Chiropractic therapy deals with the musculoskeletal problems encountered by patients. Since sports injuries are often musculoskeletal in nature it can be expected that chiropractors would be useful for treating some of these injuries and disabilities.

However though chiropractic therapy has been around for more than a hundred years traditional medicine practitioners do not always recommend chiropractors. One reason for this is that even amongst chiropractors there is a difference of opinion on how the injuries and disabilities should be approached. There is a conservative passive approach that limits itself to the manipulation of the spine and there is a more active approach that includes more options.

Therefore when a traditional doctor wants to recommend a chiropractic practitioner then it is useful for the doctor to know about the approach of the chiropractor he hopes to recommend. It has been suggested that those chiropractors who use an active and broader approach are more successful in treating sports related injuries.

It is not easy to know if a chiropractor is classical and uses a conservative approach or is modern and uses a more liberal approach which includes aspects of traditional medicine. For example this information will not usually be available in advertisements. Therefore a visit to the chiropractor can be planned and more details obtained.

The therapy when used to treat sports related musculoskeletal injuries has resulted in benefit to the patient. Being drug free is a big advantage for the therapy. Even routine drugs have been known to have impacted the careers of sports persons because the same or similar drugs have been abused and are illegally used for performance enhancement. Another potential advantage of the therapy is that at times it gives results fast. For a sports person that will mean a faster return to the sport. For sports person's who have important events that are imminent this potential benefit is very useful.

If you are a sports persons and you want to consider chiropractic therapy as an option for injuries you should discuss the option with your regular doctor and also consult a chiropractor in your area. You can find a chiropractor in the USA at www.findachiropractorpages.com.

High cholesterol is no longer a disease that only men need to be concerned with, it is one of the most likely causes of heart disease for many. The only way to find out if you have high levels of cholesterol is to get your doctor to test your blood. Cholesterol is measured by its concentration in your blood and a dangerous cholesterol reading (A cholesterol reading of over 240) is generally an indication that you have too much of the 'bad' and the 'ugly'.

A high cholesterol test result means your heart is working much harder to pump blood around your body than someone with a low cholesterol reading and it is this extra strain on the heart that is cause for concern, the increased strain makes you more susceptible to heart attack or a stroke.

It is recommended that people over 20 years of age should have their cholesterol levels checked at least once every five years because people with dangerous cholesterol levels does not have any noticeable symptoms. Symptoms are hidden from view, they mainly exist in blood samples, or, if far enough advanced, in other health conditions, such as heart attack, heart disease, which are themselves the symptoms of high cholesterol in their own right for the most part.

Dangerous cholesterol levels is something that every individual should take seriously, even if you have not been diagnosed as having it. Few people know that high cholesterol is also associated with erectile dysfunction (ED), it will ruin your sex life, is a silent painless, symptomless disease and left untreated it can become life threatening and have also been linked with depression, fatigue, muscle and nerve pain, and make you more susceptible to cancer.

More and more people are suffering from a sleep apnea disorder while most of them are not aware that they are already victims of it. Many sufferers of this disorder use sleep apnea pillows.

Many unfortunate cases happen when they are sleeping with someone in their bed and these people will wake up in the middle of the night because of obstructive sleep apnea. The good news is there are several treatment options for these people depending on the severity of the disorder, physical structure of the upper airway and some aspects of the person's medical history. Doctors recommend using apnea pillows because they provide support to the neck the head and help clear the airway, which is often blocked when one is suffering from sleep apnea.

Apnea pillows help elevate the head thus allowing the full extension of the neck and open the air passageways. Thus, there would be fewer chances of snoring and sleep apnea. By providing a full support for the frame and spinal alignment of the person, the blood circulation will then be improved, morning stiffness prevents and inhibitions of bedsores will be less likely to develop.

When a person sleeps on their back, they have more tendencies to repress the air passageway and will then snore. With the help of apnea pillows, which are originally designed to encourage side sleep, there would be fewer chances of snoring and difficulty in breathing.

There are also many other treatment options for a person who suffers from severe sleep apnea and it is always best to consult them with your doctor, as he will know best which will work for your situation.

There are people that due to the physical structure of their upper airway, they need special attention and treatments. As for normal or common sleeping apnea, apnea pillows will definitely be of great help in providing more comfortable sleep not only to the one with the disorder but also to their partner who suffers more than he does when he snores out loud.

Today there are many options being used as pain management techniques.

Early in my career when I was a physical therapy aide I discovered some very interesting things about pain management treatment.

I noticed that many of the most commonly used techniques like heat, ice, ultrasound, TENS (electronic muscle stimulation), massage, medications, were only providing patients temporary pain relief.

But, as soon as they tried to return to their active lifestyles it wasn't long before the painful symptoms came roaring back.

And, most of those who tried to 'just deal with it' or push through the pain ended up with a long list of increasing injuries.

After constantly researching the how's and why's about the most commonly used pain management techniques I finally uncovered the answer as to why they weren't more effective.

When a patient goes to the doctor's office or therapy clinic the doctor or physical therapist will attempt to treat the area of the body that is in pain.

For example, a patient with shoulder pain will be treated at the shoulder. A patient with knee pain will have their knee treated.

But, I realized that in almost every case the area of pain is only a symptom and not the actual cause of the pain.

For example, you can have lower back pain as a symptom but the actual cause of your lower back pain may not actually be your lower back as I'll explain in just a minute.

I realized that I was really on to something.

But, when I presented what I had discovered to some of the therapists I was horrified at what they told me.

Because of legal issues the patients had to be treated for the symptoms they were referred to the clinic for regardless of whether or not the symptoms were the primary cause of pain.

