Ft. Lauderdale Chiropractic: Blog

At Dr. Maryam Jafarieh’s chiropractic clinic we treat patients and relieve pain, but patient self-care is just as important for their continued health. Simple changes to everyday habits can help you to live a pain-free life.  So many of us spend a lot of a typical day sitting, between working at computer desks, watching TV, and commuting to work. All of this sitting can cause back pain, making it the most common reason patients visit the chiropractor.  Making a few adjustments to how you sit can ease this stress, help alleviate back pain, and minimize future visits. You will actually put less stress on your back when you don’t sit up straight. Leaning back just enough so that your thighs are at a 135-degree angle with your torso is an optimal seated position for preventing back pain. Long periods of sitting are what really increase the risk of muscle pulls, strains, and cramps. So if you don’t have time to walk around and stretch at the office try switching between sitting and standing...

We advocate a preventive approach to injuries at Dr. Maryam Jafarieh’s chiropractic office in Fort Lauderdale. When the muscles are strong, they help to keep the back in line and support the weight of other tissues. But when exercising, people should be aware of how to warm-up properly so as not to incur soft-tissue injuries. When muscles have blood flowing into them, they are less likely to fray or tear. For this reason, they should be warmed up using dynamic stretches. Dynamic stretches are those which keep them in motion while people get their heart rates up. Some examples would be arm circles and butt-kicks, as well as yoga routines that put the body through a series of postures. Static stretches are those which require a person to hold a pose while still. These stretches are better saved for the cool-down at the end of a work-out. The warm-up and cool-down should each take about five minutes, with the central portion of the work-out taking at least twenty minutes. Dr. Maryam Jafar...

Car accidents that aren’t major collisions are too often overlooked by those involved.  More worried about an insurance claim or being late for work, we don’t always stop to assess what damage may have been done to our bodies. Because of the sudden and unnatural movement of a body during a car accident, anyone involved should visit a chiropractor for evaluation. At Dr. Maryam Jafarieh’s chiropractic clinic, we know that some passengers feel the effects of whiplash injuries immediately following an accident, while others may walk away not feeling injured and only experience pain later. This is why a chiropractor should always be consulted. The most common site of pain and stiffness for passengers involved in an accident are the neck and back.  A chiropractor can evaluate these injuries, as well as treat damage to both hard and soft tissue. Depending on a patient’s evaluation the chiropractor may perform an adjustment, or assign exercises to help heal a particular injury.  If you have be...

Dr. Maryam Jafarieh, DC, of Ft. Lauderdale Chiropractic, is here to help you manage stress through chiropractic care. When under stress, the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated, which can put the body in a “fight or flight” mode. Chiropractic care focuses on the spine, which is the root of the nervous system. Maintaining a healthy nervous system means having a better functioning body with a better ability to adapt and respond to stress. Stress is inevitable, however how we react to it and how our body adapts to it and handles stress is of utmost importance. Because of such an intimate relationship between the spine and the nervous system, a healthy and properly aligned spine could lead to better functioning nervous system, and therefore better functioning body, which gives us a better ability to adapt and respond to stress. Chiropractic care allows for a nervous system that functions at a more optimal level and helps our body to better adapt to stress.  If you have questions or co...

Chiropractic care is typically sought out by people seeking relief from neck or back pain.  At Dr. Maryam Jafarieh’s Fort Lauderdale chiropractic office, we are also skilled in treating extremities like the knees, elbows, and the shoulders. The shoulder joint is the body’s most mobile joint. It is surrounded by nerves, tendons, bursa, and other tissues which can all experience irritation and cause pain. This complex structure may require your chiropractor to assess your overall health and condition to target the root of the problem.  Shoulder pain can have many causes.  Whether pain began after an injury or has increased over time, chiropractic treatment is a safe and effective way to treat damage to both hard and soft tissue.  When shoulder pain is caused by joint irritation, relief can often be achieved through an adjustment .  Additionally, spinal misalignments in the neck and upper back could contribute to shoulder pain by irritating the spinal nerves from these areas which travel ...

