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Many people suffer with headache pain, and tension headaches are a common problem in our busy world. Postural problems and stress are common sources of tension headache, and ones that Dr. Helton and the staff here in our Portland chiropractic office have a lot of experience in treating.

Research Shows Chiropractic Eases Tension Headaches

The scientific literature confirms our results: A 2016 study from Spain treated a group of 76 patients with chronic tension headaches. The participants were divided into four treatment groups: 19 patients were treated with suboccipital inhibition (the doctor presses on the tight tissues at the top of the spine); 19 with chiropractic adjustments; 19 with both adjustments and suboccipital inhibition; and 19 received no treatment.

The authors discovered that the spinal adjustments were beneficial at relieving pain, and that the best results were found when adjustments were coupled with the suboccipital inhibition.

When we get stressed out, the nerves and tissues in the neck can be disrupted, resulting in pain. Chiropractic works by getting rid of these strains and restoring the normal nerve function to the tissues.

We're Here to Help People Find Help From Tension Headaches

If you live in Portland and are suffering from any kind of headache, we're here to help you get relief. Call Dr. Helton today at (503) 771-1974 for an appointment or more information.

Source

Espi-Lopez GV, Rodriguez-Blanco C, Oliva-Pascual-Vaca A, et al. Do manual therapy techniques have a positive effect on quality of life in people with tension-type headache? A randomized controlled trial. European Journal of Physical Rehabilitation Medicine 2016; February 29.

Every year, there are millions of auto collisions in the world, and a significant number of people get injured in a car wreck. Although most collisions are "minor," chronic back and neck pain are still frequent health problems. The good news is that chiropractic is a great way to treat these kinds of injuries.

We have helped many auto collision patients in our Portland office, and Dr. Helton has been treating people with these types of injuries since 2005. During a car wreck, your body is subjected to violent forces that it simply wasn't built to deal with. These forces put strain and stress on your neck, shoulder, and back, and can result in injury to the ligaments that hold your spine together. A crash can result in a wide variety of pain symptoms.

A ligament sprain in the neck can cause pain, swelling, and radicular pain in the arm and hand. Chiropractic works well for these types of problems, because chiropractic focuses on restoring the healthy function and flexibility of the injured structures.

Dr. Helton Can Help Clients Recover From an Auto Accident

Dr. Helton, your Portland chiropractor, can help by reducing irritation in the injured area and can help decrease the creation of scar tissue that can cause chronic pain and disability.

You don't have to suffer from auto injury pain. Discover more about how we can help you recover or call Dr. Helton today at (503) 771-1974.

There are many different kinds of headache, but one of the most common types is known as "cervicogenic headache," or those that originate in your neck.

Dr. Helton sees a lot of people in our Portland office who are struggling with frequent, reoccurring headaches. Fortunately, chiropractic adjustments can often help, potentially reducing these types of headaches by 50%, and research confirms it.

A study was conducted involving 80 participants who reported experiencing at least five cervicogenic headaches during the prior three months. The goal was to discover how effective chiropractic was for this type of head pain, as well as to determine the number of treatment sessions necessary to achieve a positive effect.

The subjects were divided into four separate groups, so that each group was similar in age, gender, number of cervicogenic headaches, and their intensity. Of the four groups, two engaged in chiropractic treatments and two received light massage. Furthermore, one group assigned to each treatment received eight sessions and the other patients received twice that amount.

Each person was assessed based on head pain, neck pain, and disability prior to the study and 12 and 24 weeks after treatment was complete. The authors found that those who received chiropractic as opposed to massage reported fewer headaches at the conclusion of the study. Furthermore, improvements were maintained when checked six months after treatment ended.

Additionally, individuals who were taking medications for their headaches were able to lower their intake after completing the study. Those who received chiropractic care had lower medication usage 24 weeks post-study.

Dr. Helton has helped many patients who were suffering from headache pain in our Portland office. Call us today at (503) 771-1974 for more information or for an appointment.

Haas M, Spegman A, Peterson D, Aickin M, Vavrek D. Dose response and efficacy of spinal manipulation for chronic cervicogenic headache: a pilot randomized controlled trial. The Spine Journal 2010; 10: 117-128.

Every year, over 500,000 people have back surgery in the US. Although in some cases it's necessary to have surgery for back pain, the reality is that if you can prevent this type of invasive procedure, you're often better off.

