How can I manage my pain?

How can I manage my pain?

Pain is a signal from our body that something is wrong. At Rochester Spine + Sports Chiropractic, we see people frustrated and struggling with pain. They need an answer.

The impact goes beyond the one hurting too. Pain impacts other relationships, especially your loved one’s. Many people are searching for answer and just don’t know where to go, or who to trust. This diagram holds the answers to how you can take back your power, resolve your pain and live freely.

Over the next six months we are going to take you on a journey through your pain management options. On the left, we have conservative care. Balance: applies to your whole life and within each area of your body. Soft tissue: refers to the muscle problem, known as adhesion. This problem is a big deal that repetitively and reliably demonstrates why people are in pain. Herbal: describes how nutrition, our food and nature’s medicine, herbs, can be used heal and enhance our existence.  As we approach the invasive side on the right, we have... Medication: where we seek to take something to alleviate our pain. Injections: which are targeted applications of chemicals to overpower our bodies' normal feedback mechanisms, including pain. Surgery: all doctors agree should be attempted only after conservative methods have not been successful, or in an emergency situation.

Every person and their healthcare providers want the same thing… successful and sustained results for the patient.  Health care providers have different training and experience when it comes to how to manage pain.  In our office, as a conservative care expert, I will earn your trust. We provide an accurate diagnosis, teach you about your options, apply the most advanced soft tissue specialist skills to eliminate pain and help you understand balance to keep your body pain free. Our mission is to move a person closer to their vision of optimal health, it starts with freedom from pain.  Our goal is to provide the best results, that can be sustained for a long time with the least risk of harm. Call now, 678-1362, to schedule a consultation with the doctor to find out whether our office has the answer to help you or a loved one struggling with pain.  

Sincerely, Dr. Matt Buffan

New Year: Improve You

Happy 2019 and a 2018 Reflection. For the last few years I have adopted a one-word intention for the year ahead. My word for 2019 is "Elevate". Before moving upward, I have decided to reflect back on 2018 with a few words: joy, evolve, and growth.

Joy: My values are centered in love, freedom, and learning through shared experience. The ability to travel and invest time with my sweetheart of a wife allowed me to observe her spark, excitement, and passion for helping people through functional nutrition and health coaching. She was raised in a foodie household and has a true passion for creating in the kitchen, so it's a natural and perfect fit. We have experienced multiple herbal and nutritional education courses led by Dr. Michael Gaeta and Dr. Annette Schippel to advance our perspective on the effectiveness nature provides in herbs and whole foods on supporting the body's natural functioning. Maddie hold private health coaching sessions with her clients to help create and implementate personalized functional nutritional programs on Mondays and Thursdays. To learn more about Maddie, Wellness Awakened, and services offered, visit her website.   I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to learn from amazing teachers and mentors. Every year, 12 hours of continuing education are required for licensure. In 2018, I completed 164 hours! This accelerated the evolution in our approach to serving others.   (Above left to right: Dr. Matt Buffan, Dr. Annette Schippel, Maddie Buffan) Evolve: A pillar guiding this evolution has been the Integrative Diagnosis community. This dedicated group of providers, led by Dr. William Brady, continues to push the edge of the musculoskeletal stratosphere. The Integrative Diagnosis certified doctors routinely demonstrate how to provide conservative care for pain and movement dysfunction. The limitations of a provider's sensation and skill with the human hand are overcome with every seminar and intentional repetition. The Integrative Diagnosis system has been meticulously calibrated to maximize treatment efficacy, individual understanding, and appropriate reality matched decision making. This level of service elevates every patient who invests their time and energy into improved physical function. The journey over the last ten years fills my humility and devotion to my quest to provide inspirational healing. Integrative Diagnosis Cervical Certified Doctors   Growth: One of life's challenges is to build a great team. This requires many skills, including trust, dedication, and communication. Each day there are challenges, especially when one has high aspirations. In reflecting back on 2018, I am thrilled with the growth that our team has been able to achieve and the enhanced service it allows us to provide our patients. I'm excited for the year ahead, whether you are new patient needing freedom from pain or a person that has experienced functional results from our treatment. We strive for continued improvement and long term results-based success. Give us a jingle, 678-1362, to see how we can help you live your healthy intentions in 2019!

