HEADACHES

Headaches can be more complicated than most people realize. Different kinds can have their own set of symptoms, happen for unique reasons, and need different kinds of treatment.

MTHFR is a genetic mutation that can change the way some people metabolize and convert important nutrients from their diets into active vitamins, minerals and proteins. If you cannot convert your vitamins, most importantly B12 and folate, into their active forms, you cannot absorb or utilize them. These are necessities in our body for red blood cell formation, making DNA, and normal functioning of our brain and nervous system.

MTHFR mutations affect every person differently, sometimes contributing to hardly any noticeable symptoms at all, while other times leading to serious, long-term health problems.

It's believed that up to 50 percent of all people might carry a mutation in the MTHFR gene, which is inherited and passed down from parent to child.

Researchers realized that people with this type of inherited mutation tended to develop certain diseases, including ADHD, Alzheimer's, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular diseases, reproductive disorders, depression and anxiety disorders, gut dysfunction, autoimmune disorders and autism, more often than those without the mutation.

To date, there have been dozens of different health conditions tied to MTHFR mutations, although just because someone inherits this mutation doesn't mean that person will wind up experiencing any problems.

Treatments for Symptoms:

1. Consume More Natural Folate, Vitamin B6 and Vitamin B12 - also taking proper quality supplementation
2. Avoid Folic Acid and Cyanocobalamin: These are the synthetic versions of our folate and B12, which our bodies cannot use well if we have an MTHFR mutation. These have also been shown to worsen symptoms associated with the mutations.
3. Treat Digestive Problems, Including Leaky Gut and IBS: Digestive complaints are common among people with MTHFR A mutations.
4. Reduce Anxiety and Depression: Because of how it can negatively affect levels of neurotransmitters and hormones like serotonin, testosterone and estrogen, MTHFR mutations are tied to higher incidences of mental disorders, including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and chronic fatigue. High levels of stress can also make MTHFR mutation symptoms even worse.
5. Protect Heart Health: Studies show that homocysteine (an amino acid) levels tend to rise with age, smoking and use of certain drugs, so the first step is to focus on taking care of yourself as you get older and limiting use of harmful substances. Homocysteine can also rise with a deficiency in B12 and Folate, which is common in MTHFR when you cannot utilize what you're taking in.

Shoulder pain may arise from the shoulder joint itself or from any of the many surrounding muscles, ligaments or tendons. Shoulder pain that comes from the joint usually worsens with activities or movement of your arm or shoulder.

Shoulder pain causes include:

• Instability
• Fractures
• Bursitis
• Referred pain from the neck
• Dislocated shoulder
• Impingement
• Arthritis
• Rotator cuff injury
• Separated shoulder joint
• Sprains and strains
• Tendinitis

• Dull aching pain or a burning nagging pain
• Sharp or increased with arm motions
• Better with rest and ice

Plantar fasciitis is the most common cause of heel pain. The plantar fascia is the flat band of tissue that connects your heel bone to your toes. It supports the arch of your foot. If you strain your plantar fascia, it gets weak, swollen, and irritated, then your heel or the bottom of your foot hurts when you stand or walk.

Plantar fasciitis is common in middle-aged people. It also occurs in younger people who are on their feet a lot, like athletes or soldiers. It can happen in one foot or both feet.

Plantar fasciitis is caused by straining the ligament that supports your arch. Repeated strain can cause tiny tears in the ligament. These can lead to pain and swelling. This is more likely to happen if:

• Your feet roll inward too much when you walk
• You have high arches or flat feet.
• You walk, stand, or run for long periods of time, especially on hard surfaces.
• You are overweight.
• You wear shoes that don't fit well or are worn out.
• You have tight Achilles tendons or calf muscles.

Most people with plantar fasciitis have pain when they take their first steps after they get out of bed or sit for a long time. You may have less stiffness and pain after you take a few steps. but your foot may hurt more as the day goes on. It may hurt the most when you climb stairs, or after you stand for a long time.