Dr. Helton is here to make sure that patients in Portland have a natural, non-surgical option for back pain. We've helped many people heal from back pain without the need for surgery.

There are plenty of reasons to avoid unnecessary medical treatments: Surgeries often result in a longer recovery time and additional complications, neither of which is a desirable scenario. Luckily, as one study has found, chiropractic may actually keep you out of the operating room completely.

In this report, 1,885 workers with back injuries were examined over a three year period. When the workers first sought treatment with a surgeon, over 42 percent wound up having back surgery. For subjects who saw only a chiropractor, only 1.5 percent had surgery!

These findings indicate that chiropractic care can help you heal from back pain without surgical treatments.

If you live in the Portland area, Dr. Helton can probably help you with your back pain. Give our office a call today at (503) 771-1974 for more information or an appointment.

Keeney BJ, Fulton-Kehoe D, Turner JA, et al. Early predictors of lumbar spine surgery after occupational back injury: results from a prospective study of workers in Washington State. Spine 2013;38(11):953-964.

Of the over 2 million rear-end accidents in the US annually, a substantial number of men and women end up enduring long-term pain and disability. Some studies have shown that 1 out of 5 people are still in pain one year after a crash.

Dr. Helton sees many accident cases in our Portland office, and we regularly see people who have been suffering for many years and have not been able to find help. Dr. Helton has great success in helping these patients.

The Cause of Chronic Pain

During a crash, the ligaments of your neck and back can be stretched or torn. The damaged area becomes swollen and inflamed and transmits pain signals to the spinal cord and central nervous system.

Pain tells your central nervous system that something is wrong, which tells the muscle tissues in the injured area to contract to shield the area from further injury.

If the injury isn't addressed right away, a negative cycle develops. The hurt tissues keep sending pain signals and each time, your central nervous system reacts. This brings about a feedback loop in your nervous system that specialists refer to as "central sensitization." Your nervous system actually becomes hypersensitive to any kind of stimulus, leading to chronic pain.

Dr. Helton is able to help this kind of problem, as chiropractic is a proven way to restore the nervous system's healthy functioning. Research shows that adjustments are effective at relieving pain from car crashes and shows that chiropractic in fact has positive effects on the pain centers of the brain.

If you live in Portland and have been in a collision, you don't have to suffer with chronic pain. Give Dr. Helton a call today at (503) 771-1974 for a consultation or appointment.

• Ferrari R. A prospective study of the 1-year incidence of fibromyalgia after acute whiplash injury. Rheumatic & Musculoskeletal Disease 2015; doi:10.1136/rmdopen-2014-000007.
• Stone AM, Vicenzino B, Lim EC, Sterling M. Measures of central hyperexcitability in chronic whiplash associated disorder - A systematic review and meta-analysis. Manual Therapy 2012;18(2):111-7.

The beauty of functional medicine is it puts your health journey in your hands. The curse of functional medicine is that, compared to popping a pill, eating healthy takes more time, which can feel stressful. Enter the Instant Pot, a relatively new kitchen appliance that is simple to use, makes it easy to stick to a whole foods diet, and takes a lot of stress out of cooking when your schedule is hectic.

What makes the Instant Pot a good functional medicine tool?

The Instant Pot’s success is in its multiple features and that it produces consistent results. The Instant Pot sautés, foolproof pressure cooks, slow cooks, makes yogurt, functions as a rice cooker, and quickly makes bone broths.

It is conducive to big batch meals that will create nutritious leftovers for a few days.

Here are some ways the Instant Pot can help you save time in the kitchen without sacrificing nutrition:

Cooks frozen meats. How many times have you forgotten to put the meat out to thaw for dinner? You can put your frozen meat in the Instant Pot and still have stew for dinner.

Cuts down on dishwashing. The Instant Pot allows you to do multiple things in one pot, cutting down on dirty pots and pans. For instance, you can sauté the onions and brown the meat in the same pot you cook your stew in. Additionally, you can cook in Pyrex bowls inside the Instant Pot, which can then be stored in the fridge and used as a lunch container.

Removes the stress of timing. Once you put your meal in the Instant Pot, you press a button for how long it needs to cook and then you can walk away. Not only will it shut itself off, it will also keep food warm for up to 10 hours. It makes reliable hard boiled eggs, and some people even crack their raw eggs into a bowl before cooking for a quick and easy egg salad that doesn’t require peeling egg shells.

