Everyone’s plan is different. Don’t know the details? We will look them up for you to better understand your coverage.
Cash patients are allowed the appropriate time of service discount with respect to the law.
What is a copay?
Copay is the amount you owe at the time of the service. This is a standardized amount relative to your plan and it usually ranges from 10-50 dollars.
What is co-insurance?
Once you have met your deductible, the co-insurance is a certain percentage of the total cost that you still owe. This typically ranges from 10-20 percent. Some plans do not have a co-insurance at all.
Have I met my deductible?
If you have received health care services at other locations, it is likely to have reduced you total yearly deductible. This amount fluctuates depending on your particular health plan.
What do I owe with Medicare?
These plans strictly cover the an adjustment (spinal manipulation) service. Depending on your condition, this is not always adequate to improve your condition. Therefore, Medicare plans may be subject to an additional cost for uncovered services. Our patients are happy to cover this additional because of our commitment to providing them the time and services they need to feel better.
Why the Cross-Up Method saves money
We aim to get patients better in the shortest amount of time possible. This investment into your health reflects the time and value of services rendered. At Cross-Up Chiropractic clinic, we spend more time in each visit to give you the tools to heal as quickly as possible. This contrasts the long terms, high frequency plans at other offices that are cumulatively more time and money.
“Once I get moving it seems to be okay, but when I first go to get up the pain is awful.” This is an immediate flag for me when investigating the cause of a patient’s low back pain. You don’t feel great when standing or sitting, but its much easier to maneuver around compared to shifting in bed or rising in the morning.
When I continue to examine these types of cases, what else do we find? Nearly full range of motion, pulling sensation through the central low back when bending forward, very few or no tender to touch spots through the muscles over the painful area.
There is variability, but they all have one thing in common: lack of effect from hands-on therapy. Active Release Technique already gives Cross-Up a massive advantage in treating patients, and quite frankly, it’s applicable for the majority of cases where the issue is caused by excessive tightness or muscle spasm. When I perform just a few protocols of active release on a patient with the titles complaint, though, it does absolutely nothing. Why? Because your condition is not one of tension, but rather one of excessive motion and shearing of the spine; aka Spinal Instability.
What is spinal instability?
Spinal instability results from cumulative trauma – so it’s not usually a single event that instigates your pain. I frequently see this in golfers, but it also occurs in other athletes or professions that require frequent rotation (ie. tennis, baseball, yoga fanatics). As hinted at before, an unstable spine is often intolerant to flexion; therefore, bending forward or any compressive activity (sitting or overhead weights) can slow recovery.
Let’s take this a step further..
True spinal stability, as described by Dr. Stuart McGill, is achieved through a balanced stiffening from the entire core musculature. Prior to movement, the core muscles need to work in unison to control spinal movement in each of the 3 planes of motion: flexion-extension, rotation, & side bending. During these activities, all of the segments of the spine must move together to disperse the load. Well, when core activity is absent, the spinal vertebra begin to slide in ever so slight but abnormal ways. With repetition, and at a certain threshold, this leads to disruption of disc fibers and a pain response to notify you of the damage.
Recognize the different abdominal layers that have specific directional ability.
So you just need to get stronger, right? Not so fast.
Movement requires strength, but it must be linked with control and endurance to ensure efficiency. In cases involving the low back, when upper and low body movements are not accompanied by a core control and endurance, the spine is the only area left to absorb the load. The core muscles act a brace around the spine to transmit forces between the upper and lower half and reduce any compressive stresses placed on the spine. You can imagine that with a swing or throw, you must generate power from the legs and channel that through the core and up to the arms; otherwise, the spine, hip, or shoulder take on a lot more torque than necessary.
How Do We Treat Spinal Instability?
First off, we need to find out which movements you can tolerate. On that first day of rehab, I like to move along a progression. Begin on the feet, then to the knees, and finally lying down. I usually perform 2 exercises to fatigue at each position, and every single person (to their surprise) can get off the floor at the end with significantly less pain and struggle than anticipated.
