Neck
or Back Pain?... This 3 Minute Test Helps Find Out If Chiropractic Care
Can Help You!
There's NO-OBLIGATION. This Test Is Fast & Painless!
Normal |
Abnormal |
"What
is a 'Surface EMG'?"
A Surface
EMG is similar to a "EKG" for the heart. It uses a hand held
instrument (static test) and electrodes (dynamic test) that are placed
over the muscles of lower back to identify the exact location of abnormal
muscle activity. The benefits of this test is that it is painless, quick.
and most importantly, it helps us determine what further evaluations
or tests may or may not be necessary! Discover how you "measure
up" to normal! You'll get to take a copy of your neck and back
"picture" home with you!
The Myovision
is the absolute latest and most high tech tool available in chiropractic
spinal analysis.
WHAT
DO THE RESULTS OF THE MYOVISION MEAN?
The Myovision
is the absolute latest and most high tech tool available in chiropractic
spinal analysis. Originally developed for use by NASA to measure the
effects of zero gravity and fatigue on their astronauts it has recently
been shown to correlate with neurological reflexes that occur with injury.
For our purposes, we are concerned with injury of the spine.
Chiropractors
specialize in the analysis, detection, and correction of vertebral subluxations
or subluxations for short. The subluxation is the key problem to find
and correct for the chiropractor, much like cavities are for the dentist.
A subluxation is a misalignment of one of the 24 vertebrae of the spine
causing nerve pressure. Nerve pressure causes interference or alterations
to the messages sent from the brain to the body and results in a decrease
in proper body function. Decreased function may cause various health
problems and symptoms. Since the nervous system controls every function
of your body (either directly or indirectly) and regulates every muscle,
organ, and cell it is important for your nervous system to be free of
nerve pressure in order to enjoy optimal health.
The doctors
of The Back Pain & Sciatica Clinic specialize in finding the areas of nerve
pressure and the subluxations causing it. Using the Myovision helps
this process. The Infrared Thermography measures 400 skin temperature
points on each side of the spine to check for differences. When nerve
pressure occurs, it sets up a number of reflexes. One of these reflexes
is increased pooling of blood in the capillaries (small blood vessels)
of the skin. Since blood is very warm, this will result in warmer temperatures
in this area of skin compared to others. This process is much like if
you were to rub your arm in one area for a while, this stimulates blood
flow and makes the area warmer. The second reflex in thermography occurs
in virtually all joints of your body. When you have an injury, inflammation
(swelling) of the damaged joint occurs. As you have probably experienced,
this inflamed area is hotter than the surrounding skin surfaces. This
reflex occurs just the same in the joints of the spine. More heat is
created and thus there will be higher temperature readings by the Myovision.
You can find research validating this fact at the bottom of your Myovision
scan.
The next
portion of the Myovision study is the Surface Electromyography or sEMG
for short. What this test does is measure the amount of muscle activity
(or inactivity) going on within a particular group of muscles. If problems
are long standing, abnormal muscle fatigue will be displayed in the
graph. If problems are more recent, it will show up as abnormally strong,
or in spasm. Usually when a muscle has spasms it is to protect a weakened
joint and/or nerve. This is due to the laxity (stretching) that occurs
in the damaged ligaments that hold the spine in place. Ligaments are
somewhat elastic, much like a rubber band. If you have ever stretched
a rubber band too far you noticed that it either broke or lost its normal
ability to rebound back to the same level of tightness. In your body,
the brain notices this loss of elasticity and the instability to the
surrounding joints by creating muscle spasm to provide support and protection
to these injured and loose areas. These abnormal patterns in muscle
activity can give solid evidence that there may be nerve irritation.
Both chiropractors and medical doctors have performed a tremendous amount
of research to validate this fact.
Once the
scan is complete the computer deciphers the information and displays
it in a graphical format that is easy to understand for both the doctor
and the patient. Interpretation relies on combining the information
about both portions of the scan. Usually in most cases, an area of elevation
in thermography will have an elevation in sEMG as well. This sEMG elevation
is usually a few vertebral segments above or below the elevated thermographic
signal. The same is true for areas of abnormally low skin temperature
and muscle activity.
Abnormally
high skin temperature is usually seen with a blue or red bar on the
left portion of your scan labeled "thermography". Abnormally
low skin temperature, although a rare occurrence can exist and is reflected
in areas where there is no signal present on either side of the graph.
With muscle
activity, abnormally high levels are displayed with a red bar under
the "sEMG" portion of your scan and have a number above 7.
Abnormally low sEMG readings can occur and are shown on the graph with
a green bar below 3 (the normal contractile range is between 3-7). By
combining the information on both portions of the scan we can get a
pretty good idea about what is going on with your body. This allows
us to correctly outline a customized treatment plan just for you.
If you
have any questions about interpretation of your scan please contact
the office at the phone number below. If you are not currently a practice
member and would like to schedule an appointment with one of the doctors
for a complete chiropractic examination please call at 831-475-8600.