Takes the complexity out of pressure cooking. The Instant Pot’s most popular feature is pressure cooking, which radically shortens cooking times. Best of all, it uses a foolproof design so you don’t have to worry about blowing up your kitchen.

It’s a great slow cooker. One of the most satisfying dinners is the one you make in the morning and it’s waiting hot for you in the evening. In addition to cooking quickly, the Instant Pot is a great slow cooker, and you can brown the meat in the same pot.

Makes dairy-free yogurt. Yogurt is a delicious and convenient snack that is hard to give up when you go dairy-free. Dairy-free yogurts are expensive and filled with thickening gums, which are irritating and immune reactive for many people. The Instant Pot is a great dairy-free yogurt maker, using gelatin or chia as a thickener. You will need to order a high-quality brand of coconut milk however, for a good end result.

Easy squash and root veggie cooking. Peeling and chopping squash and root veggies can be a real deterrent to including them in your diet. No worries, just toss them in the Instant Pot whole and then peel, seed, and chop them after they’re cooked. Cooking more fragile vegetables such as broccoli, however, is best left to the stove top steam basket to avoid overcooking.

These are just a few of the ways the Instant Pot can be a part of a functional medicine protocol to help you manage a chronic health disorder. Don't be intimidated by it — the learning curve is quick and you’ll soon be able to intuit how to use it. The internet abounds with tips, recipes, and general enthusiasm to get you up to speed.

When you're trying to sustain your family, take care of your household, and pay all of your bills on time, every day at work counts. Work injuries can be a serious problem for many people, and we see many of these types of injuries in our Portland office. Dr. Helton appreciates your situation and is here to help.

The benefits of chiropractic care for work injuries are well-documented. A 2013 survey involving 651 adults who were suffering with either back or neck pain found that the individuals who didn't see a chiropractor missed work at twice the rate of those who were seeing a chiropractor.

So, why don't more people use chiropractic care?

According to the participants in this study, two of the major factors were that they thought they needed a medical referral for chiropractic care (which is typically no longer true) and they overestimated the costs associated with chiropractic treatment sessions by almost 70 percent.

The fact is, chiropractic patients actually spend less on care than medical patients, plus they are less likely to use drugs for their symptoms.

If you live in Portland and you've been injured at work, we can help. Give our office a call today at (503) 771-1974 for an appointment.

Sources

"Thousands of Minnesotans with Back and Neck Pain Don't Seek Treatment." (2013, June 12). ChiroCare.

We see a lot of sports injuries in our Portland clinic, and Dr. Helton is usually able to help these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital reports that over 3.5 million children of the ages 14 and younger are injured each year when playing sports. Add that to the close to 2 million adults injured every year while participating in sports-related activities, as reported by statistics collected by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can begin to see the necessity of preventing these sorts of widespread injuries. One way to potentially achieve that goal, as stated in a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to engage in routine chiropractic treatments.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg traumas are commonplace, often sidelining the players and impacting their team's odds of winning. One particular study was conducted using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see how well chiropractic could diminish these injuries and help keep them in the game.

For this study specifically, every one of the players was given medical treatment. Furthermore, half of them also were given chiropractic treatments at the rate of one treatment each week for the first six weeks, biweekly sessions for the following three months, and one treatment per month for the remaining 3 months of the study. The other group were given no chiropractic intervention whatsoever and were used as the control group to determine the benefits of chiropractic care.

Following twenty-four matches, researchers noted a diminished number of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Additionally, that very group also missed fewer matches connected to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to come to the conclusion that chiropractic ought to be added to sports training programs to dramatically lessen the amount of leg injuries.

If you or your child are active in sports and you want to make sure more time is dedicated on the field versus on the sidelines, call our Portland office at (503) 771-1974 and schedule an appointment today. We will do our best to keep you in the game!

References

• Hoskins, W, & Pollard, H. (2010, April 8). The effect of a sports chiropractic manual therapy intervention on the prevention of back pain, hamstring and lower limb injuries in semi-elite Australian Rules footballers: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 11(64), doi:10.1186/1471-2474-11-64
• Misra, A. (2014, March 17). Common sports injuries: Incidence and average charges. Department of Health & Human Services.
• Stanford Children’s Hospital. (n.d.). Sports injury statistics.

According to research, about 5 percent of the population will experience painful problems like frozen shoulder syndrome at some point in their lives. That makes shoulder-related pain a common occurrence and one that Dr. Helton sees in our Portland office on a regular basis.