If you are someone who frequently does physical labor, you have probably heard of the much-feared slipped disc. At the Fort Lauderdale chiropractic office of Dr. Maryam Jafarieh, we can assist patients with managing the pain from this ailment in a non-addictive, minimally invasive manner. But it is helpful for patients to understand what a slipped disc means for their bodies. Slipped discs are also called herniated, ruptured, and bulging discs, which describes them more accurately. The discs between the articulated vertebrae have gelatinous centers and thick, fibrous outer rings. Sometimes, the gel in the center pushes into the outer ring, and in the worst cases, it seeps all the way outside the disc. This puts painful pressure on the surrounding tissues and prevents the disc from doing its job, which is to cushion the vertebrae against all the jostling they get when the patient moves about normally. Sudden trauma could rupture a disc, but breaks are generally wear-and-tear injuries. T...

Here at the chiropractic office of Dr. Maryam Jafarieh in Fort Lauderdale, we provide holistic care for a number of ailments originating in the back. Chiropractic isn’t just the study of the back; it’s an approach to medicine that focuses on the interplay between the spine and the rest of the body. To understand how it works, patients must first learn about the back’s structure. The spinal cord is a bundle of nerves that travels from the skull through a canal formed by hollow protrusions in the bones that together from the backbone. These bones are called “vertebrae,” and there are twenty-four of them which move individually. The top two are called the atlas and axial vertebrae and are the only articulated vertebrae not separated by a spongy disc. They and the next five bones are the “cervical vertebrae,” those which make up the neck. The twelve which the ribs branch off of are called “thoracic vertebrae” and the five which form the lower back are the “lumbar vertebrae.” Below the lu...

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common sources of pain we provide treatment for at Dr. Maryam Jafarieh’s chiropractic office. Our treatments are holistic and non-addictive, but in order for patients to get the best results, they should know more about how osteoarthritis works. Arthritis is inflammation of tissues in and surrounding the joints. While rheumatoid arthritis is a result of an immune system disorder, osteoarthritis is caused by ordinary wear and tear. Specifically, osteoarthritis causes back pain when the cartilage which separates the joints of the spine breaks down. This allows the bones to rub against each other and become misshapen or experience tiny fractures. Broken off bone splinters floating nearby in the body can result in inflammation. People are more likely to suffer from osteoarthritis after they have been still for a long time or during times of low atmospheric pressure, such as before a storm. It is different from degenerative disc disease, in which the spinal...

At Dr. Maryam Jafarieh’s Fort Lauderdale chiropractic practice, we heal patients dealing with problematic spinal discs using spinal decompression therapy.  Non-surgical spinal decompression therapy is a safe, targeted treatment for any discs wreaking havoc on a patient’s spine or nerves.  Injured discs in the neck and back cause pain, but can also affect the rest of the body.  Herniated discs often have direct impact on the central nervous system, causing more pain to the extremities.  Our doctors can determine if spinal decompression is appropriate for your issue. Spinal decompression is performed with equipment that resembles a table but has moving parts.  Depending on the location of the issue, patients lie on their back or stomach, and are attached to the equipment with padded straps so distraction forces can be applied to the spine.  The treatment alternates between applying distraction forces to the vertebrae and periods of partial relaxation.  The result is the vertebrae slowly ...

At Dr. Maryam Jafarieh’s Fort Lauderdale chiropractic practice, we want our patients to know how to avoid strains that can cause pain throughout their bodies. When we are asleep, we are spending several hours at a time in a position which may be forcing us out of alignment. The best sleep position for spinal health is flat on the back. The head should be supported by a firm pillow, keeping the back and neck in alignment. The worst position is on the front. This pushes the head backward and causes the lower back vertebrae to stretch as they sag without support. The complication is that people who suffer from sleep apnea often have difficulty sleeping on their backs, but are able to breathe easier while on their fronts, despite damage to their musculoskeletal system. We provide treatments, including adjustments, which can relieve back pain, but we also want patients to prevent harm through better sleep practices. In people who have difficulty sleeping on their backs, side-sleeping with a...