Dr. Charles Edward Nguyen, DC

Of course!

First of all, I would like to thank you for your question. Can a shoulder impingement be fixed? The short and easy answer to this question is, of course. I’ve already answered this question in great detail in my profile. If you look at three or four answers ago, you’ll get the answers that you’re searching for.

Thank you kindly,

Dr. Charles Nguyen

I would like to start by thanking you for the question. I hope that you and your loved ones had a joyful and prosperous new year celebration.

Now to answer your question, “can I help with chronic shoulder pain”? Simple answer to that question is absolutely. Being a physician with a dual doctorate degree, and after spending many years in training, internships, and field experience in both the traditional Medical and the Chiropractic realm of healthcare which has allowed me to develop, and evolve over 25 years to become the healthcare practitioner that I am today.

With that being said, I can approach your chronic shoulder pain from a more comprehensive approach. What does that mean? Simply, that allows me to become more diversified when performing a thorough physical examination, determine the root cause of your shoulder pain, and develop a comprehensive treatment plan, followed by a long-term management plan to effectively cure you of your shoulder chronic issues.

With that being said, I hope that I answer your question I hope that That you will be able to effectively manage shoulder pain in a more desirable timeframe.

With kind regards,

Dr. Charles Nguyen

First of all, I wanna wish you and your loved ones a happy new year, and hope that you all have a joyful and prosperous year in 2024. Also, I would like to thank you for your question.

Now to answer your question regarding your back pain, it is very important that you do your research regarding how you want to approach in finding relief of your pain.

Are you the type of person that strictly believes in traditional medicine and go straight to your primary care provider for any type of muscular, skeletal pain? Or are you more of the alternative type and have strong believes in various forms of treatments that do not adhere to the traditional medical model.

Typically when I perform an initial intake on a patient with back pain, the most important aspect for me is to be the best listener that I can possibly be when when the patient tells me specific characteristics of his or her back pain.

When I feel that a patient has Completely express himself or herself on the causation of their back pain, at that point, that is when I start to begin to ask specific questions to determine the most appropriate approach to develop the most comprehensive, cost-effective, timely, and patient-friendly treatment plan.

Is also important for you to to do the most comprehensive research on the provider that you have trusted in providing your care. You have to feel that he or she has no other motive, other than providing you the most patient friendly healthcare as possible

So, when you are searching for a discipline to relieve you of your back pain, I would certainly look for specialist in the musculoskeletal realm. By that, I’m talking about chiropractors, osteopaths, orthopedist, doctor of physical medicine, and rehabilitation are the mainline forms of therapy when it comes to mosquito skeletal back pain.

But it is also important to have an open mind when it comes to your care. Treating with massage, therapist, acupuncturist, physical therapist, and also work closely with personal trainer would often get you the best results.

I hope that I have answered your question and provided you a structured approach in your journey of finding relief of your back pain.

Again, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your question. And I hope that you’ll come to find an approach that will satisfy all of your needs.

With my kindest regards,

Dr. Charles Nguyen

First of all I want to wish you a happy new year. I hope that you and your loved ones have a joyful prosperous year in 2024. Thank you for your question.

Now when you tell me that you have “spine pain”, and can it be corrected with exercises. This to me, is a very general question. To answer your question in more comprehensive fashion, I would certainly need more information regarding your back pain.

Where is the location of the pain? Is it up in your neck and upper back region, mid back or is it in the lower back region or is it a combination of any of these three. What is the frequency of the pain? Is it occasional, intermittent, frequent or is it more of a constant type of pain.

What is the quality of the pain? How would you describe in your own words . Is it a dull achy type of pain or is it sharp and stabbing. There are so many ways to characterize the quality of the pain, and that is very important when determining the root cause, and more importantly, how to properly treat your back pain and ultimately properly manage it long-term.

