pain relief

New Relief in the New Year with Normatec

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Every day we see athletes in our office needing relief from the aches and pains that often come with workout and participation in sports. Whether your workout of choice is Crossfit or the Peloton, bootcamp or a traditional workout that gets you sore, we now have a new treatment at Foster Chiropractic to provide relief. We have seen great benefits from the high-tech compression massage from Normatec. In a pattern that mimics the body’s natural recovery process, this compression massage helps relieve the pain and inflammation that occurs after an intense workout.

Why Compression Massages are Beneficial

You may have heard many professional athletes talk about massage therapy as a form of recovery, and wondered why this helps your body after a workout. After all, isn’t a cool-down routine and a few stretches all you need to do? 

When your muscles are working, especially in vigorous exercises or activities that aren’t in your normal daily routine, it can cause tiny tears in the muscle fibers. As the body works to repair those cells, the result is the pain and inflammation you feel post-workout. A compression massage will help improve the blood flow to those areas, reducing muscle tightness and easing inflammation. 

If you’re looking for an alternative to pain medications to help you ease the post-workout aches and pains, or you’re just looking for a good solution to post-workout recovery to help your muscles adapt to new workouts, come in to Foster Chiropractic Clinic to try out the Normatec recovery system. This compression massage is just one part of our holistic approach to better health for athletes and everyone in the Winston-Salem area who wants to feel great and live an active lifestyle.

Speed the Healing with Cold Laser Therapy

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More Americans complain of suffering from pain than the number of people who have diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined. According to the National Institute of Health, pain is the most common reason Americans seek medical help, and one in every four Americans have suffered from pain that lasts longer than 24 hours.

Those statistics are not surprising to us here at Foster Chiropractic Sports & Wellness. Many of our clients come to us for help with pain relief, whether it’s back pain, a sports injury, arthritis, or some other type of pain. We use a comprehensive approach that includes a number of types of treatments in addition to the alignments many people associate with chiropractic care. One of those types is cold laser treatments. 

How Cold Laser Therapy Works

Cold laser therapy uses a low level of light to accelerate healing. It’s called cold therapy because the light is set at such a low frequency that it will not heat the body tissues. The laser is held directly above the injured area and set at a specific wavelength to interact with tissues. 

The light passes through the different layers of skin to reach the muscles that are experiencing pain. Once there, the light interacts with light-sensitive elements in the cell to initiate a series of events that result in the reduction of pain and inflammation. The process can be compared to photosynthesis in plants, how the cells absorb light from the sun and convert it to energy.

Candidates for Treatment

Cold laser therapy is used to treat many different types of pain, including arthritis, carpal tunnel, knee, neck and back pain, as well as tendonitis, tennis elbow and bursitis. This type of treatment is appealing to people who are looking for non-pharmaceutical approaches to pain management. It is non-invasive and painless, and treatments last only a few minutes.

We usually recommend multiple treatments for best results. Patients will see a decrease in pain over time while using cold laser therapy. It may also be used in conjunction with other types of treatments, such as spinal alignments or decompression therapy.

To learn more about cold laser therapy and how it can be used to treat pain, call today to make an appointment for a consultation with Dr. Foster.