Best Exercises for Lower Back Pain:
With the exercises, we are activating each of the 3 different planes of motion that the core muscles work to support. At the beginning, it’s especially beneficial to address the gluteal muscles as well. By re-integrating the glutes, we can unload the back by calming activity of the hamstrings and spine extension muscles that often compensate for limited core functioning.
At Cross-Up Chiropractic clinic, we believe in giving you the tools to succeed at home; therefore, we recommend a few sessions to track your progress and build upon the exercise regimen. This ensures that you are performing the program safely and comfortably, then it’s up to you to keep it going at home. After a couple weeks of performing them on your own, and once you have at least a week to two without any discomfort, then you will be ready to go back to task specific exercise or lifting programs. The beauty of it all is that you can apply all the new principles of core integration to any other activity, job, or sport.
If this sounds like you, and you would like to set up an appointment, click below or call us at 847-984-2702.
Autoimmunity has become a popular diagnosis in the past few years, but most doctors still don’t quite understand what it means. Autoimmunity is not just a single “disease” and shouldn’t be used as a blanket diagnosis when we can’t narrow down anything else. In fact, autoimmunity is a necessary and benign process that we need to clean up damaged and aging cells in the body. It is estimated that we generate a whole new body’s worth of cells every 7 years with the help of autoimmune activity.
Evidently, problems begin to occur when the immune cycle becomes chronically overactive in the context of uncontrolled inflammation. We now refer to autoimmunity as a spectrum because the process can be present for many years before the development of symptoms or full blown disease.
Brief review of the immune process
When faced with a toxin, our immune system fires up two main lines of defense: cytokines (first responders with pistols) and antibodies (military with heavy artillery). When the toxic exposure is too big for the first responders, our body sends in the military. The military antibodies may get rid of the invading toxin, but they create a bit of collateral damage in the process. At which point our body produces autoantibodies (secret spies) that are very specific and go to clean up the left over debris (damaged organ tissues).
So where does autoimmune disease come into the picture?
It comes in when infectious agents, bacteria, or foods confuse the bodies immune system because they are structurally similar to human tissue. In other words, the antibodies we create to protect us from toxins can easily mistake and destroy parts of our body that look similar to the toxins. This is referred to as molecular mimicry.
FOOD CAN BE OUR WORST ENEMY OR OUR BEST MEDICINE
For example, Gluten from wheat, rye, or barley can not be broken down sufficiently by our bodies because we simply don’t possess the enzymes to digest it. This causes the body to create antibodies to attack the undigested gluten molecule that we perceive as a ‘foreign invader.’ Unfortunately this foreign invader resembles a protein structure around the brain, so our antibodies begin to attack the brain as well!
This is just one example, but it can occur with many other foods. The most common reactive groups are gluten, dairy, and sugar, but something else may be affecting you based on your genetics. Genes don’t determine that you’ll get a disease, but they determine where the weak links (susceptibility) exist in your body; therefore, one person’s exposure to a toxin may present completely different than another’s exposure to the same toxin.
OUR BODIES HAVE A THRESHOLD FOR HANDLING CERTAIN ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURES
Whether it be food, molds, pesticides, preservatives, or additives that are triggering your body’s immune system to attack itself (autoimmunity), we must recognize that the process will continue and perpetuate itself unless we eliminate the offending toxin (antigen).
When antibodies are created to attack a foreign invader, they are present in your system for between 3-5 months. That means that they can also be attacking your own body tissues throughout that time. If you have an undiagnosed food sensitivity and you continue to consume that food, then inflammation will accumulate even more. The same goes for sensitivities to environmental agents.
If this happens, then why is it so hard to diagnose autoimmunity before it becomes a disease?
Our bodies are incredibly resilient. Harmful antibodies are often circulating for years before we even develop symptoms, and it isn’t until peak inflammation and organ damage that we recognize it as disease; therefore, it is critical that we begin to pay attention to the seemingly minor symptoms that are warning our body about dysfunction.
