LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

arthritis

Shockwave Therapy in Mesa: Your Complete Guide to Pain-Free Living

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Pain shouldn’t be a normal part of your day — but for many people, it slowly becomes one. You adjust how you walk, sit, bend, or reach just to avoid that familiar ache. Maybe it’s your heel screaming at you every morning… or your shoulder protesting every time you try to grab something.

And honestly? You’re tired — not just physically, but mentally too.

If you’ve tried “every treatment” and nothing has delivered lasting relief, there’s something you should know:

Thousands of patients at LifeCare Chiropractic in Mesa are finally finding real, long-lasting relief with Shockwave Therapy.

This guide breaks everything down clearly so you understand what it is, how it works, who it helps, and what you can expect.

What Is Shockwave Therapy? (Explained Simply)

Shockwave therapy uses high-energy acoustic sound waves — not the kind you can hear — to stimulate deep healing inside your muscles, tendons, and ligaments.

In simple terms, it gives your body’s natural repair system a wake-up call.

Here’s what happens when those waves reach damaged tissue:

  •  Increased blood flow

  •  Reduced inflammation

  •  Formation of new blood vessels

  •  Breakdown of scar tissue

  •  Activation of cellular repair

This isn’t about masking pain.
This is about healing the root cause. That’s why results last.

Who Can Benefit From Shockwave Therapy?

Shockwave therapy is effective for a wide range of stubborn, long-term pain conditions — even when nothing else has worked.

Common conditions we treat at LifeCare Chiropractic:

1. Plantar Fasciitis

That sharp heel pain when you take your first steps in the morning?
Shockwave therapy has one of the best success rates for this condition.

2. Tennis Elbow & Golfer’s Elbow

Whether caused by sports, work, or daily activities — this stubborn elbow pain often responds quickly.

3. Shoulder Pain

Including:

  • Rotator cuff injuries

  • Frozen shoulder

  • Calcific tendonitis

  • Chronic shoulder inflammation

4. Achilles Tendon Pain

A common issue for runners, walkers, and anyone on their feet all day.

5. Knee Pain

Especially:

  • Patellar tendinitis (jumper’s knee)

  • Chronic soft-tissue irritation

6. Hip & Lower Back Pain

Shockwave works well when pain comes from soft tissue restrictions, trigger points, or muscle tightness.

If your pain hasn’t responded to standard treatments, shockwave therapy may be the missing piece.

What to Expect During Your Appointment

No surprises. No complicated medical talk.

Your First Visit

We’ll start with:

  • A detailed discussion about your pain

  • A full physical examination

  • A personalized recommendation

If shockwave therapy isn’t the best option for you, we’ll tell you — honestly.

During the Treatment

  • A gel is applied to the treatment area

  • A handheld device sends acoustic waves into the tissue

  • You’ll feel tapping or pulsing

  • Some areas may feel tender (this is normal and means we’re hitting the right spot)

Treatment time: 15–30 minutes
No needles. No anesthesia. No downtime.

After the Session

You can:

  • Drive yourself home

  • Return to work

  • Continue daily activities

We may recommend simple exercises, but there’s zero recovery period.

How Many Sessions Do You Need?

Most patients need 3–6 sessions, spaced one week apart.

Here’s what’s realistic:

  • Some people feel relief after the first treatment

  • Most see major improvement within a few weeks

  • Healing continues even after completing treatment

This isn’t pain management —
it’s tissue repair.

Why Choose LifeCare Chiropractic in Mesa?

Sure, we have advanced equipment and years of experience — but that’s not what makes the biggest difference.

Here’s what truly sets us apart:

We actually listen

We learn your story, your pain pattern, your lifestyle — not just your symptoms.

No cookie-cutter treatment plans

Your body and your pain are unique. Your care should be too.

Experience you can trust

We’ve treated hundreds of patients using shockwave therapy and understand what works best for each condition.

Whole-body approach

Pain rarely happens in isolation.
We assess movement, posture, work habits, and old injuries to create a long-term solution — not a temporary fix.

