Spine Care
Dr. Katerina Sheffield, the owner of Westlake Chiropractic, PLLC approaches spine care from a biomechanical viewpoint. Our bodies have been made to function optimally. Diagnosing structural problems accurately allows efficient and effective results whether you are experiencing symptoms and pain, or if you are optimizing performance or wellness.
Your Westlake Chiropractor, serving Austin, Bee Caves, Lakeway, Southwest Austin, and Central Texas.
A healthy, happy spine involves two primary concepts:
- global balancing
- spinal joints moving well as they were intended.
Global Balancing
Global balancing refers to how your body bears weight from side to side and front to back. Side to side imbalances might look like a high shoulder, or a ‘short leg’ on one side. Front to back imbalances might look like turtleneck, hunchback or forward head posture.
Accelerated Aging
When our body is off in either or both planes, then it wears out much quicker, much like accelerated aging. Dr. Sheffield will diagnose the cause of the imbalance, so it can be treated effectively. If someone has told you that you have a short leg, and automatically gave you heel lift without assessing your atlas, then you could be making the problem worse by not getting to the cause of the problem.
Upper Cervical Chiropractic and the Atlas
The atlas, or top bone of the spine is critical to the human spine being balanced. A true Upper Cervical approach uses gentle force to reposition the atlas much like an engineering approach. A happy healthy atlas is all about the position of that bone, rather than the joint moving well, like the rest of the spinal joints.
Happy Spinal Joints
A joint is defined as a part of the body where two or more bones meet to allow movement. The main 24 spinal joints are designed to have motion so that the discs that cushion the spinal bones (vertebra) remain happy as well as the nerve roots that pass through the holes found behind the spinal joint.
What makes your spine not happy?
Physical traumas such as falls, spills, accidents, rollercoaster rides, car wrecks, and sports injuries can cause misalignments and ultimately damage the discs and impinge the nerve roots. Over time, these physical traumas can cause spinal arthritis, degenerative disc disease and even hip and knee pain when it is from an atlas misalignment.
Dr. Sheffield’s Approach
Dr. Sheffield’s approach to spine care is to evaluate and diagnose the health of your spine. This way she knows which patients need imaging, which ones will respond to her chiropractic methods, and which patients need to go see a Medical Doctor like an ortho or neurosurgeon.
Her approach has helped thousands of patients decrease and eliminate pain, restore function and vitality, and return to the activities that make them happy. Your Austin, Westlake, Bee Caves, Lakeway and Southwest Austin Chiropractor.
If you would like an assessment of the health of your spine, schedule an appointment now.
LOCAL NEW PATIENTS: schedule online using “New Patient, Chiropractic: 1st & 2nd Visits” option here.
OUT OF TOWN PATIENTS: Schedule online, or feel free to call our office first so we can facilitate optimizing your travels here to get the most out of your visit.
To learn about her different techniques, click here:
