CHIROPRACTIC Comprehensive Spine Care
More than 80% of Americans will develop a spine related problem during the course of their lives. Most of these will respond to chiropractic care. Chiropractic medicine is a science, art, and philosophy focusing on the intimate relationship between the entire skeletal and nervous system. The doctors at Bloomington Chiropractic Center are highly skilled, experienced, and accessible in delivering this type of care. There's no substitute for experience. We integrate a multidisciplinary approach in your battle against disease and injury and provide pain management. We've been doing this for over 30 years and are constantly amazed what can be done without drugs and surgery. You will be amazed also.
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First Visit Spinal Wellness Complementary Medicine Pregnancy
Conditions Treated Babies & Children Stages of Care Subluxation
Injuries Treated Massage Therapy Spinal Decompression Acupuncture
Common Musculoskeletal Conditions Treated
Chiropractic provides effective relief for acute and chronic back and neck ailments. Research and clinical practice proves chiropractic management to be front line therapy for most spinal conditions. Chiropractic also provides relief and pain management for a host of other common musculoskeletal complaints in the upper and lower extremities. Any musculoskeletal pain, soreness, and stiffness in hip, knee, and foot as well as the shoulder, elbow, and wrist can be relieved by safe, natural, and noninvasive chiropractic care. Some common musculoskeletal conditions treated: 
- low back pain and stiffness
- neck and upper back pain and stiffness
- mid back pain and stiffness
- chest and rib pain
- headaches and migraines
- leg pain, weakness, numbness and tingling
- arm pain, weakness, numbness and tingling
- extremity joint pain and dysfunction
- carpal tunnel syndrome
- rotator cuff syndrome
- tennis elbow
- hip and thigh pain
- knee pain and arthritis
- ankle and foot conditions
- muscle spasms
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Common Injuries Treated
The doctors at Bloomington Chiropractic Center have extensive training and experience in treating various types of injuries to the entire body. Traumatic injuries resulting from motor vehicle & bicycle
accidents, falls, collisions, sports/athletic injuries, and repetitive motion & work injuries are evaluated and treated without invasive drugs or surgery. If those methods are necessary, our doctors are trained to recognize those needs and refer you to the appropriate facility. Personal injury and auto collision injuries are treated and managed on a daily basis at the Bloomington Chiropractic Center. We work closely with insurance companies and attorneys to support your case and reach maximum medical improvement of your injuries. Work related injuries and workman's compensation cases require close attention to the mechanism of injury as well as the workplace ergonomics, and subsequent care and pain management for returning you to work quickly. Sports injuries often have contributing factors and your treatment will be met with an enthusiastic goal of quick healing and better athletic performance. Some common injuries treated:
- on the job and lifting injuries
- delayed onset of symptoms resulting from injuries
- sports/athletic injuries
- slip and fall injuries
- automobile accident and whiplash injuries
- chronic repetitive motion injuries
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Non-Musculoskeletal Conditions Treated
The most exciting aspect of chiropractic care is it's influence over the entire body. Patients often notice other health problems starting to improve during the course of their chiropractic care. This includes chronic ear infections in children, menstrual pain and irregularities in women, and arthritis in the elderly. Research and clinical practice has shown many "medical" conditions can be caused by neurological insult. The nervous system is the body's "internet" and controls all systems of the body. The core of the nervous system is found inside the vertebral column. When the spinal column becomes distorted, injured, or chronically malaligned or degenerated, nerve roots can become compressed, stretched, and twisted. The impulse velocity of that particular nerve can slow from "high speed broadband" to "dial-up speed" and can even dropout altogether. This becomes a major communication error. Any organ system innervated by the entrenched nerve can suffer. If this is the cause of the health problem, nothing else is likely to help unless the nerve is rescued from it's entrapment and allowed to heal. Chiropractic is the only profession that focuses on this particular component of disease. At the Bloomington Chiropractic Center, we have noticed changes in patients suffering from:
- attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
- dizziness and dysequilibrium
- asthma
- dysmenorrhea
- infantile colic
- low energy levels
- otitis media (ear infection)
- ulcers
- various forms of arthritis
- digestive conditions
- reproductive disorders
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Scheduling An Appointment
Making an appointment at Bloomington Chiropractic Center is easy. New patients can call 812-332-6427 and are often scheduled on the same day. You will find the staff warm, caring and accessible. They know you want to see the doctor as soon as possible. The clinic is a beautiful spacious facility with easy access and plentiful parking located on a busy intersection on the east side of Bloomington, Indiana.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact this office by phone or email. Contact info-
FIRST VISIT
Your First Visit
New patients are given an intake form which takes 5-10 minutes to complete. You will then meet with the doctor and be interviewed about your main complaint and any associated symptoms. Your medical history will be reviewed for any relationship to your current condition. This initial evaluation will lead to appropriate examination. Testing may include standard orthopedic and neurological evaluation,
chiropractic postural analysis, image scans, and any additional procedures necessary to arrive at a diagnosis. If x-rays are necessary, they are taken, processed, and interpreted in-house instantaneously. This can expedite your care instead of traveling to a separate radiological facility and waiting days to be interpreted.
