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When performing sports activities that demand a lot of lower body movement, like football, soccer, and basketball, it's not at all uncommon to suffer some type of injury to your hips or legs. Between pulled hamstrings, sprained ankles, knee injuries, and more, many people have found themselves sidelined. Dr. Mark Holland has seen all of these problems in our North County, St. Louis, MO patients. Fortunately, chiropractic adjustments can help prevent some of these injuries from developing and research proves it.

Research Proves Chiropractic Helps With Sports Injuries & Recovery

Dr. Mark Holland keeps up-to-date with all of the latest scientific research, and in a paper published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, researchers from Macquarie University in Australia studied 59 semi-elite Australian Rules football players. Roughly one-half were placed in a control group and the others were put in a therapy group that received sports chiropractic care at regular intervals. During the first six weeks, this meant receiving care once every week. The following three months consisted of an adjustment every two weeks before reducing those to one visit monthly for the final three months of the study.

The authors noted that there was a "significant" decrease in the number of lower limb strains the players received in the treatment group when compared to the control. Furthermore, they observed that the subjects who received chiropractic also had fewer weeks of missed practice and games as a result of non-contact knee injuries. This led them to determine that sports chiropractic treatment should be added to "the current best practice management."

Every major sports team in the US and the US Olympic Team has chiropractors on staff for their players, because they know that chiropractic really works. If you live near our practice in North County, St. Louis, MO and would like to see if Dr. Mark Holland can help you boost your performance or reduce sports injuries, give our office a call today at (314) 867-8888 for an appointment.

Dr. Mark Holland Can Help Clients Find Relief From Sports Injuries and Recover Faster

If you're suffering from severe pain, Dr. Mark Holland and our staff are here to help you heal. Give our North County, St. Louis, MO office a call today at (314) 867-8888 for an appointment today.

Study Information

Hoskins W, Pollard H. 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 2010;11(64).

In our North County, St. Louis, MO office, it's common for us to see people troubled with sciatic nerve pain, and Dr. Mark Holland has helped many of them improve with chiropractic. What makes chiropractic so helpful to those who suffer with this condition? First off, it shortens their recovery time and a Norwegian medical study confirms it.

In the study, which took place in a Norwegian hospital's orthopedic department, researchers looked at 44 patients who reported sudden low back pain that was clinically diagnosed as acute sciatica. The participants were all treated by a chiropractor, with the mean follow-up being two years after treatment.

The researchers found that all but two patients returned to their jobs after receiving chiropractic adjustments, which is a 95% success rate. Furthermore, the average amount of time that the patients spent off work "was reduced by two thirds as compared with that associated with conventional medical treatment."

Considering that the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 170,450 days of work were missed in 2013 due to employees dealing with back or spine-related issues, that is almost 112,500 work days that could potentially be recovered each and every year solely by receiving chiropractic care. Not only would that increase productivity, but it could also reduce costs to businesses and employees from lost work.

If you live in North County, St. Louis, MO and you suffer from sciatica, Dr. Mark Holland is here to assist. Give us a call at (314) 867-8888 and we'll work with you to find the root cause of your sciatic pain and get you back on the road to health.

Orlin JR, Didriksen A. Results of chiropractic treatment of lumbopelvic fixation in 44 patients admitted to an orthopedic department. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 2007;30(2):135-139.

Neck and headache pain are common problems that affect millions of people around the world. If you are suffering from this type of problem, you're not alone. The good news is that chiropractic is the best way to not only treat these common problems, but also help prevent future episodes.

Research Supports Chiropractic Helps With Neck Pain and Headaches

For many years, people with neck and headache pain in North County, St. Louis, MO have been helped by the chiropractic care of Dr. Mark Holland. Our success is supported by a recent review done in Canada that found that non-surgical, non-drug solutions are the best choice for neck and headache pain.

The report looked at 15 studies from 1990 to 2015 and found that conservative treatment comprised of chiropractic adjustments, exercises, and stretches was suggested before resorting to drugs or more invasive treatments.

Earlier studies have shown that chiropractic is effective and safe for neck pain and many other health conditions.