EXPOSURE TO UNHEALTHY ANTIGENS MAY PRESENT AS BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO THE FOLLOWING SYMPTOMS
Fatigue
Difficulty concentrating – Memory lapses
Achiness – Muscle twitches
Rashes – Skin infections – Acne
Bloating – Constipation – Diarrhea
Chronic colds
Weight gain
Depression – Anxiety – ADHD
Insomnia
These symptoms may be common, but they are not normal.
Don’t dismiss chronic symptoms. Begin to recognize links between what you put into your body and how it makes you feel.
ACTION STEPS
Cut out the most common autoimmune causing antigens: gluten, dairy, & sugar.
Begin to rebuild the intestinal barrier with natural nutrient dense foods. This will strengthen your defense by preventing undigested food particles from entering the blood circulation.
Consult your doctor about the possibility of other food & environmental sensitivities.
To combat the inflammation produced by antigenic foods, there are a variety of anti-inflammatory foods that help support the body instead of break it down. The right food is ultimately our best medicine against autoimmunity.
At Cross-Up Chiropractic clinic, we offer Alletess Allergy, Autoimmune, & Gastrointestinal Sensitivity testing to specifically indicate the wide range of foods, bugs, or environmental antigens that may be pushing you along the autoimmune spectrum.
If you or someone you know is suffering from unexplained symptoms and is interesting in learning more about autoimmunity and ways to combat it, then please have them contact us at Cross-Up Chiropractic.
The modern family needs modern health care solutions, so Cross-Up Chiro created a Family Chiropractor center that helps them heal faster and feel ready for whatever life throws their way.
The Complete Family Chiropractic Experience
We are The Complete Chiropractic Experience that incorporates muscular release therapies and rehab with adjustments to enhance performance and fast track your recovery. At Family Chiropractor Cross-Up, we address your joints but also all the muscles, ligaments, vessels, and nerves around them because your pain isn’t an isolated process.
Comprehensive Care at Our Family Chiropractor Center
This is a one stop shop for care. Spine pain is common, but it is worth considering the arms and legs that transfer tension to it. Our combination of methods brings a new level of sophistication to Chiropractic that emphasizes pain free movement, stability, and endurance.
Customized Family Chiropractic Care for Your Unique Needs
It is important to give you options when it comes to preserving or transforming your health. You are unique and all the events in your life, leading up to today, have tuned your body for a very specific lifestyle.
Family Chiropractic Care for Long-Term Health Management
Sometimes we are so focused on the finish line that we forget how to manage our health in the meantime. For that reason, Cross-Up Chiropractic is here to give you and your children relief and solutions that your body needs to succeed.
Comprehensive Services at Your Family Chiropractor
Our services include physical pain management, lifestyle & nutritional counseling, exercise programming, comprehensive health assessments and home care plans. A true performance and Family Chiropractic clinic.
People are increasingly asking How Can a Chiropractor Help You? The answer may surprise you: In many more ways than you may think! That’s why Cross-up Chiro shares the possibilities with you.
The development of the Chiropractic profession has come such a long way of the past 10 years. We have seen this massive expansion of practice scope essentially meaning there are more ways we are “allowed” to help people. The Chiropractic and many other Health Care Professions are full of brilliant minds who continue to push the overton window with regards to giving patients’ all they need to live a healthy and enjoyable life.
Cross-Up Chiropractors embody exactly what so many hard working Doctors wished we would as they paved the way forward with new research, better tools, and a holistic mindset.
That is why we strive to be, for the most part, a one stop shop for family care and sports medicine. This form of Chiropractic provides more time for patient interaction and treatment that ultimately leads to quicker results too.
For many years Chiropractic has been seen as the spine people, and although the adjustment (spinal manipulation therapy) is still a tenant of our practice, we are experts in anatomy and physiology and the treatment of muscular, ligamentous, nerve, vessel, and lymphatic conditions. Quite frankly, these systems are almost always co-involved in the case of injury.
Chiropractic methods
HERE, our method can be simply said with the following:
First, by releasing tension and promoting circulation through muscular therapies, we eliminate the barriers of movement and ensure full range of motion.
It is then through specific rehab that we balance supporting muscles to counter poor posture.
