Fair Wind Health Care
Keith Davis, D.C.
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What I treat: acute care, rehabilitation, methods, types of conditions
Efficient, powerful, gentle care
Here I describe some of the conditions I treat and the methods used.
Acute care: Acute means sharp and an acute medical condition is one that is currently active in a heightened state, like a recent injury. The general aim in acute care is reduction of pain and stabilization of the condition, and avoiding further aggravation so this stage can be passed through as quickly as possible.
Rehab:
Rehab:
Rehabilitation is the restoration of function.
For post-injury and post-surgical cases rehabilitation can speed full recovery and detect and correct any changes in stability or function secondary to an accident, surgery, or already p[resent before symptoms developed.
For chronic conditions (for example chronic muscle tension) the aim is to improve the symptoms and locate the source of the problem, which may be a structural or behavior issue not obvious to the patient (see below). The ultimate aim is to teach people skills that allow active control of their posture and movements. In the long range this can decrease dependence on therapy.
Methods: mostly manual and skills based, with a minimum of low tech equipment (low weights, gym balls, etc.). Manual methods of mobilization and manipulation are used to help the patient overcome structural obstacles as needed. These can include tight muscles and trigger points and joint restrictions.
Skills training teaches people the behavioral side: how to be sensitive to their bodies (what to feel, what feelings are of importance) and how to use their muscles properly. Some muscles are overactive and need to be relaxed, others need to be more active. Simple tests can reveal instability in specific joints or poor movement patterns. Specific stretches, exercise, movement reeducation (using the body properly), and other methods are used.
Awareness of environmental factors is often important. Prolonged immobility for desk workers, poor work station design, bad car seats, and any number of other factors can play a role in causing and maintaining pain.
What kinds of conditions do I treat?:
Muscles, ligaments, nerves, and joints are the main components of the limbs and body wall. Many of the problems listed above can occur in any part of the neck, limbs, and trunk.
I have also treated a number of other conditions. Some of these may seem at first glance rather odd but muscles and nerves are everywhere in the body and causes of pain or other problems that may seem internal in origin are not always so. When there is any possibility of internal disease patients should be seen first by an appropriate specialist in internal medicine. Some of these are at the outer limits of what a neuromuscular specialist might do, others represent things in the mainstream but just don’t happen very often.
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For post-injury and post-surgical cases rehabilitation can speed full recovery and detect and correct any changes in stability or function secondary to an accident, surgery, or already p[resent before symptoms developed.
For chronic conditions (for example chronic muscle tension) the aim is to improve the symptoms and locate the source of the problem, which may be a structural or behavior issue not obvious to the patient (see below). The ultimate aim is to teach people skills that allow active control of their posture and movements. In the long range this can decrease dependence on therapy.
Methods: mostly manual and skills based, with a minimum of low tech equipment (low weights, gym balls, etc.). Manual methods of mobilization and manipulation are used to help the patient overcome structural obstacles as needed. These can include tight muscles and trigger points and joint restrictions.
Skills training teaches people the behavioral side: how to be sensitive to their bodies (what to feel, what feelings are of importance) and how to use their muscles properly. Some muscles are overactive and need to be relaxed, others need to be more active. Simple tests can reveal instability in specific joints or poor movement patterns. Specific stretches, exercise, movement reeducation (using the body properly), and other methods are used.
Awareness of environmental factors is often important. Prolonged immobility for desk workers, poor work station design, bad car seats, and any number of other factors can play a role in causing and maintaining pain.
What kinds of conditions do I treat?:
- Muscle spasms; injuries (strain)
- Whiplash
- Spinal disc problems
- Tendonitis; tendonosis
- Muscle pain or tightness arising from compensation for arthritis
- Joint laxity or instability; joint contractures
- Ligament sprains; muscle and tendon strains
- Headache (even some migraines; in everyday speech ‘migraine’ is sometimes just a synonym for an intense headache. Some of these are due to muscle tension)
- Poor posture
- Poor core function
- Nerve entrapment syndromes (thoracic outlet, carpal tunnel, etc., ‘pinched nerves’)
- Iliotibial band syndrome
- Physical problems of musicians
Muscles, ligaments, nerves, and joints are the main components of the limbs and body wall. Many of the problems listed above can occur in any part of the neck, limbs, and trunk.
I have also treated a number of other conditions. Some of these may seem at first glance rather odd but muscles and nerves are everywhere in the body and causes of pain or other problems that may seem internal in origin are not always so. When there is any possibility of internal disease patients should be seen first by an appropriate specialist in internal medicine. Some of these are at the outer limits of what a neuromuscular specialist might do, others represent things in the mainstream but just don’t happen very often.
- Post-acute rehabilitation of spinal cord injury
- Intestinal pain: due to muscle spasm of the large intestine
- Hyperacusis: usually a condition of middle-age or later in which certain frequencies of sound may be uncomfortably amplified. In the case of this patient due to arthritis of the neck and accompanying muscle irritation (myofascitis)
- Difficulty with voice production: stress triggered discomfort with a physical basis in tension in various muscles in the front of the neck
- Scrotal or testicular pain: in a bike rider due to pudendal nerve irritation
- Movement disorders of children (Prader-Willi Syndrome, hypotonia)
- Rehabilitation of forefoot instability in a runner with hip pain
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