Benchmark Medical Group physical therapy is different than any other traditional PT. We combine modalities and techniques that no other facility can offer. Utilizing Functional Dry Needling, Power Plate technology, K-Laser, and deep manual tissue work, we are able to successfully treat and resolve the symptoms within a few short sessions. We then work to resolve the causing issues with functional training, corrective exercises, education and home recommendations.. Our unique approach gives our patient phenomenal success at rates higher than any other clinic can offer!.

What is benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV)?

What causes BPPV?

• Hitting your head (fall, car accident, sport, etc)
• After an infection
• Dehydration
• Increased risk with older age
• Increased risk with history of prior BPPV
• Can also happen spontaneously

• Feeling that you are spinning or tilting when you are not.
• Happens when you move your head in a certain way, like rolling over in bed, turning your head quickly, bending over, or tipping your head back.
• Feel sick to your stomach or vomiting
• Find it hard to stand or walk without losing your balance.

• Asking you questions about your vertigo and doing a physical exam.
• Dix-Hallpike test looking at your eyes while turning your head and helping you lie back.
• Tests looking at reflexes in your eyes

What Is It?

• Bloating
• Gas
• Cramps
• Food sensitivities
• Aches and pains

• Increased intestinal permeability or intestinal hyperpermeability.
  
  
  
  • When tight junctions in the gut, which control what passes through the lining of the small intestine, don't work properly.
  • Could let substances leak into the bloodstream
  
  
• Poor quality of bacteria in the gut lining
• Lack of nutritional digestive enzymes
• Poor diet and nutritional intake

• Genova NutraEval micro and macro nutrient testing
• Genova Food IGg testing for food sensitivities
• Genova Gut Function test to look at bacterias, breakdown of food, digestion, enzymes, infections or other issues

What is the meniscus?

• Sports requiring jumping and cutting
• Changes direction suddenly while running
• Can occur at the same time as other knee injuries

• Pain in the knee
• Swelling
• A popping sensation during the injury
• Difficulty bending and straightening the leg
• A tendency for your knee to get "stuck" or lock up

• Physical examination and special testing
• MRI to determine severity

Patellofemoral pain syndrome is a broad term used to describe pain in the front of the knee and around the patella, or kneecap.

Cause

• Overuse
• Repetitive exercise or sport
• Sudden change in physical activity
• Use of improper sports training techniques or equipment
• Changes in footwear or playing surface
• Flat feet
• Abnormal tracking of the kneecap
• Abnormal alignment of the legs and hips
• Muscular imbalances and muscle weakness

• Dull, aching pain in the front of the knee
• Pain during exercise and activities that repeatedly bend the knees
• Pain after sitting for a long period of time with your knees bent
• Pain related to a change in activity level or intensity, playing surface, or equipment.
• Popping or crackling sounds in your knee when climbing stairs or when standing up after prolonged sitting.

• An ankle sprain occurs when the strong ligaments that support the ankle stretch beyond their limits and tear.
• Ankle sprains are common injuries that occur among people of all ages.
• Range from mild to severe, depending upon how much damage there is to the ligaments
• Most sprained ankles occur in the lateral ligaments on the outside of the ankle.
• If there is a complete tear of the ligaments, the ankle may become unstable after the initial injury phase passes. Over time, this instability can result in damage to the bones and cartilage of the ankle joint.

• Walking or exercising on an uneven surface
• Falling down
• Participating in sports that require cutting actions or rolling and twisting of the foot
• During sports activities, someone else may step on your foot while you are running, causing your foot to twist or roll to the side.

• Pain
• Swelling
• Bruising
• Tenderness to touch
• Instability of the ankle-this may occur when there has been complete tearing of the ligament or a complete dislocation of the ankle joint.

