Chiropractic Center Archives - Live Well Chiropractic Center

How A Chiropractor Can Help Treat Pain After A Car Accident

January 27, 2022

By Dr. Kim Wermert Health

How A Chiropractor Can Help Treat Pain After A Car Accident

According to the National Highway Traffic Administration, a car accident happens every 60 seconds. And even if you’re the safest, most aware driver on the road, you can’t account for other drivers and their competency behind the wheel.

If you have been in an accident before, you know even the most minor of fender benders can cause lasting pain. Even minor car accidents can cause soft tissue injuries, which can lead to arthritic issues, and other forms of chronic pain down the road.

A chiropractic exam might not be the first medical professional you think of when scheduling appointments post-accident, but an experienced chiropractor can help those who have incurred injuries to the musculoskeletal system and the spine.

Reducing Inflammation

While some inflammation is normal and a sign of healing, too much inflammation can cause pain and discomfort. When a chiropractor works to realign your spine, your body responds by lowering its production of cytokines, a protein that regulates immune system cells. But when cytokines build up, it can cause severe inflammation, resulting in pain.

Improving Range Of Motion

Depending on the type of accident you have been in, you may temporarily lose some flexibility (or mobility) in your neck or back, reducing your quality of life. This loss of flexibility can be caused by a misalignment in the spine, inflammation, or even scar tissue build-up. A series of chiropractic adjustments can help restore your range of motion by returning your joints to proper alignment, while also reducing discomfort.

Decreasing Physical Pain

Even a minor car accident can jolt your body, resulting in lasting pain in areas of the body that weren’t even injured in the collision. Chiropractic adjustments can provide relief throughout the entire body by adjusting your spine, and other areas of the body that are hurting.

Reduce Dependency On Pain Relievers

Depending on the severity of your car accident, a doctor may prescribe potentially addictive painkillers to help with your pain management. These painkillers will help with the pain but do not treat the underlying issues that are causing the discomfort. Chiropractic adjustments can target the source of discomfort and work to reduce the pain without prescription painkillers.

Your insurance company might work slowly after a car accident, but Dr. Kimberly Muhlenkamp-Wermert at Live Well Chiropractic Center works quickly. Schedule your appointment with Dr. Kim today by calling 513-285-7482 or emailing info@livewellcc.com. Be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for our latest updates and tips!

May 24, 2021

By Dr. Kim Wermert Exercises, Therapy

How To Relieve Lower Back Pain

If you’ve ever had pain in your lower pain, you know how much it hurts to move even your arms, legs or neck. A good way to stop constant low-back pain, aside from treatment, can be by exercising. It’s a bit of an oxymoron, sure, but exercise can help. Until you’re ready to go for a run or lift weights, consider swimming, a low-impact aerobic workout that relieves pressure on the joints and spine while exercising the muscles in the back.

What Causes Low-Back Pain?

Back pain can range from a muscle aching to a shooting, burning or stabbing sensation. In addition, the pain may radiate down your leg or worsen with bending, twisting, lifting, standing or walking.

The most common cause of low back pain is muscle or ligament strain. If you do not have a strong core, this can also cause low back pain from the strain of carrying extra weight.

Bulging or ruptured disks in your spine could also be the culprit. Disks are the cushions between the bones in your spine. The soft material inside a disk can bulge or rupture and press on a nerve, causing the pain.

In some cases, arthritis in the spine can lead to a narrowing of the space around the spinal cord, a condition called spinal stenosis. In rare cases, it could be osteoporosis, when your spine’s vertebrae develop fractures from porous or brittle bones.

If your back pain is accompanied by pain radiating past your knees, unexplained weight loss, bladder/bowel problems or is a result of an injury, call your physician.

How Does Swimming Help Pain In Your Lower Back?

When you’re in the water, you’re in a non-weight bearing environment. This reduces stress on your joints and allows a greater range of motion. The hydrostatic pressure in a pool also increases blood flow to the muscles in your back.

Depending on the severity of the pain in your lower back, and of course with your doctor’s OK, start slowly with a simple walk through water that completely covers your core. The friction from the water gives a light resistance that will strengthen the muscles in your back, as well as your core. As you heal, work your way up into swimming laps or taking a water aerobics class.

Are you experiencing lower back pain? Consider comprehensive chiropractic care with Dr. Kimberly Muhlenkamp-Wermert at Live Well Chiropractic Center. We help treat and prevent pain and injury with non-invasive healthcare services and a focus on nutrition, exercise and spinal health.

Schedule your appointment with Dr. Kim today by calling 513-285-7482 or emailing info@livewellcc.com. Her extensive understanding of body mechanics will get you feeling better! Be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for our latest updates and tips!

