Severe headaches or migraines can be debilitating, and when they become chronic and frequent, they can affect our quality of life. There are a lot of causes or contributing factors to chronic headaches, and Brian Horner, owner/director of Fast Track Physical Therapy joined us today to explain a few of them. Here’s more from him:

• Genetics: 1 or both parents have chronic headaches.
• Weather Changes: Air (barometric) pressure, temperature, and seasonal changes. I also see an increase in Vertigo during seasonal changes.
• Rebound headaches: From taking pain meds, including over the counter (OTC) pain meds too frequently.
• Food/drink/alcohol: Most of foods or drinks aren’t bad for you, but your body they may be the trigger for your headache. Keep a journal of foods/drinks that you have had just before a headache. Caffeine withdrawl.

The headaches that our Fast-Track clinics treat very successfully are:

• Tension/stress headaches: These are headaches that are referred from muscle tension / spasms and trigger points. When muscles are in spasm they can cause pain in various areas of the head, base of the head, face, neck, and upper back. We utilize many techniques to get the muscles to release and relax, but we have found that Dry Needling usually will provide the quickest and most lasting benefit for tension headaches. We have had many patients come to our clinics that have dealt with daily headaches for years and have been able to almost resolve them completely.

• Cervicogenic: Headaches that are because of abnormal mechanics of the upper cervical spine. Often nerves located in the upper cervical spine may be irritated reproducing head and face pain. This may occur with or without neck pain. Our therapists utilize many manual (hands-on) techniques to restore proper mechanical function of the cervical spine and reduce muscle spasm.

• Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction (TMD): Headaches can also come from TMJ/Jaw dysfunction. When the mechanics of the jaw aren’t working correctly, muscles of the face are in spasm or there is inflammation in the jaw this can lead to headaches. TMD can also cause pain with eating, yawning, even talking. Our therapists are experienced and have additional training in TMJ disorders.

So, if your experiencing any of the many things that I’ve discussed we would be glad to assess your condition and see if we can help you. If you have had physical therapy in the past, medication or other medical care and didn’t get relief, I would give us a try. We have been able to help many people even when medicine or other medical practitioners couldn’t.

For more information visit, fast-tracktherapy.com.

THIS SEGMENT IS SPONSORED BY FAST TRACK PHYSICAL THERAPY.

Are you searching for relief from low back pain? Well, we may have the solution. Brian Horner, owner/director of fast track physical therapy joined us today to talk four of the main causes of lower-back pain. Here’s more from him:

These four common causes could also be the same for someone’s neck pain or symptoms going down the arm.

Often patients believe they must have imaging, like X-ray or MRI, before they can begin physical therapy, but for the past few years I have seen that most insurances are requiring PT first before authorizing doctors to order MRI. MRI can help to narrow down the diagnosis, but they are expensive and do not fix the problem.

Patients can come to see us directly to begin treatment without being referred by their Dr. Almost all insurances do not require a doctor’s referral.

If a person’s perception of physical therapy is 30-40 minutes of treatment that consisted mainly of a bunch of exercises that didn’t seem to help, that isn’t our clinics. Exercise is important component, but rarely see that it is the answer to resolving the problem. Our therapist will utilize various manual / hands-on techniques, at times traction to unload the spine and other modalities when needed.

Four causes for low back pain:

1: Herniated Disc: Other names…bulging, extruded, slipped. This person is often under the age of 55 and normally sitting, bending, and flexion of the low back will make symptoms worse. Standing and walking often will feel better but symptoms still do not go away.

2. Stenosis, DDD (degenerative disc disease), Arthritis, spondylosis: All basically mean the same thing. This person often is over the age of 55 and normally will have reduction of symptoms with sitting or bending over and often symptoms increase with standing / walking. This might be the person you see leaning over the grocery cart.

3: SI joint or pelvic pain: Pain around the sacrum or areas of the pelvis. This could be a person of any age. Sometimes a little more common with females.

4: Muscular / myofascial pain: We all have had strained muscles, muscles in spasm or trigger points. Those knots in our muscle that we keep asking our spouse or massage therapist to rub out. Muscular pain can be in the area of the muscle that is in spasm or even cause a referred pain to another area.

Treatment: Our PT’s utilize many manual techniques to address muscular issues. We have found that muscular and even tendon issues in most cases respond the best and quickest to Dry Needling. All of our therapists are very experienced in dry needling, and we utilize this technique frequently. We also use cupping, instrument assisted soft tissue tech., kinesio taping, trigger point release, myofascial stretching, and percussion tools. Modalities like ultrasound, cortisone patches and laser therapy are often used to speed up the healing process.

THIS SEGMENT IS SPONSORED BY FAST TRACK PHYSICAL THERAPY.