• Slight stretching and microscopic tearing of the ligament fibers
• Mild tenderness and swelling around the ankle

• Partial tearing of the ligament
• Moderate tenderness and swelling around the ankle
• Abnormal looseness with certain movements

• Complete tear of the ligament
• Significant tenderness and swelling around the ankle
• Significant instability and looseness with ankle movements

A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury that is caused by a blow to the head or body, a fall, or another injury that jars or shakes the brain inside the skull. This causes the brian to hit the side of the skull, which can ean to bruising or bleeding in severe cases.

It's important to know that after a concussion the brain is more sensitive to damage. So while you are recovering, be sure to avoid activities that might injure you again.

Repeated concussions or a severe concussion may lead to long-lasting problems with movement, learning, or speaking.

Cause:

• Sports: football, hockey, snowboarding, wakeboarding, water surfing, soccer, baseball, gymnastics, volleyball, rugby, lacrosse, wrestling, boxing, martial arts
• Fights
• Falls
• Playground injuries
• Car crashes
• Bike accidents.

• Changes in thinking and remembering
  
  
  
  • Not thinking clearly
  • Feeling slowed down
  • Not being able to concentrate
  • Not being able to remember new information
  
  
• Physical
  
  
  
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Headache
  • Fuzzy or blurry vision
  • Dizziness
  • Sensitivity to light or noise
  • Balance problems
  • Feeling tired or having no energy
  
  
• Emotional and mood
  
  
  
  • Easily upset or angered
  • Sad
  • Nervous or anxious
  • More emotional
  
  
• Sleep disturbances
  
  
  
  • Sleeping more than usual
  • Sleeping less than usual
  • Having a hard time falling asleep
  
  

• Questions that test your ability to pay attention and your learning and memory.
• How quickly you can solve problems
• Check your strength, balance, coordination, reflexes, and sensation.
• Imaging tests such as a CT scan or an MRI to make sure your brain is not bruised or bleeding.

Shin splints typically develop after physical activity. They are often associated with running or repetitive sports.

Shin splints (medial tibial stress syndrome) is an inflammation of the muscles, tendons, and bone tissue around your tibia. Pain typically occurs along the inner border of the tibia, where muscles attach to the bone.

Cause

• Repetitive activity
• Often occur after sudden changes in physical activity
  
  
  
  • Changes in frequency
  • Changes in duration and intensity
  
  
• Having flat feet or abnormally rigid arches
• Exercising with improper or worn-out footwear

• Pain along the border of the tibia on the inside of the lower leg
• Mild swelling in the area may also occur.
• Sharp and razor-like or dull and throbbing
• Occur both during and after exercise
• Be aggravated by touching the sore spot

Causes:
Nerve pain is nearly all encompassing of many types of pain. Nerves are the sensory tissues that transmit, so all pain is mediated by nerves. Tissue damage like trauma, chemical exposure and compression are some of the ways that we feel nerve pain. Spinal nerve pain is debilitating and excruciating and can lead to disability and loss of function. Nerve pain in the spine will often lead to weakness, atrophy of the muscles of the affected area and complete loss of motion at the area where the nerve is compressed. If the nerve compression is severe and acute, the treatment is often emergency surgical decompression. However if the nerve compression is chronic, surgery may not be the answer. The doctors at Benchmark Medical Group can help to determine the cause of the nerve pain and can recommend and prescribe the appropriate treatment.

Symptoms:

• Neck pain
• Headache
• Mid Back Pain
• Low Back Pain
• Arm and Hand pain
• Thigh, leg and foot pain

Sinusitis is an inflammation or swelling of the tissue lining the sinuses. Healthy sinuses are filled with air. But when they become blocked and filled with fluid, germs can grow and cause an infection.

Causes of sinus blockage include:

• The common cold
• Allergic rhinitis, which is swelling of the lining of the nose
• Small growths in the lining of the nose called nasal polyps
• A deviated septum, which is a shift in the nasal cavity

• Acute sinusitis usually starts with cold-like symptoms such as a runny, stuffy nose and facial pain. It may start suddenly and last 2-4 weeks.
• Subacute sinus inflammation usually lasts 4 to 12 weeks.
• Chronic inflammation symptoms last 12 weeks or longer.
• Recurrent sinusitis happens several times a year.