Realistic Results: What You Can Expect

Shockwave therapy is backed by clinical research and real-world results.

Most patients report:

  • Pain dropping from an 8/10 to a 2/10

  • Increased mobility

  • Ability to return to activities they had given up

  • Better sleep due to reduced pain

Side effects are minimal — maybe mild redness or soreness for a day.
Compared to surgery or long-term medications, it’s an incredibly low-risk solution.

FAQs: Shockwave Therapy in Mesa (LifeCare Chiropractic)

Is shockwave therapy painful?

Most people find it very tolerable. You’ll feel pulsing or tapping, and some areas may be tender — but it’s manageable.

How quickly will I see results?

Some feel relief after one session. Most notice major improvement within 3–6 sessions.

Are there side effects?

Mild soreness or redness for a day or two. No downtime.

Is it safe?

Yes — Shockwave therapy is FDA-cleared and widely used for chronic pain conditions.

Can shockwave therapy replace surgery?

For many conditions like plantar fasciitis or tendon pain — yes, it can prevent or delay the need for surgery.

Will the results last?

Yes. Since it stimulates healing, improvements are long-term.

Ready to Live Pain-Free Again?

If you’re tired of adjusting your life around pain — it’s time for a solution that actually targets the root cause.

LifeCare Chiropractic in Mesa is here to help.

📞 Call today to schedule your consultation
👉 Get answers, get clarity, and find out whether shockwave therapy is right for you.

You don’t have to live with pain.
Let’s get you back to feeling like yourself again.

Natural Treatments for Arthritis Go Head to Head with Dangerous Drugs

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Natural Treatments for arthritis
Natural Treatments for arthritis

There are lots of claims about natural treatments for arthritis, but which ones work?

Without any good answers, all too many of us drop back on drugs for arthritis pain.  The list can include drugs like steroids and NSAIDs.  These drugs come with a list of side effects that you would not want to experience (if you’re really up to learning all about why NSAIDs are so bad for your health, feel free to check out my eBook on the topic by clicking here).

A few years back, the drug companies were able to come up with a new version of the most common class of anti-inflammatories, the cyclo-oxygenase inhibitors.  This NSAID class includes drugs like ibuprofen, and indomethacin.  The problem with this class of drugs is that one of the enzymes they block just so happens to protect the lining of the stomach.  This is why the big risk with these drugs is bleeding ulcers and why some 20,000 people per year die as a result of taking these drugs.

Because of this tiny little side effect, researchers developed a class of drugs that do not block the one version of the enzyme that protects the stomach lining.  Thus was born the selective cyclo-oxygenase inhibitors that rose to the top of the drug food chain to become one of the most financially successful blockbuster drugs of its time.

At least, until it was determined that, while this drug was a wee bit safer on the stomach,  unfortunately this drug DID block one enzyme that protected the heart, leading to some 100,000+ heart attacks and who knows how many deaths from Vioxx alone.  To make matters worse, Merck hid this data for years until it blew up in their face, resulting in hundreds of lawsuits from families that lost their loved ones.

Luckily (for the drug companies) the public has a short memory and Celebrex is still available on the market and prescriptions are still being written today for patients with arthritis pain who probably forgot about the entire Vioxx debacle.

So, if you happen to be one of those patients whose primary care doctor also has a short memory and wrote you a prescription for Celebrex, there may be an answer.

This particular article pits the natural combination of glucosamine and chondroitin up against Celebrex in 606 patients with knee arthritis and severe pain (Kellgren and Lawrence grades 2–3 knee osteoarthritis and moderate-to-severe pain based on the Western Ontario and McMaster osteoarthritis index-WOMAC-score ≥301 an a 0–500 scale).

