Minor Ankle Sprains and Things You Can Do

Minor Ankle Sprains…

In this post I am going to talk about minor ankle sprains and some of the things you can do about them… While this advice is also good for more serious sprains it likely ‘wont cut it’ totally because, well, its more serious and may need more intervention. Rocket science right?

Why am I talking about this?

A couple reasons I want to talk about ankle sprains here. One, people don’t always know I can treat sports injuries. Many chiropractors are well versed and happy to treat most sports injuires.

Personally, I am a Rehabilitation Speicalist so I really am quite well versed in treating all sorts of injuries. This includes sports injuries and I may see these more often than a regualr commuinty chiropractor because of my specialty. A little early morning education for you there! (I am typing this early on a Sunday… ok, more coffee… done… onwards!).

Another reason I am putting this out there is because I sprained my ankle last weekend. It bugged me all last week.

Yup. that’s why really.

We were having a really glamours weekend last week. We cleaned out the shed and the garage. Glamour, glamour all the time, right?

Ya so I turned my ankle really badly (at first I really thought I may have broken it). I walked it off and it settled down – I got really no bruising and no swelling. I promptly ignored it.

It hurt all week.

Finally, friday I decided to do something about the silly ankle sprain that was still bothering me. Doctor heal thyself – Right?

Doctors are the worst patients… truth.

What did I do?

Minor ankle sprains are really quite easy to treat. So dont do what I did and ignore it for a week because you really don’t need to suffer uselessly.

Ok so I did a few things: kinesiotape, instrument assisted fascial massage (IAFM), and laser. Other things I would do for a patient include an adjustment (kinda hard on yourself but I have to go to a friend next week for that. If the bones in the ankle arent moving properly there will be inflammation because of this and irritation to the surrounding tissues. The likelyhood that they aren’t moving properly after a minor ankle sprain is pretty close to 100% IMHO)

Ok so what the hell is kinesotape and IAFM and laser and how do they help?

Kinesotape

Ktape is tape that has areas of adhesive and areas of no adhesive – it is proported to do 4 things, 2 of which I think are real and valuable.

-hold the joint in place and provide support (ya I don’t think this is valid because of the movability of the tape)

-improve flow of lymphatic fluid decresing swelling – the tape lifts the skin by microns in some areas and not others because of its adhesive design – therefore the lymph can flow better and swelling can decreas (I think this is valid)

– decreases pain by activating touch receptors which interupt pain receptors mesages getting to the brain (also valid!)

-the fourth thing I forget and that is probably because I dont think it is valid either…

hey two out of four reasons for this to work is enough for me!

Here is how it looks on my ankle (spider veins and all)

I am always surprised how well this works every time I use it on myself… really the pain almost disappeared enterly.

IAFM and Laser

ok so IAFM is good for all sorts of things – helping get rid of scar tissue from injuries is one of them. Without going into too much detail it involves using an instrument to scrape the tissue (gently at first) to help break down some of the scar tissue. Scar tissue can be a pain generator so getting rid of it = less pain.

It can be a bit uncomfortable but I generally do this only for a few seconds per treatment so it is bearable.

Laser is helpful also with healing so I like to use it on lots of different injuries.

Other things you can do for ankle sprains

The old wisdom here is RICE – rest, ice, compression and elevation.

It is still advice I give to patients for sprains … did I do it? No. not really… honestly most of my patients don’t either since we all suffer from lack of time… but I like to throw it out there anyways.

Hope this was helpful!

June 8, 2018

Foot Pain – the pain of plantar fasciitis

Plantar Fasciitis – Um …. what?

For those unfamiliar with the term plantar fasciitis, a quick definition:

Plantar fasciitis (PLAN-tur fas-e-I-tis) is one of the most common causes of heel pain. It involves inflammation of a thick band of tissue that runs across the bottom of your foot and connects your heel bone to your toes (plantar fascia).

This is according to a quick Google Search… clear as mud now?

Some important points

Not all heel pain is plantar fasciitis

There are some key features that we as practitioners look for including: “it feels like I am walking on broken glass”, it is worst first thing in the morning or after I have been sitting for a while then I stand up and walk again, and “nothing seems to help…”

Ok so what can we do about it?

Even if you have had treatment and no success in the past there is still hope. I have helped lots of people with this condition basically because I tend to try to throw everything I know at it – it is a stubborn one so I have found over the years that is what tends to work.

Here is what I do:

Prescription of orthotics

hands on therapy including adjustments in the lower back and ankle

Graston technique

Cold laser

Kinesiotape application

prescription of specific exercises

and this one is key: do not go barefoot – I mean at all – running shoes and orthotics on as soon as you roll out of bed in the morning (this isn’t forever – just until it heals).

Here is why:

The plantar fascia is a thick band attached to the heel bone. Despite what it says above about inflammation plantar fasciitis is actually a micro tearing (or even a macro tearing) of this fascia away from the bone. It hurts every time you stand after laying in bed for 8 hours because it has started to heal and then you stand up and tear it away again. Orthotics are crucial because they help approximate the bone and the tendon, not allowing it to pull away as much and tear away repeatedly…. this gives the body time and a chance to actually heal the damn thing!

More clear now?

So anyways, even if you have had this for a while, there is hope and help out there!

February 4, 2018

Foot pain, Fallen Arches and Tight Muscles

So I put it out there on facebook and I did get a request for this article… Its a pretty broad topic but suffice it to say that I do treat these things. Often.

Feet are amazing things really. We walk on them all day and pretty much forget about them until they hurt. There are a huge number of diagnoses related to feet some of the most common being plantar fasciitis, fallen metatarsal head (fallen arches), stress fractures, tarsal tunnel syndrome, turf toe, sesmoiditis and the list goes on and on and on…

From a simple sprain to chronic pain, there are a host of different solutions for different problems.

One of the things you hear associated with foot pain is often the prescription of custom made orthotics. These little insoles can be amazing as therapy for the right foot condition. The drawback is that they are also expensive. Although lots of people have plans to cover some or all of the cost, some people aren’t as lucky. While they are a useful tool for things like fallen arches (fallen metatarsal heads) they aren’t the only solution.

When a patient comes to me with foot pain, fallen arches and tight calves I always prescribe strengthening exercises for the small muscles of the feet. – these are easy to do exercises that will help support the natural arch and help a person retrain themselves to avoid the problem in future. These include fun things like picking up marbles with your toes, and scrunching towels with the toes as well as learning to position the foot in the proper “short foot” position. (this one is much harder than the other two and really needs to be shown in person in a hands on fashion).

Also effective are muscle techniques such as ART for the muscles of the foot and scar tissue treatment if that is deemed to be a problem in the specific patient and adjustments of the small bones of the feet. If these bones are ‘stuck’ and not moving through their normal range of motion it causes inflammatory changes surrounding the joints and irritation and inflammation in those regions – this decreases the range of motion even further and increase the pain – all super easy to solve with a small corrective adjustment in the area.

The last thing I did want to mention was that if you have a fallen arch it tends to put a bunch of strain on the calf or back of the lower leg – the mechanics of the arch falling actually pulls on the gastrocs/soleus complex- those two giant muscles at the back of your leg attached to the Achilles tendon. This makes the muscle appear tight or reflexively be tight – stretching it will really do very little as the problem is in the foot to begin with – correcting the arch with exercise, hands on treatment and an arch support (custom or otherwise) is the first course of action – this will likely improve the tightness in the back of the lower leg – if not then we can show some stretches to remedy this at that point but in general it corrects itself if we have done the rest of the therapy.

So, if you are suffering with foot pain please don’t wait any longer! Call us to find out how we can help you.