• Facial pain or pressure
• Congestion
• Runny nose
• Loss of smell
• Cough
• Fatigue
• Thick, green, or yellow nasal discharge.

• A feeling of congestion or fullness in your face
• A nasal obstruction or nasal blockage
• Pus in the nasal cavity
• Fever
• Runny nose or discolored postnasal drainage
• Headaches

It's an illness caused by a tiny, living thing called a virus, with over 200 types that can cause similar symptoms.

Colds cause a lot of people to stay home. The CDC says 22 million school days are lost each year in the U.S. because of them. Some estimates say that Americans have 1 billion colds a year.

How a Common Cold Starts

• catch it from another person who is infected with the virus.
  
  
  
  • This usually happens if you touch a surface that has germs on it -- a computer keyboard, doorknob, or spoon, and then touch your nose or mouth.
  • Can also catch it if you're near someone who is sick and sneezes into the air.
  
  
• A cold begins when a virus attaches to the lining of your nose or throat.
• Your nose and throat get inflamed and make a lot of mucus.
• With so much of your energy directed at fighting the cold virus, you're left feeling tired and miserable.

• Scratchy or sore throat
• Sneezing
• Stuffy nose
• Watery eyes
• Mucus draining from your nose into your throat

Causes:
Numbness and tingling can be a debilitating condition. Numbness and tingling can have many causes, they can range from very mild to very severe. Numbness and tingling is the result of sensory nerve endings not working properly. Numbness and tingling can come from diabetic conditions, nerve and joint injuries and chronic poor posture habits. The doctors at Benchmark will use diagnostic testing including imaging, blood work and others to determine where the numbness and tingling is coming from and then prescribe the most appropriate treatment to help you stop suffering.

Symptoms:

• Pins and needles in the arms or hands
• Pins and needles in the legs or feet
• Patches of numb sensations anywhere in the body
• Feelings of tingling and "going to sleep" from positions like sleep, or sitting in one position
• Painful numbness and tingling that travels from the spine to the arms and hand or from the low back into the legs or feet

Causes:
As the winter months set in, the dry cold air can be a significant irritant to the sinuses. The tissues can inflame, and the pain can be severe and debilitating. Chronic sinus pain is a major cause of headache and facial pain and can lead to infection and chronic inability to breath comfortably through the nose. The pain can become so severe that the nose and sinuses can bleed and swell and the pain and pressure is very intense and can lead to disability. The doctors at Benchmark can help you determine the cause of your sinus pain and prescribe appropriate treatments.

Symptoms:

• Headache
• Face Pain
• Pain with breathing through the nose
• Nosebleeds
• Snoring
• Sensitivity of the sinuses to cold and and dry air.

Lateral Epicondylalgia or "Tennis elbow" is a common term for a condition caused by overuse of arm, forearm, and hand muscles that results in elbow pain.

Cause of Tennis Elbow
abrupt or subtle injury of the muscle and tendon area around the outside of the elbow.



Symptoms of Tennis Elbow?

• Pain slowly increasing around the outside of the elbow. Less often, pain may develop suddenly.
• Pain is worse when shaking hands or squeezing objects.
• Pain is made worse by stabilizing or moving the wrist with force. Examples include lifting, using tools, opening jars, or even handling simple utensils such as a toothbrush or knife and fork.

• Usually diagnosed by the description of pain
• Findings from a physical exam, such as worsening of the pain when you try to extend your wrist against resistance.

Causes:
The discs are the protective "shock absorbers" of the spine. INjury to the disc either suddenly such as in a fall or car crash, or slowly over time from poor posture can lead to the material of the disc to bulge or squeeze out. This is cause disc bulge or herniation and can be very painful, leading to compression of nerves that go to the muscles of the neck or back or into the arm and hand or thigh, leg or foot. This pain can be very severe and low back pain is the number one cause of disability in the world while neck pain is number 4!

