Shockwave therapy radiates an acoustic pressure wave in body tissues. These result in an increased metabolism and activity, more growth factors in the tissue and increased blood flow. As a result, Shockwave thus appears to have a regenerative (curative) effect on tendon tissue. This is absolutely something you can not to do with manual techniques. Shockwave is because of this exclusive mechanism the only therapy that works on the tennis / golfers elbow, Achilles tendon problems, plantar fasciitis (heel spur) and shoulder tendon disorders (rotator cuff).

Furthermore it appears that Shockwave can get rid of calcifications as well. Because of the pressure wave which is caused by this therapy, the hard calcification changes in a substance like toothpaste, which can be discharged by the body. As a result, annoying calcifications can be treated with Shockwave, like those in the shoulder and surgery is not needed.

All of the stated reasons is for us enough reason to add Shockwave therapy to our treatment options in all our clinics.  This allows us to treat very unpleasant conditions such as tennis / golfers elbow, heel spurs and shoulder tendon disorders successfully. Of course, it is very important to address the cause of the complaint. This means that in addition to treating locally with Shockwave it is also possible other areas need to be addressed as well. The key to recovery is always to address the WHOLE problem, not just a portion, even when using Shockwave.

We offer different types of massage therapy in our clinic. The classic form focuses on relaxing muscles by improving blood circulation with gentle superficial massage techniques. Relaxation of body and mind is paramount.

Sports massage is a deeper type of massage that actually addresses a problem, improves the removal of waste products or improves flexibility. This form is not aimed at relaxation during the treatment as it focuses on the structures that often make the therapy sensitive, although some people would not want their massage to be any different and prefer this type of massage.

Another form we offer is Madera Therapy. This involves loosening muscle tissue using wooden instruments. This form also reaches the deepest structures of the muscle and is therefore a more intense form of massage. Madera therapy appears to be very helpful in preventing and eliminating cellulite.

Low Back pain: you do NOT have to live with it!!

The bulk of my patient base consists of people with low back pain. People often suffer of t hese kinds of complaints for years and are progressively getting worse. The majority of these patients already have done all kinds of scans, examinations and therapy and more than often heard that they have to live with the complaint, that there is no identifiable cause and that they just must start exercising. The important point is that these people do not learn to live with their pain, nut they learn to suffer.

Finding the cause of low back pain is often difficult, but certainly not impossible. The cause of back pain is often searched on a local level, while the cause of the complaint might be situated in a completely different area of the body like pelvis, knees and feet. Furthermore, the method of diagnose low back pain is not sufficient. X-ray images and scans are used to diagnose a problem. On these recordings all the anatomical structures are clearly visible and also any defects therein. This does not mean that these abnormalities are the cause of the complaints. To give an example: 45% of all people who have undergone a hernia operation have the same symptoms after surgery as before. This is not just because the operation failed, but because the hernia was not the cause of the original complaint.

Extensive research using inflammatory injections in the SI joints and joints in the back (facet joints) notes that 70% of the examined persons had back pain due to the inflammatory changes present in the SI joints of the pelvis. Whenever there has been injected in the CAUSE of the pain, the pain disappears. This method of diagnosis is unfortunately hardly ever used in regular hospitals. This is regrettable, especially since these two frequent inflammatory reactions do not show on X-ray or scan....

Chiropractic techniques are developed to provoke the SI and back joints, because these two types of low back pain can be succesfully treated by chiropractic care. If the cause of low back pain lays in these two places, you certainly not have to live with these complaints.

The cause of chronic low back pain is scientifically proven situated in the spinal joints (facet joints), the intervertebral disc and / or joint capsule. By adhesion (fibrosis) of these joints an inflammatory reaction is maintained and thus the pain as well. The structures which are effected by chiropractic adjustments are: the facet joints, intervertebral discs and the joint capsule. These manipulations break the adhesions and the chronic inflammation can recover. Even if this problem exists for many years. So a chiropractor is the only university-trained professional who is able to treat the cause of low back pain specifically. It has also demonstrated NO other type of equipment, massage, exercise, or anything else can positively influence those structures.

Low Back pain: you do NOT have to live with it!!

Besides back pain neck problems are the most common complaints that we see in our clinic. This can be very limiting in daily life. People can not drive their car properly, because the head can not be rotated, reading a book is impossible, because pain occurs in the neck, in the morning, people wake up tired with a stiff neck with a sensation they have a weight on their shoulders. Often these complaints are said to be caused by age or osteoarthritis, while this (very) often is not the cause.

