For our week 2 meeting, Dr. Dawn Yoshioka Eberly (aka Dr. Dawn) from Embrace Healing & Wellness gave an illuminating presentation on chiropractic! Dr. Dawn earned her Doctorate of Chiropractic (D.C.) and Masters in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (L.Ac) at the Southern California University of Health Sciences. She also has certifications as a Chiropractic Sports Practitioner and in the Active Release Technique, a soft-tissue and movement-based technique that treats problems with muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia, and nerves.
The goal of chiropractic is to relieve muscle tension, and this is achieved through what are called adjustments. An adjustment involves a chiropractor using their hands to apply a controlled, sudden force to a joint. If you’ve ever been to a chiropractor or seen someone get treated by one, you probably have heard the loud popping sound that results from performing adjustments. Rest assured, though, that noise is nothing to fear. It is simply gas being released from the joint. Dr. Dawn compared it to popping a champagne bottle–the bottle isn’t being broken, but the gas being released from the bottle causes a popping sound.
Dr. Dawn focuses on sports injuries in her practice, with her goal being to ease muscle tension and increase mobility. This means she does a lot of muscle work along with chiropractic adjustments. However, Dr. Dawn emphasizes that you should only get a deep tissue massage when you are NOT in pain. If you are in pain and get a deep tissue massage, it will lead to worse results.
Dr. Dawn also treats a wide variety of conditions, like TMJ pain, plantar fasciitis, headaches, shoulder pain, hand pain, knee pain, and more. So, while chiropractors are known for treating neck and back pain, they also often treat pain in other parts of the body, too.
Still, while Dr. Dawn treats many patients for pain, she chiefly promotes pain prevention. She strongly advocates activity and stretching. Playing a sport, going on runs, and doing yoga are all good options. Also, Dr. Dawn explained a likely cause of neck and back pain is simply bad posture, which is exacerbated by the large amount of time we spend at our desks looking at our computers. So, even just being more mindful of our posture could make a big difference!
If you would like to learn more about chiropractic or Dr. Dawn, feel free to reach out to her at dryoshi@embracehealingwell.com. She would be happy to hear from you!
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