If you’re reading this on a mobile device, it’s likely you’re craning your neck down to read it. After all, holding our phones and tablets up to our faces is weird and uncomfortable. Unfortunately, the neck and shoulder pain that stems from bad screen time posture is even more uncomfortable in the long run.
Dubbed “text neck” in pop culture, thanks to the amount of time many of us spend texting, reading and playing games on our phones, this can lead to chronic pain, fatigue, headaches and jaw pain if left unaddressed. Yes, you can make lifestyle changes to mitigate damage—but if you’re like the majority of Americans, you spend about four hours per day looking at your phone. It’s hard to maintain perfect posture every time you go to answer your latest message.
Luckily, text neck is a condition that benefits from treatment at a chiropractic clinic in Naples, FL.
Do you have text neck?
Text neck is characterized by neck, shoulder and spine pain, thanks to our propensity for looking down at mobile devices. Your head weighs anywhere from eight to 12 pounds, and when you look down for hours at a time, it puts immense stress on the muscles and connective tissues in your neck. Studies estimate that 80 percent of Americans keep their cell phones in reach at all times, and spend multiple hours per day looking down at them.
If left unaddressed, text neck can develop into chronic pain. It’s crucial to not only make lifestyle adjustments, but also have a chiropractor assist you by providing spinal adjustments.
How to start reducing your text neck symptoms
Obviously, we can’t completely ditch our devices. They’re necessary for work, personal communications and entertainment. Here are three ways you can reduce your text neck symptoms:
Posture check: Check in with yourself periodically to see if you’re slouching or tilting your head down. Try setting hourly or half-hourly reminders on your phone until it becomes a habit. When you notice yourself tilting your head down, adjust your spine and neck until you’re able to work, read or chat comfortably.
Try keeping screens at eye level: You won’t always be able to hold your screen up at eye level, but this will help reduce pain and other text neck symptoms. If you love to watch movies and shows on your tablet or phone, get a phone stand that will hold the phone at a comfortable position. There are plenty of gooseneck adjustable stands and other options that will help you keep your neck in a stable position.
Take breaks: Screen time is not only bad for your neck and shoulders, it’s also bad for your eyes. Take technology breaks when you start to feel achy and bleary-eyed, and schedule regular stretching breaks every half hour or so. Bonus: it’ll help keep you feeling focused.
When you need a chiropractor to help you deal with text neck in Naples, FL, visit Hiler Chiropractic & Neurology. Call us today to book an appointment.
Accidents often happen in a flash. In the moments after the collision, most people find themselves scanning their bodies to determine whether they’ve been injured. If everything seems to be in good working order, they’re good to go, right?
Unfortunately, our first impressions after an auto accident are clouded by the adrenaline rush. Your body produces adrenaline as part of a fight-or-flight response. One of the things that adrenaline does is increase our pain threshold, so something that would normally be excruciating now barely registers. This is an evolutionary survival mechanism, but it can also mask severe injuries. Adrenaline can take hours and even days to fully wear off—and in the meantime, you might not realize how badly you’ve been hurt. That’s why attorneys always caution you not to tell the other driver that you’re uninjured—you might find out differently in a few hours.
Car accidents can lead to whiplash and other painful back and neck injuries. Chiropractic care can provide the auto injury treatment you need in Naples, FL. Read on to learn more.
What happens to your back and neck during a car accident
Your seatbelt performs an important function by keeping you strapped into the car instead of being jostled around or ejected. However, this can cause your neck to violently whip forward and back. This strains the muscles and connective tissue that support your back and neck. The force of the impact, seatbelt position, impact direction and headrest position can all make a difference in the severity of your injuries.
After the accident, this impact can develop into chronic fatigue, neck and shoulder pain, back pain, soreness, headaches, jaw pain and more. You may not notice these injuries at first thanks to the adrenaline rush, but when it wears off, you might find that you hurt far worse than you initially realized.
Make sure you seek medical and chiropractic care immediately after the accident. Your doctor will treat external symptoms and look for internal injuries, while your chiropractor will take an x-ray of your spine to spot potential whiplash symptoms.
How chiropractic care can help
Chiropractic care includes a number of different modalities—not just the satisfying “popping” adjustments that can provide instant relief. Your chiropractor will evaluate your injuries through digital motion x-rays and make recommendations. This can include manual adjustments, massage therapy, physical therapy exercises and more to readjust your spine. To help you continue this alignment, we may also make lifestyle adjustments and teach you how to improve your alignment at home as well as in the office. The idea is to provide holistic therapies that address the root of the problem—your strained muscles, ligaments and tendons—so your body is able to heal properly.