The cause of neck pain is always due to overload of a joint causing an inflammation in this particular joint. Inflammation is the body's response to tissue damage, so it's a GOOD and normal reaction of the body, it is actually the first step to recovery. However, if the CAUSE of the tissue damage, such as poor posture, continues to be present in the body it can not recover and this reaction turns into a chronic inflammation that does not proceed to recovery. This shows immediately why anti-inflammatories do not help, they do not take away the cause, but inhibit (block) the actual repair mechanism of the body.

If a joint in general and in the neck in particular receives a prolonged overload and thus becomes inflamed, there is pain, limitation (stiffness) and contraction of the adjacent muscles. In the long term the joints get adhesed and thus get stiffer and chronic pain ges even worse. his often manifests itself in pain and stiffness in the neck and shoulders, headaches, fatigue, tingling in the arms (especially at night), dizziness, difficulty lifting the arms and a wide range of other complaints. More than once symptoms occur also in the lower back or between the shoulder blades because the body is always trying to compensate and therefore gets overcompensated causing pains in these areas.

With these annoying symptoms, it is important to address the ENTIRE cause. Neck pains are NOT caused by muscles, they respond to a problem that arose from the JOINTS. To normalize function in these joints, the cause of the joint irritations should be detected. The cause is almost always partially caused by faulty posture and a misalignment spine. Sleeping posture, overall capacity of the body are other important factors in the cause of neck pain.

Because this complaint so very prevalent and the quality of life is so negatively affected, we are specialized in our clinic in treating these symptoms. The try to get to the cause of these complaints by examining our patients thoroughly from top to bottom. A deformed toe may indeed be the cause of neck pain ... Once the diagnosis has been made, if necessary by the help of of X-ray and MRI examination, a treatment plan is tailored. This treatment plan has 3 phases to complete recovery. You yourself has to do something as well, since as you now know, the cause lies partly in your posture and you must teach yourself to change that. We have special exercises to accomplish this.

We are very successful in treating neck pains and we help people every day to get ride of this problem and give them a life without pain and limitations.

Many people suffer from recurrent or chronic headache. The cause of this pain in most cases is unknown by the patients. Often it is diagnosed as migraine or tension headache, but this is often not the cause that gives the headaches.

Headaches can roughly be divided into three groups .

First, there may be irritated nerves that run to the head. These nerves can, like a disc herniation gives pain in the leg, pain in the head. The pain is caused by irritation of the nerve which leads to the head. Often the nerve is irritated by an impingement in the neck by misalignment, vertebral displacement or abnormal posture.

Secondly, headache could be caused by irritation of the membranes of the brain. An extreme example is of course known as bacterial meningitis, in which the meninges are infected and thus irritated by a bacterium. This type of headache needs an urgent hospital treatment. The meninges cover the brain, and run like a jacket with sleeves around the whole spinal cord towards all parts of the body.
If in the upper cervical part of the neck just below the skull, these membranes get impinged this may cause irritation and thus headaches. 89% of all our headache patients have a misaligned atlas, the first cervical vertebrae. This vertebrae presses at the meninges and cause headache.
Very o ften, people have headaches for many years which are diagnosed as migraine. But if migraine medication does not work, this is no pure migraine! The symptoms as a unilateral headache, hypersensitivity to light, nausea and dizziness occur more than once in headaches from the neck. These headaches get even worse just before or during menstruation.

Finally headaches can be caused by irritation of joints in the neck, especially the upper part of the neck. This gives the typical pain just below the skull at the back of the head radiating to the eyes. Also a tight band around the head-sensation is common.

T he cause of headaches often lies in the cervical spine (even migraines). Chiropractic adjustments of the spine can normalise these mechanical and neurological causes of headache. Treatment will recover the irritation and can eliminate symptoms such as headaches, tension, pressure in the head, light headedness, feeling woolly, scalp tingling, dizziness, blurred vision and a lot more vague complaints. To give a proper treatment to the cause of headaches, the whole spine needs to be addressed. A misaligned pelvis is often the cause of cervical misalignment and this could be the cause of headaches, thus every part of the spine needs to be treated. Of all patients with headache treated in our clinic 91% of them we could help to get rid of their complaints. Chiropractic is certainly a solution for headaches.

