Conditions We Treat
Back Pain
Back pain rarely comes out of nowhere. It usually builds up from years of poor posture, heavy lifting, or sitting for long stretches without much movement. Small actions like bending the wrong way or picking something up awkwardly are often just the final straw after months or years of strain building underneath. When you come in we want to understand not just where it hurts, but why it started in the first place. That means checking your posture, your range of motion, and taking X-rays if needed to see what is really going on in the spine. Treatment usually centers around adjustments to restore proper movement, along with muscle work and exercises to help you build stability. If left untreated, back pain tends to get worse over time and can lead to more serious issues down the road.
Neck Pain
The most common factor that contributes to neck pain is chronic poor posture. It builds slowly, over years, from small shifts in how your neck moves and holds itself day to day. Then a small trigger tips it over: sleeping in an odd position, turning your head too fast to check a blind spot. A lot of it traces back further than people realize; even the birth process itself puts real stress on a newborn’s neck, and every fall from those early years learning to walk adds a bit more. None of that goes away on its own. Left unchecked, it speeds up the wear on your joints, similar to how food left between your teeth eventually turns into decay. Dr. Jerry Weider starts with a look at your posture and movement, then X-rays to see what is actually happening underneath. From there, treatment usually mixes adjustments, muscle stimulation, and traction to loosen the neck back up.
Sciatica
Pain runs down from your glutes into your leg, sometimes with numbness or a burning feeling. That is sciatica. A lot of people think it is only about the sciatic nerve, but most of the time it actually starts higher up, in the lower back, where several nerves come together before heading down the leg. A bulging disc, swelling, or a misalignment in that area is often what is putting pressure on the nerve. Wait too long, and it can turn into something a simple treatment plan cannot fully fix anymore. Dr. Jerry Weider uses adjustments along with a specialized table built for decompression, plus muscle therapy, to take that pressure off. Visit our Ballard Seattle Chiropractic Center to discuss your concerns.
Herniated Disc
There is a difference between a bulge and a true herniation. With a herniated disc, the material inside actually pushes out past where it belongs, and that is what can press on the nerves nearby. Pain from this tends to feel sharper and stays more constant than regular back pain, and sometimes there is weakness down the leg too. Dr. Jerry Weider starts by reviewing your X-rays, and if the disc looks affected, an MRI usually follows to get a clearer picture. Hearing the word herniated scares a lot of people into thinking surgery is the only path forward, but many respond well without it. Adjustments, spinal traction, therapeutic massage, and nutritional support are typically part of the plan here, helping the body repair itself over time.
Headaches and Migraines
A lot of headaches trace back to the top of the neck, right where it meets the base of the skull. If irritation builds up in that area, it can send pain up into the head. When someone comes in with headaches, Dr. Jerry Weider wants to know how often they happen, whether light bothers you more than usual, and if there is any warning sign before the pain hits. From there, it is a postural exam plus X-rays, including ones that capture the neck in motion. Treatment centers on relieving that pressure near the upper neck, though diet and stress get looked at too, since they play a role for some people. How fast you improve really depends on the person. Some feel better almost right away; others take a couple of months. One patient actually came in for back pain and only mentioned afterward that her migraines were gone.
Scoliosis
Scoliosis is a side-to-side curve in the spine that should normally sit straight. This curve changes how your body moves and often forces other areas to compensate, which can lead to pain showing up somewhere else entirely. Many people do not even know they have it until they come in for something like neck or back pain, and it is spotted during a postural exam or X-ray. How much the curve can be improved depends on where it came from and how long it has been there. Dr. Jerry Weider also checks for uneven leg length, which is common alongside scoliosis, and corrects it with heel lifts when needed. She has treated patients with significant curves who saw real improvement in just a few weeks of care.
Knee Pain
Knee pain rarely starts in the knee itself. More often, it comes from how your hips, spine, or feet are working, or not working, above and below the joint. That is why Dr. Jerry Weider looks at your whole body, not just the knee, when you come in. She checks your posture, does specific knee tests, and uses X-rays or an MRI if needed to understand what is going on. Shockwave therapy helps speed up healing in the joint itself, while correcting issues like flat feet or leg length with orthotics addresses the root cause. Ignoring knee pain does not just affect the knee. Over time, the extra strain can spread to your hips and spine. A personal trainer treated by Dr. Jerry Weider went from barely able to kneel to being fully active again within weeks.
Carpal Tunnel
Numbness, tingling, or a weak grip in the hand and fingers, often worse at night or after a day of typing. That is usually how carpal tunnel shows up. Most people assume the wrist is the whole problem, but a lot of the time, the irritation starts further up, in the nerves running from the neck and shoulder down into the arm. That is why Dr. Weider does not just look at the wrist in isolation. Your visit includes a check on posture, nerve function, and how your neck and shoulders are moving overall. Adjustments to relieve pressure along that nerve pathway are usually part of the plan, along with exercises aimed at taking strain off the wrist itself. Catching this early makes a real difference. Recovery gets a lot harder once the symptoms turn constant.
Osteoarthritis
Cartilage cushions your joints, and osteoarthritis develops when that cushioning wears down over the years, often from repetitive stress or an old injury that never quite healed right. Morning stiffness, aching after activity, and a joint that will not move the way it used to are the usual signs. The wear already done cannot be reversed, but slowing it down and keeping the joint working well day to day is very much possible. Dr. Jerry Weider looks closely at posture and movement patterns first, trying to spot what might be adding extra stress to the joint. From there, treatment usually combines adjustments to improve motion with therapies that calm inflammation and support the muscles around the joint. The aim throughout is simple: keep you moving comfortably for as long as possible.
Shoulder Pain
Shoulder pain can come from the joint itself, but often it is connected to how your neck and upper back are moving, too. If those areas are not working properly, your shoulder ends up compensating, which leads to more strain and pain over time. When you come in, I will check your range of motion, do some orthopedic testing, and look at your posture to understand where the real problem is coming from. Treatment usually combines adjustments with therapies like shockwave or muscle stimulation, depending on how you are presenting. Left unaddressed, shoulder issues tend to limit your daily activities more and more and can eventually lead to more involved treatment. Getting it looked at early usually makes recovery much smoother.
Vertigo
That dizzy, off-balance sensation, often referred to as vertigo, may in some cases be related to your upper cervical spine. Our nerves and joints influence our body’s ability to sense balance. This is just one of the possible causes, but this one in particular is something Dr. Jerry Weider makes sure to look for because it is frequently overlooked. During your appointment with her, she will inquire as to how frequent the condition is, what brings it on, and after that, she will conduct a thorough examination of your neck and your balance mechanism. Should your neck turn out to be among the factors contributing to the problem, adjustments specifically aimed at your upper cervical spine are likely to be of assistance. How quickly you will experience any relief depends entirely on what is causing your vertigo.