We Can Help Patients Find Comfort From Neck Pain and Headaches

If you're troubled with neck pain or headaches, Dr. Mark Holland and our staff are here to help you recover. Give our North County, St. Louis, MO office a call today at (314) 867-8888 for an appointment today.

Reference

Varatharajan S, Ferguson B, Chrobak K, et al. Are non-invasive interventions effective for the management of headaches associated with neck pain? An update of the Bone and Joint Decade Task Force on Neck Pain and Its Associated Disorders by the Ontario Protocol for Traffic Injury Management (OPTIMa) Collaboration. European Spine Journal 2016; February 6:1-29.

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. Mark Holland sees a lot of people in our North County, St. Louis, MO office who are struggling with frequent, reoccurring headaches. Luckily, chiropractic adjustments can usually 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 see how effective chiropractic was for this type of head pain, as well as to determine the number of treatment sessions required 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 group received double that amount.

Each patient was assessed based on head pain, neck pain, and disability prior to the study and 12 and 24 weeks after treatment was complete. The researchers 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, patients who were taking medications for their headaches were able to lower their intake after completing the study. Those who received chiropractic adjustments had lower drug usage 24 weeks post-study.

Dr. Mark Holland has helped many patients who were suffering from headaches in our North County, St. Louis, MO office. Call us today at (314) 867-8888 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.

Dr. Mark Holland sees many patients weekly in our busy North County, St. Louis, MO chiropractic office who are searching for relief from the pain and suffering they feel due to herniated discs. Our experience isn't unique; the medical literature confirms that chiropractic is a great way to treat herniated disc pain.

Don't Suffer! Dr. Mark Holland and Chiropractic Care Helps With Disc Herniation

One particular study involved 27 people, 8 male and 19 female, who had magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) confirming a disc herniation in either their neck or lower back. The patients reported that they were experiencing pain, limited range of motion, and sensory problems bad enough to keep them off work.

During the course of the research period, the subjects were treated using one of two common chiropractic techniques: traction for herniated discs in the cervical area or flexion distraction for the patients who had herniation issues in the low back.

Each individual was seen four or five times per week for the first two weeks, then three times weekly, and then as needed for the remainder of the study. Based on the severity of the disc herniation, treatment varied anywhere from six weeks to six months, with MRIs being performed at various stages to identify what impact, if any, the chiropractic care was having in regard to the disc herniation.

Research Supports Chiropractic Helps With Back Pain and Herniated Disc

The investigators reported that 80 percent of the subjects enjoyed a "good clinical outcome," meaning reduced pain and a reduction in other symptoms, such as numbness. Additionally, 77 percent of these men and women also showed MRI evidence that their disc herniation was either reduced or resolved completely. This resulted in 78 percent of the study subjects being able to return to their place of work and led the authors to conclude that chiropractic care is both "safe and helpful" for disc herniations.

If you have a herniated disc and suffer from chronic back pain and are near Dr. Mark Holland in North County, St. Louis, MO, contact our office today to see what chiropractic can do for you!

Reference
BenEliyahu, DJ. Magnetic resonance imaging and clinical follow-up: study of 27 patients receiving chiropractic care for cervical and lumbar disc herniations. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 1996;19(9):597-606.

In our North County, St. Louis, MO practice, we see a lot of people who are dealing with back pain, and some of these people have been told they might need surgery to recover. Fortunately, Dr. Mark Holland has helped many people get relief without the need for any type of operation. The scientific research confirms the success we see in our office. One medical study published in the medical journal Spine found that seeing a chiropractor as your first move in dealing with your back pain may literally keep you off of the operating table.

In this study, medical professionals from Dartmouth analyzed data from about 1,900 workers from Washington state who first saw either an orthopedic surgeon or a chiropractic doctor for their back pain issues. They then used three years' worth of follow-up medical data to ascertain whether the patients wound up having back surgery in an effort to correct the problem.