Dizziness is a common complaint that we often see in patients. Dizziness is often not seen as a condition that a chiropractor can do something about. However, a large part of our training is focused on finding the cause and treating dizziness.

Our sense of balance and equilibrium is controlled by vision, balance organ and joints/tendons/muscles (proprioception). When there is an imbalance between these 3 factors, so a signal is disrupted, a feeling of dizziness can occur. There are two types of this; the feeling of "light in the head" and vertigo. The first (light feeling in the head) can, especially here in Spain, be caused by a lack of fluid, dehydration, low blood pressure and also by a too low blood sugar level. This ensures that there is not enough blood/fuel flowing to the brain and a light feeling in the head occurs. An imbalance between the 3 balance systems mentioned can also cause this feeling.

Vertigo occurs with certain abnormalities of the balance organ such as BPPV, Meniere's disease, inflammation/trauma of the balance organ or of the associated nerve pathway. This can lead to changes in signals from the balance organ. At the same time, the visual and proprioceptive information remains the same and so a feeling of being out of balance arises: dizziness. To put it more simply: one system tells your brain that you are moving while the other two say that you are standing still (or vice versa).

People with neck disorders, this does not necessarily have to be neck pain, for example after a car accident or due to poor posture, become dizzy because the information from the neck joints and muscles, the proprioception, is disturbed. But there is also an interaction between the three systems. This means that disturbances in, for example, neck mobility can lead to changes in eye motor skills. This often makes it complex, but certainly not impossible, to trace the real cause of the complaint.

In our clinic we analyze dizziness complaints from a neurological and biomechanical point of view. When it is clear what is causing the complaints, we use various techniques to restore the balance between the systems mentioned. This will often consist of stimulation of the balance organ by means of specific exercises or actions, corrections of the neck or back and training. By stimulating or slowing down one of the systems, the balance in the balance system can be restored. Chiropractic is virtually the only specialism that is able to examine and treat the three systems.

Pinced nerves could refer pain into another area of the body. From the neck pain refers into the arms and/or head. Referred pain the back is can be appreciated in the legs/feet and groin. Another symptom of pinced nerves is numb sensation in a part of an extremity. 

 Countless people are suffering from a tingling sensation somewhere in the body. This can actually occur anywhere in the body, but especially in the arms this can lead to major problems. Having pins and needles ALWAYS means that "something" is going on with a nerve. The nerve might be trapped, irritated or even damaged. The cause of these problems in the arms can lay in three places. It could be entrapped in the neck, shoulders or anywhere in the arm itself. The most common type comes from a combination of the neck and shoulders. Nerve tissue is irritated by pressure due to compression, and this can manifest itself in pain in the shoulders, numbness of the skin in areas of the arms, sleeping / tingling fingers (especially at night in bed) and even a tennis elbow can occur. This is caused by nerves in the neck which are pinched by a displaced vertebrae, poor posture or because the space between the cervical vertebras has decreased, but often the cause is a combination of the above.

The cause of pins and needles in the arms lays often in the shoulder girdle. If the space in this area is diminished it often puts pressure on the large nerve (brachialis). This is known as the Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. This gives the typical tingling in the hands, often on both sides (especially at night). Problem of this condition is that it often is not recognized or incorrectly diagnosed. The cause is sought in the neck and therefore treatment fails.

For all named conditions above we can offer specific treatment with very good results to get ride of these symptoms. Put simply the treatment is as following, by correcting the position of various joints the neck and shoulders, space is created to give the nerves an opportunity to recover. Changing posture is an important point of treatment and we always look at the patient as a whole. Vitamins can promote recovery of the nerves and so we prescribe those as well.

The main, the most (in)famous and tedious nerve impingement IN the arm is the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. With this condition the nerve (median nerve) in the wrist is pinched because there is not enough space under a ligament which runs over the wrist. This gives a tingling or painful feeling in particular thumb, index and middle finger or even loss of strength in the hand. If the impingement is caused by a mal position of the wrist bones or an irritation in the wrist, chiropractic manipulation and specific techniques can create space for the nerve, with stunning results. Often a diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome is given while an impingement in the neck / shoulder is causing the symptoms. Proper diagnosis requires precise and extensive examination of the problem. In some cases, surgery is necessary, but often too soon with the wrong diagnosis and too often with bad results.