Symptoms:

• Neck Pain
• Headache
• Radiating pain into the shoulders, arms or hands
• Radiating pain into the buttocks, thighs, legs or feet
• Shooting pain from the spine to the extremities.
• Inability to turn or move the head and neck normally
• Inability to "stand up straight" or assume normal postures

Causes:
Arm pain and leg pain can have many causes, trauma, injury to muscles, tendon, ligament, and nerves can all cause leg pain and arm pain. Of then the cause of the pain is the spine. If the spine has inflammation and the nerves that pass through the spine is inflamed or compressed by disc, bone spur, or other inflamed tissue, the pain will radiate or "refer" to the arm and hand or Leg and foot.

The cause of the arm and leg pain must be determined before the proper treatment can be prescribed. Organs such and the heart and bowels can also refer pain into the arms or ges and this must be differentiated. The doctors at Benchmark will help to determine the cause of your arm or leg pain with proper diagnostic tests and examinations.

Symptoms:

• Pain with movement of the arm or leg.
• Pain with lifting objects or climbing stairs.
• Pain with long periods of rest such as early in the morning or after sitting.
• Pain from positions such as brushing the teeth, gripping, driving and sports activities

Spinal stenosis is the narrowing of the canals or "tubes" that carry the spinal cord, or the spinal nerve roots. As the nerves are very pressure and pain sensitive, only a small amount of stenosis can have very serious and dire consequences. Many times the compression of the spinal cord has been slowly progressing due to poor posture and injury. Spinal stenosis can cause the posture to worsening with slow progression of a "bent-at-the-waist" posture and an inability to straighten due to pain.

Stenosis is worsened by carrying belly fat as this increases compression of the lumbar spine and can lead to worsening of symptoms.

Symptoms:

• Low Back pain
• Pain that radiated from the low back to the legs and feet
• Numbness and tingling in the legs and feet
• Inability to straight posture without increased low back pain
• Weakness and loss of function in the legs

Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS) is one of the most common overuse injuries. It occurs when the iliotibial band, the ligament that runs down the outside of the thigh from the hip to below the outside of the knee, is tight or inflamed. The IT band attaches to the knee and helps stabilize and move the joint. When the IT band isn't working properly, movement of the knee becomes painful.

Symptoms of IT Band Syndrome

• swelling and pain on the outside of the knee
• Pain in the outside of the thigh
• Pain at the bony part of the hip joint
• Pain with pushing or lying on the side of the leg
• Pain with stairs
• Pain after not moving for a while then trying to walk

• ITB syndrome can result from any activity that causes the leg to turn inward repeatedly. This can include
• wearing worn-out shoes,
• running downhill or on banked surfaces
• running too many miles
• anatomy issues may include differences in the lengths of the legs , an abnormal tilt to the pelvis, or bowed legs
• Poor flexibility
• Muscle imbalances from the low back or hips
• Poor posture

• Decrease your exercise or take a few days off if you feel pain on the outside of your knee.
• Make sure your shoes aren't worn along the outside of the sole.
• Don't run on concrete surfaces.
• Stretch before getting out of bed and before exercising
• Wear a heel lift if one is prescribed for you

The muscles of your legs, calf or feet suddenly become hard, tight, and extremely painful. You are having a muscle cramp.
Sometimes called charley horses -- particularly when they are in the calf muscles -- cramps are caused by muscle spasms, involuntary contractions of one or more muscles. In addition to the foot and calf muscles, other muscles prone to spasms include the front and back of the thigh, the hands, arms, abdomen, and muscles along the rib cage.

Almost everyone experiences muscle cramps, which come without warning.

Causes of Muscle Cramps
Muscle cramps can have many possible causes. They include:

• Poor blood circulation in the legs
• Overexertion of the calf muscles while exercising
• Insufficient stretching
• Exercising in the heat
• Muscle fatigue
• Dehydration
• Magnesium and/or potassium deficiency
• Calcium deficiency in pregnant women
• Malfunctioning nerves
• Medication side effects