Is the pain localized to one area of the back or does it radiate to any other part of your body. Are there any associated symptoms along with your back pain? What are the aggravating factors, and what brings you relief of your back pain?

Do you have any associated medical conditions that I should be aware of?

All these questions need to be entertained in order to properly answer your question. But generally when people come to me with general back pain, and depending on root cause of the back pain, I would generally put these patients on a multidimensional treatment approach. That means co-treating with many various types of musculoskeletal specialties or disciplines.. from my previous experiences. This is the most effective way to achieve your health goals, both short, and long term.

The goal here is to keep them off pain medication‘s, and preventing surgery at any cost. All the other non-invasive options must be entertained in order to create the most comprehensive, cost-effective, efficient treatment plan.

What do I mean by that? Well, I mean specifically placing this patient on a chiropractic corrective care plan with a specific date that they would be able to resume their daily lifestyle without any restrictions.

Co-treat with doctors of Osteopathy, Orthopedic specialists, Acupuncturist, Massage Therapist, Physical Therapist and also work closely with a person trainer.

In doing so, within the corrective care plan, depending on the area that is affected, I have detailed exercises for each region of the spine in order to maximize the efficiency of the treatment plan and return the patient back to normal status as quick as possible.

The provider can do as much as he or she possibly can but it is also up to the patient to be very proactive in there rehabilitative care plan. That means being very strict with daily stretches and exercises and being very attentive to the way your body is responding.

So to answer your question yes exercises can definitely help you with your back pain but it is also important to know that the type of exercises being prescribe is very crucial to your recovery.

I hope this answers your question and gives you some type of peace of mind regarding your journey in finding relief of your back pain.

Again, I want to thank you for your question, please take great care of your body as it is a “temple” should be treated as such. Pay close attention to your body, and be very attentive to what it is telling you, as it will never lie to you, and will lead you astray. Treat it as such and you’ll be rewarded with a fulfilling lifestyle.

Yours in health,

Dr. Charles Nguyen

Before I start, and answering your question, I would like to thank you asking for the question, and I will try to do my best to answer your question and relieve your anxiety.

Whenever someone has gone through the entire birthing process, and subsequently has transition onto becoming a mother, through my 25 years of practice, I have seen many muscular, skeletal issues associated with such a process.

The main complaints that I hear is persistent, but localized lower back pain, and sometimes with an associated sciatica. That is a very common chief complaint, post pregnancy.

If I’m understanding the gist of your question, when you say that your sacrococcygeal bone is pointing inwards, I believe that this tells me that you have an increased sacral base angle. What does that mean?

That basically means that at your Lumbo cycle junction, which is at the junction where your low back meets your tailbone, it has taken an acute, steep angle thereby causing you to have a “swayback”appearance.

This is very common condition, and what typically happens is that when a patient presents with a swayback appearance, all of the posterior vertical segments from the fifth lumbar segment even the fourth lumbar segment to the first sacral segment, becomes compressed, and subsequently pinched. Typically a constant, low back pain, tenderness, and stiffness..

All this is confirmed via history intake, a thorough, physical examination, and of course, a detailed treatment plan along with a long-term management protocol.

The first step is to base angle, and this can be done via correcting any self along the lumbosacral region, once that is corrected we have a focus on the musculoskeletal structures of that region.

This is performing any type of myofascial release therapy, trigger point therapy, and if necessary, perform an active release therapy on those structures. Once that is accomplished, that will allow the sacrococcygeal more of a natural alignment, and once that is accomplished the pain will subsequently be diminished.

I hope this is the answer your question and allow you to achieve a more comfortable lifestyle. Please continue to pay close attention to your body treated as a temple. And doing so you will live too much more pain-free lifestyle.

Thank you, yours in health,
Dr Charles Nguyen

Thank you for your question. To properly answer this question, I would need a little bit more of your information. I would need your age, sex, and any pertinent medical history.

