Tag Archives: Dr. Alim Kara

NW Calgary Chiropractor

What does my pain mean?

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Most people develop pain the same way; like constant sitting, lifting, silly mistake or by maybe trying to ‘keep up with the Kardashians’ too much. When, where and why someone has pain is usually a strong indicator as to what caused the pain. In most cases pain is predictable which can make it easier to identify and predict injuries, especially if you are observant!

As a disclaimer, the below statements just provide general information on types of pain, which DOES NOT replace the careful, educated assessment from a trained health care professional.

 

Dull/Achy/Sore:

Non-specific pain is typically of muscular in origin and likely due to a repetitive strain injury. Usually there is no good reason as to why someone has this pain (no clear mechanism of injury).  Think about how your shoulders feel right now to get an idea of what I am talking about. This can lead to sharp pain if an activity that aggravates this pain is done repetitively.

You can typically train through without this type of pain without immediate/serious consequence. Stretching and exercise can help this type of pain as long as it is the right type of stretch/exercise (like these wonderful suggestions from Dr. Kangarloo), otherwise it can also progress or aggravate your pain if done incorrectly.

Sharp/Stabbing:      

Usually means stop doing the activity that causes the pain, duh! Something has been pinched/compressed or has become injured. Sharp pain is usually directly correlated to inflammation. Tissues involved can be muscle, nerve or joint. Commonly has a defined mechanism of injury or is the active symptomatic stage of a repetitive strain injury.

Ice, compression and temporary rest (avoiding activities that cause the pain) help as does getting an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan. Stretching does not usually help (think about it, does it make sense to stretch something that is inflamed). Personally, I see many people in this stage of injury who just waited for their pain to go away but it never really does; kind of like how Kimmy Gibbler tormented members of the Tanner family over the years.

Numb/Tingly/Prickly:

Usually a sign of nerve injury, most commonly nerve compression/impingement. In most cases these sensations tend to be on/off (non-constant). Avoid stretching (as nerves do not like being stretched when they causing sensations like this) and find the root cause by getting treatment under the supervision of a trained professional. If left untreated this can lead to long-term damage/dysfunction.

Shooting/Searing/Burning:

Ahhh! This is an indicator of a more serious tissue (muscle, nerve and/or joint) injury. Usually occurs when a muscle is torn or severely strained with signs of substantial inflammation and possible nerve involvement. Activity should be stopped immediately and you should make a point to solicit a medical consultation as soon as you can as leaving issues like this could result in serious injury/surgery.

 

With all types of pain, the gold standard of relief is consulting a properly trained health professional (the link is a shameless CCST plug) who can accurate diagnose and provide result-oriented hands-on therapy with accompanying advice on self/home care. It is important to note that if the right diagnosis is made and coupled with the right treatment, results can be expected even within one treatment!

Keep in mind that surgery or invasive therapies are rarely needed so be careful when consulting Dr. Google who tends to provide the scariest and/or worst possible injury/pain diagnoses.

 

Written by Dr. Alim Kara BSc, DC

Top 3 predictors for developing a injury

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Why do we get injured? Are there steps we can take to avoid injury? Will I ever get better? Well to answer these questions: depends, yes and kind of. Thanks for reading! Bye.

As if that is it! Although it seems as most injuries are either of random origin (ie. Drunkenly lifting up your buddy at the bar while trying to imitate the infamous Dirty Dancing scene) or seem to arise out of the blue, there are some common trends as to why people seem to get injured.

I do not have a crystal ball but I can tell you the three most common predictors of injury that I know/treat so you can put on your Miss Cleo turban, shuffle your deck of tarot cards and shine up your crystal ball to figure out for yourself of whether you are at risk of developing a new and/or aggravating an old injury.

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#1 – Repetitive Strain
This is usually the root cause for 90% of the issues I treat (in some form or another) and directly contributes to #2 on my list! Repetitive strain means doing something of low or high force repetitively; and when I say repetitively I mean like thousands of times over long periods of time (like decades even).

The number one cause of repetitive strain is sitting! Think about it, you sit for hours upon hours per day for years upon years. As your body adapts/degrades from this repetitive activity it slowly strains over time (see my blog post on postural deconditioning). This slow strain essentially weakens you from everything that is not sitting and that is how you become injured.

If you have pain somewhere and you don’t know why it is there (nothing happened to injure it) it is likely because of repetitive strain.