What the researchers found was that about 43% of the people who first consulted with a surgeon for their back issues ended up in surgery in that 3-year time span, whereas only 1.5 percent of those who first saw a chiropractor had the same fate. The authors wrote:

"Even after controlling for injury severity and other measures, workers with an initial visit for the injury to a surgeon had almost nine times the odds of receiving lumbar spine surgery compared to those seeing primary care providers, whereas workers whose first visit was to a chiropractor had significantly lower odds of surgery."

These are remarkable results. Consulting with a chiropractor dramatically reduces your odds of having back surgery, plus the chiropractic patients in this report "had lower odds of chronic work disability" and they also had fewer expensive MRI tests.

Let's also take into account this important point: this study was conducted by orthopedic surgeons from Dartmouth College, and published in the world's most prestigious medical publication on spinal injury.

Surgery: The Last Resort

Any surgery has risks, but a serious problem associated with spinal surgery is that there's a very high failure rate. In an important review in the European Spine Journal, researchers wrote:

"Failed back surgery is a problem that has become sufficiently widespread to even warrant its own special conferences, with recent reviews reporting failure rates ranging from 5 to 50%."

The authors of this same study concluded:

"It is extremely difficult to identify unequivocal predictor factors that can be used to accurately predict the outcome of surgery."

As a chiropractor, Dr. Mark Holland believes that surgery should be the absolute last resort for treating back pain. Chiropractic works to restore your spine to its normal function--without the need of risky surgery or drugs--and many scientific studies have confirmed the usefulness of chiropractic for back pain.

If you live in North County, St. Louis, MO and you need care for your back pain, give our office a call today at (314) 867-8888 for a consultation or an appointment. We'll help get you back on the road to a pain-free life!

Studies

• Keeney BJ, Fulton-Kehoe D, Turner JA, Wickizer TM, Chan KC, Franklin GM. 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.
• Mannion AF, Elfering A. Predictors of surgical outcome and their assessment. European Spine Journal 2006;15(Suppl 1):S93-S108.
  

If you are suffering from shoulder pain after a car accident, you're not alone. Dr. Mark Holland sees this type of condition often in our North County, St. Louis, MO office. Chiropractic is a great way to treat shoulder pain. Let's look at how shoulder pain is caused by a crash and how Dr. Mark Holland can help you.

There are at least two ways that you can develop shoulder pain after a car crash: by direct trauma to the shoulder joint or by radiating pain from the neck.

Direct injury can be caused by hitting your shoulder on a hard object in the car during the crash, or can occur if you have a tight grip on the steering wheel during a rear end crash. With this type of injury, you'll often be aware of the pain soon after the crash.

More frequently, Dr. Mark Holland finds that shoulder or arm pain does not immediately appear after a crash, but begins a few days or weeks after the injury. This type of shoulder discomfort actually starts in the neck. Injured soft tissue in your spine can squeeze nerves in your neck, causing tingling, numbness, or pain in your shoulder, elbow, or wrist.

We've worked with both types of shoulder problems in our North County, St. Louis, MO office. This approach involves chiropractic adjustments to restore your spine's natural mobility and home exercises that strengthen your neck and shoulder.

Let us help you recover from shoulder pain. Dr. Mark Holland has helped many patients with the same condition, and we can probably help you, too. First, we'll do a careful examination to determine the root cause of your problem, and then decide how to restore your body's natural functioning. Call us today at (314) 867-8888 if you have questions or would like to make an appointment.

We care for a large number of people in our North County, St. Louis, MO office, and Dr. Mark Holland has helped countless people overcome a variety of health issues. In spite of this, a common issue that seems to stop a lot of men and women from getting care is whether or not chiropractic care is safe. Luckily, according to three separate studies (out of quite a few on the topic), the answer to this question is a clear: "Yes! Chiropractic is safe!"

Chiropractic is Safe, According to Australian Study

The first article(1) was published in Spine and involved 183 men and women between the ages of 20 and 85. Each test subject reported suffering from spinal pain, and half of the people received real chiropractic adjustments while the other half were given two sham chiropractic treatments. Data was obtained after each real or fake adjustment to discover if any unfavorable reactions were caused by the real chiropractic adjustments.