When we are talking about arthritis of the hip, it usually occurs at the medial aspect, or the inner aspect of the hip first, and then it starts propagating towards the lateral or the outer portion of the hip.

I would also ask you if you’ve had any previous, or recent x-rays of your hip? Because, looking at these x-rays would provide us with the extent of your joint degeneration. that would give us a clue as to how we are going to Pro, who is preparing their detailed treatment protocol.

Due to the hips, being a weight-bearing joint, many times I’ll advise our patients to exercise in a swimming pool doing so that would eliminate the gravitational compressive forces being applied to the hips.

We also have to ascertain if the arthritis is due to inflammatory cause or a non-inflammatory cause. if there’s inflammation involved, the the RICE pneumonic is a good place to start. R stand for rest. I stand for ice. C stands for compression, thereby using a bandage to wrap the ice firmly onto the affected hip. E stands for elevation, so elevating your lower extremity above the level of your heart would facilitate the drainage of the inflammatory fluids back to the organs in order to metabolize and excrete fluids.

Is the hip is in a state, then realignment and adjustment of the hip is warranted via a chiropractic or osteopathic methodologies. This will allow for normal restructuring of the skeletal components of the hip as well as facilitate the healing process.

Another important aspect is nutrition. As the hip joint is underground, degeneration, one must think about adding the supplement Chondroitin Sulfate aka Glucoseaminoglycans (GAG’s). This supplements are primary derived from shark cartilage and have documented to stimulate partial regeneration of cartilages.

And finally, one must look at the patients activities of living, and extracurricular activities. See if any modifications need to be made to any of these activities to facilitate the healing process.

I hope that I have answered your question and provide you with systematic approach to dealing with hip arthritis. Please pay close attention to your body as it is a temple and should be treated as such.

Yours in health,

Dr. Charles Nguyen

First of all, I would like to thank you for your question. The obvious answer to this question is, of course. When you have a toothache, where would you go? To the dentist right? When your eyes are giving you problems, naturally, you’ll go to to the ophthalmologist, correct

So for any type of musculoskeletal joint pain, one should seek out the professional services of a joint pain specialist which would typically lead to seek the professional services of a doctor of osteopathy, or a doctor of chiropractic. In my past experiences with patients presenting with shoulder pain or any joint pain for that matter, co-management with multiple healthcare disciplines, have often produce the best results.

Also, acupuncture, massage therapy, physical therapy, and staying well conditioned with a personal trainer combined with the services of a nutritionist would present an ideal situation.

In closing, when dealing with any type of musculoskeletal skeletal joint pain, the most practical approach is to attack it from a multi dimensional approach in which one would have a more diverse menu of treatment options that are available.

I hope that this answer would serve well in providing you with a systematic, structured approach to relieving your shoulder joint pain.

With that being said, please take care of yourself, and take even greater care of your body.

Yours in Health,

Dr. Charles Nguyen

When we are talking about shoulder impingement, the most important thing is to identify exactly what type of impingement is that you are experiencing. The most common type of shoulder impingement that I see in clinical practice is due to the costoclavicular impingement.

Right below the clavicle or your collarbone travels, a nerve bundle in artery and a vein. The nerve bundle being the brachial plexus travels through that area and below the collarbone is your first rib or rib number one.

Whenever a patient does repetitive overhead movements with her shoulders, for example, with their work, or even in their activities of daily living, the clavicle, and the first rib can approximate, therefore compressing on that brachial plexus thus causing you to have your ridiculous symptoms down the shoulder to the arm, and sometimes to the wrist and hands.

After determine if it’s indeed caused by this type of impingement, a good test would be to perform would be palpating the radio pulse with the shoulder and arm in a relaxed position. After determining the pulse, the patient is asked to raise their shoulder and arm above their head and extend their shoulders as well. This test will cause the first rib and the clavicle to approximate. the causing the radio post to dissipate. This is very pathing pneumonic for shoulder impingement.

