Hip Labral Tears

Have you felt stiffness in your hip or heard a locking sound coming from the top of your leg when you move? If so, don’t dismiss that as a normal part of aging. You may be suffering from a treatable condition called a hip labral tear. At ACT Wellness Center in Woodbridge, we believe everyone can achieve a healthy lifestyle, and are committed to providing noninvasive solutions for pain. Our own Doctor Carmelo Caratozzolo is a certified chiropractic extremity practitioner, meaning he can assist people experiencing problems in their lower limbs.

 

The hip joint is a ball and socket, with the ball at the top of the femur fitting into a socket called the acetabulum. The acetabulum has a ring of cartilage, called a labrum, that secures and cushions the femoral head. But the labrum can be torn by an acute injury or degenerate over time, and if a person develops a bony spur over their joint, their femoral head may become impinged and not be able to move fully. Tears in the labrum may result in pain, swelling, and locking of the joint, which may be worse when a person engages in repetitive movements or subjects their hips to extended pressure.

 

Diagnosing a labral tear will require imaging and range of motion tests. Typically, labral tears are accompanied by other injuries, but they may be mild or not result in symptoms at all. Patients will need to temporarily reduce their activity and then work back to normalcy through physical therapy designed to improve their hip flexibility and strength. They may also require chiropractic extremity adjustments to their hips or joints further down their legs to correct for imbalances that may have been contributing to wear and tear, and they may benefit from low level laser therapy to improve blood flow and reduce inflammation.

 

To stop hip pain before it becomes debilitating, schedule a visit to Dr. Carmelo Caratozzolo at the ACT Wellness Center, 14111 Minnieville Road, Woodbridge, Virginia. Call 703-491-9355.

 

Back Pain in Teen Athletes

As children become teenagers, those who are athletic tend to become more competitive and push themselves harder. At ACT Wellness Center, we’re happy to see our patients engaged in healthy exercise. Occasionally, teens getting accustomed to work-outs are also at risk for overuse injuries, and since our own Dr. Carmelo Caratozzolo is a Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician, we wanted to supply some information about the most common musculoskeletal ailments.

 

It’s not unusual for teenagers to strain their back muscles. In most cases, only ice and a few days’ rest is needed, but if the pain recurs, they may benefit from low level laser therapy and electric muscle stimulation. These treatments will loosen the swollen muscles, allowing nutrient-rich blood to flow more freely. But there may also be a subluxation of the spinal column in play, including a fractured facet joint, spondylolisthesis (in which one vertebrae has slid forward over another), or a herniated disc. These patients may require a chiropractic adjustment to relieve pressure on the surrounding muscles, allowing them to recover more comfortably.

 

An examination will be required to determine whether the spinal column is misaligned. Disc herniation is less likely in teenagers than in adults, but they are at greater risk for spondylolisthesis. Female athletes, in particular, are vulnerable to osteoporosis if they don’t get adequate nutrition. ACT Wellness Center also offers vitamins and supplements to be taken under expert guidance, as well as recommendations for physical therapy.

 

If your teenager is having recurrent bouts of back, hip, or shoulder pain, schedule a visit to Dr. Carmelo Caratozzolo at the ACT Wellness Center, 14111 Minnieville Road, Woodbridge, Virginia. Call 703-491-9355.

Leg Pain and Back Problems

If you’re interested in learning about chiropractic, you’ve probably heard of sciatica. This condition is caused by compression of one of the sciatic nerves, which travel from the lower back to the leg. In fact, there are several connections between the back and legs running through the pelvic region, and as experts in musculoskeletal health, we at ACT Wellness Center in Woodbridge want our patients to understand why noninvasive treatment of the lower back may be the best thing for their leg pain.

 

Nerves emerge from the lumbar, or lower back region, of the spine through small holes called foramina. The nerves could be constricted at their point of origin if a person is suffering from inflammation due to a damaged spinal disc or facet joint, if a person’s vertebrae have slipped out of position, or a nearby muscle is being stretched tightly over a bony spur. The nerves could also be compressed further down in the pelvis if there is a problem in one of the piriformis muscles, which connect the lumbar spine to the top of the leg.