Patients received either 400 mg chondroitin sulfate, 500 mg glucosamine combination three times a day or 200 mg celecoxib (Celebrex) every day for 6 months.  Here’s what they found:

  • The natural arthritis treatment group dropped 50.1% (WOMAC score).
  • The drug-known-to-kill group had a matched 50.2% decrease.
  • At 6 months, 79.7% of patients in the natural arthritis treatment group and 79.2% in the toxic arthritis drug (Celebrex, in case you’re not following along) group fulfilled OMERACT-OARSI criteria.
  • Both groups had more than a 50% reduction in joint swelling and effusion.

Sounds like a pretty even match, right?  Yeah–except that neither glucosamine nor chondroitin, in the history of its use, has been associated with even a single death (that I’m aware of–I’m sure there’s a patient or two who choked to death taking the supplements…), while Celebrex is in a class of drugs that is so bad for the heart that cardiology recommendations now state that NO heart disease patients should be on NSAIDs.

Oh..and it’s WAY cheaper.  So which one are YOU taking?

How to Prevent Osteoarthritis After Injury

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knee osteoarthritis symptoms
Knee arthritis and steroid injections

The more astute of us are rightfully concerned with developing arthritis as we age. Luckily, this is not a foregone conclusion.

Most people incorrectly think that injury to a joint is the only major factor that leads to the later development of arthritis in that joint. While any injury to a joint is an important player, there are other factors at play.

(I also have patients who state that his or her left knee pain is just from old age.  At this point I ask how much older it is than the other knee…)

For arthritis of the spine related to disc degeneration, we have known for a long time that a lifestyle that is pro-heart disease will also increase your risk for disc degeneration and spinal arthritis. The reason for this is simple—discs do not have their own blood supply. Instead, they are fed indirectly by small blood vessels. If these small blood vessels become filled with plaque, they can no longer deliver needed nutrients to the discs. With normal use, these discs will break down because they can’t meet the demands of daily life.

The surfaces of your joints are not too much different. Poor blood vessel health will lower the ability of your joint surfaces to get the nutrients they need to respond to day to day demands.

This means that a lifestyle that is designed to protect your heart will also protect your joints. Pretty cool. NOT killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.

This particular study may give us even more insight into how we can protect our joints. In it, researchers looked at the ability of different types of fats (specifically saturated fats, omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids) to protect against damage to the medial meniscus of the knees of mice.

They found that saturated fats and omega 6 fatty acids did not protect against the later development of osteoarthritis and even increased the amount of arthritis that resulted, they increased extra bone formation around the joint (a hallmark of osteoarthritis) and increased scar formation.

Let me put this more plainly: The dietary choices you make WILL absolutely increase the damage to your joints that occurs with an injury, leading to more osteoarthritis in your joints years later.

Luckily, the omega 3 fatty acids were a different story.

The omega 3 fatty acids were able to enhance wound repair as well as lower the risk of later development of arthritis. Pretty cool that diet can play this powerful of a role.

In case you need a refresher on which fats to avoid, here’s some help:

  • The main source of saturated fats include fats contained in our society’s poorly raised livestock.
  • Omega 6 fatty acids are found in certain oils like corn, sunflower, soybean and peanut oils.
  • Omega 3 fatty acids are found in nuts, seeds (such as flax), wild caught fish and game, certain grains (salba, quinoa as examples) and grass fed beef.

Just by making smart dietary choices combined with maintaining an ideal body weight and staying active you can go a long way towards protecting your joints for years to come.

Is would also seem that, just in case all the other things that they are good for has not been enough, fish oils supplements would play a role in preventing osteoarthritis, especially after injury.

Osteoarthritis is NOT something that has to happen to your joints. Think about that the next time you reach for that bag of chips…

 

Time a New Hip? News Your Ortho Doesn’t Want you to Know

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hip replacement and exercise
philhol/DollarPhotoClub

Arthritis in any joint is a bad thing and sucks your quality of life. At a time when should be enjoying life more, you find you can’t move because of hip pain.

When you were younger, nothing slowed you down but now, even a short trip to the mall sucks.  And forget exercise—it’s way too painful.

