Doctor Levine and Doctor Roczey host lively and informative webinars every few weeks so that you can take practical tips into your daily life and improve your health, reduce your stress, and enjoy your life.
In this webinar, Doctor Levine and Doctor Roczey give you some insight of some of the things chiropractors do besides just neck and back.
Conditions and Problems Seen by a Chiropractor
Note: South Orange Chiropractic Center recorded this webinar of which is one episode. The webinar is produced and recorded for the ear and they were designed to be either watched live on video or listened to via audio. If you are able to, we strongly recommend listening to/watching this episode which will include emotion and emphasis that isn’t obvious when reading a transcript. Our transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and humans. They may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print. This is not meant to be chiropractic advice
[Host]
Welcome to the webinar, this webinar is being recorded. This is a special presentation by South Orange Chiropractic Center. We’ve got Dr. Levine & Dr. Roczey and Dr. Roczey, talking about conditions and problems seen by a chiropractor. It’ll be a 30 minute presentation, we’ll be taking questions at the end of the presentation, in addition to the questions that have been emailed in earlier, if you have a question, please type it into the chat at the bottom of the screen, you can always call the office or email South Orange chiropractic.com. Call the office at 973-761-0022. There is never a charge to ask a question of the doctors. With that. I’ll hand it over to the doctors for today’s presentation. Please go ahead.
[Dr. Levine & Dr. Roczey]
Hi, well, welcome. We’re happy to be here today and not only answer some of your questions, but give you some insight of some of the things we do besides just neck and back. And we thought this was a relevant subject. Because most people come to us for neck and back problems. And let me make that distinction between neck and back pain and problems. Because first we have to understand what the problem is what created it, deal with the patient’s pain, and then resolve the problem because we always ask the question, what came first the pain or the problem? And it’s always the problem. And we say how do you know you had a problem? But they say, Well, I didn’t know until I had the pain. Right? Right. So what are the things that we do that’s different than most, when we bring a patient in, we want to make sure we can actually help them find a solution because no 10 times patients have gone somewhere else. And they failed. And they’re not calling us because they’re, you know, looking for us as the first source of help. They’re looking at us as the last. So in our examination, it’s it’s undeniable that we have to find out where the problem is, how long it’s been there, and what we need to do to fix it. So we put them through a comprehensive chiropractic, neurologic orthopedic exam, posture evaluations, it’s over 36 orthopedic tests in order to figure out where it is, and how we’re going to be able to help them and most importantly, we do something called thermal imaging. Thermal imaging is state of the art. Spinal evaluation says show us all regions of the spine where a problem can be coming from or where the spine is irritated at. Right. So if that, if that nerve is inflamed, it generates heat. And we can see exactly which vertebra is out of alignment causing the heat. So it’s, it’s one thing to feel it, it’s another thing to see it. And I think that’s what I think that’s part of our success rate is that we have like a laser being focused on, where is that neck problem coming from? That might generate the pain someplace else in the body? Sure, you know, one of the things we’ll talk about is sciatica, which is so common, but the source or the cause of it is someplace else than where the pain is. And thermal imaging not only tells us where it is, and how bad it is, but it also tells us is the person healing and is the problem getting fixed. Because the pain is always the left is the first thing to go away. So the right we’re taught that pain is the last thing to occur. And the first thing to go away. So if the pain is gone, we can still see the problem. And my question is, is what did you want to fix? So it doesn’t have to come back? You know, always makes me wonder when patients have gone somewhere else. And they’ve been handed a prescription. And they’ve been handed a muscle relaxer a pain pill. And no one’s ever taken a look at the spine. No one’s ever checked to see physically what does it look like. So it’s important when somebody comes into our office, we’re going to sit down and make sure that we take a digital X ray of your region, your neck back low back because we want to see the whole picture. Why just based on our condition on where the pains as Steve keeps alluding to, right, and we want to make sure it’s safe to work on someone. Right? So for me, we have an underlying core value in this company, where if yours is a chiropractic case, we tell you, if not we’ll tell you that to reason being is we don’t want to waste your time. We don’t want to waste our time. If it doesn’t belong here, we’ll find the appropriate place to go and we have great referral sources, whether it be orthopedic, neurologic pain management, we know where to send patients if it’s not a chiropractic problem, because we enjoy every day seeing the success of what we do. But that being said, let’s go into some other conditions that we’ve been so successful with that Patients are speaking. And I want to start off with headaches. And I think of One patient in particular and there are many, I’m going to say maybe 20% of our practices dealing with headaches. There are, according to the mark manual, there’s 147 classifications of headaches amazing. But the number one most common and most easily treated is known as cervical genic. And cervical genic means originally for the cervical spine, so this one of our patients, she had headaches, 17 plus years, she’s been on the meds. The Furious said she’s had blood work done, she’s had CAT scans done, she’s had MRIs done, she’s been to neurologist, she’s been all over the place. And then when we did our thermal scan and our digital film, we found that there was a misalignment of the top two cervical vertebra,