In other words, if a patient had shoulder pain that was primarily caused by weakness in their upper back, we still had to treat the shoulder and not the upper back.

The therapists weren't to blame, but rather the insurance companies.

This became more and more frustrating for me because our patients were depending on us to help them find a permanent solution to end their pain. And, it's not that what we were doing wasn't helping them.

But, they were being charged an arm and a leg in co-payments and medications without getting the most effective pain management care that could have made the biggest difference in living a life free of pain.

I started to think about how many people are going through needless surgeries that could have been prevented by treating the causes of pain not just the symptoms.

Another thing that bothered me about the pain management methods was some of the exercises these patients were being taught to perform.

Most of the exercises were either completely wrong because they were merely treating the symptoms rather than the causes of pain or the patients were not taught how to properly perform the exercises.

I have seen patients being told to perform leg extensions after having knee surgery.

Leg extensions might be alright for a body builder or a healthy person using them for aesthetic reasons but they are one of the worst exercises to do for knee pain because of the shear stress created across the knee joint.

They also increase the potential for muscle imbalances that lead to pain.

I've also witnessed patients being told to do lunges with their toes pressed into the floor which also creates tremendous knee joint stress.

I've also witnessed similar issues for people with shoulder, lower back and hip pain.

The Actual Causes Of Chronic Pain

The actual causes of chronic pain often are created by muscle imbalances that result in a host of painful symptoms. For example, you can have lower back pain as a symptom but the actual cause of your lower back pain isn't necessarily your lower back.

It can be due to muscle imbalances that cause your thigh muscles and hip flexors to overcompensate and because your hip flexors attach to each vertebrae in your lumbar spine you can get lower back pain.

Interesting isn't it?

And, it's like this for many other types of chronic pain and injuries.

It is therefore, vital to get a thorough assessment to determine the actual causes of your pain so you can begin a pain management treatment program designed to address your causes so you can eliminate or at least greatly reduce it.

A properly designed exercise program is (at least in my opinion) the best defense against chronic pain and injuries.

Exercise is an excellent pain management technique that can eliminate injuries, strengthen muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones, maintain joint health, enhance flexibility and so much more.

Some headaches are not just annoying, some headaches are totally incapacitating. It's not uncommon to wake up with a headache. With this kind of headache, it hurts to even lift your head from the pillow. Your eyes may be extremely sensitive to sunlight or motion. What if there was a natural way to relieve and even prevent at least some headaches ?

There is a natural approach to healing. Massage therapy, the gift of touch, focuses on relieving the pain, tension, and the discomfort of a headache before your body imbalances cause additional damage. Massage therapy can effectively relieve the symptoms of two of the three major types of headaches: tension and cluster headaches. While massage is contraindicated for a migraine in full bloom, prevention is an attractive, healthier solution to a headache pain that is especially intense, lasting from mere hours to excruciating days.

A major key to preventing migraines is to physically avoid all of those things that you know from experience or testing causes yours: food allergies (chocolate, diary products, etc), food additives like MSG or nitrates, caffeine withdrawal, hypoglycemia when the body is deprived of glucose,or even estrogen supplements. Other causes like weather or barometric pressure, genetics, or unknown factors require coping mechanisms like a doctor's prescription or massage in order to deal effectively with the mood changes, or the extreme sensitivity to light, sound or even motion. For some sufferers, migraines produce nausea and even vomiting.

Most massage therapists offer relief for migraines in the form of hydrotherapy, ie., a cold compress to the back of the neck on constricted blood vessels, as well as a cold compress applied over the forehead and eyes. Your therapist may wrap your hands or feet in steamy hot towels while applying the cold compresses to the back of the neck. If any touch can be tolerated, gentle massage of the back of the scalp as well as the shoulders, and back of the neck, can bring relief. Your massage therapist may include passive neck stretching exercises or shoulder compressions in the treatment of your headaches.

Massage therapists are most often consulted for relief of tension headaches. This headache may be by far the most common. Tension headaches occur when surface blood capillaries constrict, blood to muscles and the brain increases, and adrenalin levels increase, causing spasms in the head, neck, and upper shoulders. Tension headaches can occur as result of occupational posture (prolonged driving without lumbar support, or prolonged hours sitting hunched over a computer or even the mental stress of dealing with conflicting deadlines), excessive fatigue, excessive alcohol use, and prolonged or severe emotional pressures.

Sometimes, the area that aches is not the area that the massage therapist will choose to work. A massage therapist may offer any number of modalities to bring relief. For example, a therapist skilled in reflexology or acupressure may work the hand area between the thumb and forefinger, or gently apply pressure to points on the client's ankles and feet to bring balance into the body. The bottom line is to use massage as a preventive tool to stay in good health, rather than seek a magic cure once your health is in jeopardy!

Finally, the third type of headache is a cluster headache. While the cause of cluster headaches is unknown, it has been suggested that they are more common among men ages 20-45 years of age. Cluster headaches are felt in the eyes, temple, neck and face. Again, hydrotherapy, and gentle massage of the problem areas, in addition to the neck and shoulders, can usually effectively reduce the symptoms. Consider that a regularly scheduled massage is an effective preventive measure, and infinitely more cost-effective than a lost work day, or a long-term illness.

Don't expect one massage to cure your headaches forever. If you suffer repetitively from headaches, the best solution would be to determine what causes them. To cure the problem, eliminate its source. If you constantly suffer headaches of an unknown cause, especially headaches that include neck stiffness, you should consult your physician before making an appointment for a massage as these headaches may be a symptom of a more serious medical problem.