I see this scenario all too often in my practice.  And certainly not just the hip, but also the knee and spine.  Arthritis in any of these areas can be painful enough to put a dent in your quality of life.

The best way to deal with arthritis is to prevent it in the first place by staying active, maintaining an ideal body weight and living an anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory lifestyle.  All of these things will go a long way towards keeping arthritis at bay for a lifetime.

If you read my recent blog post on the links between arthritis and heart disease (which can be read by clicking here), then you already know that joints need motion to get nutrition in and waste products out.  And this applies to a perfectly healthy joint or a joint riddled with arthritis.  Movement is key.

That is one of the reasons why we are able to help most of the arthritis sufferers that come into our office.  The combination of advanced soft tissue techniques (like Graston, ART, NMR and Fascial Manipulation) with stretching and chiropractic adjusting goes a long way towards keeping joints moving and lubricated.

However, if the patient that comes into our office decides to leave our office and sit his or her butt back on the couch, the outcome is not going to be nearly as good.  As I mentioned, exercise is a key component to the management of arthritis, both treatment and prevention.

For clarification, I am not talking about “exercises” that you would get from a therapist or from an orthopedic surgeon.  I have always explained to patients that, when combined with treatment in our office, life is rehab enough.  Hiking, yoga, tai-chi, tennis, racquetball—these are the types of activities that will keep your joints lubricated and moving.  Not spending 20 minutes every morning doing hip-specific stretching and exercises.

But just how powerful can exercise be if you already have arthritis of the hip?  Even worse, if you have been told your only answer is a hip replacement?

For that answer, I bring you this particular study.  In it, researchers asked just this same question in a group of 109 patients who had painful arthritis of the hip confirmed by X-ray.  They were given either exercise therapy and patient education or patient education only and followed for 6 years to seen what effect the exercises had on saving the hip and preventing the hip replacement.

The results may surprise you:

  • 22 patients (59%) in the combo group ended up having a hip replacement while 31 (75%) patients in the education-only group had a total hip replacement.
  • To put this another way, 41% in the combo group save their hips, but only 25% in the exercise-alone group avoided the hip replacement.
  • Overall, this meant that those who did the exercises had a 44% lower risk of having the hip replaced.
  • Even better, in those that did end up with a hip replacement, the exercise group delayed the surgery for 5.4 years while the education-alone group had the replacement done at 3.5 years, almost a full 2 years earlier.

This is not too shabby for a treatment that has no cost, no side effects and is going to have lots of additional benefits.

Contrast this with the use of anti-inflammatories to control the pain of hip arthritis.  NSAIDs will destroy your intestinal tract, destroy your brain, give you a heart attack or stroke and, paradoxically, lead to the destruction of the joint that you are trying to protect.

Quite a difference.

 

Have Arthritis? Then You’re Likely at Risk for This Disease

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arthritis and heart disease
7activestudio/Dollar Photo Club

As a chiropractor, I deal with patients who have arthritis pretty much every day.  Some want answers, some want reasons.  In most cases, we can provide both of these.

Many seem to think that past trauma is a factor in developing arthritis.  While this is definitely the case, it’s not the cause of most patients’ arthritis.  Rather, the bigger cause of arthritis is something that most of us are not aware of but way too many of us in society today are at a high risk for.

But first, a quick overview on the structure of your joints.  The surface of all your joints are covered with cartilage that acts as a type of shock absorber to cushion the impact of bone and bone when you move.  Cartilage is made up of about 5% chondrocytes (these are the cells that make cartilage), 65-85% water, 15-25% Type II collagen and 2-10% proteoglycans (sugar-protein molecules that bind with water to form a shock-absorbing gel). Since the cartilage-making chondrocytes are sitting inside this cartilage-gel layer, it does not have its own blood supply and needs to get nutrition in and waste products out by diffusion.  I describe the situation as a sponge sitting in a puddle.  You can stare at it all day long and it’s not going to do any tricks.  It’s not until you start stepping on and off of the sponge that you get fluid exchange into the sponge.

