Back Pain, Neck Pain
When you're in pain, you just want to get out of pain as quickly as possible. Taking OTC pain-killers may dull the pain, or take it away completely, but it comes back again. Why? The source of the pain was not treated. Chiropractic seeks to target the source of the pain directly, eliminating the disturbance to the tissue that created the pain and allowing the body to heal itself naturally.
Arthritis, Degenerative Joint Disease
Just as your skin develops a callous when it is irritated for a long period of time, so does bone. Over time, changes in biomechanics, posture, injury and normal aging all play a role in the development of arthritis, or degenerative joint disease. Chiropractic therapy helps to keep the joints moving, free them of restrictions to their motion, and prevent the development or worsening of arthritis.
Herniated Discs, Sciatica
The spine is supported by a number of structures called Discs or Intervertebral Discs. These act like shock absorbers for your spine. The discs are made up of two parts: an inner material called Nucleus Pulposus, which is the consistency of toothpaste, and an outer covering made up of concentric rings of a tough, fibrous material called Annulus Fibrosus. When the annulus becomes damaged, the nucleus can bulge out from the center of the disc, and can, with enough time and/or injury, completely break through the annulus. This is called a disc herniation.
From development and birth, your body, and especially your immune system are never exposed to this nucleus material, and if it comes out of its protective covering, the immune system recognizes it as a foreign invader, and attacks it fiercely. This is why a disc herniation can produce such terrible pain and inflammation, besides the possibility of the bulge compressing a nerve directly.
Using spinal manipulation, strengthening exercises, nutrition and certain botanical medicines, we can usually get a disc herniation under control fairly rapidly, first working to reduce pain and inflammation, and then moving to strengthening exercises to help prevent a relapse.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease
A combination of diet, nutrient levels, and genetic factors seem to be the culprit of behind the development of inflammatory bowel disease, like Ulcerative Colitis, and Crohn's Disease. At North Jersey Whole Health Center, Dr. Robert Press uses a combination of dietary modification, nutritional supplementation and spinal manipulation to decrease the severity, frequency and functional impact of these conditions. Using scientifically supported methods, we have had success in getting IBD into complete remission, lessening or eliminating the dependence on pharmaceutical drugs that do not cure the disease, but simply maintain it in a chronic state.
Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome
Insulin is a hormone that the body uses in order for cells to take up sugar and amino acids, for fuel to run the cell. Insulin acts as a signal that tells the cell to absorb these nutrients and without insulin, the cell would starve. In type 2 diabetes, and in metabolic syndrome, which is pre-diabetes, the pancreas continues to make insulin for the body, but the cells becomes resistant to it.
Drugs that are used to manage this condition are called hypoglycemic agents or antihyperglycemic agents. These include metformin, sulfonylureas, thiazolidinediones, and alpha-glucosidase inhibitors. Metformin is frequently the first line medical treatment along with a low sugar diet, for maintaining blood sugar levels.
Dr. Press currently uses the latest research-supported non-pharmaceutical therapies to reduce insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, and uses dietary modification and nutritional counseling for weight loss, which further enhances the effectiveness of these therapies.
