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We work with many back pain patients in our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA chiropractic office, and Dr. Stern and our staff uses an assortment of techniques to help get you out of pain and restore your spine's normal, healthy function. We find spinal decompression to be an effective approach.

Understanding Spinal Decompression Therapy

To help you better understand spinal decompression therapy, think of the discs in your spine like water balloons filled with gelatin. When you squeeze them (which occurs due to normal living, sustaining an injury, or other medical conditions), they can protrude, placing pressure on the nerves in your spine. This affects your brain's ability to communicate with tissues in the rest of your body.

If the pressure on the discs becomes too high, the discs can herniate or protrude. This removes the cushioning between your vertebrae and can cause pain. The goal of spinal decompression therapy is to reduce this pressure to help improve your body's function and also reduce your level of pain.

Can Spinal Decompression Therapy Help Me?

Spinal decompression therapy relieves disc pressure through the use of a specially designed table that carefully elongates your spinal column through slow and controlled movements. This decreases the pressure placed on your discs. Some studies report an increase in disc height by as much as 1.3 millimeters after just six weeks of this treatment.

If you're wondering if spinal decompression therapy could help you feel and perform better, simply call our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA office and schedule an appointment with Dr. Stern today. Your optimal health is our number one objective!

Resources

Apfel CC, Cakmakkaya OS, Richmond C, et al. Restoration of disk height through non-surgical spinal decompression is associated with decreased discogenic low back pain: a retrospective cohort study. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2010;11(155). doi:10.1186/1471-2474-11-155

When you're trying to sustain your family, take care of your home, and pay all of your bills on time, every day at your job counts. Work injuries can be a big problem for many people, and we see many of these types of injuries in our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA office. Dr. Stern appreciates your situation and is here to help.

The advantages of chiropractic care for work injuries are well-documented. A 2013 research paper 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?

According to the participants in this study, two of the major reasons were that they thought they needed a 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.

Dr. Stern Can Help Clients Find Comfort From Chronic Pain

If you live in Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA and you've been injured at work, we can help. Give our office a call today at (415) 308-7636 for an appointment.

Sources

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

We encounter a large number of sports injuries in our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA office, and Dr. Stern is generally able to help these athletes. Stanford Children’s Hospital reports that over 3.5 million children aged 14 and younger are hurt each year when playing sports. Add that to the almost 2 million adults injured annually while participating in sports-related activities, according to statistics collected by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and you can begin to see the importance of minimizing these sorts of common injuries. One approach to potentially achieve that goal, according to a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, is to engage in routine chiropractic care.

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

Research Proves Chiropractic Helps in Treating Sports Injuries

For this study particularly, every one of the players received medical treatment. In addition, half of them also received 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 each month for the final three months of the study. The remaining group were given no chiropractic intervention at all and acted as the control group to determine the benefits of chiropractic adjustments.

After twenty-four matches, scientists noted a lessened number of lower limb muscle strains in the group that had received chiropractic care. Furthermore, that very group also missed fewer matches correlated to non-contact knee injuries. This lead the researchers to come to the conclusion that chiropractic should be made an addition to sports training programs to effectively decrease the quantity of leg injuries.

Dr. Stern Can Help Patients Find Relief From Sports Injuries & Help You Recover Quicker

If you or your child plays sports and you would like to ensure greater time is spent on the field as opposed to on the sidelines, call our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA office at (415) 308-7636 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.

Dr. Stern sees a lot of back pain patients in our busy Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA chiropractic office. Many of our patients have some kind of spinal issue that is causing them pain and distress. Fortunately, Dr. Stern has found that spinal decompression therapy is an effective way to help these people.

What is Spinal Decompression and How Can it Help Me?

Non-surgical spinal decompression is a treatment method that takes all of the positive benefits that one normally gets from chiropractic, traction, physiotherapy, exercise therapy, and myofascial therapy and combines them all into one.

The objective of decompression is to keep you away from the surgeon's knife, and that is precisely what it's accomplished for a number of folks, as it has a documented 85% success rate.

Some of the issues spinal decompression helps with include generalized back pain, sciatic nerve pain, herniated discs, degenerative disc disease, compression fractures, and joint pain.

Spinal decompression works by reversing the influences of wear, tear, and gravity that compresses the intervertebral discs in your spinal column. The movie below demonstrates how it works to alleviate stress on your back and helps decrease pain and disability.

Dr. Stern Can Help Patients Find Relief From Chronic Back Pain

If you live in Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA and you're struggling with back pain, spinal decompression therapy might be the solution. Call Dr. Stern today at (415) 308-7636 for a consultation or appointment.

According to research, approximately 2-5 percent of the population will suffer from painful conditions like frozen shoulder syndrome at some time in their lives. That makes shoulder-related pain a common occurrence and one that Dr. Stern sees in our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA practice on a regular basis.

