Dr. Karen Derr celebrates 20 years of Chiropractic!

Dr. Karen Derr celebrates 20 years of Chiropractic!  

This month I am celebrating my 20th year as a Chiropractor!  I have had the opportunity to work in New York, New Jersey and now proud to be one of the Tampa, FL Chiropractors and Sheldon Road Chiropractic & Massage Therapy.  I'm privileged to have the experiences, opportunities and inspirations that were presented to me along this path. 

After 4 years of undergraduate studies, I earned two Bachelor of Science degrees in Biology and Human Anatomy then entered Chiropractic College and received my Doctorate in Chiropractic.  

Quickly after entering into practice, I had discovered that all the education that I had accomplished, now needed to be “translated” to the community.  Communicating to my patients about how the human body works AND how to optimally keep in functioning became my passion.

The patients that I were treating; the headaches, neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain, etc., would learn that these symptoms were their bodies trying to deal with structural imbalances and restrictions, nerve impingement and/or inflammatory soft tissue and joints - sometimes for years!  

I would then ask questions to determine how this all happened.  What did they do, or didn't do, to cause their bodies to react in these ways.  Here are some the most common reasons people feel pain, fatigue and stressed out: 

Trauma - It's always convenient to blame an event for the way we feel.  Sports injuries, car accidents, roller coasters; may all have physical manifestations that lead one to seek medical attention right away.  It is wise to treat these acute symptoms early and not allow them to get worse, continue unnecessarily or become debilitating, recurring episodes in your busy future.  No one has time for that!  

Repetitive movements - performing the same tasks all day, every day such as continuous forward bending, wrist turning, arm pulling, using the computer keyboard and/ or mouse, even prolonged sitting (more than 20 minutes at a a time) may add up to muscular tightness, joint restriction and inflammation then PAIN.   

Posture - Almost without any thought, our muscles and skeleton get us up and on with our day.  We go to school or work and become productive.  Muscle move the bones, so, the way in which we stand, walk and carry ourselves quickly become a habit.  We train our muscles to move us in manners which are comfortable, not as ergonomically correct.  This can accumulate without our notice and lead to ongoing compensatory patterns, joint stress and muscle weakness, the perfect recipe for a slow, gradual onset of injury.  

I often hear, "But I didn't do anything that would have caused this to happen."  

Chronic conditions - Personally, the most rewarding aspect of being a Chiropractor is my ability to assist those individuals to regain their independency while dealing with chronic conditions such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, scoliosis, and intervertebral disc herniations.  MANY times, people will tell me "there is nothing that can be done" about the way they feel. They tried EVERYTHING, have seen the BEST physicians and were told, "to live with it."  

I have found, over the last 20 years of being a Chiropractor, that there are joint restrictions, muscular tightness, and soft tissue swelling within all the above scenarios.  Accurate diagnosis and delivering the appropriate care, over time, can be progressive and this has been shown to allow the body to heal, repair and create positive changes throughout our entire bodies!  

Chiropractic care can greatly improve the manner in which your joints and muscles move.  

Chiropractic can enhance the way your body functions. 

Chiropractic can ultimately improve the way you feel!  

My enthusiasm continues as if it was my first year in practice, however, with the knowledge, experience and wisdom of the last 20 years.  I am grateful for every patient and every opportunity that I have encountered thus far.  I look forward to the next 20 years of delivering quality care at Sheldon Road Chiropractic & Massage Therapy. 

Karen Derr, DC 

December 5, 2016