[Dr. Levine & Dr. Roczey]
which we look at the spine, which is right here at the at the brainstem. And if those vertebrae are out of alignment, and there’s a misalignment there, the muscles will get tighter, the nerves will get inflamed, and as a result is going to cause the pain goes into the head. So we found in our diagnostics and our work done, and it was only a few short weeks where those constant headaches became intermittent headaches. And then a few short weeks after that those intermittent headaches became literally non existing showing up in a rare occasion. And we go through a strategy with our patients on what exercises to do, what strategies to prevent this from reoccurring. And what’s the what’s the proper maintenance schedule. So headaches are a good part of our practice. And we were very successful with them. We’re excited when patients get results. It’s life changing, because these people are now instead of dealing with the pain and focusing on the anguish that they’re in all day, they’re able to get their lives back. They’re able to live their their kids or participate in family events. And that’s what we drive here at South Orange is getting people back to a lifestyle to the lifestyle that they deserve. So I think one really interesting condition that we see a lot of is carpal tunnel. We had a woman who was 45 years old, and she works in the corporate industry. And right now with the previous pandemic, people were at home even working from their beds working from their couches, in creasing distress on their spine in the nervous system. But this particular woman already had two surgeries, two surgeries to both of her ribs. But she still had the same symptoms. She still had the numbness, the tingling, the muscle weakness. At night, she would complain about numbness and tingling and her her arms and her hands falling asleep. So everybody kept doing the same thing was either surgery, medication, gamma pentane. But here we found the solution. And we know to look at different areas. You have the wrist, you have the elbow, you have the muscles between the elbow and the forearm. You have your brachial plexus, you have your shoulder you have right at your neck and guess where it was coming from. It wasn’t her wrist. She was misdiagnosed. It was coming from her cervical region. And one of the largest things we know is there’s a group of nerves coming out called the brachial plexus. Whenever somebody is in a pronounced position incorrect all day or their computer, they tend to hunched forward. So what happened over time was her neck that should have been C shaped is now for those nerves being irritated cause the muscles to become even tighter. Now that creates an impingement and then traction and TrackMan that created a brachial plexus syndrome, which is commonly known to give patients carpal tunnel. So what do we do for her? We examined her we x reader, we thermal scanner. Within two months, she’s able to sleep at night, which is the most important thing I don’t know how many people on live right now have slept and found themselves waking up in pain and then the next day having to deal with being tired, feeling anguish, miserable. We hear this all the time. She got her life back. She’s now more how can I say mobile range of motion is better range of motion but her wrists but her wrists are better her wrists are better and the most important thing is she never needed the surgery. She just needed somebody to give her an accurate diagnosis. And that’s what we did here right away someone have carpal tunnel and again, we can diagnose that also with the thermal imaging will tell us if the nerves in the neck are hot.
[Dr. Levine & Dr. Roczey]
Another interesting case as we were preparing for this is and this was recent, we had a woman that was referred to us by her podiatrist and told us to come to us specifically knowing the work that we do, based on a network of doctors but she had foot and ankle pain and numbness and tingling almost to the point where when she put her foot down, she could hardly feel her toes. So she went through a course of meds, anti inflammatories, some pain meds, which was not successful. Then she went through a cortisone shot, and also where there was a problem. So we went through a couple of things there with her and working up her case. And initially, I thought, it’s like it’s a foot problem doesn’t belong in a chiropractor’s office. But let’s do the evaluation anyway. Because like I said, if this is a chiropractic case, we tell you, if not, we tell you that two thermal imaging revealed the nerves were hot, they were inflamed on the lower back at the L four l five region, even though she had no back pain. Remember, only 10% of the nerve deals with pain. 90% deals with function. So she had no back pain, but those nerves went from the lower back down the leg into the ankle. And as we started working with her, not only do we find that there was some pronation of the foot, which was the dieters was working with, but we opened up the nerve supply from the lower spine in over a period of time, she got better and better was able to walk was able to run. And we get referrals not only from foot doctors, but pain management orthopedist, because you can only put someone on so many meds, sometimes you have to think out of the box and do things naturally. You know, there’s nothing more satisfying when we work right across from an orthopedic office and a patient comes here on their own, because you’re looking for solutions. And we find that for them. And that’s one of the most common cases that?