After confirmation, there are multiple ways to treat shoulder impingement. When looking at the muscular, skeletal system in its totality., one must pay attention to every aspect of the muscular skeletal system. We are talking about bones, joints, tendons, ligament, fascia, bursa, nerves, and blood vessels as well.

Systematically, the first thing to do is to determine the affected shoulder range of motion. After performing range of motion, next thing we would do typically is a focus neurological exam, followed by a motor exam testing the nerves in the muscles being affected.

Once the appropriate affected area is ascertained, the first thing is to correct any structural abnormalities found. I’m talking about any type of shoulder subluxation. Once that is corrected, now we can pay attention to the surrounding structures, the muscles the tendons in the ligaments this is where massage is crucial in the correction of any type of shoulder impingement.

For my experience, the type of massage doesn’t have to be any type of really deep tissue massage, but rather a massage that is specifically aim to release the hypertonic and spasm muscles of the shoulder.

Anteriorly we’re talking about the Pec Major, Pec Minor, Anterior Deltoid And portions of the upper trapezius muscles. The massage has to be focused on those specific muscles which would release the pressure off of the surrounding structures specifically the collarbone and rib number one.

Causing the costoclavicular space to become patent and thereby decreased the chances Of those two structures, approximate each other when there is repetitive shoulder movements involved.

I hope that this helps you on your journey to correct your shoulder impingement.

Stay blessed, yours in health,

Dr. Charles Nguyen

Thank you for your question regarding your knee pain. The first important question that I need to ask you is how tall are you and how much do you weigh? Understanding that you are a female, and that you are 50 years of age, the knee joint, being a weight-bearing joint will typically undergo wear and tear throughout our lifetime. Without experiencing a pathophysiological insult to our knee, typically it is just part of the aging process. Normal wear and tear.

However, as you stated that your experiencing a sharp knee pain upon weight-bearing activities, such as walking, climbing, and descending stairs, paint a picture of a possible osteoarthritic situation of the knee.

However, when you say that your knee hurts when you’re laying down, that means you’re not in the weight-bearing position anymore which would lead me to believe that it is not due to constant, persistent compressive forces that is causing your knee pain.

When you are in the non-weightbearing position, such as such as when your are lying down or sitting and you are still experiencing knee pain, that could be due to an inflammatory condition and/or also due to a structural abnormality that is causing your knee pain.

Specifically at the front of the knee, there’s a condition that is termed, patellar tendinitis. That is due to the inflammation of the patellar tendon as it attaches with the quadricep muscle. Many of my patients have experienced patellar tendinitis, even when they’re laying down or sitting as in a non-weightbearing position.

Also, you said that applying ice does not help relieve your suffering. In the medical, osteopathic, and chiropractic community, we often treat these inflammatory conditions by strictly adhering to the pneumonic KISS..

By keeping the treatment protocols simple, and efficient efficient, the route, my experience, patients are more likely to be more proactive in their recovery.

There is a pneumonic in the healthcare community termed R.I.CE. which is often very effective in relieving this type of knee pain. The capital R stands for Rest meaning that you should stay off the injured knee whether you’re lying in a prone or supine position, basically in a non-weight-bearing environment. The I stands for ice in which you’ve already attempted to apply to relieve your pain. The capital C stands for compression, so what I would advise our patients is to go to target, Rite Aid, or Walmart and buy a ace bandage and as they’re laying down, firmly wrap the ice pack on top of the injured portion of the knee and with the ace bandage, so it actually applies compressive force on the injured area. But it is also important not to wrap it so tightly as to cut off the circulation. By doing so you could shorten the healing time in a more desirable manner.

And finally the E stands for elevation. What does that mean? That basically means that you’re laying down either on your bed or on your couch place four or five pillows underneath your leg or ankle, so that the leg is higher than the level of your heart. This will allow free flowing drainage of the inflammatory fluid away from the injured area, back to the organs that are involved metabolizing and excretion of the inflammatory fluids thus reducing the inflammation, swelling, and subsequently the pain.

