Ahnen Chiropractic

Physio Medicine Treatments

Physio medicine modalities can assist the healing process, decreases pain and discomfort from injuries, and can help strengthen, relax, and heal muscles and soft tissues.

Below are a few of the treatment modalities we use daily at Ahnen Chiropractic.

Hot Packs:

We wrap moist hot packs in several layers of towels and place them on the area that needs treatment. The heat provided by the hot packs has several important benefits. It relaxes tight muscles, causing tissues to relax. This decreases pain caused by muscle tension or spasms. It also causes vasodilation of the blood vessels which increases circulation to the area. Patients with muscle strains, spasms, or arthritis often benefit from treatment with moist hot packs.

Cold Packs:

Cold Packs are a frozen gel substance used by to treat areas of pain and inflammation. The cold packs are wrapped in a paper towel and applied directly to the area in need of treatment. The cold transferred to the patient’s skin, muscle, and tissue has several beneficial effects.

Electrical Muscle Stimulation:

An electrical current used to cause a single muscle or a group of muscles to contract.

By placing electrodes on the skin in various locations the we can recruit the appropriate muscle fibers. Contracting the muscle via electrical stimulation helps strengthen the affected muscle. The current settings can be changed to allow for a forceful or gentle muscle contraction. Along with increasing muscle strength, the contraction of the muscle also promotes blood supply to the area that assists in healing.

TENS:

A TENS unit stands for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. It is a small battery operated machine that uses electrical transmission to decrease pain. Electrodes are applied to the affected area. The machine is turned on and an electrical current is sent through the electrodes. A tingling sensation is felt in the underlying skin and muscle. This signal disrupts the pain signal that is being sent from the affected area to the surrounding nerves. By breaking this signal, the patient experiences less pain. These units may be used at home.

Interferential Current: Interferential Current Therapy (IFC)

Patient Benefits:

Reduces painful symptoms
Decreases local swelling
Helps restore normal movements
Releases the body’s natural painkillers
Accelerates the healing process

Interferential current therapy is a treatment to aid the relief of pain and the promotion of soft-tissue healing.

Tiny electrical impulses are induced into the tissues in the area of the pain. Where these waves intersect below the surface of the skin, the low-frequency stimulation induces the body to secrete endorphins, which are the body’s natural pain-killers.

Most patients find interferential therapy to be very beneficial and describe the treatment as being relaxing and having a ‘pins and needles’ sensation.

Ligament sprains, muscle strains and spasms often respond well to interferential current therapy

Micro current: Micro current Therapy

For patients with chronic pain, micro current therapy can be a godsend. Its track record is particularly good for conditions such as fibromyalgia, neuropathy, shingles, sciatica, diabetic ulcers, and other intractable conditions that often fail to respond to conventional treatment.

What is Micro current Therapy?

Micro current is a novel therapy that utilizes extremely low-level electrical currents (micro currents) to treat nerve and muscle pain, inflammation, and other health challenges. Each tissue type in your body has its own signature electrical frequency, which may be disrupted by injury or disease. Micro current therapy simply restores normal frequencies within the cells, resulting in remarkable improvements in pain, inflammation, and function.

How Does Micro current Therapy Work?

At the cellular level, micro current therapy stimulates a dramatic increase in ATP, the energy that fuels all biochemical functions in the body. It also bumps up protein synthesis, which is necessary for tissue repair. The ensuing enhancement in blood flow and decrease in inflammation translates into reductions in pain and muscle spasm and increased range of motion.

Heal Faster and Stronger With Micro Current Therapy

Micro current therapy is rapidly becoming a favorite of professional athletes and sports teams as well as weekend warriors. When NFL player Terrell Owens sustained a severe injury to his ankle six weeks prior to the 2005 Super Bowl, everyone assumed his season was over. Terrell credits his ability to play, not to mention his spectacular performance, to micro current and other alternative therapies he underwent.

A Typical Treatment Session

During a typical treatment, you recline comfortably while specific micro current frequencies are delivered to targeted tissues. The therapist uses electrodes or special gloves to direct the currents and places warm, moist towels over the affected area to facilitate conduction. Unlike the more familiar TENS units, which also use electrical currents to relieve pain, micro currents are so weak that they don’t stimulate the sensory nerves, so you feel no shock-like sensations.

A treatment course typically involves several sessions, and benefits accrue over time. Microcurrent therapy is safe, FDA-approved, and has no significant adverse effects. However, it is not recommended for patients who have pacemakers or are pregnant.

Note: It is important to be well-hydrated before and after treatment. Be sure to drink plenty of water while undergoing this therapy.

What Conditions Benefit From Micro current Therapy?

Arthritis
Back pain
Diabetic ulcers
Fibromyalgia
Headaches
Herpes
Neuropathy
Sciatica
Shingles
Slow-healing wounds
Sports injuries
Tendon and ligament pain

Laser:

Cold Laser / Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) for tissue healing, inflammation, pain relief and wounds.

Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) or “cold laser therapy” is on track to become one of the most important developments in life sciences since the discovery of penicillin. LLLT dramatically reduces musculoskeletal pain and inflammation as well as promoting tissue repair wherever the laser beam is applied. This is not a heat treatment, the effects are photochemical. One of the primary actions is on mitochondrial production of ATP, therefore potentially affecting any eukaryotic cell in the body.

LLLT has undergone over 1000 published laboratory studies and is already proven in over 100 successful randomised double blind controlled clinical trials (RCT’s). These trials include osteoarthritis, tendinitis / tendinopathies and other sports injuries, back and neck pain, diabetic foot and venous ulcer wound healing.

Hot wax

Pneumatic Therapy – air pressure used to apply pressure.

Inter-segmental traction:

What is inter-segmental Traction?

It is a way of inducing passive motion into the spine for the purpose of stretching spinal joints and increasing mobility.

How does Inter-segmental Traction Work?

The patient lies face up on a bench table which has roller-type cams beneath its surface. These rollers can slowly travel the length of the spine, stretching spinal joints.

What does Inter-segmental Traction feel like?

Most patients find this form of treatment to be relaxing and very helpful. The gentle rolling action is restful, exercising the spine without effort.

Why is Inter-segmental Traction used?

Since discs have a poor blood supply, they get nutrients from the circulation of fluids surrounding spinal joints. Fixations prevent this natural circulation and can cause disc thinning and degeneration. Inter-segmental traction helps increase and restore necessary elasticity and motion to the spine.

Patient Benefits:

Reduces painful symptoms
Increases spinal mobility
Improves blood supply to the disc, causing it to heal more quickly
Decreases local swelling
Reduces spinal fixations
Accelerates the healing process
Combined with the Chiropractic Adjustment, Inter-segmental Traction is a very effective way to help your body heal more quickly