Research Proves Chiropractic Helps With Shoulder Pain

Usually, this issue 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 stretches can sometimes help relieve the pain, so too can chiropractic care.

For example, a 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 authors found that nearly all of the study participants fared extremely well with chiropractic care. The authors found:

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 patient reported an improvement of 50 percent or less, so studies like this demonstrate just how beneficial chiropractic can be when it comes to decreasing shoulder pain and improving quality of life.

We Can Help People Find Relief From Shoulder Pain

Let Dr. Stern help you ease your suffering by contacting our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA 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

Knee pain is a common problem for people in our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA chiropractic practice, and Dr. Stern has happily provided many of these folks relief. This is largely because chiropractic care has been found to help with many kinds of knee pain.

For instance, some people feel pain in and around the knee tissues due to degenerative arthritis. Research has proven that this condition responds very well to chiropractic--and rather quickly, too. In fact, one article published in The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association found that individuals with osteoarthritis in their knees felt significant pain relief and enhanced function after just two weeks of chiropractic care.

If your knee pain is due to a medial meniscus tear, chiropractic could likely help with that as well. One study found that integrating chiropractic with soft tissue therapy, rest, ice, and compression on the affected knee helped lower the intensity of the pain.

Clearly, sometimes a knee replacement surgery is necessary in order to rectify the issue, and if that's the case, chiropractic can also help improve the outcome. How?

Research Shows Chiropractic Helps With Knee Injuries

Research has shown that patients with low back pain frequently have less positive outcomes after knee surgery. Therefore, dealing with your back pain through chiropractic before having a total knee arthroplasty can assist with your post-surgery recovery.

No matter what your knee issue, Dr. Stern can likely help. Call our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA practice today and find out what we can do for you!

References

• Pollard H et al. (2008, December). The effect of a manual therapy knee protocol on osteoarthritic knee pain: a randomised controlled trial. The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association;52(4):229-42
  Boyle J et al. (2014, March). Influence of low back pain on total knee arthroplasty outcome. Knee;21(2):410-4
• Jarosz B & Ames R. (2010, December). Chiropractic management of a medial meniscus tear in a patient with tibiofemoral degeneration: a case report. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine;9(4):200-8

If you are struggling with fibromyalgia, you are not alone, as Dr. Stern sees many patients with this particular syndrome in our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA chiropractic office. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that roughly two percent of all adults in the United States have fibromyalgia. Thankfully, chiropractic is one treatment option that can provide positive results.

Research Shows Chiropractic Helps Fibromyalgia

In a paper released in mid-2015, 215 adults with fibromyalgia were assessed based on factors ranging from pain to quality of sleep to the levels of depression and anxiety they felt. Then they were divided into two groups with one group receiving a multi-modal therapy program for three months and the second group receiving the same program with the addition of chiropractic adjustments (specifically, to the upper neck area) for the same length of time.

The individuals who received chiropractic adjustments in conjunction with the multi-modal therapy approach reported greater benefits in all areas (pain, sleep, depression, and anxiety) at three months post-treatment when compared to the study patients who received multi-modal treatment without chiropractic care. In addition, those positive results were long-lasting as the subjects reported continued improvement one full year later.

Fibromyalgia can substantially decrease your quality of life, both mentally and physically. If you're dealing with fibromyalgia, we might be able to help.

You don't have to suffer! To find out what Dr. Stern can do for your fibromyalgia pain, call our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA chiropractic office today.

Sources

• Fibromyalgia. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/arthritis/basics/fibromyalgia.htm on November 2, 2015.
• Moustafa I & Diab A. (2015, July). The addition of upper cervical manipulative therapy in the treatment of patients with fibromyalgia: a randomized controlled trial. Rheumatology International;35(7):1163-74.

Dr. Stern sees a lot of patients troubled with carpal tunnel syndrome in our busy Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA chiropractic office. While some people think that the source of this wrist-related pain is muscular, it's actually a syndrome that stems from the nerves--and not just the nerves in your hands.

Research Proves Chiropractic Helps With Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Recent research printed in the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy assessed 71 women between the ages of 35 and 59 who were diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome. Upon investigating the subjects' neck range of motion, the doctors found that the women had less cervical mobility when compared to a healthy control group.

In addition, they also observed that the degree of the women's reported carpal tunnel pain was linked to the lateral flexion of the cervical spine. In other words, the less mobility in the neck area, the higher the level of pain.

This study is very important, as you cannot successfully resolve a problem until you fully understand its source. By realizing that the root of carpal tunnel symptoms is in the neck, this means that all-natural approaches like chiropractic can often restore normal function, eliminating the need for risky surgery.