This simple method has been very effective clinically throughout the years that I’ve been practicing and has relieved many of my patients non-organic cause of pain.

Another very important clinical pearl to understand about a non-organic cause of knee pain is to go to the inner part of the knee and feel for the vastus medialis muscle, which is the primary stabilizing muscle of the knee. When I am practicing with a younger clinician, I often try to teach them to keep things as simple as possible. There’s no need to look for all the uncommon causes of knee pain when I have seen through the years of clinical practice that a chronically hypertonic, myospasm Tomorrow of the vastus medialis muscle is one of the most common causes of non-organic knee pain.

The simple but very effective treatment remedies would be to perform an active release technique on the muscle belly, followed by myofascial release technique on the musculotendinous portion of the muscle, and finally followed by trigger point therapy on all the spasms throughout the entire muscle. Naturally any subluxations of the knee needs to be properly corrected via Chiropractic or osteopathic manipulations.

By applying these simple, noninvasive techniques, one can avoid taking pain medication’s, and more importantly, surgical intervention.

Another important aspect is nutrition, there is a supplement that is termed chondroitin sulfate or also known as glucoseaminoglycans (GAG’s) which is typically produced from a derivative of shark cartilage, and has been documented to provide partial regeneration to the main cartilages of the knee.

Also it is important to maintain within your normal body mass index (BMI) as chronic obesity will subsequently result in weight-bearing joint pain either at the hips, at the knees and/or at the ankles due to the constant compressive forces being applied to those areas.

I hope that I have answered your question and have provide practical methodologies for you to explorer in your journey to relieve your suffering.

With that being said, please take great care of yourself, pay close attention to your body as the old-saying goes,”It will tell you everything that you’ll ever need to know., and it will never lie to you and lead you down a path astray.

Our body is a temple, and when it is treated as such, one can indeed venture down a path of true health, wellness, and well-being

Yours in health,

Dr. Charles Nguyen

The answer is dependent mainly on a variety of important factors. For example, what is the age of the patient? Is the patient afflicted with a *structural or functional *scoliosis? A scoliosis of a functional origin is most likely to respond to treatment and management protocol because this form of scoliosis developed at a time of the patient's life. This is the acquired form. Conversely, the structural form indicates that the patient was born with this form of scoliosis and may progressively get worse with time. Under these circumstances, a more aggressive posture must be ascertained and a surgical intervention may be necessary to correct the structural defect. Once that determination has been ascertained, the next important determining factor is the Cobb angle (the degree of curvature; mild, moderate, severe). Is the scoliosis impeding any of the patient's organs, and what are the symptoms as a result of this (i.e., a 30 degree levoscoliosis centered at the upper thoracic region, thus putting pressure of the patient's respiratory system causing the patient to experience intermittent shortness of breath, and dyspnea on exertion). Once all the pertinent data has been compiled, then a determination can be made whether a surgical intervention will be necessary to correct the patient's scoliosis.
In most cases, the most non-invasive techniques, procedures are usually ascertained and implemented prior to any sort of surgical consultation to be considered.

Absolutely, we can. Most commonly when a patient comes in with rounded shoulders, it is a very easy diagnosis. Typically it starts with the patient having a condition by the name of upper crust syndrome. Basically, this condition is caused by an imbalance between the anterior and posterior shoulder musculature.

When the anterior shoulder muscles such as the anterior deltoid and pectoral muscles are tight or hypertonic, then you’ll typically see that post to your shoulder muscles such as the upper trapezius elevator scapular, and the rhomboid musculature are being stretched, that’s causing rowdy shoulder appearance.

The upper cross syndrome can simply be treated via chiropractic treatment and that includes electrical muscle stimulation to the posterior shoulder muscles, heating pads to augment the relaxation response, chiropractic adjustments to that area, therapeutic stretches to the anterior shoulder muscles and rehabilitative exercises to stabilize the anterior and posterior shoulder girdle musculature.