March 22, 2021

By Dr. Kim Wermert Parenting

Colic and Chiropractic Care

You’ve fed, changed and comforted your baby, but he or she is still fussy and crying — and has been for hours. While it is completely normal for babies to cry, especially newborns, when crying lasts for a long period of time and happens a few nights a week, it could be more than simple crying. It could be colic.

What Is Colic?

In general, colic is defined as crying for three or more hours a day, three or more days a week, for three or more weeks.

Symptoms of colic may include the following:

Intense crying that may seem more like screaming or an expression of pain
Crying for no apparent reason, unlike crying to express hunger or the need for a diaper change
Extreme fussiness even after crying has diminished
Predictable timing, with episodes often occurring in the evening
Facial discoloring, such as reddening of the face or paler skin around the mouth
Bodily tension, such as pulled up or stiffened legs, stiffened arms, clenched fists, arched back, or tense abdomen

Excessive, inconsolable crying may be colic or an indication of an illness or condition that causes pain or discomfort. Schedule an appointment with your pediatrician for a thorough exam if your infant experiences excessive crying or other signs or symptoms of colic.

What Causes Colic?

The cause of colic is unknown. It may result from numerous contributing factors. While a number of causes have been explored, it’s difficult for researchers to account for all the important features, such as why it usually begins late in the first month of life, how it varies among infants, why it happens at certain times of day and why it resolves on its own in time.

How To Help Babies With Colic

While many people equate chiropractic care as the solution only for neck or back pain, it is actually more than that. Chiropractic care treated the central nervous system, which controls all the functions of the body.

During both vaginal and C-section births, the baby’s head can be turned, resulting in spinal shifting and misaligning the vertebrae. While it is impossible to know if this results in colic, studies have shown that chiropractic care may be helpful in reducing the symptoms of colic, and that help can last for years to come.

Live Well Chiropractic Center’s Dr. Kimberly Muhlenkamp-Wermert is one of the few female chiropractors in the Cincinnati area that is certified by the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association in the Webster Technique. A mother of 4, she specializes in chiropractic care in all phases of life, from pre-conception to pregnancy, post-delivery, infant and elder care. If you’d like to schedule an appointment with Dr. Kim, email us at info@livewellcc.com or call us at 513-285-7682. Be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for our latest updates and tips!

How To Stay Healthy This Winter With Chiropractic Care

January 21, 2021

By Dr. Kim Wermert Exercises, Physio

How To Stay Healthy This Winter With Chiropractic Care

Staying healthy during the long winter months is a challenge facing most of us. Not feeling well or dealing with an injury makes day-to-day life more challenging. Whether it’s the seasonal flu, winter sports injuries or just feeling the impact of the cold weather on your joints, chiropractic care is one way to proactively prepare for the change in temperatures and stay healthy during the winter.

Here’s how visiting your chiropractor during the winter months can help:

Reduce body stiffness

When the temperature drops, your muscles contract in an effort to keep you warm. Unfortunately this well-intended reaction often results in stiffness and less flexibility in your muscles or joints, making you more prone to discomfort and injury. An adjustment to your spine can help your spine stay properly aligned, which will relieve your body stiffness.

Prevent colds and flu

The spread of colds and flu is more prevalent in the winter. Combine that with compromised immune systems, sleep deprivation and stress, and it’s no wonder why most of us get sick in the winter. Spinal adjustments can boost your nervous system, which in turn can strengthen your immune system.

Heal sports injuries

If you’re a skier, snowboarder or like to exercise outside, chiropractic care can ensure your body is loose and properly aligned before you venture out into the elements. When your muscles are already warmed up and flexible, you are less prone to injury.

If you do sustain an injury, chiropractic care can help you rebuild your strength and coordination. This gives your body a chance to heal and correct itself naturally without medication or invasive procedures.

Relieve symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder

Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, is a type of depression that occurs with the changes of season. While there is no cure for this, chiropractic care can regulate hormone production to the nervous system. Because the spine acts as the central nervous system’s communicator to the rest of the body, spinal adjustments can help you get better control of your feelings, thoughts and emotions.

Manage stress

Our muscles contract when we’re feeling stressed, resulting in tension in our shoulders, back, neck and other muscle groups. Muscles that are constantly tense impact the bones, tendons, ligaments, joints and nerves as well. When a chiropractor adjusts the spine, it relieves the pressure and results in an immediate sense of relief, which is freeing both physically and mentally.

If you’re ready to stay healthy this winter and alleviate the aches and pains the cold weather brings, give Live Well Chiropractic Center a call. We are available to answer any questions you have about joint or muscle stiffness, sports injuries, or the impact of Seasonal Affective Disorder on your body.

Contact us today at 513-285-7482 to schedule an appointment, or check us out on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for our latest tips and updates!

