Question: Subluxation is a big word. Its kind of intimidating. Can you talk a little bit to that word? What it is, and what it means, and why our consumers should be concerned with it.
Dr. Dana Explains: Subluxation is a big word but it's a pretty simple concept I guess. I'm sitting next to my model spine so I'll go ahead and pull this thing out and kind of explain what a subluxation is. For those of you watching, you maybe have seen these before, this is the model of a spine. This is where the back of the head is and these are the little bumps that you can feel on your spine. Well anyways, what can happen from everyday stress or poor posture or maybe an old injury that never healed right, or a car accident, is that, these individual joints can shift out of alignment and that's what we call a subluxation. Now when these joints shift out of alignment two main things happen.The first thing that happens, is you're going to get nerve irritation. There are over 300 million nerves that exit the spine. One hundred percent of the time if you have a subluxation that's irritating a nerve, you're going to have some kind of a problem and oftentimes it is pain. That's the first problem that sets in, you're going to have a nerve pinch.
The second thing that's going to happen is all of your muscles that stabilize the spine are going to shorten and spasm and that's going to cause a problem, because not only will it wear out the joint space, it's going to continue to irritate the nerve but it will also decrease your range of motion because your muscles will shorten and tighten.
A subluxation is again, it's a large word but it's a pretty simple concept that the joint is out of alignment pinching a nerve. When your nerve is being pinched your body won't function at 100% and it won't heal properly. So, we don't like subluxation around here.
Question: So, Dr. Dana, what are some conditions or symptoms that a patient might be having that they should come see you for?
Dr. Dana explains: A lot of times unfortunately people don't seek out chiropractic as a first option. They typically go to chiropractic almost as a last resort. They go to the medical practitioner and they maybe say, “I'm having back pain.” And the medical practitioner unfortunately gives them a medication or a series of stretches, and that's not always going to do the trick. So, when people come to see me it's typically for back pain. Whether that be lower back pain, shoulder pain, neck pain, headaches, whatever it might be, they usually come in for some kind of a pain symptom, and what I would love is if people would seek out chiropractic before they get the runaround from the medical community.
Can you let our consumers know why would a patient come to you, other than back pain? What other symptoms could subluxation or misalignment in the spine cause in a patient?
There is a lot of different things that subluxation can cause other than pain. Typically people come in because the subluxation is causing pain, and when pain starts to set in that's kind of the tip of the iceberg they only notice that part, but there's a whole lot of stuff underlying underneath the iceberg if that makes sense. Some very common things that we see that subluxation can cause are sinus issues. The nerves that exit the top part of the spine innervate the sinuses. A lot of times people with subluxation in the upper part of their neck can have significant sinus issues. It can cause various issues with breathing. We've seen a lot of patients improve in their asthma symptoms after removing the subluxations in their mid-back. Reason being the nerves that come out of your mid-back, innervate the lungs and the bronchioles so if you have subluxations that are irritating the nerves that supply that area, you're likely going to have issues in that regard too.
We actually see a lot of digestion issues as well. Sometimes people are coming in with IBS or maybe constipation or diarrhea whatever it might be and it's not necessarily because there's a problem with the intestines but the nerves that come out of the lower back innervate the intestines and the whole entire GI system. So after removing those subluxations, the nerves will be able to communicate with those organs much better and relieve some of those symptoms as well.
Question: Who is your average patient? Do you see children only, seniors, anything in between? Athletes? Who is your ideal patient?
Dr. Dana explains: I do see a variety of patients from - the youngest that I've treated was four days old, people might say what the heck does a little kid need an adjustment for? If you think about it, a little moldable human body is inside of another human body and the birthing process can be awfully traumatic and tumultuous. Sometimes if an OBGYN is pulling a little too hard on the poor infants head or neck. It can actually cause the very first misalignment and if that's left untreated for a long period of time, these kids might end up with migraines they might end up with headaches. So taking care of it, again when it's a small issue, is a lot easier to fix it than when it turns into a large issue. Anywhere from an infant that maybe has torticollis or some shifting in the neck, or maybe they're constipated, or they have colic, an adjustment can help clear that stuff up so little kiddos, all the way up to the older geriatric patients that maybe have arthritic symptoms that medications aren't helping and so forth.
If I were to say who my main demographic of who I treat on the most regular basis and who I enjoy working with the most, it would be that middle age to younger female athlete. Not necessarily your Olympian by any means. Although, we do have some pretty talented athletes that come in here that I treat. You know that 35 year old female that loves yoga but just feels a little bit of a catch in her hip when she's trying to get into her downward dog position, or that roller derby girl that skating around the rink in the same direction every single night and starts developing a knee issue, that's kind of my ideal patients. Actually over the last five years, I've been lucky enough to be able to work with the North Star Roller Girls. They're actually the roller derby team of Minneapolis. That's been really rewarding because they are tough awesome athletes, but they end up with injuries because it's a pretty significant demanding sport from a physical standpoint.
About Dr. Dana Schomberg: , DC
Dr. Dana is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a B.S. In Kinesiology and Exercise Science and received her Doctor of Chiropractic from Northwestern Health Sciences University in 2000. She has been practicing for 8 years at the West End Chiropractic in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. She is in general practice and sees a variety of patients with a range of conditions including arthritis, back and neck pain, whiplash, fibromyalgia, plantar fasciitis, sciatica, carpal tunnel, old muscular tightness, and tension. Other areas of expertise include sports medicine, and treating female patients that suffer from headaches and migraines. Dr. Dana is also the official doctor for the Minnesota North Star Roller Derby team, who fondly refer to her as "Doc Bones"
She is currently accepting new patients at this. Please feel free to mention this video for a free 15-minute initial consultation. She can be reached at
Email: drdana@westendchiromn.com
Phone: 9525008477