Diagnosis And Treatment
Once a working diagnosis is communicated to the patient, treatment can often begin on the first visit. This may vary depending on the elements of the case, however, the Bloomington Chiropractic Center is well-known for expedient patient care in the past 30-years. The doctors appreciate your time and your state of health and quickly work to put you at ease to resolve your immediate symptoms.
Spinal Manipulation And Vertebral Adjustment
This procedure refers to the process in which the doctor skillfully applies a careful controlled force into a joint or vertebral segment that is fixated, misaligned, subluxated, or dislocated. These are the causes that lead to pain, spasm, inflammation, soreness, and loss of mobility. Manipulation and adjustments may also be applied to the pelvis, skull bones, TMJ, ribs, and extremity joints. The purpose is to restore structural integrity and bone alignment that can ultimately diminish the symptoms of your condition. The doctors utilize a wide variety of accepted chiropractic and osteopathic techniques and equipment in the delivery of this type of health care. Skilled and careful hands can make the difference in your condition.
Spinal Decompression Therapy
The effects of gravity are unending and relentless. Your skeleton is being compressed minute by minute. When distortions occur from injuries and poor postural habits, the vertebral column in particular can be overwhelmed resulting in intervertebral disc breakdown. Eventually the shock absorbing disc protrudes and herniates. If the disc bulges against an adjacent nerve root, the symptoms can be debilitating in the low back and neck. Medications are often recommended by doctors, but does nothing to fix this biomechanical problem. When symptoms worsen, disc surgery is sometimes suggested, however the statistics for such invasive methods are dismal and can actually worsen the condition. Nonsurgical multi-axial lumbar and cervical decompression at the Bloomington Chiropractic Center has been proven to be hugely successful and cost effective for thousands of patients suffering intervertebral disc conditions. Improvements in disc symptoms can occur very quickly.
Trust In Your Practitioner
The success of chiropractic treatment is highly dependent on the practitioner. Mobilizing bones, joints, muscles, and soft tissues requires extensive training and experience. Like surgery, the chiropractic
adjustment is an art form. Clinic director Dr. Norman Houze has adjusted and repositioned the bones and joints of countless thousands of patients in the Southern Indiana area the past 30-years. He has seen some of the worst musculoskeletal cases suffered by any human being and has personally taught several local chiropractic doctors the many refinements of spinal and joint manipulation. You are in good hands with Dr. Houze and his associates. Read more about our Doctors and staff-
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COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE
Symptom Relief and Pain Management through PHYSICAL THERAPY
This clinic offers a wide array of drugless, nonsurgical technologies to resolve your initial symptoms. The doctors will choose the appropriate and most compatible modality necessary to calm your symptoms. Physical therapy modalities including electro galvanic stimulation, interferential current, microcurrent, ultrasound, acupuncture, cryotherapy, heat, topical applications, kinesio tape, and other methods will calm the tissues, decrease spasm and inflammation, and support your chiropractic treatment throughout the treatment period.