How To Fight Stress With Chiropractic Care

January 21, 2021

By Dr. Kim Wermert Physio

How To Fight Stress With Chiropractic Care

Stress can have an overwhelmingly negative impact on your body and your health. If left untreated, it can lead to other issues such as tension headaches, migraines, back pain, sleeplessness, anxiety, depression, and physical problems including high blood pressure and heart disease.

Stress can be debilitating, impacting your work, relationships and general happiness. Fortunately there is a way to deal with stress that doesn’t involve extreme measures or medicines with potential side effects. Because it takes a holistic, mind-body approach to treatment, chiropractic care has proven to be successful in helping to minimize stress and keep you focused and calm.

Here’s how visiting your chiropractor can help you alleviate stress:

Chiropractic care reduces muscle tension

Stress and muscle tension feed off each other. The more stress you feel, the more your muscles tense. The more your muscles tense, the more stress you feel. Muscle tension impacts your posture, and how you walk, sit or stand. It can also have an impact on your focus and your sleep. But a visit to your chiropractor can help. Your chiropractor can adjust your spine, relieving muscle tension and restoring your body’s natural balance.

Chiropractic care restores physical function

Your backbone is the pathway your brain uses to communicate to the rest of your body. It controls every organ, tissue and cell. So when you feel stressed, it impacts your backbone. A spinal adjustment from your chiropractor can restore function to your body. It increases nerve flow to your brain’s limbic system, which regulates your emotions. All of this makes you feel healthier, more energetic, more relaxed and less stressed.

Chiropractic care reinforces good nutrition

Many people turn to comfort foods during times of stress. Unfortunately, overeating or choosing unhealthy foods can make you feel sluggish, bloated and oftentimes even more stressed.

Good nutrition is the foundation of your overall health, and that includes your ability to deal with stress. When you eat clean and healthy, it can have a big impact on your stress level.

Your chiropractor does a lot more than spinal adjustments. Because they take a whole-person approach to care, chiropractors can coach you on full-body wellness. This includes exercise, physical therapy and lifestyle habits including nutrition, food and any supplements you may be lacking. After considering your whole medical history, chiropractors can help you build healthy and sustainable life habits that will help you reduce stress and feel better overall.

Are you tired of feeling the effects of stress? Are you ready to get some relief? At Live Well Chiropractic Center, we believe that life is too short to deal with stress and the pain associated with it. Contact us today to learn more about our services or to schedule an appointment. Be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for our latest updates and tips!

June 24, 2020

By Dr. Kim Wermert Physio, Therapy

TMJ: Causes, Symptoms and Treatments

The temporomandibular joint (more known as TMJ) acts like a sliding hinge, connecting your jawbone to your skull. When there is an issue with the TMJ, symptoms include: pain while chewing; pain in the ear, face, jaw and neck; clicking, grating, or popping sounds in the jaw when you open or close your mouth; locking of the jaw joint and headaches. Sometimes, the pain is so intense that it is difficult to eat certain foods or enjoy daily activities.

What Causes TMJ Disorders?

The exact cause of a TMJ disorder is often difficult to determine. Pain may be due to a combination of factors, such as genetics, jaw injury, infections, or degenerative joint and/or autoimmune diseases. Some people who have jaw pain also tend to clench or grind their teeth, although many people habitually clench or grind their teeth and never develop TMJ disorders.

How Many People Have TMJ Disorders?

While we don’t know for certain how many people have TMJ disorders, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research estimates 12 percent of Americans are impacted. The condition appears to be more common in women than men, and women using either supplemental estrogen or oral contraceptives are more likely to seek treatment for these conditions.

Non-Invasive TMJ Treatments

The most effective way to treat TMJ disorders is with professional treatment. Your physician or dentist may decide on a surgical treatment plan in rare cases, but a far less invasive course of chiropractic care has been proven to treat the issue.

An experienced chiropractor will focus on three key muscles: the masseter, the temporalis and the pterygoid. She will also treat the suboccipital muscles, the jaw joint itself and the top two vertebrae to make sure everything is aligned properly. In addition, your chiropractor can prescribe exercises to strengthen and relax the jaw muscles, increase jaw mobility, reduce jaw clicking and promote healing.

Dr. Kimberly Muhlenkamp-Wermert and the team at Live Well Chiropractic Center are experienced in treating TMJ disorders to help you get and stay pain-free. To schedule an appointment, email us at info@livewellcc.com or call 513-285-7682. Be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn for our latest updates and tips!

December 22, 2018

By Dr. Kim Wermert Exercises, Sporting

Eight Health Tips to Start Your Year Off Right

Our mission at Live Well Chiropractic Center is to keep you healthy. Unfortunately, this time of year is particularly hard on our bodies because of the weather, the germs circulating around, and the innate desire in all of us to hunker down, eat lots of comfort foods and stay inside where it’s nice and warm.

