Universal City

Medical Wellness Group





Universal City Medical Wellness Group
3535 Cahuenga Bl. W. Ste 206
Los Angeles, CA 90068 (323)436-0303

email: ucmwg@yahoo.com
view map-|-LA traffic conditions
Our original web page is once again available here.
LA is Big - -How near are we to you?
Health Links -|- Fitness Links
Lifestyle & Recreation Links-|-Athletics Links
Link Partners:
Map Tools
Hollywood Sign from the Air
Griffith Observatory from the Air
News columns
Information On Wellness & Healing:
Integrative and Holistic Medicine - Preventive and Wellness Medicine
Complimentary Alternative Medicine

Musician's Hand's Problems:

Musicians have many occurrences of pain throughout their careers. The mechanics of their instruments and the type of playing demanded by modern music can aggravate problems that can cause pain, numbness, weakness, or lack of control. These symptoms commonly occur in your wrist, hand, fingers, thumb, arm, elbow, shoulder, and/or neck.

Many labels have been applied to these problems, including "tendonitis" and "carpal tunnel syndrome." Medically, these conditions are treated with drugs (painkillers and anti-inflammatories), braces, instructions to lay off playing, and even surgery. The doctors at Universal City Medical Wellness Group have sought out natural methodologies to correct and cure the underlying causes of musicians' pain and not just a way to cover them up.

The underlying causes of these problems are basically electro-chemical. Electrical and chemical signals flow through the nervous system controlling the functions of muscles and joints. The solution is to fix the electrical failure and restore proper function of the joints resulting in release of pain.

One of the main issues causing nerve-system malfunction is called subluxation. Subluxation is a word describing the condition that occurs when the bones in the joints move slightly out of their normal position and interfere with the normal free motion of the joint, putting pressure on the nearby nerves. This interrupts the pain-free electrical function that the nerve system normally has. The goal of fixing a subluxation is to track the wiring diagram of the nerves, find the short circuits and fix them! This means locating and correcting whatever is interfering with the proper nerve flow to and from the arms and hands.

The actual cause of these shorted circuits can often be found not in the playing of an instrument, but from old injuries to the neck. These types of injuries could be whiplash associated from an old car accident or even a sports injury or fall. In other cases, the problem can be traced back to repetitive injuries such as over playing during practice or rehearsals. With all of this considered, musicians put additional stresses on their body by hanging a heavy guitar or bass on their shoulder and by their onstage posture. When musicians start playing, they demand more power, more speed, and more accuracy from their hands and arms-and a system that's already damaged becomes inflamed. On top of this, drugs whether recreational or prescription (even if just nicotine and alcohol), too little sleep and too little nutritious food can damage the body and reduce its resistance to stress even more!

When examining a patient, we start at the neck, spine and all extremities involved. We will locate any signs of weakness, swelling, subluxated joints, muscle spasms and any areas of tenderness. Sometimes, a set of X-Rays is required to locate the physical damage of the spine and to show detailed structure and misalignments. Many times, the subluxations of the neck or back vertebrae show up as pain in the shoulder, arm, or hand but not in the place of origin.

The doctors at UCMWG use a very powerful technique that was developed by Dr. Ray Zindler of Vancouver, Canada and was found to be useful with musicians. This technique using a set of super-precise adjustments, is an extension of the chiropractic specialty of Applied Kinesiology, (Kinesiology being the study of the motion of the body.)

When testing a patient for the cause of symptoms, the hand and arm are held in a series of different positions showing which nerves and muscles come into play and where the nerves are being put under abnormal pressure by the bones. Next, a series of strength tests are performed on the fingers, hand and arm showing the doctor instantly where the messages to the extremities are being blocked!

Once the actual problem is identified, specialized chiropractic adjustments are performed to relieve the abnormal pressure and restore proper nerve function. The results are immediate and dramatic.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a specialized example of subluxation. The hand has many nerves that travel in and out of a tunnel of bones forming the wrist (these bones being the carpals.) This delicate system of nerves can become entrapped, compressed, and pinched even with the slightest misalignment of the carpal bones. We recommend adjustment to the carpal bones to stop this nerve compression and eliminating the need for surgery.