The doctors found that none of the patients documented any serious adverse side effects whatsoever after receiving one or two sessions of chiropractic care. Some individuals did report that they had a headache (9 percent) or muscle stiffness (37%) after treatment, but the effects were not serious.

Nationwide Survey Finds that Chiropractic Adjustments are Safe

A second research study(2), also published in the influential medical journal, Spine, was conducted in an attempt to establish the safety of chiropractic. The study group was much larger -- 20,000 individuals. Each participant received chiropractic adjustments of the neck, with over 50,000 total adjustments for all patients.

Again, the researchers discovered no serious negative side effects. The experts calculated the risk of total side effects to be approximately six out of every 10,000 consultations or every 100,000 treatment sessions. Plus, just as with the first study, some people did report non-serious, milder, side effects such as dizziness (about 1.6%) or a headache (4 out of every 100), and this caused the researchers to determine that "the risk of a serious adverse event, immediately or up to 7 days after treatment, was low to very low."

Chiropractic Care Is Safe for Children

This third study(3) is unique from the previous two reports, as it focuses on the safety of chiropractic care for kids. In this case, researchers investigated results reported by both chiropractors and parents involving 816 children who participated in 7,173 chiropractic treatment sessions.

Out of 5,438 chiropractic appointments made for the young children, chiropractors responding to the survey documented only three cases where there were adverse reactions. When parents were questioned, they indicated only two adverse side effects out of 1,735 visits. Furthermore, both chiropractors and parents reported "a high rate of improvement with respect to the children's presenting complaints."

Based on these three studies (and many more!), chiropractic care has been deemed safe and effective for everyone. To discover what chiropractic can do for you, call our North County, St. Louis, MO office and schedule an appointment today at (314) 867-8888.

References

1. Walker BF, Hebert JJ, Stomski NJ, Clarke BR, Bowden RS, Losco B, French SD. Outcomes of usual chiropractic. The OUCH randomized controlled trial of adverse events. Spine 2013;38(20):1723-9.
2. Thiel HW1, Bolton JE, Docherty S, Portlock JC. Safety of chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine: a prospective national survey. Spine 2007;32(21):2375-8.
3. Alcantara J, Ohm J, Kunz D. The safety and effectiveness of pediatric chiropractic: a survey of chiropractors and parents in a practice-based research network. Explore NY 2009;5(5): 290-5.

When you're trying to support your family, take care of your home, 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 North County, St. Louis, MO office. Dr. Mark Holland appreciates your situation and is here to help.

The advantages of chiropractic for work injuries are well-established. A 2013 research paper involving 651 adults who were troubled 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 respondents in this paper, two of the primary 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 truth 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 North County, St. Louis, MO and you've been injured at work, we can help. Give our office a call today at (314) 867-8888 for an appointment.

References

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

We see a large number of sports injuries in our North County, St. Louis, MO office, and Dr. Mark Holland is often able to assist these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital states that over 3.5 million children aged 14 and younger are injured each year while playing sports. Add that to the almost 2 million adults hurt annually while participating in sports-related activities, as reported by statistics collected by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can start to see the importance of minimizing these types of widespread injuries. One way to potentially achieve that goal, as reported by a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to engage in regular chiropractic treatments.

In Australian Rules football, hamstring and other leg injuries are common, often sidelining the players and affecting their team's odds of securing a win. One particular study was conducted using 59 semi-elite Australian Rules footballers to see if chiropractic could diminish these injuries and help keep them in the game.

For this study in particular, every one of the players received medical treatment. Additionally, half of them also were given chiropractic treatments at the rate of 1 session each week for the first six weeks, biweekly treatments for the following three months, and one session per month for the last three months of the study. The other participants were given no chiropractic intervention whatsoever and were used as the control group to determine the benefits of chiropractic care.

After 24 matches, scientists noted a diminished amount of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had been given chiropractic care. Additionally, that same group also missed fewer matches connected to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to conclude that chiropractic should be added to sports training programs to effectively reduce the amount of leg injuries.

If you or your child are active in sports and you want to ensure more time is spent on the field versus on the sidelines, call our North County, St. Louis, MO office at (314) 867-8888 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.