Part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, though, is taking care of yourself and not always giving in to those temptations which can cause you to forgo exercise, healthy eating and other healthy habits. Plus, the sooner you adopt healthy habits, the easier it will be to keep up these lifestyle changes all year long. Even though we can’t be with you every second of every day, what we can do is share our best tips for keeping yourself healthy in between visits.

1. Visit Your Chiropractor With regular chiropractic visits, we can help your body remain in proper alignment, which gives your body its maximum potential to heal itself.

2. Exercise It’s difficult to get up and moving when the weather is cold and your motivation is low. However, according to the Mayo Clinic, exercise not only helps control your weight, but it can also keep you healthy, act as a mood, libido and energy booster, help you sleep better and it’s fun. If you are stuck for a place to exercise, check out these great indoor walking spots.

3. Get Plenty of Sleep Sleep is crucial for good health. Aim to get at least seven to nine hours of sleep a night to ensure better physical and mental health and a better quality of life.

4. Hydrate Experts recommend you drink at least eight cups of water a day. If you have a tough time drinking water, try having a glass when you first wake up, right before you go to bed and before each meal. It can also help to have water with you at all times. If you don’t like the taste, add lemon, cucumber, orange or lime slices. Adding whole or sliced berries also makes for a great tasting glass of water!

5. Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables Experts recommend eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day for optimum health. Sneak spinach into your smoothies, snack on a banana with peanut butter or turn a side salad into a main meal with or without a lean protein on top.

6. Wash Your Hands Hand washing is the number one way to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others. Remember to wash your hands before you eat, after you go to the bathroom and after you come into contact with other sick people or heavily-populated areas where germs thrive (public transportation, gyms, shopping centers, credit card machines, etc.).

7. Practice Mindfulness Mindfulness is an overarching practice that extends to every part of your well-being. You can do this in the form of meditation, setting aside quiet time, turning off all electronics, spending time in nature or practicing deep breathing.

8. Socialize Being around friends and family in a social setting gives your brain and body a healthy boost and lowers your risk of diseases such as dementia. Enjoy a physical activity or share a healthy meal with someone else and double up on your healthy activities for added benefit.

For more in-person healthy living tips, visit us at Live Well Chiropractic Center. With chiropractic care from our clinic, you can expect to live your healthiest life, no matter the season. Call us today at 513-285-7482 or email info@livewellcc.com to schedule your consultation to learn more about the health benefits of our brand of chiropractic care.

Be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for our latest updates!

December 20, 2018

By Dr. Kim Wermert Orthotics, Physio

Cold Weather Chilling You To Your Bones?

Are you the kind of person who knows when the weather will begin to get colder because you can feel it in your bones? While medical and scientific researchers do not yet have a definitive answer to the question about cold weather’s impact on your bones, there are some theories that support the idea.

How Does Cold Weather Impact Your Bones?

It is possible for the cold weather to impact your bones in more than one way. However, researchers are still solving the riddle of just how it happens. The one way in which we can be sure we’re impacted by the seasonal downturn in temperatures is that we become less active. When our bodies are less active, circulation to our organs and bones decreases. This decreased circulation can cause weakness or pain in your joints. Additionally, the main theory about cold weather’s direct impact on your bones and joints relates to barometric pressure. Some studies have shown that when barometric pressure drops just before a cold spell, it seems to coincide with an uptick in complaints of bone and joint pain.

How to Protect Your Bones

The two actions you can take to prevent the cold from slowing you down with pain may seem like common sense, but they are worth mentioning. The first is to adapt your activity schedule to the change in temperature. If you normally jog, run or walk outdoors, don’t quit for the winter. Find an indoor track or gym – or use a treadmill at home – to keep up your exercise routine. Exercise will keep your blood flowing and lessen the negative effects of winter inactivity. Secondly, when you venture outdoors in frigid weather, dress appropriately. Keeping your head and trunk warm will conserve most of your body heat and therefore reduce the occurrence of your blood vessels constricting. Wearing insulated, waterproof gloves and boots will also help to keep your finger and toe joints from suffering the effects of low temperatures.

When to See a Professional about Bone Pain

Bone and joint pain are not something to take lightly. While rest and medications may be helpful in reducing temporary aches and pains, pay attention to – and seek treatment for – any new pains that occur during the winter months. As well, seek treatment from a healthcare professional for any severe pain you experience that includes swelling or that makes normal movement impossible.

One option for managing your bone and joint pain in these winter months is chiropractic care from our clinic. At Live Well Chiropractic Center, we help treat and prevent pain and injury through preventative health services with a focus on nutrition, exercise and spinal health. Call us today at 513-285-7482 or email info@livewellcc.com to schedule a consultation with Dr. Kim. Her extensive understanding of body mechanics will get you feeling better!