Finally, we challenge the original area of complaint with previously painful activities to guarantee an improvement that will get you back to doing what you want, need, love, or desireto do without hesitation.
What kinds of tools do we use in this process:
Active Release Therapy
Acupuncture
Adjustments
Cupping
Exercise/Biomechanics Training
Gua Sha
Fascial Flossing
Compression and Vibratory Therapy
The answer to the question: How Can a Chiropractor Help You? is now much clearer. Let us help you get to the next level of your health. The road to feeling strong and resilient isn’t quick, but I bet it’s a heck of a lot faster with us at your side.
To set up your session with either of our Chiropractic Physicians, check out the link below.
This is a frequent flyer at our office. Patients come in with a reasonable fear that an operation for their shoulder pain is imminent. News Flash! It’s not.
I hear rotator cuff tear thrown around quite a bit, as if it’s a looming structure that just fails one day. In actuality, it’s a combination of muscles that must cooperate to effectively create a “force couple” or balancing act on the shoulder joint.
Why is Shoulder Injury Becoming More Common?
Our long days of physical and desk work are often comprised of arm movements that all occur directly in front of us.
Picture this: as you fatigue throughout the day, what usually happens? Your back and neck slouch, your shoulders roll down and in, and you begin to develop the physique of a crouching gorilla. Simply said, all of our activity is dominated by muscles that pull the body down and inward.
As a result, certain muscles are more frequently engaged than others and structures of the shoulder begin to over-crowd the limited space for movement and passage of important tendons, vessels, and nerves. Shoulder pain starts to come.
Raising and pulling tend to amplify this by narrowing that space even more. Try this: use your left hand to feel your collarbone (clavicle) of the right shoulder. With your fingers, follow the collarbone all the way over to where it attaches right above your arm. Along the way you may notice a groove in the collarbone, that’s normal. From here, slide your fingers down about one inch, where you’ll feel the bony bump on the arm (humerus). Okay, great work. Keeping your fingers in that location, raise your hand all the way up. You’ll notice how that bone starts to move back towards the collarbone.
Additionally, when you pull the arm back like starting a lawn mower, you’ll notice how the arm rolls forward and down. Both of these mechanisms are closing down on the area where tendons of the rotator cuff and deep shoulder must glide past one another.
This brings us to shoulder impingement, or the trapping of structures under bony surfaces around the joint. In cases of overuse or chronically poor posture, the repeated narrowing of that space creates fraying of the tendons, pinching of the lubricating fluid sacs, and subsequent inflammation that triggers pain.
Common Associated Symptoms with Impingement
Neck tightness
Numbness/tingling into the arm
Arm tenderness and soreness
Mid-back soreness
Weakness
Additional Thoughts
Your posture, range of motion, and aggravating movements will provide far more detail than any orthopedic test ever could. Even MR imaging can be misleading because you might see some abnormality, but this doesn’t necessarily point to the source of pain or the reason it developed in the first place. Also, partial tears are present is a large portion of the population over 40 years old, and don’t always present with pain.
With that said, we have successfully treated various cases where a tear is present; though, I have recommended surgical repair to the occasional patient that presents with a complete rupture. How would I know that? Well, those people usually have ruptures as a result of significant trauma and they likely received imaging prior to our consult. Otherwise like every other treatment at chiropractic clinic Cross-Up, you will feel significant results in just 2 visits. Although very rare at our practice, if a patient doesn’t respond well to care in that time then we know that a deeper issue must be explored. At which point, an appropriate referral is made.
Cross-Up Treatment Strategy
Number 1 question: What are the greatest range deficits? As stated in the title, it’s likely that overhead reaching and pulling will be painful and incomplete movements; therefore, we need to understand which structures can be manipulated to improve motion.
I start with the scapula aka shoulder blade. It is supposed to rotate and glide atop of the rib cage, and it is this movement that opens up the shoulder joint at the upper ranges of reaching. With impingement, we know that to some degree the scapula is elevated and stuck in inward rotation; therefore, we release tension in the muscles that are holding that abnormal position. This often includes the pectoralis minor, subscapularis, teres major, latissimus dorsi, posterior joint capsule, etc. I’ll only name a few of the common muscles involved because no patient is identical to the next.
