Ah, my old friend carpal tunnel, we meet again. Or, as I like to call him, the most common peripheral nerve entrapment in the body. I have a very love/hate relationship with carpal tunnel. I enjoy treating it because the evidence for how to diagnose and treat carpal tunnel is clear, well established, and...
“Golfers elbow” and “Tennis elbow” are nicknames for medial and lateral epicondylitis, respectively. Basically, golfers elbow is inner elbow pain, and tennis is outer elbow pain. But don’t get too caught up in the names or thinking they come only from those sports. I have never treated a golfer with golfers elbow or a tennis...
Dizziness is one of the most common reasons Americans see a Doctor, but did you know there are different kinds of dizziness? Vertigo is an acute, powerful sensation that you or the world is spinning. Typically this is so strong that you will not be able to walk, may experience nausea or vomit, and may...
Torticollis is an acute or congenital (genetic) shortening of one of the muscles in the neck called the Sternocleidomastoid (commonly abbreviated as SCM). This leads to a head that is tilted to one side and rotated to the opposite side as shown in the picture below. Torticollis can be caused by a number of different...
Tinnitus is the medical term for ringing in the ears. There can be many different causes of tinnitus, ranging from noise damage to the ear from guns or loud concerts to a number neurological syndromes. Unfortunately there is still much to be understood about tinnitus, and often times people are left to deal with the...
I’m going to make a brief semantics statement before beginning this blog post. TMJ just stands for the jaw joint by your ear, whereas TMJD, or Temporomandibular Joint Disorder, represents dysfunction and pain in the TMJ. So what is TMJD and what could it represent? TMJD could be as simple as jaw pain while chewing...
Ever had one of those days where you turn weird, pick something up oddly, or make the simple is take of waking up, and all of a sudden you can’t even turn your neck? Intense pain and tight muscles are some fun side effects of this process. Often this will resolve by itself after a...
Migraines suck. Plain and simple. Ok blog over, good talk guys. In all seriousness migraines represent a significant problem to people everywhere. In 2006, the European Headache Federation and World Headache Alliance described migraine as a “forgotten epidemic”. Migraine represents the second highest cause of global disability across all sexes and ages, and is the...
Today we’re going to talk about what Tension Headaches are and how we can successfully treat them to alleviate neck and head pain and tightness. Before we get into Tension Headaches however I am going to get into what they are NOT. There are many things that can cause headaches, and many different headache disorders....
Often patients complaining of numbness in the hand have been told (by another provider, possibly a friend, or from Dr. Google) that they must be suffering from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. This is a ‘tunnel’ formed by the bones and joints of the wrist that contains the Median nerve, among other structures. In some cases the...