Bringing a Global Perspective on Chiropractic to Singapore
As a teen I was a passenger in a fatal car accident that took the lives of my mother and sister. My surviving sister had multiple fractures in her lumbar spine which was ultimately surgically fused.
My injuries were not as severe, but being an active teen, it was my chiropractor that kept me on the basketball court and baseball diamond. To this day, I believe the chiropractic adjust to be one of the greatest tools in all of medicine. The word “chiropractic” has it roots in Latin, meaning to heal by hand; It not only heeled my physical injuries, it opened the door to a lifetime of service that has taken me all over the world where I’ve studied the natural healing techniques of multiple cultures and has ultimately lead me to Singapore.
Common Chiropractic Conditions that I Have Treated and What You Need To Know
“If you do the grind in Singapore, as we all do, you will most certainly benefit from chiropractic care.” ~Dr Zach
Low Back Pain
Low back pain tends to be more commonly seen in blue collar workers that lift and strain themselves. In regard to low back pain you have what’s called acute versus chronic pain (write blog titled Acute Vs. Chronic Pain). As a general rule of thumb, the more acute a condition is, meaning the more recent that you experienced the injury, the quicker results you’ll receive from chiropractic care. To learn more about acute vs chronic pain click on the link here.
Neck Pain
Differing from low back pain, it’s been my experience that neck pain is seen equally in both white collar and blue collar jobs. However, the mechanism for injury is quite different. Neck pain in blue-collar workers is often more acute. Neck pain in white collar works is often more chronic, meaning the pain in the neck has slowly become more and more severe over the course of months to years. In healthcare this is explained by a unique type of trauma seen in white collar workers called micro-trauma or repetitive use trauma. Micro-trauma is a result of the repetitive posture of sitting at a desk all day with arms out and extended over a keyboard. Although Singapore is light-years ahead of American in regard to workplace ergonomics (write blog about this), the office setting remains a common source of repetitive use trauma leading to neck pain.
Chiropractic Care for Sciatica or Disc Herniation (HNP)
I honestly would not wish Sciatic pain on my worst enemy. And while I’ve treated many cases to a full and complete recovery, it is certainly not a quick fix. It takes dedication and fortitude to overcome sciatic pain from a bulging or herniated disc. To understand the difference between a disc herniation and a bulging disc, click through to my blog here. There are also other causes of sciatic pain, but most common is being Piriformis Syndrome (link to blog about Piriformis Syndrome). This is a congenital condition that affects roughly 10% of the general population and is often misdiagnosed with sciatic. It’s important to see a doctor that has experience with ruling our Piriformis Syndrome so not to treat it as a disc issue.
Scoliosis
I can’t say that my practice in Jakarta was strictly a Scoliosis practice, but it constituted about 80% of my patient load. And while I cannot say I loved living in Jakarta, working with Scoliosis kids was some of the most rewarding chiropractic work I have ever done – on more levels than the obvious. The disturbing things is that the incidence of Scoliosis is not decreasing in children, but increasing. To learn why, and how if caught early, ideally before puberty, chiropractic is the answer. This is why it is important to bring your kids into the office for a spinal screening. Like anything, early detection is critical.
Chiropractic for Pregnancy
When I opened my first practice in St. Louis, Missouri, my hometown, my office was located on the lower level of the Dominic Michael Salon – a high-end salon that catered primarily to women and was employed by mostly women, with the exception of a few fabulously dressed men. To cultivate a relationship, I invited their stylists down for regular neck and thoracic adjustments – anyone that works with their arms out extended as they do are in need of such relief. They were grateful. The adjustment always brought a smile to their face, particularly the thoracic adjustments. As a result they began referring their clients to me – some of whom were pregnant. They asked if there was anything chiropractic could do for some of the aches and pains that are assumed to be common place with a pregnancy, especially a first pregnancy. I explained the Webster Technique, a chiropractic technique designed specifically to accommodate all the changes that a woman’s body will undergo during pregnancy. I also told them about a professor I had a Logan that actually had the audacity (and expertise) to guarantee women that with his care, they would deliver in under three hours. Who wouldn’t be intrigued, right? Soon, half my day was spend working with pregnant women, adding motion to the joints of the pelvis, allowing the pelvic bowl to expand properly so the baby has plenty of room to drop into position when he/she is ready to see the world.
Wellness Care Chiropractic
A healthy joint is a joint that has sufficient motion to it. Your joints nourish and lubricate themselves through motion. The joints, or vertebrae, in your spine are no different. When they lose motion, as they do when you engage in repetitive use trauma like the stylists I mentioned above, or when you spend long hours on the computer, they lose motion and become fixated – stuck. This is what leads to arthritis because these joints have no nourishment or motion to lubricate themselves. Chiropractic restores motion to each and every individual joint of the spine.
Furthermore, the nerves that exit the spinal column communicate with every single muscle in the body and every organ system within the body. These nerves are the relay system between this magnificent brain of yours and the limbs and torso that moves it around – wherever it desires to go. If you have inflammation or interference within the spine, as you certainly will if you spend 6-8 hours per day on a computer and another two to three hours looking down into your phone on the MRT, you absolutely cannot have optimal visceral function or healthy muscle tone. This is the basis of wellness chiropractic care. If you do the grind in Singapore, as we all do, you will most certainly benefit from chiropractic care.
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