[Dr. Levine & Dr. Roczey]
Yeah, we want to know, it’s not just a problem that’s coming from a group of nerves here. Maybe it’s a disc problem, which is here. Maybe it’s a joint problem, which is in here. Or maybe it’s the pelvis sets off balance, if your hips are off balance is going to compress a nerve. How do you know if the hips are on level or not? So part of our examination evaluates that our thermal imaging will detect if these nerves are hot. So a low back is not necessarily a low back, it could be a sacrum, could be an alien could be one of the vertebra. So we have to make that distinction between where is it coming from, we always want to know what it is where it is and how bad it is. And we get great success, you know, bottom line who wants to stick a needle in there and put a cortisone or a steroid in there that can affect the spinal canal or the bone. When it could be something safe and natural, right, we find that a lot of times when somebody has a pinched nerve or subluxated vertebra, you can numb them up, you can give them as many narcotics as they can ingest. But unless that pressure comes off that nerve, the problems never going to be solved. It’s always going to persist. And even if the patient starts to feel good 90% of the time, that low back the prevalence, it’s going to return and it’s going to become worse and worse. And as most patients tend to say, I used to be able to deal with it when I was maybe my 20s or 30s. Now that my 40s 50s lasting a little longer, but now this time doc, it’s not going away. And that’s where we come into. Right. And how many times have we heard when we ask the question, how long have you had this problem? Well, it’s been on and off for years, but it always went away. Yes. So here’s the distinction between managing the pain. The pain is not there. You don’t think you have a problem? But the reality is the problem is there It’s underlying, even though it may not feel pain. So, you know, we’ll give patients choices, we can help you with the pain, which we do. And that’s great, because now you can resume your lifestyle. But what about handling the problem? Let’s take that to the next level. And I think that’s where people get to peak performance. And a whole new sense of wellness, we can use the word wellness is way beyond the pain. Sure. You know, there’s one condition that we didn’t talk about before coming in knee pain, knee pain, because most people struggle with it, it happens and the first thing they’re diagnosed with is osteoarthritis, or arthritis. And a lot of times, you got to think of the knee as a hinge during a hinge joint is just like your door to your home, opening and closing all day long. But if the hinge above or below it is uneven, what does that create, creates pressure on the knee and imbalance right in imbalance. So, nine out of 10 times when somebody has been struggling with knee pain, it’s either coming from the foot in the ankle, or from the pelvis. And a lot of times we’re, throughout our exam, we’re checking to see is that pelvis aligned from better is that hip parallel with the other one. However, if it’s not, if there’s a hip drop, that’s creating an imbalance on the femur, all the way down into the knee, and that’s what’s creating that pain and discomfort, and that’s just a symptom. However, when we start to create that balance, the knee improves, the patient has less discomfort, and we’re seeing it not only in 30, or 40 year olds, but thank God young kids, young young kids getting great results, runners, basketball players, and this is what we do all day long. Miracle, right. So some of the things we spoke about, I think maybe you’ve heard chiropractors helping one thing that’s real common. And the statistics are staggering for people that have balance issues, right forms, people that have trouble, maybe lifting their leg high enough, because the hip flexors have a problem, or they feel unstable once they get up off the ground. How does a chiropractor help with balance, and
[Dr. Levine & Dr. Roczey]
we’re all about creating symmetry and balance balancing the left and the right side, the front and the back, making sure the muscles are in tone. And with the motion therapy that we have using the instrument, you know, because it’s not all crack and pop, as people think there’s a lot we have handheld instruments with using a vibrational and a tonal adjustment that will allow that body to create better balance. And we have protocols and vibrational therapy that allow the body being balanced and specific exercises to do the same. So you know, people are falling, people are falling because of either medication, or even Vertigo is a common thing that we see is another subject. But balance is critical, especially as we get older. And we’re helping people with just that issue as we’ve seen it here all the time. Absolutely. And there’s even an article out by hottie habit, I believe, who does a lot of neurological research. And it’s been shown that after a upper cervical adjustment, your brain prefrontal cortex is powered up almost 20% 20%. What does that include? Balance, mood, memory, spatial awareness. These are actual things that an adjustment can do to the nervous system to improve the quality of someone’s life. And more importantly, the longevity. So, so you probably think a checkup might be good. A checkup? I think we would nominal. Right. But I think most people would need a checkup. How would they find a checkup? Well, I’ll tell you. We talked all through this program about thermal imaging. And if we can do a thermal scan, which analyzes the entire spine, and the entire spine will create show you what organs and systems of the body either functioning properly or not functioning properly. If there was something going on which it’s with your spine, would you want to know about it sooner or later, Mark I think sooner I think sooner takes a lot of sense. So that’s something we are for some people do come in, they bring their kids in and say hey, I’d like to have my son or my daughter checked. Another subject we can do for another program is to working with kids and infants Believe it or not, they have spines too, and they have problems and they don’t want to be on medication but safe natural chiropractic, non invasive. I think everyone’s thinking natural and how to build your body in strong ways. So That’s great. We’re up for any questions. I think we covered quite a few subjects. Excellent. Yeah, of course.