If you’ve been in a car accident and require auto injury treatment in Naples, FL, the team at Hiler Chiropractic & Neurology can help. We will work with you to develop a treatment plan—get in touch with us today to schedule your initial appointment.
There are sore, tired feet, and then there’s plantar fasciitis. When the ligaments in your feet are damaged, the pain can evolve from annoying to excruciating, making it difficult to carry out everyday activities like going to work, exercising and even standing for more than a few minutes at a time.
Stem cell therapy for plantar fasciitis in Naples, FL is a safe treatment that may help heal your chronic pain. Read on to learn more about how it works.
Plantar fasciitis: An overview
Plantar fasciitis occurs when the ligaments that connect your heel to the front of your foot (the plantar fascia) are damaged, whether from injury or overuse. These ligaments support the arch of the foot and help absorb the shock and strain we put on our feet each day. When you wear ill-fitting shoes (particularly those without arch support) or find yourself walking, running and otherwise straining your feet more than usual, the tissue can tear. This results in inflammation, stiffness and chronic pain.
Patients describe the pain as being needle-like or stabbing. Until the ligaments are healed, further walking simply exacerbates the injury and the pain. For most of us, it’s simply not practical to stay off our feet until they heal—so the pain keeps getting worse.
Traditional medicine uses ice to reduce inflammation, physical therapy, stretching and painkillers to try to reduce pain and heal the ligaments. This is effective for some patients, but others still find themselves struggling to get through their daily activities. If traditional medicine hasn’t been effective at healing your plantar fasciitis, stem cell therapy allografts may help.
How stem cell therapy helps heal plantar fasciitis
Stem cell therapy uses real human stem cells, which form every kind of cell found in the human body. As babies develop in the womb, stem cells gradually turn into everything from bones to nerve tissue. Doctors are now able to harvest stem cells from umbilical cords in FDA approved US labs. The cells are tested and screened then used in treatments for chronic pain and injuries.
Stem cells have a unique ability to replicate and repair damaged tissue. When they’re injected into an injury site, they are able to seek out the damaged areas and release growth factors which help repair the type of tissue most needed, including cartilage, nerves and ligaments—even if the type of tissue in question normally doesn’t regenerate on its own. Your body’s normal healing processes are aided by the stem cells allografts, delivering faster comprehensive results.
The stem cells are delivered in one or a series of injections, which take little time to complete and also require almost no recovery time. There’s no risk of rejection, and you won’t need to undergo surgery, making it a safe and attractive option for many.
If you’re interested in finding out whether you’re a good candidate for stem cell therapy in Naples, FL, contact Feel Amazing Spine and Joint Institute, formerly Hiler Chiropractic & Neurology today. We work with our patients to create a treatment plan and address the root causes of their pain so they can lead full and healthy, pain-free lives.
Peripheral neuropathy is a painful disorder that includes burning, tingling, numbness, itching and other pains in the extremities and limbs. Traditional medicine attempts to treat the pain—which is a result of damaged nerves—rather than the root cause of neuropathy.
If you suffer from peripheral neuropathy, your body is having trouble healing itself. Stem cell allograft therapy for peripheral neuropathy in Naples, FL can be effective in treating the root of the pain so you can begin leading a pain-free life. Here’s an overview of peripheral neuropathy and how stem cell treatments encourage healing.
Peripheral neuropathy: A painful nerve disorder
All humans have different types of nerves: brain, spinal cord and peripheral. Peripheral nerves are the kind that run through your body and transmit sensations like hot and cold or pleasure and pain. When your peripheral nerves are damaged, your brain can’t interpret their signals correctly. In turn, you may experience numbness, burning, itching, tingling, stabbing or a “pins and needles” feeling in the affected areas. Some patients experience an inability to grip objects, heaviness in their limbs, sexual dysfunction and diarrhea as a result of their neuropathy.
Nerve damage typically starts in the feet and hands and can radiate up the arms and legs if the root cause isn’t addressed. There are different types of peripheral neuropathy—perhaps the most commonly recognized kind is carpal tunnel syndrome.