Generally, this ailment is more prevalent for people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and it tends to affect women more frequently than men. While ice, heat, and gentle stretching can sometimes help alleviate the pain, so too can chiropractic adjustments.

As an example, one study published in the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine looked at 50 people with frozen shoulder who were given chiropractic care. The length of care ranged from 11 days to 51 days, with 28 days being the average.

The researchers found that nearly all of the patients fared very well with chiropractic care. Here are the results:

• 8 of the subjects reported 50-75 percent improvement
• 25 indicated improvement ranging from 75- 90 percent
• 1 participant had complete resolution of their frozen shoulder pain

Only one of the original 50 reported an improvement of 50 percent or less, so studies like this show just how effective chiropractic care can be when it comes to decreasing shoulder pain and improving quality of life.

Let Dr. Helton help you ease your pain by contacting our Portland office and scheduling your appointment today.

Resources

Murphy F et al. (2012, December). Chiropractic management of frozen shoulder syndrome using a novel technique: a retrospective case series of 50 patients. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine;11(4):267-272

Do you have mysterious health symptoms — such as fatigue, pain, brain fog, unexplained weight gain — that rob you of your quality of life, but lab tests and doctors keep saying nothing is wrong? Or maybe doctors tell you your chronic symptoms are depression and you need an antidepressant. Maybe you’ve even been accused of complaining too much.

Most people know when something is wrong with them, even if lab tests come back normal and doctors say you’re fine. This is because the standard health care model does not screen for autoimmunity — a disorder than occurs when your immune system attacks and destroys your own tissue. You can suffer from symptoms of undiagnosed autoimmunity for years and even decades before it is severe enough to be diagnosed and treated in the conventional medical model.

Fortunately, in functional medicine we can screen for autoimmunity against multiple tissues in the body at once. Knowing an autoimmune reaction is causing your symptoms can remove the mystery and bring significant peace of mind. It is confirmation your health symptoms are real and proof you are not a whiner or hypochondriac.

We identify autoimmunity by testing for antibodies in the blood against a particular tissue. For instance, we can screen for Hashimoto’s, an autoimmune thyroid disease that causes hypothyroidism, by testing for immune antibodies against thyroid peroxidase (TPO) and thyroglobulin (TGB). Positive results mean autoimmunity is causing your hypothyroid symptoms of weight gain, depression, fatigue, constipation, cold hands and feet, and hair loss.

Cyrex Labs tests for 24 different types of autoimmunity at once. The panel is called Array 5 Multiple Autoimmune Reactivity Screen. It is more cost effective than testing for each autoimmunity individually, and Cyrex Labs tests are highly sensitive. To do the test, simply ask us for the kit, take it to an approved blood draw center, and we will send you the results.

If your test results are “positive” or “equivocal,” it means your immune system is attacking that tissue. You may not even have symptoms yet. This is a best-case scenario because managing your health with functional medicine can prevent the autoimmunity from progressing.

Array 5 screens for the following autoimmunities:

• Parietal cell and ATPase instrinsic factor: Stomach autoimmunity
• ASCA, ANCA, and tropomyosin: Intestinal autoimmunity
• Thyroglobulin and thyroid peroxidase: Thyroid autoimmunity
• 21 hydroxylase (adrenal cortex): Adrenal autoimmunity
• Myocardial peptide, alpha-myosin: Cardiac autoimmunity
• Phospholipid platelet glycoprotein: Phospholipid autoimmunity
• Ovary/Testes: Reproductive organ autoimmunity
• Fibulin, collagen complex, arthritic peptide: Joint autoimmunity
• Osteocyte: Bone autoimmunity
• Cytochrome P450 (hepatocyte): Liver autoimmunity
• Insulin, islet cell, glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD): Pancreatic autoimmunity
• GAD, myelin basic protein, asialoganglioside, alpha and beta tubulin, cerebellar, synapsin: Neurological autoimmunity

If you have no but a positive result, then you may be able to prevent the autoimmunity from expressing itself. If you have symptoms that correspond with a positive test result, other testing may help you track your condition. For instance, if you test positive for Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, follow up with thyroid testing will track the severity.

Knowing you have an autoimmune reaction means you can halt its progression and prevent it from worsening. This can mean preventing or even reversing devastating and debilitating symptoms.

Ask my office for more advice.