[Host]
Yeah. We have a few questions here. And folks, if you’re interested in having a question be asked to the doctors live, please type it in the chat just at the bottom of your screen. Okay. First question is, how do you know the pain is worth seeing a chiropractor? How bad does it have to get?
[Dr. Levine & Dr. Roczey]
Yeah, I think pain is subjective. I feel that anytime you have a pain or problem, it’s a signal that something bigger might be going on. On the inside, as Steve said earlier, 90% of the nerve carrier dysfunction of us. 10% is pain. So the pain is a signal, there’s already a problem occurring. And the better solution is find out where it’s coming from now, before it takes you out of your game before it brings you onto your knees. And we’ve seen that so many patients can barely walk in here, but they’ve gone to the emergency room. And that’s not the time to find where the problems come in from the problem is when the signals are up. Let me ask this question. If you’re driving your car, you check engine light comes on and then goes off and then goes on. How soon do you want that checked?
[Host]
Immediately? Fair enough. Fair enough? Absolutely. How long does an initial assessment take at your office.
[Dr. Levine & Dr. Roczey]
So I think between, you know, if you get your paperwork done, and you know, you’re prepared coming in here, I think between our consultation examination and thermal imaging, I think 30 to 40 minutes, is a reasonable timeframe that someone can get in and out of the office, depending on the complexity of the problem. And how many questions we ask and how detailed the history is. And you know, some people want to tell the whole story. So that can take a little bit longer. But I think if we think about that 4045 minute timeframe, I think you’re safe there. Perfect.
[Host]
Good. And last question, you guys have talked a lot about thermal imaging, could you explain it a little bit? Is it much like an x ray? Or is it something different?
[Dr. Levine & Dr. Roczey]
No, it’s, it’s, it’s non invasive. It’s done by an expert. It’s a camera. And it does, it picks up heat and thermal images off your nerves, because your nerve, when there’s pressure on it will generate heat. So it can show us which level is HOTTEST. And when we do a repeat scan, we can tell if the body’s changing, which is first thing we want to say. And then after the changes occur, we want to see improvement. So that guides us to as far as making recommendations and seeing if we need to change the type of care that we’re giving. So it’s not the same old things every day in and day out. We get diagnostics to help us decide which course the patient should go to great. Absolutely.
[Host]
Great. We have one last question that just came in here. Let me just get to it in the chat. Do you see many pregnant patients? And is the thermal imaging safe to do on pregnant patients?
[Dr. Levine & Dr. Roczey]
So yes, we see a tremendous amount of pregnant patients. And we’re so lucky to have such a great network of OB GYN is referring to us, because these moms sometimes struggle. And the last thing they want to be on is Tylenol, acetaminophen, different types of narcotics, we know that’s not safe. The thermal imaging, absolutely safe. We do it on all of our moms, even my wife. She was thermal image and adjusted right up to the minute of birth. And she had one of the most easiest birthing processes. And that’s one of the biggest compliments, our patients will walk in here with their babies, and bring them right into the office. And just tell us about the experience. Tell us about how the recovery was. It shows the beauty that they that they brought it to this universe, and it’s amazing. It’s truly amazing.
[Host]
That’s beautiful. That’s all the questions we have today. So I want to thank everyone very much for taking the time to attend our webinar. Remember, if you have any questions at all, call the office at 973-761-0022. There is never a charge to ask any question of the doctors. Any last any last comments at all doctors before we wrap it up?
[Dr. Levine & Dr. Roczey]
No thanks for putting together and we always enjoy sharing the information and the successes of our patients. Thank you. Thank you for having us.
[Host]
Thank you for having us. Have a great day.
[Dr. Levine & Dr. Roczey]
You too. Bye bye