Peripheral neuropathy can be caused by injury, but several other conditions can also cause or complicate the condition. Diabetes, poor nutrition, alcoholism, kidney and thyroid disease, infections, inherited diseases and more may trigger painful nerve damage—but about a third of peripheral neuropathy cases have no known root cause, making it much harder to fight the pain.
Stem cell therapy and peripheral neuropathy
Neuropathy can be treated in a number of traditional and modern ways, including stem cell allograft therapy. Stem cell therapy can be an effective way to help damaged nerves heal themselves, thanks to the stem cells’ ability to restore, replicate, or regenerate tissues and structures. Stem cells are the building blocks of every kind of cell in the human body—in fact, the ones we use are harvested from umbilical cords after healthy c-section deliveries in FDA approved labs. As the stem cells are injected into the site of the nerve pain, they help find the damage and aid the body with its natural healing processes. This can repair the nerves themselves and restore function to the affected areas.
Stem cell therapy for peripheral neuropathy in Naples, FL is a minimally invasive treatment. Since the cells are delivered via injection, there’s very little pain and no need for surgery. As a result, recovery time is minimal, and you may only need one or just a few sessions before you notice a drastic improvement in how you feel.
Consulting with a professional is the first step in addressing your peripheral neuropathy. The team at Feel Amazing Institute, formerly Hiler Chiropractic & Neurology works with patients to evaluate the source of their pain, then determine the best course of treatment. Call today to get started.
There are some three million cases of peripheral neuropathy in the U.S. each year—especially here in Naples, FL, where our population skews older. It’s a condition caused by diabetes, chemotherapy, drug side effects, nutritional deficiencies, injuries or toxin exposure. It compromises your ability to walk and affects sleep, which makes enjoying every day difficult.
Fortunately, neuropathy can be managed and there are treatments that can restore your quality of life. Here are the symptoms of peripheral neuropathy and possible treatments you can schedule at our clinic.
The Core Symptoms of Peripheral Neuropathy
Peripheral neuropathy results from damage to the peripheral nerves. These nerves are responsible for sending signals to your brain about your environment, including terrain, temperatures and textures. Once damaged, the nerves send incorrect signals to your brain.
Symptoms of this nerve degeneration include numbness, jabbing sensations and extreme sensitivity to the slightest touch. Some people may only feel numbness while others suffer pain. There are instances where people accidentally injure themselves because they cannot feel sharp rocks beneath their feet or the hot item in contact with their skin. This leaves no doubt that peripheral neuropathy can evolve into a dangerous condition.
Peripheral neuropathy is progressive, meaning there is no cure for it. However, as mentioned, it can be managed and improved with advanced treatments. Left unmanaged, it will get worse.
Peripheral Neuropathy Treatments
If you face peripheral neuropathy, your first step is to find a clinician who’s knowledgeable about this condition. Their experience should include diagnosis and treatment options that help you reduce your symptoms, so you can live better with neuropathy. Sometimes, lifestyle changes also help peripheral neuropathy. Your clinician can help you find a good course of action to support your health.
At Feel Amazing Institute/ Hiler Chiropractic & Neurology, our treatment plans focus on supporting the body’s natural healing capabilities. We use low-level infrared light therapy to reduce symptoms, as well as multiple other therapies to improve brain-body connection, improve balance and restore circulation and nerve function. This can also include nutrition and exercise plans.
The evidence backs up a need for treatment. Studies show patients who undergo regular treatment for peripheral neuropathy are more likely to experience one or more of the following:
Better balance and coordination
Better sleep
Increased blood flow to the extremities
Increased range of motion
Lower medication dependency
Normal touch without pain
Reduced burning or freezing sensations
Reduced fall risk
Reduced local swelling and inflammation
Reduced muscle spasms
Reduced pain, tingling and numbness
Reduced restlessness in the legs
Reduced tension
Stem cell allograft therapy is also an option for treating peripheral neuropathy. This process involves injecting donated stem cells into the area where you experience symptoms and allowing them to regenerate the damaged nerve tissue.
There’s Hope for Peripheral Neuropathy Sufferers
While your individual circumstances may vary, most patients report improvement within two weeks of starting treatment for their peripheral neuropathy. It all depends on the root cause of your condition and the extent of your symptoms.
There is no reason to delay treatment for peripheral neuropathy when you have options at Feel Amazing Institute/ Hiler Chiropractic & Neurology. Our medical and chiropractic professionals offer extensive experience, and we’re ready to help Naples, FL patients strive for a better quality of life through targeted treatments. Schedule an appointment today!