Cell Phone Safe Zone

Cell Phone Safe Zone Cell phone use has revolutionized our daily habits. Texting, email, news stories, videos are all available in the palm of our hand. Is your cell phone influencing the pain in your neck? The answer is YES. Holding your cell phone creates increased load on the neck. This increased load on the muscles in your neck creates adhesion in your muscles. Adhesion is like glue that restricts movement and causes pain.

The typical neck pain case starts out with pain in your neck or upper back near your shoulder blade.  Cell phone neck pain The muscles feel stiff or seem to tire easily.  You start noticing that you can't bend or turn your head when driving.  For a patient with neck pain when using a cell phone, we want to reduce any overload on the neck.  How do I hold my phone to avoid neck damage?  One simple way to do that is called the 3-finger rule, where you want more than 3 fingers between your neck and chest at all times. Drive the elbows in towards your sides, elevate your hands and minimize the bending of your neck(see bad vs. safe below). We will all catch ourselves in poor posture with our phone at times. When you find yourself in poor position take a second to follow the steps and get into a better position.  Bad 6 X more stress on neck Safe cell phone position What do I do about my neck pain? If you have neck pain, you need a comprehensive treatment plan to resolve the issue. The first step is to identify the severity of your problem. Our plan is your custom movement prescription. This includes removing muscle adhesion to reduce pain and improve function. Once healthy motion is restored, the muscles are ready for therapeutic exercise. From the initial presentation through the entirety of the case we instruct how to manage the load on your neck problem. To continue using your phone without the frustration and annoyance of neck pain, call 678-1362 to schedule a consultation today.

Video Case of the Week: Carpal Tunnel

Check out our Video Case of the Week: Carpal Tunnel

If you would like us to show our innovative approach to other common pain problems, or your diagnosis.... please comment and stay tuned!

Get Up, Stand Up... at your desk

Let's address the need for a sit-stand desk. This topic has become increasing popular for good reason. Many people have back pain! I frequently recommend a sit-stand desk for patients who present with impaired function, pain and degeneration of the low back. Today we discuss if you are a candidate for this type of load management strategy.

Why a Sit-Stand Desk? A sit-stand desk is important. Sitting increases the load on discs in your low back. The sit-stand desk is a workstation that allows you to do both, sit or stand at your work station reducing load on your low back. People who sit for four or more hours in a day have a 9x increase in low back pain, compared with people who sit for one hour(1). There are only 168 hours in a week. The average person spends 64 hours a week sitting(2). How much of your life do you spend sitting down?  Low back disc problem How does a sit-stand desk help me? This setup reduces the load on your lumbar spine. With my experience treating thousands of low back pain patients, reducing pain needs a specific plan. This plan requires a combination of restoring muscle function, improving movement, balancing strength and managing the loads on the low back.  I recommend that you sit for 30-45 minutes and stand for 15-20 minutes. It's time to switch to standing if you are uncomfortable and find yourself shifting around to avoid pain. In fact, I recommend that you subtract 20% off the time it takes to hurt and switch before your back begins to be irritated. Sit-Stand setup Do I need a Sit-Stand Desk? There are multiple factors that must be considered for you to be a candidate. First do you have impaired function, pain or a known diagnosis regarding your low back? Any request must be a reasonable accommodation request. Do you have a legitimate request backed by a note from a doctor? Would the request cause your employer undue hardship? Managing the load on the lumbar spine with a sit-stand desk is vital to maintaining health, slowing degeneration and minimizing both pain and missed time from work. If you suffer from low back degeneration, give us a call at 678-1362 to schedule a consultation. Occupational Evolution References: (1) Tucker, J. "Give your patients the ergonomic advantage." Dynamic Chiropractic, April 2017. (2) Yeager, S. "Sitting is the new smoking- even for runners." Runner's World, July 20, 2013.

