How Do You Adjust a Horse?

How do you adjust a horse?  This is a common question I get from people, especially from people foreign to the equine world.  

I get it though, it’s a big animal and it would be tough to visualize enough power to move a horse.

The thing is an animal chiropractor doesn’t adjust horses, an animal chiropractor adjusts joints.  

A horses vertebral (facet) joints that we target are not large, much smaller than my hand.

If the force is applied specifically to the joint than the amount of pressure needed is not that much.

Is it more than say the pressure a chiropractor would need when adjusting a human? Yes.  But with knowledge of equine anatomy and working with the horse rather than against it, the amount of force need is really not that much.

So if you ever wonder how does an equine chiropractor adjust a horse, they don’t! They adjust the joint :)

What is the difference between adjusting a dog and a human?

First off the principle of chiropractic care is the same for both.  A human and a dog both have a spine and nervous system. The function of their spine directly affects the function of their nervous system.  The nervous system is in control of muscles, organs and sensory function. In everyday life problems with this can show up in performance, mobility, or daily routine.

The major difference between a human chiropractor and an animal chiropractor is understanding the different anatomy of each species and the related stress caused by this different anatomy.

Let me give you a few examples…

The number of vertebra a dog has in certain sections is different that a human.

Both have 7 in the neck (cervical)

In the midback (thoracic) human’s have 12 while dog’s have 13.

Finally the low back (lumbar) human’s have 5 while dog’s have 7.

This is basic spinal anatomy that if you were a human chiropractor only you would not know this difference.

Another important factor an animal chiropractor must take into account is the different types of stress the spine will take in a four legged animal compared to a two legged human.

The spine of a human is vertical and is affected mostly by compression, while a dog or horse have horizontal spines which are affected greatly by shear force.  

Understanding these differences allows an animal chiropractor to use correct techniques and forces to certain areas that may be weak points due to the differences in anatomy between species.

Lame horse? Are you seeing the full picture?

Obviously there are many reasons why you can have a lame horse.  But sometimes treating a specific area only will get you your horse so far.

Your horse has four limbs for a reason.  When an injury affects a certain limb the other three limbs must work overtime.  Not to mention the stabilizing musculature that will be sent into overdrive.

Correcting the area where the injury occurred is absolutely necessary but looking at the rest of the compensatory issues while they are current may help to prevent future nagging injuries.

After any injury I recommend having your horse checked and corrected before this becomes the new normal.

At the end of the day your horse is not just a machine.  It is more than a sum of it’s parts and must be evaluated as a whole.

Hip Pain in Dogs - Can an Animal Chiropractor Help?

If you have a large breed dog you probably know that their hips can cause trouble.  Whether it is severe hip dysplasia or osteoarthritis the hips can affect the health of the dog, their quality of life and the pocket book of the owner.

Whether it is a human or a dog the same principles of wear, tear and degeneration apply.  The difference is when humans have a bad hip they don’t run, jump and play. Dogs on the other hand do.

I don’t know how many owners try to limit the dog’s exercise, but when the dog finds a squirrel in the backyard they get up and go, and make a youthful leap off the back deck causing impact to those bad joints.  They come back limping and it stays this way for the following 3 days.

Week after week this pattern continues.

If you can’t correct the behaviour, how do we make the joints adapt to handle those repetitive stresses that are placed on it.

Motion is lotion.

Your dog needs movement. Or should I say your dog’s hips need movement.  No just any movement, proper movement.

Dogs with hip issues, will get atrophy of the muscle from disuse and from a phenomenon called arthrogenic muscular inhibitiion.

Regular check ups from your animal chiropractor can be a game changer in the function of your dogs hip health.  I have literally seen old dogs get a bounce back into their step.

When owners tell me their dog is now walking them and that hasn’t happened in years, I know the visit to the animal chiropractor was well worth it.

The bottom line is dogs don’t lie.  The proof is in the pudding!

When Your Headache Comes From Your Neck

One of the most common things we help with are people with headaches and migraines.  

How would a chiropractor help with headaches you ask?

There are many connections between your head and neck.  Changes in the neck can affect nerve, bone and/or soft tissues connecting to the head, and sometimes this can result in head pain or more often referred to as headaches.

One very important area in the upper neck is the suboccipital region.  There are four tiny muscles on either side, and one called the Rectus Capitis Posterior Minor has a direct attachment to your Dura.

The Dura is part of the sheath around your spinal cord and brain.  Changes in the structure of the neck can put strain on this small muscle (that is connected from your skull to the first vertebra) and cause tension in the Dura and lead to headache.

One case study looked at a man who suffered for years, and the migraine medication was not working.  The surgeons cut this connection between the muscle and dura and the headaches disappeared.

As a chiropractor I look at what is causing the tension in the first place.  If you have structural shifts in the spine leading to this you will know when I test your neck.  

In most cases I feel the shift, put a slight pressure on the irritated tissue and the patient reports that it creates the same headache they have been feeling.

Search for the root problem, and not just the symptom.

The 60 Pound Head

“Sit up straight”

You’ve been told this when you were young and you have probably said it to your kids.  