Symptom Relief and Pain Management through MASSAGE THERAPY
The doctors at Bloomington Chiropractic Center recognize the deep importance of hands-on massage therapy. The results of myofascial massage, trigger point therapy, and active release technique can be impressive. These procedures relieve acute and chronic pain, muscle spasms, soreness, and can greatly influence the overall health of the body. It is effective, relieves stress, and feels great. When recommended, massage therapy will be utilized in helping solve your diagnosed condition. Certified massage therapists have been employed at this clinic for several decades in the treatment of acute and chronic musculoskeletal injuries and conditions.
ACUPUNCTURE "PIERCELESS" for Pain Management
Also called EPS or electro-point stimulation which is similar to acupuncture without needles and piercing the skin as it stimulates acupoints of the body including extremities, feet, hands, and face.
NUTRITION
Designed especially for you as a personal and economical program to help you have more energy, better digestion, top athletic performance, faster healing and recovery, more muscle with less body fat, and better mental alertness. Our Doctors use the modern technology for their assessments and use natural methods for treatment which is the modern approach for nutrition called FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE.
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HYPNOSIS
This therapy approach provides help for addictive and psychological disorders through hypnosis. For those dealing with addictions and obsessive-compulsive behaviors, this drugless therapy can provide welcome relief. Whether dealing with alcoholism, smoking, drug abuse, weight control or even fear and anxieties, hynosis therapy offiers you a tool towards self control and changing your behavior.
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SUBLUXATION
Vertebral Subluxations
Chiropractors are remarkably unique in the health care field as they are the only health care professionals trained to detect and treat a condition referred to as subluxations, also known as the "Vertebral Subluxation Complex". Chiropractors have found vertebral subluxations to be responsible for and contribute to a number of spinal and extra-spinal disorders.
What Is A Subluxation?
The vertebral subluxation is the term applied to a vertebra which has lost its normal position and/or motion in relation to neighboring vertebrae. Vertebrae which do not function properly within the spinal framework generate mechanical stress. This accelerates the wear and tear on the surrounding spinal muscles, ligaments, discs, joint and other spinal tissues. Pain, palpatory tenderness, inflammation, decreased spinal mobility, and muscle spasm and hypertonicity will eventually follow. Additionally, because of the direct mechanical and physiological relationship between the spinal column and the spinal nerve roots, vertebral subluxations as well as other spinal abnormalities have the potential to impair proper nerve functioning. Once nerve functioning is compromised, communication within the body becomes less effective jeopardizing the overall health and wellness of the individual.
What Causes A Subluxation?
Vertebral subluxations have a great number of different causes all of which the average individual is exposed to daily. These causes can be described in terms of physical, chemical, and emotional causes.
Physical causes include acute trauma to the body, repetitive motions affecting the spine, bad postural habits, improper workstation habits and design, and weak or imbalanced spinal musculature.
Chemical causes include poor dietary and nutritional practices, drug and alcohol use and abuse, and the ingestion of chemical toxins in the foods we eat, air we breath, and water we drink. Chemicals which are harmful to the body decrease the body's ability to function optimally and reduce the ability to successfully adapt to and withstand internal and external stresses - making us more susceptible to spinal subluxations and the consequences of these subluxations.
Emotional causes refer to stress. Excessive stress or inadequate stress management skills can deplete the body of the ability to sustain normal functions. The impact of emotional stress on physical health is well documented in the medical research and can have devastating effects on the immune system, making the body susceptible to injury and disease.
How Are Subluxations Corrected?
Doctors of chiropractic learn a number of different chiropractic techniques and procedures to correct vertebral subluxations. Most of the procedures involve the application of a chiropractic spinal adjustment to the affected vertebrae.
Chiropractic adjustments involve the application of a quick but gentle corrective force into the "subluxated" spinal vertebrae. The adjustment can be delivered manually through the hands or can be applied through the use of a specialized tool. Subluxations generally require multiple treatments or adjustments for complete normalization to occur. Similar to straightening teeth,
correcting 
malfunctioning and malaligned vertebrae requires time for the
tissues to accept this new position as "normal".
