Lower Extremity Problems
(hip, knee, foot and ankle)
Like the upper extremity, leg pain may come from spinal problems referring pain into the leg. However, leg pains are also often due to muscle or joint problems resulting from overuse, trauma, sports injuries, or just from everyday carrying of our body weight. Occasionally nerve compression syndromes also occur, causing numbness or tingling and sometimes pain.
Muscle problems due to overuse or injury usually respond well to appropriate treatment including Active Release Technique? (ART?), Graston Technique, stretching, strengthening and other manual treatments. ART? and Graston Techniques are methods to breakdown scar tissue adhesions and improve healing by stimulating growth of new tissue at the site of injury.
Joint problems are often overlooked by non-chiropractors, as chiropractors are often the only ones who really specialize in diagnosing and treating joint dysfunction, which is the most common joint problem. ‘Joint Dysfunction’ is where a joint is slightly ‘out of alignment’ and gets ‘stuck’ like that. Joints are built to move freely, and when they lose their ability to move freely they become painful. Also often leads to increased muscle tension and decreased strength via nerve reflexes between a joint and the muscles around it. Chiropractors learn to feel these joint restrictions and then ‘adjust’ the joint to restore motion, relieve pain and regain normal muscle function. (See section-What Is Joint Dysfunction).
Rehab exercise is usually required to rebuild muscle strength, balance and flexibility, and to help to prevent re-injury.
Sciatica is severe pain going from you buttock to your foot, caused by pinching of a nerve in your back. These nerve compression syndromes can also cause numbness or tingling, and weakness. These conditions can often be treated successfully with muscle therapy techniques and/or correction of joint dysfunction. For cases where the pain doesn’t go away with standard treatment, Comfort Health has Western Canada’s first DRX 9000 non-surgical spinal decompression equipment. This technology is FDA and Health Canada approved and has been shown to be successful in relieving pain for 86% of patients with these conditions. Go to www.decompression.ca for more information.
Unlike the upper extremity, the lower extremity must carry all your body weight. For some people who don’t sit at work , your legs carry you most of the day, and for athletes, the forces of landing on your feet during running, jumping, skating, skiing, blading and boarding is many times greater than that of standing or walking. For this reason many problems of the lower extremity cannot be provided long term relief without correcting any problems that may exist with the function of your feet. Plantar fasciitis, bunions, heel spurs, shin splints, patello-femoral syndrome, iliotibial band syndrome as well as other conditions are all, at least in part, due to poor foot biomechanics, and correction of the poor foot mechanics needs to be part of the total treatment of the painful condition.
Correction of poor foot mechanics is accomplished with the use of orthotics. Like eyeglasses, foot orthotics correct foot mechanics only while you wear them. We use the latest computer technology, and work in conjunction with a podiatrist to create the best correction of your foot function. (See Footmaxx Orthotics section).
Often, muscle therapy, correction of joint motion and rehab all need to be performed in conjunction with foot orthotics in order to achieve the best results. Neglecting one aspect of treatment may only provide a fraction of the improvement that will be achieved with proper performance of all four combined.