Your ear, shoulder and hip should be one vertical line, perpendicular to the floor. While inside your neck your vertebrae should have a nice smooth “C” curve to it.

When we lose that curve there is more strain on your neck. But the question is how much?

A spinal surgeon out of New York did a study to figure this out.

The average human head weighs in at 13.2lbs.  10-12lbs of force is placed on your neck while you are in the perfect position mentioned above.

So what happens when perfect changes?

15 degrees forward = 27lbs of strain

30 degrees forward = 40lbs of strain

45 degrees forward = 49lbs of strain

60 degrees forward = 60lbs of strain

This increased strains lead to faster degeneration in the neck and eventually disability.

Corrective chiropractic care aims to restore this changes back to normal as close as possible, and the changes we see in curve correction can be truly amazing even to us.

But it's more amazing when our patients feel and move much better as a result.  It's very simple actually.  Reduce 50lbs of strain off of your neck and it's going to work better. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand that. 

The crazy part is that these bad postures and neck curve changes are now seen commonly in kids with increasing time spent on technology.

In a one year period the average person spends 700 to 1,400 hours a year on smart devices. The average high school student may spend up to another 5,000 hours on their smart devices.

That’s Insane!!!

The bottom line is you don't know what you don't know.  Get your kids checked by a corrective care chiropractor and see if there are in fact any structural changes that have already started and correct it now,  as it is much easier to do while they are young.  

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Check your child's posture with this easy checklist.

Are You Shifted?

Imagine you are standing in front of me and I told you to close your eyes.  Then while your eyes are still closed I moved your arm in front of your body.

If I asked you where your arm is, do you think you would know?

Of course you would.

But how would you know this?  

Well your muscles and joints are full of these special receptors that tell your brain where your body is positioned in space. They are literally the eyes within your body. They give you feedback on how you move, how fast you are moving and when you overstretch they will cause a reflex to engage muscles to prevent injury (this is what happens when you have your knee reflex tested).

These receptors are located all over the different regions of your body but there is one place they are way more dense than the rest of the body. That’s the spine and in particular the neck.

When your spine is in proper alignment these receptors only report movements and changes to the area (normal input).  

When a joint is damaged, irritated or is out of it’s optimal position, these receptors are firing a barrage of signals to your brain telling it something is not right.  This works in a feedback loop so your brain gets the message and has to come up with a response.  The usual response to this is muscles tighten (spasm), reduced motion, and the end results can be pain. 

This can not only lead to the symptoms above but it can lead to further degeneration due to increased spinal dysfunction.  Even if the symptoms subside for a period of time you will be more at risk for re-aggravation.

We see this time and time again when someone comes in as a new chiropractic patient and they complain of back pain.  They have had this multiple times in the past but “it went away on its own”, but “this time it’s not going away and I think I need to do something about it now”…

The bottom line is these dysfunctions that turn into full blown painful conditions are a result of repetitive strain breaking down the tissue further because there is poor communication between your body and brain.

As a chiropractor my goal is to identify these problem areas and improve the dysfunction and as a result reduce the pain. Dysfunction is corrected by restoring normal motion to joints, returning the normal alignment of the spine and decreasing the strain on degenerative tissues such as the disc.

I will leave you with a tell tale example that spinal dysfunction is present.  

If you have knots around your shoulder blades and you have your partner try to work them out or you go for a massage but the last few times they don’t seem to be “worked out”, then it may not be a muscle problem.  Think why are the muscles tightening up in the first place.  Most likely in this scenario there is dysfunction in spine of the lower neck and as a result muscles attaching there are becoming irritated.

Smoothie Boosters

Chiropractic and Your Immune System

There are numerous studies that show how getting adjusted by a chiropractor can cause an immediate rise immune markers like white blood cells. This is great but if you get adjusted once to boost your immune system that is only going to have a mild impact on your symptoms, no different really than trying to suppress your symptoms with an over the counter remedy. 

What is fascinating about chiropractic is it may help to reduce the stress load on your nervous system.

This stress response in our body is natural and is innately programmed so we could run from the Sabertooth tiger thousands of years ago.  Even though we don't have to worry about these threats today our body reacts the same none the less when the nervous system shifts into the stress response. 

The following are some of the changes that happen during the stress response:

- increased cortisol,  adrenaline,  heart rate,   blood pressure,  blood glucose levels,  blood lipid levels,  blood cholesterol levels,  breakdown of protein,   clotting factors,  feelings of stress fear anxiety and depression,  sensitivity of sensory systems (including pain)

- decreased short term memory,  concentration,  serotonin levels , growth hormone,  sex hormones, bone loss. 

** and you guess it decreased cellular immunity. 

You see in the short term this response is not a disease, it is normal. 

The chronic stressful environment including your internal environment is pathological, not the response your body has to it. 

When we look at your spinal health, the degeneration it may have will create a chronic stressor to your nervous system.  Checking, adjusting, and rehab type exercise is going to help reduce the likelihood of the stress response keeping your immune system working optimally.