Improving Your Patient Experience at Roc Spine + Sports Chiropractic

Improving Your Patient Experience Every day we hear about people frustrations with health care. We believe in a process of constant improvement to serve you better. This applies not only in the treatment room but with all aspects of our interactions with our patients. You may notice these changes in our new faces, new voices, streamlined patient experience and better results.

New faces: Meet Nikki Nikki recently started as an office assistant. One of her roles is to help our patients feel like royalty while in the office. She was born in England so she has first hand knowledge on what this means.  Nikki- Office Assistant New voices During business hours our phone lines will be answered by Lauri or Nikki. We  received feedback regarding frustration in reaching the office directly. This change will resolve the issue. Open hours can be found here.  Furthermore, all new patient consultations and initial examinations will have to be scheduled by calling the office directly at 678-1362.  New patients will not have access to these types of appointments on the online scheduling system.  Streamlined patient experience Dan, our clinical assistant has played an essential role in improving our Manual Adhesion Release treatment through improved focus, and precise motion bringing better results with every encounter. He is trained on how to perform all of our functional test measurements and rehabilitation exercises.  Dan will be entering the room to gather test results prior to Dr. Matt Buffan entering the room.   Better results We have added new equipment. The lumbar flexion bench enhances our ability to reduce adhesion in the muscles of the low back.  If you have a back pain and have not been treated in our office since the acquisition this equipment in June, your back is not as healthy as it could be.  We are improving function, solving pain, providing freedom. Give us a call today at 678-1362 to experience Rochester's only certified Manual Adhesion Release™ treatment provider with the best equipment available. Low back muscle treatment - Manual Adhesion Release

Restricted Mobility: Your Bodies Warning Sign

Can you move with ease and comfort? 

A key indicator of health is the ability to use your muscles to move all of your joints without issue. If you begin to notice a limitation of movement in yourself or a loved one, what does this mean? Restricted mobility is the condition where a person's ability to move freely and easily is reduced or impaired. Almost all people will experience restricted mobility at some time in their life. More importantly, what can you do now to minimize any consequences? 

Graphic Created by Integrative Diagnosis. Used with Permission.

Let's take a closer look at these issues and their impact on your life and freedom to move. 

Tendon tears:

	Tendon Tear- Shoulder

Tendons are like ropes acting on our bones. If the tendon gets chronically overloaded, pinched and rubbed, it can tear or fray like a rope. 

Osteoarthritis: 

We all know someone with joint pain... "It's my arthritic ____ (knee/ hip/ back/ neck/ shoulder/ hand)." Osteoarthritis is mechanical joint breakdown. What if you could identify this issue and slow the progression before severe joint damage occurred?  

Osteoarthritis: Knee

Disc Degeneration: 

When our back does not move properly it compresses our disc. When repeated for days, weeks, months and years your disc breaks down.

Disc Degeneration: Low back

Weakness: 

Muscles are supposed to be able to slide & contract, when they are stuck together they are weaker and unable move our body normally.  Furthermore other muscles are forced to compensate, overloading the region.  

Adhesion: 

Adhesion acts like glue that makes muscles less flexible and weaker. 

Muscle Adhesion

Trapped Nerves:

Nerves slide and glide through our body like dental floss in our teeth.  If adhesion sticks to a nerve it will entrap it causing numbness, tingling, burning and a toothache type of pain wherever that nerve travels. 

Nerve Entrapment: Sciatica

I have restricted mobility...What do I do?

These consequences sound and look terrible because they are. The best action plan is to identify and acknowledge any areas of restricted mobility. This is accomplished by an Integrative Diagnosis providers evaluation. Dr. Matt Buffan is the Rochester area's only provider with this advanced training and certification.

Once identified, the next step is to restore mobility to the area. An ideal conservative care treatment plan includes an accurate diagnosis, adhesion release treatment, and case leadership to restore mobility and improve function. Our office specializes in providing care to produce results that reduce pain, and slow degenerative changes in order to let you live your life with fewer consequences.