#2 – Old Injury
The old adage goes ‘you break it you buy it.’ This is true for your body, if you break it then you own that…forever. Just think about it, once something breaks it will always be weakest in the place it broke; especially if you do nothing about it.

Sorry to be all doom and gloom but this is the unfortunate reality of how injuries work in most cases. Why in most cases? Because we are lazy and think everything will fix itself over time. This is kind of true but what actually happens if you leave an injury without treating it is that the injured tissue becomes remodeled and the surrounding tissue starts to compensate. We then develop weird habits and muscle firing patterns as a result of changes/dysfunctional tissue and over time we re-injure this area.

However, if you get a proper assessment and/or treatment for a new injury in the early stages, preventative steps can be taken to help the body fix this issue faster without developing the compensation and dysfunction that normally follows.

#3 – New Activity
Let’s continue to harp on this old adage theme and throw out another one, ‘practice makes perfect’. So referencing back to #1 we can confirm we have all practiced being good perfect at sitting so when we introduce a new activity the body can be slow to respond. Now starting a new activity doesn’t directly correlate to developing a new injury but considering most of us go all-in and over do it when we try something new, it becomes a common way to develop a new injury.

You should always ease into a new activity the same way you ease into a cold lake; after time, once fully immersed you should have nothing to worry about (other than shrinkage).

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So to wrap things up here are my suggestions to avoid injuries:

1.) Don’t get injured!
2.) Take care of your body by investing time/treatment/therapy into by working with professionals trained to prevent injuries.
3.) Three, move around more! Don’t allow repetitive strain the opportunity to ruin your body.

Remember, “nobody puts baby in a corner” so get out there and move around!

Written by Dr. Alim Kara BSc, DC

What’s in our logo

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Now let me tell you about this logo which was painstakingly crafted over dozens upon dozens of doodles. Once Shereen and I decided on a name for the clinic, which let me tell you was not an easy task, the madness ensued. We dabbled with the token chiropractic logo ideas such as the spine and the motion man but ultimately we wanted something more modern and different. Something that reflected our unique strengths and spoke deeper to the patient base we were looking to attract. What we came up with was nothing short of a masterpiece…well our masterpiece (beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course).

This logo speaks to us in several levels and we hope you appreciate the consideration that went into it. The “CC” in the top row has an infinity symbol look to it, which to us represents the cycle of life and the fact that the care we provide is not only complete but also continuous. The “ST” further contributes to this notion of continuity as it curves and leads forward. When both rows of lettering are appreciated together one can see in an abstract way our nod to the motion man idea as the “CC” almost looks like two arms and the “ST” as a pair of running legs.

The turquoise rounded square that surrounds the logo was added to represent the modern element of our clinic. The app like look of it is meant to represent our online presence both from an electronic scheduling capability we offer as well as our desire to connect over social media.  In addition, it provides coverage and protection for what is within, which represents the services we wish to provide to our patients.

Turquoise was chosen to represent our proximity to the beautiful bow river, which is across the street from our clinic. Orange was chosen as our second color as we wanted something bright and bold to match our personalities. Normally, logo’s do not use two bright “accent colors” together but we wanted to represent the duality of our partnership and again try to be a little atypical and modern with our approach.

We hope you like it as much as we do as our goal at CCST is to offer you a unique experience unlike those at other facilities offering similar services.

 

Written by Dr. Alim Kara BSc, DC

Posture: The structure of health

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Let me start off by telling you a little story about the birds and the bees…actually on second thought, lets just skip to birth!  As infants, we are born as wee little C-shaped babies; think fetal position.  This shape/position is the first posture we assume in life and we call it the ‘primary curve’ which forms a full-spine kyphosis.  As we develop and start lifting our cute little baby heads, a ‘secondary curve’ forms in our neck (cervical spine); this time in the shape of a lordosis.  Finally when we begin getting ourselves into trouble by moving around the house (via crawling and walking) a second ‘secondary (lordosis) curve’ develops in our low back (lumbar spine).

 

So let’s recap: now we have a lordotic curve in our neck and low back, while we have a kypotic curve in our mid back (thoracic spine) and we can walk!  Having these curves in our spine gives us proper body posture to support all of our internal organs as well as angulate all of our muscles in the correct positions to give us the ability to walk.  This process can be summed up as: Postural Development/Conditioning.

