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Neck Pain Treatment

Neck pain treatment is the primary area that Brisbane Osteopath, Dr Anthony Collins, specialises in. His post-graduate research studied the effects of spinal manipulation on neck mobility, something that he found was greatly diminished in people suffering neck pain. Dr Collins found that through the use of gentle manipulation and release of strategic muscles in spasm, neck mobility and pain levels can be significantly reduced.

If you’re worried about your neck pain treatment and feel like it is preventing you from leading the life you want, which for most of us is to be free of pain, then you would be well advised to seek professional osteopathic treatment.

Dr Anthony Collins and Our team of internationally experienced osteopaths can take care of your neck pain treatment requirments and help give you the pain-free life you want sooner. Have a read of the features of neck pain below- knowledge is your first defence!

Neck Pain

If you really want to know how your neck feels go find a bowling ball and sit it on top of an upturned packet of Tim Tams. That’s pretty much how your neck bones, all 7 of them, feel on a regular basis. C1 is the first neck bone in contact with the skull is known as “The Atlas”, and if you’re familiar with Greek Mythology then you know why. Everyone else- google it!

The human head is a remarkably large object relative to the small structures that support it. In fact, the weight of the human head is around 6kg, so I’m sure you can clearly see why most of us feel tense and occasionally sore in the neck, not to mention the upper shoulder muscles- which run into the neck. In all my days I’ve never been asked to stop rubbing someone’s shoulders- now you can see why. Read More

Bulging Disc Treatment Brisbane

If you’re reading this then chances are you’re in a lot of pain. You either suspect you have, or have been diagnosed through medical imaging scans- a bulging disc. Treatment is important, but having an understanding of the process helps to deal with the pain.

The term “bulge” to describe this process is often interchanged with “herniated”, “prolapsed” or “slipped”. They all mean the same thing, that being, the material between your vertebrae has moved from where it should be and is now pinching/compressing one of your spinal nerves as it exits your spinal canal/cord.

If this sounds too confusing, allow me to paint an analogy I often use with my patients… Think of a Jam Doughnut. The whole thing is a simple way to represent a typical spinal disc. The jam centre represents the soft centre of your disc, known as the “Nucleous Pulposus”. Don’t get caught up on the name- just think of the jam being squeezed out of the doughnut onto the garden-hose (your pinched spinal nerve) putting a kink in it that stops the water (nerve impulses) travelling to the garden (your muscles & skin).

You’ve all put a kink in a graden hose before, right? Well the water stops when you do this just the same way the nerve impulse stops running through the nerve properly and your muscles’ function and sensation in areas supplied by the compressed nerve are affected.

Lets say you have a C5/C6 bulging disc causing compression of the C6 nerve. C = Cervical = neck vertebrae. 5 = the fifth vertebrae from the top and 6 is the sixth.. Anatomy is simple once you know! The C6 nerve supplies skin sensation on the thumb side of your forearm and muscles that flex your elbow and wrist, like the biceps. So you could expect to have pain and weakness in the bicep and tingling or numbness in the forearm.

The same is true if the bulging disc is in your low back or lumbar spine. Only this time the muscles that are affected with pain and weakness are in your legs and feet and the change in sensation in your skin is also in that same area.

Myths – Do’s – Don’ts

Myth – 1: You can get your “disc put back in” if you see the right person. This is complete rubbish. Please do not listen to anyone who says they can put your bulging disc “back in”. When I hear of patients heading off to see some quack who claims he/she can do this- I cringe. I challenge you to put the jam back in the doughnut after you’ve squeezed it out! Impossible, right?! Same is true of a bulging disc- can’t be done. I will tell you what can be done to limit your pain so read on.

Do – 1: If you haven’t already- get some scans, either Cat-Scan or MRI. If I was under the age of 50, I’d go for a MRI because there’s no radiation. Excessive radiation causes cancer and in my opinion, we are exposed to enough of it without choosing to be exposed to more when you have a less radio-active choice (MRI). You can see an Osteopath or your GP for this. It costs you the same. Information is education and when battling this problem, having a good understanding of what is exactly going on, helps. Scans allow for greater understanding and they allow your osteopath to tailor your specific rehab and teach you what you can expect to happen during your bulging disc treatment. Read More

What is Sciatica?