How Can I Tell If I Have A Subluxation?
The only accurate way to determine if you suffer from subluxations is to receive a chiropractic evaluation. However, a number of signs and symptoms are commonly associated with the vertebral subluxation and include:
- neck pain, tenderness, soreness and stiffness
- back pain, tenderness, soreness and stiffness
- headaches
- dizziness or balance problems
- spinal muscle spasm, tightness or weakness
- reduced spinal mobility
- pain, numbness or tingling in the extremities
- joint pain and stiffness
- low energy
- poor overall state of health
- poor tissue healing
Individuals who are not currently experiencing pain or other discomforts are not necessarily "subluxation free". As previously described, pain is a very
poor indicator of disease processes, including the presence of subluxations. Subluxations are similar to cavities in that many times a significant amount
of damage is present before symptoms such as pain are felt. This is why we recommend, like your dentist, that individuals seek periodic spinal evaluations to check i.e. seasonally or quarterly throughout the year for the presence of subluxations and other spinal abnormalities or stressors, even in the absence of pain.
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STAGES OF CARE
The typical patient will encounter 3 stages of care. The first stage focuses on symptomatic relief such as reduction of pain and other discomforts. The following stage addresses tissue healing and function normalization. The final stage consists of periodic spinal care to prevent the formation of new injuries, minimize future flare-ups of old injuries, and prevent degenerative spinal processes from occurring.
Initial Intensive - Relief and Pain Management Care
Relief care is the first stage of care for most patients. The primary goal during this initial stage is to provide the individual with symptomatic relief. Treatments focus on those techniques and therapies which most quickly and effectively reduce pain and other discomforts. This will allow the majority of individuals to continue their activities of daily living. Patients are generally recommended to "take it easy" but are encouraged to stay mobile and functional so long as there is not a risk of further injury or tissue damage. Therapies that reduce inflammation and muscle spasm are also used during this stage when present.
Reconstructive - Rehab Corrective Care
The second stage of care consists of correcting the problems which caused and contributed to the condition and healing and rehabilitating the injured tissues. Unless these events take place, a favorable outcome is unlikely and future recurrences of the problem are likely. It is extremely important that the patient comply with and follow the instructions given by the doctor during this stage of care. Tissues and structures that are not fully healed and rehabilitated are prone to future problems. Sticking to appointments, complying with home exercises and instructions and following all other recommendations will help insure this occurs. Patients should also be aware that once pain and discomfort have subsided, tissue healing and functional correction is many times still incomplete and will often require additional treatments.
Spinal Wellness Care
Once the spinal tissues are healed and spinal biomechanics have normalized the patient will be recommended to continue with periodic spinal checkups. For some this might mean once per year, for others this may mean once per month or more. Chiropractic spinal checkups provide similar benefits to the spine that dental checkups provide to the teeth. Namely, catching minor problems and disturbances before they have the opportunity to cause pain, discomfort and irreversible tissue changes. Just like with cavities and heart attacks, irreversible tissue damage has generally occurred before the symptoms of spinal pain and discomfort become constant areas of pain.
BABIES' AND CHILDREN'S WELLNESS
Learn more about your child's health and natural health care from our well trained and family oriented Doctors and staff. Check out natural approaches to ear infections, respiratory problems, antibiotics, ADD/hyperactivity, spinal trauma, nervous system, pregnancy, and breast feeding. Read more-
Pregnancy
Chiropractic care in pregnancy is an essential ingredient to your pre-natal care choices. A large percent of all pregnant women experience back discomfort/ pain during pregnancy. This is due to the rapid growth of the baby and an interference to your body's normal structural adaptations to that growth. Pre-existing unnoticed imbalances in your spine and pelvis become overtaxed during these times. The added stresses lead to discomfort and difficulty while performing routine, daily activities. Chiropractic care throughout pregnancy can relieve and even prevent the common discomforts experienced in pregnancy. Specific adjustments eliminate these stresses in your spine, restore balance to your pelvis and result in greater comfort and lifestyle improvements. Read more-
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