This is exactly why exercise is so good for your joints–it keeps the fluid pumping so the chondrocytes have new nutrients to work with.  So long as you give your joints good nutrition and combine it with exercise the cartilage in your joints can turn over, although this is a very slow process.  On the flip side, give your joints poor nutrition and clog up the arteries that deliver blood flow near the cartilage and it can and will break down faster.

With this understanding of how you can damage your joints, can you think of what other chronic diseases may develop with poor nutrition and a sedentary lifestyle?  While the list is quite long, heart disease is way up at the top.  Which brings us to this particular study.

In it, researchers looked at the relationship between osteoarthritis of the hand (which included arthritis in more than a single joint in the hand) and heart disease.  Specifically, they looked at 1348 patients with an average age of 62 and asked about painful and stiff joints of the hand backed up by osteoarthritis on X-ray as well arthritis of the hand but with no pain.  These patients were then evaluated for their risk of dying as well as vascular events (coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure and/or ischemic stroke).  Here’s what they found:

  • There was no link between death and arthritis of the hand.
  • There was no link between arthritis on X-ray (without pain) and heart disease.
  • However, in those who had painful arthritis had a 226% higher risk of having heart disease (as measured by a heart attack or coronary insufficiency syndrome).

These numbers are not anything to downplay.  Why there was an association only with painful arthritis of the hand may have to do with the amount of inflammation present, but for now the researchers were not able to pinpoint the reason.

It is far more likely that the lifestyle that leads to heart disease is also a lifestyle that will destroy the cartilage of your joints than the reverse.  Because of this, if you are worried about developing arthritis in your future, rather than focusing on your joints, you should start with protecting your heart.

 

Childhood Health Problems Associated With Disease in Adulthood – (09-21-00)

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Childhood Health Problems Associated With Disease in Adulthood

This article stresses the importance of keeping our kids healthy. The lifestyles and diets of children today are horrendous and we really need to start setting good examples as adults and parents so that the children can enjoy health all their lives.

Major childhood health problems appear to increase the risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cancer, and arthritis in adulthood, Dr. Mark D. Hayward reported Sunday at the American Sociological Association meeting in Washington, DC. “The odds of having chronic lung problems are over four times greater for those reporting infectious diseases as a child [compared with] people who were healthy as a child,” Dr. Hayward told Reuters Health. Childhood infectious diseases such as scarlet fever, pneumonia, measles, and tuberculosis are strongly associated with the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in adulthood, he added. In adults who reported childhood noninfectious conditions, such as anemia, scoliosis, or heart murmurs, the researchers found a higher incidence of cancer, arthritis or rheumatism. “The risk of developing all major fatal conditions — except diabetes — as an older adult are elevated if you have had a major childhood health problem,” Dr. Hayward said. He added that this risk remains even when factors such as education and income are considered.

Frequency of triggering bacteria in patients with reactive arthritis – (04-09-01)

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Frequency of triggering bacteria in patients with reactive arthritis

The well known fact that certain organisms infecting the GI tract can cause systemic arthritic symptoms becomes lost on most clinicians when they consider such conditions as fibromyalgia and many of the autoimmune disorders causing joint pain. In talking with a gastroenterologist and a rheumatologist that I know, they would never entertain the idea that the GI tract could be a source of joint pain unless the “well know” organisms are present. Maybe that’s why we’re missing the boat on chronic pain in civilized health systems…

Ann Rheum Dis — Abstracts: Fendler et al. 60 (4): 337

Read entire article here

T lymphopaenia in relation to BMI and TNF-a in human obesity – (04-09-01)

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T lymphopaenia in relation to BMI and TNF-a in human obesity

This is a nice article suggesting one way to lower TNF-alpha levels via weight loss. With the new class of drugs used for rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease that block TNF-alpha action this is a refreshing article showing natural, healthy ways to have the same effect.

Synergy : Clinical Endocrinology 54 (3), 347-354

Read entire article here