The "clicking" thing that Doctors of Chiropractic utilize is known as the "Activator" methods. It's actually a technique that was developed by Dr. Arlan Fuhr, who has spent over 40 years in clinical research and private practice. The Activator is a tool that Chiropractic uses to increase the level of specificity regarding delivery of an adjustment. Doctors using this tool aren't required, but are highly recommended to take specific Activator courses to deliver the most comprehensive treatment possible.

"Popping" your knee by yourself is definitely not advisable at anytime. The knee are 2 very important weightbearing structures that are held in anatomical position by ligaments, musculotendinous and fascia to allow them perform the many functions that they do. When there's "popping" present, that signifies that there's some instability with the one of the anatomical structures and they are not doing their job properly. One should strive to eliminate the popping via strengthening exercises and application of a knee sleeve.

This is going to be the easiest answer that I've ever entered. You Can't!

The reasons why your elbow hurts when you try to straighten it can be numerous. To properly determine the exact causation of the pain that you are experiencing, a thorough history, a comprehensive physical examination and possible other test may be required to give you the most accurate answer possible. If any physician gives you an answer without matriculating through the process that I just mentioned, the he/she is doing you a disservice.

Absolutely! But to know what are the most advantageous stretches to perform, one must ascertain where exactly the impingement is occurring. To do so, a physician must have the proper knowledge, training and experience to perform the most detailed examination as possible so that a short term treatment plan along with a long term management plan can be provided to the patient with 100% confidence that the impingement not only will be resolved in the shortest amount of time as possible but more importantly, taking the necessary measures to prevent it from ever recurring again.

Any doctor that has specific education, training and experience with musculoskeletal disorders. With that being said, Orthopedic doctors, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Doctors of Osteopathy and Doctors of Chiropractic Healthcare all are very well trained to properly assess, analyze, diagnose, treat and subsequently, manage clinical cases in which hip and leg pain are the areas of chief complaint in a 16 year old boy.

My personal advice is for you to do your due diligence when researching each doctor regarding every aspect of his professional career because you are entrusting this physician to care for your child and trusting that he will do what is best for you child to get him out of pain and back to full functioning potential in the shortest amount of time as possible.

The only tangible relief that you can experience is by performing region specific exercises and stretches relative to the area in question. In this case, this gentleman appears to have been experiencing radiculitis in his lower extremity. The question I would need to entertain prior to providing any type home treatment recommendations is he experiencing unilateral or bilateral symptoms. This is a very important piece of information because it would allow me to discern if this gentleman is either having a central vs a peripheral lesion or nerve entrapment. Of course, the unilateral symptoms will lead one to think that it is a peripheral entrapment (i.e., Piriformis Syndrome, Meralgia Paresthetica, etc...) whereas the bilateral symptoms will lead one to think of a central nerve irritation (i.e., > 3mm Posterior lumbar disc protrusion, spinal stenosis, etc...).

The importance of understanding this piece of information is because providing home recommendations for one vs the other are totally different set of treatment protocols.

All of this and more information would have to be to attained during the history and physical examination portion of the doctor-patient encounter. Before providing any sound treatment recommendations, I need to ask the patient a set of very specific questions before giving him my recommendations.

Every person who seeks Chiropractic care is always subject to some type of risk, however, that also depends on the vigilance and competency of the practitioner. These risk can be minimized or marginalized by strictly adhering to a few very important principles. One, no procedure should be entertained or performed if it could pose a harm to the child in anyway. Two, no procedure should be entertained or performed if it could possibly stunt the growth of a child. Three, all procedures must adhere to the strict protocols and guidelines of pediatric adjustment/manipulation. If the practitioner, then he/she must refer to a practitioner who has the competency and experience in treating children. I hope this helps in answering your question.

Thank you for your question