 

Not all leg pain is due to nerve compression. There are several other muscles in the pelvic region that could tighten, pulling on the lower back, and some of them pass over and compress bursae. If we determine that a patient’s pain is due to a musculoskeletal problem, we have several treatment options for reducing inflammation. Those include chiropractic adjustments to fix subluxated spinal joints, extremity adjustments to restore leg and foot joints, and low-level laser therapy to accelerate healing. We will also help patients devise therapeutic exercises that will reduce the risk of their muscles cramping again and help them to ease the burden on the spine.

 

If you’ve suffered from pain, tingling, or numbness in your lower back or one of your legs, schedule a visit to Dr. Carmelo Caratozzolo at the ACT Wellness Center, 14111 Minnieville Road, Woodbridge, Virginia. Call 703-491-9355.

Hip Bursitis

Last week, we discussed how pain in your legs could be related to your lower back. Another possibility is that a problem in the hip is referring pain to nearby areas. If you’ve developed bursitis in your hip, we at the ACT Wellness Center in Woodbridge can help you move comfortably again. But hip bursitis and its underlying causes can be tricky to identify, so let’s take a closer look at how bursae work.

 

Bursae are small cushions that secrete lubricant. There are many of them, including some in the front of the hips, but the ones likeliest to be responsible for hip pain are located to the sides and tops of the hips. The trochanteric bursae are positioned over the bony knobs on the outward side of the top of the thigh bones, one on each side. A connective tissue called the iliotibial band stretches over each, and a hip muscle called the gluteus medius connects nearby. Inflammation in these tissues could put pressure on the bursa.

 

Hip bursitis is usually more painful when a person has been at rest, or after a repetitive motion. One of the tests for identifying it is to ask a patient to try crossing their leg over the midline of their body, which would often be difficult. Treatments include temporarily reducing activity, extremity adjustments to correct problems in the hip or knee’s alignment, low level laser therapy to reduce inflammation, and therapeutic exercise to rebuild the hip’s strength and flexibility. We can also perform adjustments on the lower back if the patient has been walking with an uneven gait to avoid putting more pressure on one hip.

 

If you’ve suffered a hip injury or have gradually felt it become stiffer and more painful, schedule a visit to Dr. Carmelo Caratozzolo at the ACT Wellness Center, 14111 Minnieville Road, Woodbridge, Virginia. Call 703-491-9355.

Introduction to Herniated Discs

Lower back pain affects tens of millions of people in the United States and is a major contributor to missed workdays. There are several reasons for it, but one of the most common is a herniated disc. Also known as a slipped disc or ruptured disc, this ailment has potential implications for the spinal nerves, so we at the ACT Wellness Center in Woodbridge want people to understand why they should take treatment seriously.

 

The spinal discs are shock absorbers located in between the flat bodies of most vertebrae. They have tough fibrous outer rings and gelatinous centers. Discs become dehydrated with age and suffer wear and tear throughout a person’s life. When the gelatinous center pushes against the fibrous walls or leaks out, the disc is herniated. The resulting pressure on the surrounding tissues causes pain and triggers the body’s inflammatory response, and nerves branching out of the spinal cord nearby could be compressed. This would result in pain or numbness along the pinched nerve, which could extend the length of the arm or leg.

 

Herniated discs can occur as a result of acute injuries or wear-and-tear, but they are more common in people over the age of sixty. Although frequent in the lower back, they can occur higher up. Chiropractic adjustments can help put the spinal column back into alignment, and we can use techniques such as low-level laser therapy to reduce painful swelling. We can also advise patients on nutrition to ensure their spinal discs get the vitamins and minerals they need to stay supple, and on strengthening exercises that will allow their back muscles to take on more of the weight bearing down on their discs.

If you suffer from back or neck pain, contact ACT Wellness Center at 14111 Minnieville Road, Woodbridge, Virginia by calling 703-491-9355 or visiting ACT Wellness. Dr. Carmelo Caratozzolo, or Dr. C, has been designated Prince William County's best chiropractor for ten years in a row.