, that’s a lot of fun, it also increases a lot of stress.
It’s important to think about shoveling snow correctly to prevent injury and back pain.
Sometimes we can get away with poor snow removal methods for a while, but our back starts to feel that “alternative method” soon.
One way to look at it is that every time we bend with our back, we are putting more purchases on our credit card, and the day will come when our bill is due.
The reason why our back hurts is that we are bending with our back when it’s supposed to stay immovable.

Bend With Your Hips

Many people make the mistake of moving their back during exercise to make it stronger. However, the point of the core and our low back is to resist stress and motion. So that means every time that we move with our low back we are reinforcing a bad pattern and training our back to get injured.
What we’re supposed to do is bend with our hips. Everyone says don’t lift with your back, but what they mean is lift with your knees. Sadly, that advice is only partially helpful because it gets too hard on our knees and we really should be lifting with our hips! After all, that’s where the biggest muscles in the body located. Logically, the reason we have the biggest muscles there is that those are supposed to be the primary movers of the body.
Another thing to consider is we need to be using our thigh as a fulcrum against the shovel. When you can’t push the snow any further and need to do some shoveling use the handle as a lever and your thigh as a fulcrum.
One last thing, the worst thing you could ever do for your back is bend and twist while holding something heavy. We just aren’t designed for that sort of thing and so the pounds per square inch on our back goes up exponentially compared to how we are supposed to handle that heavy snow.
If you do this correctly, you shouldn’t feel any pressure tightness stiffness or stress in your low back. If that’s not the case, we have a problem.
Most people don’t realize that pain doesn’t have to be part of our daily activity.
The unfortunate part of living in the information age is we usually have a general idea of what we’re supposed to do and what we’re supposed to avoid but to carry out the idea into our lives, is still lacking.
If you’re not quite getting it, that’s okay! That’s what I help people with all the time, getting a better sense of how their body is supposed to move to avoid injury. Feel free to come in and we can talk about how we can help you throughout the winter and any of your spring and summer shoveling projects.
The favorite part of my day is when I can teach someone how to avoid and prevent future back pain.

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