If you have a burning pain in your butt that spreads down your leg then you may have sciatica. Sciatica isn’t the disease, it’s the symptom, consisting of leg pain that usually feels like a bad cramp on a good day, or it may be totally excruciating and shooting that makes standing or sitting really uncomfortable.

When my patients describe their sciatica pain and I ask them, “when did this pain come on?” the answers I get often vary from sudden and instant, to a gradual build up over time. If you have sciatica, you may also be feeling weakness, numbness or pins and needles feelings in parts of your legs, feet and/or toes. You may also notice that when you sit, cough or sneeze your sciatica symptoms may become worse. These are all signs of an irritated nerve.

What causes Sciatica?

Sciatica, is a set of symptoms that relate to your sciatic nerve being irritated in some way and at some point in its course. So, what irritates the sciatic nerve? A number of conditions:

Herniated or “slipped” disc: puts direct pressure on a nerve. Much like the jam being squeezed out of a jam dough-nut the jam (disc) sits on the nerve and irritates it. This jam cuts off the electrical nerve signals to the leg and that’s why you get the symptoms of nerve compression i.e. Pins and needles and numbness.
Piriformis Syndrome: The piriformis is a muscle deep in your but-cheek and when it becomes tight it may go into spasm and irritate the nerve that lies right next to it- you guessed it- your sciatic nerve.
Spinal Stenosis: is basically narrowing of the spinal canal, and much like putting a kink in a garden hose, a kink here will decrease the room for the water (nerves) to pass through.
Spondylolisthesis: Now that is a mouthful! Your spine is made up of blocks of vertebrae- this condition is where one vertebrae or block slips forwards. This slippage causes a narrowing in the dimensions of the canal or the kink in the garden hose scenario again.

Have a read of my other post about treatment for sciatica.

Sciatica can be treated effectively. You don’t have to live with pain.

Ph 1300 321 300 for all bookings.

Good Posture Tips

When many of us hear the words “good-posture” our mothers voice begins to ring in our ears, “stand up straight, you’re slouching”. As is often the case, your mother had a point; to a point!

Over time, poor posture may be caused by habits from everyday activities such as sitting in office chairs and looking at the computer, driving, standing for long periods of time, or even sleeping.

Poor posture can easily become second nature, causing or aggravating episodes of back pain and damaging spinal structures. Lucky for you, the main factors affecting posture and ergonomics are completely within your ability to control and are not difficult to change.

The following guidelines suggest several ways to improve posture and ergonomics (good posture/body mechanics in the work-place), especially for people who work sitting in an office chair for most of the day.

There’s no escaping a bigger butt as you age…

Are you getting a wider butt as you get older? Do you often look in the mirror while wearing your favourite jeans and think that the old hips are a little “fuller” than they used to be in your twenties? Then you’re probably right; but if you assumed it was due to the accumulation of fat on the hips, then you’re only partially correct.

Sure, as we get older it’s only natural to sneak on a few extra pounds in the middle-years, usually depositing mostly where we least want it; hips, thighs and butts for girls and the old “Ned Kelly” for the gents. Nature and time can be so unkind! However recent research published in the Journal of Orthopedic Medicine has found that pelvic bones widen as you enter middle age and continue to grow even among those over the age of 70 years!

If you’re experiencing your first really bad backache, you’re probably panicking a little about the pain and its implications — what if it’s cancer? What if it never goes away? If it feels this bad at the age of 30, what will it be like when I’m 60?!

My first piece of advice is, take a deep breath and relax. Low back pain is very common. About 80% of Australian adults will miss work at some point because of it. And most of the time, it’s neither permanent nor serious: 95% of backaches go away within six weeks, with no specific treatment, and potentially much faster if you seek treatment, advice and management strategies from an expert in the field of manual medicine. Following are 7 essential things to know about dealing with a bad back…

Back Pain