Many patients are diagnosed with tendonitis for their hand problems, but this is really a description of the symptom and not the cause. Tendonitis is an inflammation, but we find it is best cured by locating the nerves that are blocked and/or the nutritional problems causing it. The doctors at UCMWG are dedicated to a very specific non-surgery, non-drug approach to treating these conditions with much success.

We have seen many musicians in our office with wrist and hand pain after failed surgeries. Drugs like cortisone that are used in treating tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome have great side effects on the human glandular system. Our body's adrenal glands are supposed to create natural cortisone, but when undernourished and overstressed they do not function optimally.

How Stress, Adrenal Glands and Nutrition Affect Everything

The life of a musician is a world of stress and stimulation. This stress - whether physical, mental, emotional, or chemical - first stops at the adrenal glands and makes them overactive. Your body's adrenal glands sit atop each of your kidneys and produce a very powerful chemical called adrenaline. In times of stress your body uses this chemical to help keep up with what your brain is telling it to do. Eventually, without proper nutrition, stress burns out the adrenal glands and your body cannot keep up.

Nutritionally what's happening, is that the blown out adrenal glands have become deficient in B-Vitamins. A common mistake is to fuel your body with junk food and not get enough sleep all the while having to work under high-pressure situations. This creates a process of depletion of the body's B-vitamins, which in some cases can even produce symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. We often recommend a complex of B-vitamins to support the carpal tunnel and help the adrenal glands fight the inflammation caused by all this stress to the body's glandular system.

Like many holistic practioners, we use and have had much success with glandular supplements to treat adrenal exhaustion. These glandulars help greatly due to the raw materials that rebuild and strengthen your body's exhausted glands, all without any side-effects; drug-free, and completely safe. Doing this helps your body rebuild its own glandular system giving you the power to deal with the damaging effects of stress.

Your reality as a musician is a tough one if you're in pain and/or have loss of function. Many musicians we treat need their bodies to have a career and pay their bills. Here are some very useful recommendations to help prevent injury.

1) Stay away from forcing your wrist into bent-back positions, like regular pushups. This can cause nerve compression that can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome.

2) If you're involved in a car accident, fall, or a sports injury, get an examination as soon as you can by a competent licensed chiropractor (preferably one trained in applied kinesiology) to check for subluxation.

3) Eat great! Healthy and nutritious foods are your body's foundation. If you try to run your body of junk food and stimulants like coffee or energy drinks, sooner or later it will give up on you! Help keep your system healthy by supplementing vitamin C and a highly absorbable multiple vitamin/mineral complex.

4) Avoid injuring your back. Take important steps when lifting something heavy, like your amplifier. Let your legs do the lifting, avoiding bending at the waist and make sure to keep your back straight. If something is too heavy or awkward to lift on your own, make sure to get help!

5) Pay close attention to the way your guitar or bass hangs on your neck and shoulders. Many of our patients have experienced much improvement by the use of a strap extender, or by using a strap wide enough to better disperse the weight of the instrument.

6) Your body has an incredible capability of telling you what's happening; pay close attention to the messages it's telling you. Proper sleep positioning, good posture while sitting and standing, keeping a fitness program, and doing core strength training for your abdominal muscles will all help maintain a healthy spine that will support all your playing demands.

7) Always warm up before playing or practicing. A short routine of stretching (after your warm up) for your hands and wrists can keep them less prone to subluxations and inflammation.

In closing, the doctors at UCMWG feel that musicians are the backbone of our society. They convey the dreams and creativity of our culture. There is NO reason you should be in pain, much less a pain that inhibits you from creating and leaving your stamp on this planet. Find a practitioner who is competent in treating musicians' problems and take advantage of all the information that is known.



Universal City Medical Wellness Group
3535 Cahuenga Blvd. West, #208

Los Angeles, CA 90068

© Copyright UCMG, Inc - 2002, 2004; & © Copyright UCMWG, Inc - 2006 - All Rights Reserved

About Us

Meet Our Doctors

See Us On MySpace

Success Stories

patient's experiences in their own words: one| two| three

Treatment Approaches for Musicians, Artists & Athletes

: musicians| dancers| athletes




Green Spa

thanks to:

inspiration: Ann-S-Thesia
web hosting by: network solutions
{right margin down}