If you are suffering from carpal tunnel pain, call our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA location and ask how Dr. Stern can help you get relief!

Research Studies

De-la-Llave-Rincon A et al. (2011, May). Women with carpal tunnel syndrome show restricted cervical range of motion. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy;41(5):305-10.
Simon H. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. University of Maryland Medical Center. Updated May 6, 2012. Retrieved from https://umm.edu/health/medical/reports/articles/carpal-tunnel-syndrome on November 2, 2015.

We see a large number of men and women with back pain in our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA office, and Dr. Jamie Stern finds that many cases of back pain start in the sacroiliac (SI) joint. Investigation has revealed that around twenty-five percent of all back pain begins in the SI joint, and now new research ratifies what we have noticed in our clinic: chiropractic is an effective way to treat this issue.

Research Supports Chiropractic Treatment Helps Increase Movement in the SI Joint

In the study released in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, thirty-two women who suffered from sacroiliac joint syndrome were split into two groups and asked to participate in one of two treatment therapies. one group was given a chiropractic adjustment only at the sacroiliac joint, and the second group had an adjustment to the sacroiliac joint as well as the lumbar spine.

Specialists observed significantly more improvements in both pain and movement immediately following treatment, two days later, and 30 days after for the patients who underwent high-velocity low-amplitude manipulation to both the sacroiliac joint and the lumbar spine. This suggests that chiropractic therapy administered in these two areas offers both prompt and lasting benefits for sacroiliac joint pain sufferers even with only one treatment round.

So, if you are dealing with sacroiliac joint pain, or cope with back and leg pain and want to see if your sacroiliac joint is the source, a visit to our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA office could be the first and best step towards feeling better. Give our office a call today at (415) 308-7636.

Kamali F, Shokri E. The effect of two manipulative therapy techniques and their outcome in patients with sacroiliac joint syndrome. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies 2012;16(1):29-35.

We treat many car accident cases in our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA office, and a widespread symptom our patients report is neck pain. If you suffer from neck pain after an auto injury, don't worry. Dr. Jamie Stern sees this type of problem frequently in our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA office. Neck pain is a common symptom after a car crash, and it's something that Dr. Jamie Stern sees frequently in our Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA office. What causes neck pain after an auto collision? How can chiropractic care help? Why is neck pain such a common symptom after an auto collision? How can chiropractic care help you get better? Let's see why neck pain is frequently experienced after an auto injury and see how your chiropractor can help you recover. Let's look at the root cause of neck pain after a car accident and see how your chiropractor can help. The key to recovering from neck pain caused by a crash is to understand the root cause of the problem and how chiropractic care can help. Your chiropractor can be very helpful for neck pain symptoms after a crash. Let's examine what causes neck pain and why chiropractic works. Chiropractic care is an effective way to treat neck pain. Let's look at how neck pain is caused by a crash and how Dr. Jamie Stern can help you.

It's not surprising that neck pain is the most common problem experienced after a car crash. Even in a car wreck, your head is rapidly thrown back and forth, so it's not surprising that neck pain is the most common symptom from this type of injury. The neck is exposed to very high forces during a car crash, so it's not surprising that neck pain is so common from this type of injury. During even a low velocity wreck, your head is exposed to extremely rapid acceleration. In such crashes, a head that normally weighs about 10 pounds can instantly weigh 80 or more pounds. This force exerts a serious strain on the tissues of the neck. The bones of your spine are held together with strong bands of tissue called ligaments, and these ligaments provide stability for your neck. These ligaments can be sprained during a wreck, just as the ligaments in your ankle can be sprained. A sprain means that the ligament is stretched or torn.

When you experience a sprained ligament, the injured tissues become inflamed and tender, and that's what happens after a car crash. Your chiropractor helps by increasing mobility in the injured region, which helps the tissues heal and helps decrease scar tissue.

Dr. Jamie Stern Can Help People Find Relief From Neck Pain & Help You Recover Faster

You don't have to suffer from neck pain. Dr. Jamie Stern is conveniently located in Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA to help you get better, whether you've been in a car crash or not. If you've been hurt in a car crash and you're struggling with neck pain, Dr. Jamie Stern is here to help. Dr. Jamie Stern has been helping patients in Sunnyvale & San Francisco, CA since 2006, so we know what you're living with. We're here to help you, too. Let us help you recover from neck pain. The first step is to get an accurate diagnosis to determine what's causing your symptoms and then we will determine an appropriate treatment plan of action. Next, we'll do a careful examination to figure out the root cause of your pain, and then decide how to restore your body's natural functioning. Dr. Jamie Stern will determine what's causing your pain and then will work to restore your body to its natural functioning. Give our office a call today at (415) 308-7636 to make an appointment.