 

Now posture is an important thing as without it, we get injured.  Think of the human musculoskeletal system (muscles and bones) as the greatest architectural creation to ever exist.  Every curve, dent and hole in a bone (206 bones in the human body equates to a lot of different curves, dents and holes) has a specific purpose of existing due to our evolution and adaptation over millions of years.  Every muscle, ligament and tendon is attached to one or more of these bones (in very specific locations) and has multiple blood and nerve supplies.  It is very complicated!  When you start to now consider that the process of movement originates in the brain (as hormonal and electrical impulses) and travels down the spinal cord, out the nerves of the spine and to the muscle, things become almost incomprehensible!  All in all, it is the human posture that allows us to stand-up straight and walk.

 

The body can be thought of as a house, building or bridge.  Something specifically and meticulously designed to stand the test of time and to protect what is inside.  There is not one house, building or bridge that doesn’t eventually need to be upgraded or repaired (ie: replace the roof, add an energy efficient furnace, fill in a pothole etc.) because we use them so much.  With use comes damage, it is inevitable!  Now imagine if you could physically feel that damage…well, you can, that’s what your body goes through!  Your posture is the house, building or bridge for your body (don’t you love it when an analogy comes together).  Your posture protects what is important inside of you and it is your posture that takes the brunt of the wear and tears of the environment to your body.

 

The point?  Posture is extremely important!  The human body is designed to be most functional and work at its best when a correct posture/position is maintained (good form = good function).  So what is a ‘good posture?’  This is where things get a little more complicated because posture is a dynamic concept, meaning it is always changing as we do different things.  However, a general idea remains that if you promote and consciously have an intent to maintain the ideal posture (ie. the prototypical human form), which promotes and supports the natural curvature of the spine, you can use your bones and muscles in the ideal form/position they were created/designed to operate in; thus minimizing the risk of injury.

 

In closing, a wise man once said “chickity-check yo self, before you wreck yo self” which couldn’t be more true!  That man, Confucius? Ghandi? No my friends, it was my man, Ice Cube. YEAH YEAH!

 

Written by Dr. Alim Kara BSc, DC

Postural Deconditioning: Adaptation from repetitive strain injuries

Health & Wellness Injuries 2 Comments

Ooooh, sounds fancy and complicated but in reality, it isn’t! So what is Postural Deconditioning and how does Repetitive Strain factor in? I left off my last entry by introducing the thought: imagine that you used your body and its bones and muscles with a poor posture. What would happen?

 

Now in this scenario, these muscles and joints are in mechanically poor positions and thus they cannot work as efficiently or effectively as they are designed to do. This creates a STRAIN, which essentially is STRESS to the muscle, joint and bone. Now this is not a huge deal, it is obviously possible to do, we are resilient creatures. However, this is done at the cost of increased energy and stress to the body. Over months and years, these muscles, joints and bones slightly change to ADAPT to the consistent STRESS it is being subjected to (because we are so resilient remember) and we develop REPETITIVE STRAIN injuries.

 

One day, years later, your body has changed: you’re not sitting straight, you’re hunched, you’re always experiencing constant chronic low-level pain and discomfort; essentially, you are POSTUALLY DECONDITIONED! At this point, the muscles are more shortened and denser in composition, the joints are wearing out and thinned from constant pressure held in the same poor position and you now find yourself in a higher risk category for developing pain (low back pain, neck pain, etc.).

 

The entire mechanics and design of your body has changed! Your risk of injury is far greater than someone who has a great posture. Now the keyword here is RISK of injury. Think of it like: your chances of getting into a car accident with a low pressure tire (meaning the alignment would be off kilter) are higher than a car driving with equally inflated tires.

 

Why you are told to lift something by bending your knees and sticking your butt out? So you can assume an optimal lifting posture for the purpose of reducing your chances of getting injured. Apply this principle of doing ANYTHING to someone who is POSTURALLY DECONDITIONED. The chances of “picking up a pencil and throwing out your back” are a lot higher than someone who has a great posture. Let’s get one thing straight, it’s NEVER the pencil’s fault. This is why low back and neck pain are so common, because we REPETITIVELY STRAIN our bodies to the point where our body ADAPTS over time and eventually fails us (even while doing the most mundane of tasks, like picking up a pencil) and then we become injured.

 

Written by Dr. Alim Kara BSc, DC