After active release of invovled structures, patients will already see a large jump in their freedom of motion. We are then allowed to fine tune and release any additional muscles or ligaments that contribute to pain in a smaller but still noticeable way.
As patients hear me say often, range and mobility improvements must then be stabilized to prevent reversal. Any time some muscles are tight and short, we will find antagonists that are weak. At Cross-Up Chiropractic, we guide your shoulder rehabilitation to effectively balance the tension around the joint. The exercises we use aren’t a secret, either. We love to provide you with the right combination that you can perform at home, not just here. My goal is not only to get you out of pain, but provide you with the blueprint to maintain the progress.
If you or someone you know is struggling with this type of condition, please feel free to call us or simply schedule an appointment online through the link below.
I’d like to share with you some wisdom I have learned from the great Stoic Philosopher, Marcus Aurelius. His “Meditations,” as they were posthumously named, can be very helpful at teaching how to control your perception & mental management in a way that will benefit your health, relationships, character, and pursuits.
Mental Management Through Perception Control
“The impediment to action advances action.” Whatever stands in the way becomes the way. This persuades rationality when contemplating perceived barriers. We cannot view roadblocks as the end of a path because it is often these roadblocks that fuel the passion and creativity to advance.
In the sense of pain, the answer is not to halt all activity and wait until it ceases. The solution comes from the process itself. Determining what caused it in the first place, making necessary changes to prevent further deterioration, and taking steps to physically improve and guarantee it doesn’t happen again. This is why we are constantly testing and retesting the effects of treatment during a session. This allows us to narrow down the most accurate diagnosis and beneficial therapies.
Mental Management of External Events and Emotions
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” A major theme in the book is that we have the ability to control our own perceptions regardless of the situation. When something happens against our expectations, we can either complain and stir up disappointment, or we can turn our thoughts to more productive means. Which is called mental management. He emphasizes our risk of losing the present due to preoccupation and dwelling on the future or past.
Just applying this in my own life, I have benefited tremendously. I no longer find my self getting angry, envious, or disheartened because I know that reactive emotions serve no purpose. We must control the impulse to immediately assign value judgments. When we consider events as natural rather than good or bad, we no longer fall back on the inclination to start an emotional fire.
Mental Management of Harm and Resilience
“Choose not to be harmed — and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed — and you haven’t been.” He teaches that in any scenario we must judge the situation objectively, willing accept the outcome, and unselfishly act moving forward. I really like the last part because I have too often seen anger used as a therapeutic tool without any regard for the collateral damage it causes.
Can you remember the last time you lashed out in a moment of frustration? Did berating the other party or breaking another item resolve it? That brief rush of power never rectifies the situation and may even dig at your integrity. “Does what’s happened keep you from acting with justice, generosity, self-control, sanity, prudence, honesty, humility, straightforwardness, and all the other qualities that allow a person’s nature to fulfill itself?”
Mental Management of Pain and Endurance
“FOR TIMES WHEN YOU FEEL PAIN: SEE THAT IT DOESN’T DEGRACE YOU, OR DEGRADE YOUR INTELLIGENCE-DOESN’T KEEP YOU FROM ACTING RATIONALLY OR UNSELFISHLY”
And with that said, he also points out that to endure pain and prevail will deliver far better fortune than the path of surrendering to the pain. This discipline of character pays dividends for your own mind and in the perspective of those around you. Another great Stoic, Epicurus, noted that ‘pain is neither unbearable nor unending, as long as you keep in mind its limits and don’t magnify them in your imagination.
Conclusion
These are just a few bits of wisdom from the mind of a great philosopher. I can’t stress enough how beneficial this mindset and mental management can be when applied to all aspects of life. Harden your mind and soften your soul is my take away from most of it. We can achieve harmony by accepting God’s will and being disciplined in our perceptions and actions.
To explore more about how mental management and holistic care can enhance your well-being, I encourage you to visit our chiropractic clinic and schedule a consultation with our experts at Cross-Up Chiropractic.
