CranioSacral Therapy and Infant Feeding

As your infant learns to suck, swallow and breathe - their feeding pattern becomes established. Problems arise when there is a difficulty with any one of these steps. You may notice that your infant is not latching on correctly and is just using the lips to suck. This may cause sore nipples for mum and is not helping with milk flow.

In a Craniosacral treatment I would check that the bones in the mouth are free moving and this then corrects the suck. This is done with a gloved finger in the mouth and works on the bones of the palate as the baby is sucking. Often, it is this final correction done by the Craniosacral therapist that completes the process and allows the baby to feed easier.

Jeannette Raskin practices at Family First Chiropractic, 142 Erickson Drive, Red Deer, Alberta.  403-347-3261. www.family1stchiro.ca.

Trigger point therapy

Trigger point therapy is an area of high-nerve facilitation that is hyperirritable and painful when compressed, which may result in muscle dysfunction and/ or chronic condition.

There are trigger points all over the body. Every muscle has trigger points, whether inactive, active or latent, and most muscles have more than two trigger points. The location of a trigger point varies depending on an individual's  routine, exercise habits, or profession. I work on a lot of clients who sit at a desk and often have their workstation set up in a way that when they work a full shift using the same dominant hand answering phone calls or working on the computer they can develop a trigger point.  It is an indication of physiological dysfunction and is the first warning sign that things are not well in the neuromusculoskeletal system. Similar to the ''check engine'' light in a car, a trigger point is a warning of dysfunction, and if left unchecked could represent very serious consequences. 

The following is a list of reasons a trigger point might activate:

1. Contracture in the muscle

2.Increased muscle tonus

3.Constriction and hypersensitivity in the skin in local or referred area

4.Increased pressure in the joints associated with the muscle

5. Decreased activity in visceral organs associated throughdepressed autonomic nerve activity (especially with spinal subluxations)

6. Constriction in local circulation resulting from hypertonus of and constrction in the muscle

7.Vasoconstriction in referred area from effects in the autonomic nervous system

8.Development of secondary and associated trigger points as a result of compensation from the 

effects of the primary trigger point

9.Muscle overuse

10. Poor posture

11. Poor ergonomics

12.Overstretch

13. Lack of stretching

14. Incorrect technique when exercising

Guy Lacoursiere RMT, practices at Family First Chiropractic located at 142 Erickson drive in Red Deer. Call us today to make an appointment (403)347-3261 or visit us at www.family1stchiro.ca.

Do you have headaches coming from your neck?

People search out chiropractic care for headaches as a viable treatment. There can be many types of headaches including cervicogenic, suboccipital, tension, and lesion headaches to name a few. To determine what type of headache a person may have a thorough history and examination is needed, imaging may also be needed to help determine the origin of the headache.

Cervicogenic headache is referred type of pain perceived in the head from a source in the neck. In the case of cervicogenic headache, the cause is a disorder of the cervical spine and its component bone, disc and/or soft tissue and connective tissue elements.

Numerous pain-sensitive structures exist in the upper neck and back of head.

The term cervicogenic headache is commonly misused and does not simply apply to a headache associated with neck pain; many headache disorders, including migraine and tension-type headache, can have associated neck pain/tension. There must be evidence of a disorder or lesion within the cervical spine or soft tissues of the neck, known to be able to cause headache.

Cervical spondylosis (age-related wear and tear affecting the spinal disks in your neck) may be a cause of cervicogenic headache.

Symptoms of a cervicogenic headache include:

•     Reduced neck range of motion
•   Headache may worsen with movements
• · Often one sided
• ·  May radiate to behind the eye
• ·  May of may not be associated with neck pain

.People suspected of having cervicogenic headache should be carefully examined to exclude other primary (migraine, tension-type) or secondary (vessel dissection, posterior fossa lesions) causes of headaches.

Treatment for cervicogenic headache should target the cause of the pain in the neck and varies depending on what works best for the individual patient. Gentle precise chiropractic adjustments with rehabilitation exercises and stretches will greatly reduce theses types of headaches.

Dr. Joelle Johnson practices at Family First Chiropractic and wellness 142 Erickson Drive, Red Deer, T4R 2C3 www.family1stchiro.ca. 403-347-3261