Listen or Read Dr. Michael McClung’s Monthly Podcast Interview!
Topic – Pinched Nerves, Muscle Spasms and Numbness
Below you will find an easy to read transcript of Dr. Michael McClung’s interview on the razorcast™ monthly podcast. You can click the video to listen to the podcast or simply read the easy to follow transcript below. Enjoy!
Podcast Interview:
RC: Hello everyone, this is Liz Harvey coming to you from our razorcast™ studios in New York City where we are dedicated to bringing you cutting edge interviews from many of the leading industry professionals across the United States.
In today’s episode, we are speaking with Dr. Michael McClung. Dr. McClung is the founder of Creating Wellness Chiropractic in Austin, Texas where he is committed to improving the health and vitality of his community through chiropractic and wellness care. Dr. McClung was one of the first chiropractors in America to become board certified by the American Academy of Pain Management. He also has advanced certifications in Whiplash and Brain Traumatology from the Spine Research Institute of San Diego and Motor Vehicle Crash Forensic Risk Analysis. During his career, Dr. McClung has served as the President of the Central Texas Region of the Texas Chiropractic Association, as well as, the President of the Travis County Chiropractic Society.
Dr. Michael McClung is widely considered to be one of the top Chiropractors specializing in holistic and alternative health in the country and he is also a contributing member of our national network of industry professionals.
Today we are going to talk about a very important topic: Pinched Nerves, Muscle Spasms and Numbness
RC: Hello Dr. McClung how are you today?
Dr. Michael McClung: I’m doing great Liz.
RC: Well thanks so much for being here today and I’d like to just jump right in.
Question 1: How do you explain what a pinched nerve is and what it feels like to have one?
RC: So how do you explain what a ‘pinched nerve’ is and what it feels like to have one?
Dr. Michael McClung: Well pinched nerves are quite common and they hurt. It feels like you’ve got a piece of lint on your eye. It hurts more than that even, it feels like a toothache. But typically they are near the spine or they are going down your arms or down your legs. It doesn’t take much pressure on a nerve. I don’t know if you’ve ever hit your funny bone when you were a kid. That place in your elbow where once you hit it, oh my gosh, it hurts so bad and it takes about a minute or two for that to kind of go away. So when a nerve gets too much pressure on it, it swells up and when it swells up it hurts. And just like having a swollen eyeball or swollen gum tissue, the quicker you can get that swelling down, the better off these things are.
Question 2: In what parts of the body are muscle spasms most likely to occur and what causes them?
RC: Okay and in what parts of the body are muscle spasms most likely to occur and what causes them?
Dr. Michael McClung: I think the most common complaint I hear is spasms in people’s calves and in younger active people, it can be running too much, exercising too much. These days it’s yoga, just doing something that’s a little bit beyond your comfort zone and muscles react and they kind of go into protection mode and just get tense and hurt. So there’s many ways you can help ease those pains, a lot of times just through massage. Other people tend to have some kind of a mineral deficit and they get these – they’re called nocturnal cramps. They get them in their sleep and they hurt and so I have them eat a banana a day and that helps balance some of the potassium. It’s quite effective.
Question 3: What are some ways to reduce the risk of muscle spasms?
RC: Great, okay and what are some ways to reduce the risk of muscle spasms? I know you just mentioned try a banana but what are some other ways?
Dr. Michael McClung: Yeah a banana a day will keep the doctor away. You know, staying limber, stretching. If you’re going to go do some exercise limber up, warm up, pull and stretch these muscles. It’s when muscles are stiff and tight and you work them too hard, they’re going to resist, they’re going to rebel and they’re going to spasm up. I encourage folks to start taking yoga.
Question 4: Numbness seems more serious. What are the most common areas where people experience numbness and what could it be a symptom of?
RC: Okay and you know numbness seems a little more serious. What are the most common areas where people experience numbness and what could it be a symptom of?
Dr. Michael McClung: Numbness is much more serious. Numbness means that there is swelling in a nerve somewhere. Many times numbness starts in our spines. You can get a nerve pinched in your neck. You can get a nerve pinched in your low back and the most common one I see are the low backs because the sciatic nerve comes out of the low back about where the belt line is. It’s the biggest nerve in the body. It runs all the way down to your feet, as big around as your little finger. So every time you sit you put pressure on that nerve and enough pressure over a period of hours and hours and it begins to swell up and then you’ve got this numbness. Those are pretty easy to take care of. You just have a person get up and move around and not sit so much.
Others are more mechanical. They’ve been in an accident. They’ve got degeneration maybe from an old accident. Maybe the disc is wearing down and they get a nerve pinched in their spine. Those are much more difficult to treat.
Probably the biggest cause of numbness that I see are people as young as in their thirties. An old injury, an old car wreck when they were eighteen that they don’t even remember and we’ll take an x-ray and we’ll see major degeneration and we’ll see bone spurs. Well if you’ve got a hard bone spur putting pressure on a nerve and it’s causing numbness, you better get that taken care of because they can be quite serious.
Question 5: How can chiropractic care help alleviate all of these nerve related issues?
RC: Okay so how can chiropractic care help alleviate all of these nerve related issues?
Dr. Michael McClung: Yeah I don’t use the word “all” of these issues. We can relieve “most” of these issues. As a matter of fact, we haven’t sent a single patient to surgery in over five years. So most of what we do is very very effective and I’ve seen well over ten thousand patients. And it’s just extremely rare when one doesn’t get taken care of. Maybe in some cases with advanced degeneration, we can’t fix it but we can control it.
I tell people it’s like having a problem with your teeth. We can fix the problem but we can’t bring back what is gone. We’re not the fountain of youth. But traditional things like the chiropractic adjustment – we’ve done that for – actually we just celebrated as a profession our 120th birthday this week.
So this stuff has been done a long time. Obviously we’ve come a long way. We have advanced things that we can do now. Mostly, with us, the cold laser. Cold laser has just been amazing. Research on the cold laser has only been done the last five years. The vets are using it. Everybody is using cold lasers in some way. Dermatologists are using it; the cosmetic surgeons are using it. But chiropractors are always kind of the first to jump on these things so we were very early in the game. I have a couple of lasers, very strong lasers. They go into the cells and they trigger the release of these endorphins and they attract hemoglobin which brings oxygen and they also stimulate different chemicals that get rid of swelling – very effective.
So the cold laser is our number one tool and then we use some electrical nerve stimulators that are very effective. So the combination is just almost foolproof. I had a lady (this is an exciting story) – she started with us about two years ago. She had chemo therapy and the chemo therapy for cancer had damaged her nerves in her feet and legs so bad that she had to walk with a cane or walker and she struggled to walk from the grocery store to her car. We worked with her quite a bit. She came in this morning and she said, “Oh my gosh, I went to the Grand Canyon and I hiked forty-five miles without a problem!” So yeah, she was so excited. I never dreamed that she would have that kind of a recovery. Her husband is a medical doctor and he told her, “Whatever this chiropractor is doing over there, you keep doing it!” So he was a real vote of confidence. So very exciting.
We mostly have very positive outcomes with this combination. So never give up on these things.
RC: Well good! Thank you so much Dr. McClung. This has been great and we know you are really busy so we want to thank you for your time and help today.
Dr. Michael McClung: Well thank you, enjoy Liz.
RC: And for our listeners across the country, if you are interested in speaking with Dr. Michael McClung, you can either go online at www.northwestaustinchiropractor.com or call (512) 250-2225 to schedule an appointment.
On behalf of our entire team at razorcast™, we want to thank you for listening and we look forward to bringing you more top quality content from our country’s leading industry professionals.
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