Catalina Medical Center: Blog

Your spine is necessary and crucial for everyday function. It’s made up of vertebrae, each one equally important. Between them are intervertebral discs. Severe back pain occurs when one of these discs becomes herniated or “slips out” of place. Drs. Richard Cohen, Rob Josefsson, and Paul Newhouse treat disc herniation at Catalina Medical Center. Located in Redondo Beach, CA, they provide a variety of top-tier treatment methods.   Your appointment begins with a physical evaluation. It’s necessary to determine where the slipped disc is. A spinal examination is performed. Your Redondo Beach chiropractor will also check for any loss of sensation, muscle wasting, and damaged reflexes. Be upfront with any medical information and history. This may point to any underlying causes of the herniation.   Treatment can begin after locating the herniated disc. Spinal manipulation is the best bet. Your chiropractor will either use their hands or specialized tools to move the disc back into place. Other...

If you are an athlete or have recently fallen on to a hard surface, you may have injured your tailbone. These types of injuries make it painful to stand, sit, and lie down. Drs. Richard Cohen, Donald Weinstein, and Rob Josefsson provide phenomenal chiropractic treatment. Contact Catalina Medical Center in Redondo Beach, CA, to learn more.   The tailbone, technically known as the coccyx, is at the end of your spinal column. It’s often bruised or injured due to falling. Landing directly on it leads to serious injuries. It’s common to receive a tailbone injury when falling on the stairs. Even sitting on uncomfortable furniture for extended periods can leave an impact.   The main symptoms of a tailbone injury are stiffness and pain. The muscles around the coccyx are responsible for this. They seize up, causing your discomfort. In some cases, swelling pushes the coccyx out-of-place. This compresses the nearby nerves. Inflammation is another common symptom.   It’s important to schedule an ap...

At Catalina Medical Center, your Redondo Beach, CA, staff provide chiropractic care for a variety of conditions. If you are suffering from fibromyalgia, look no further! Drs. Donald Weinstein, Richard Cohen, and Rob Josefsson are the best of the best! Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a chronic pain disorder. It causes constant and widespread pain throughout the musculoskeletal system. This includes the muscles, tendons, joints, and soft tissues. We provide chiropractic adjustments and manipulations to greatly increase patients' quality of life. Contact our office to learn more!   FMS is both hard to diagnose and treat. There is no known medical cause for it. Medical experts theorize that it stems from genetics, infections, and/or physical/emotional stress. Traditional western medicine focuses on treating your symptoms. Pain medications are often the go-to. This isn’t the case with chiropractic care. Your Redondo Beach care team treat the root of your pain. Only through chiropractic t...

Allergies may seem like they worsen with spring flowers, but they exist year-round! If you find yourself sneezing, itchy, and overflowing with nasal congestion, look no further! Catalina Medical Center offers chiropractic treatment for allergies. Drs. Richard Cohen, Rob Josefsson, and Donald Weinstein hold a lifetime of experience between them. Don’t let allergy symptoms ruin your life. Contact our office today!   You may not realize it, but your immune system and nervous system are directly connected. Allergies kickstart your immune system into an overdrive state. Your body is mistaking allergens as harmful pathogens. This then throws off your entire nervous system. Your Redondo Beach chiropractors provide a solution: spinal adjustments. These realign your spine to increase overall bodily function.   The hub of the nervous system is found in the spine. It connects your entire body. This is where all communication originates from and flows. This is what makes subluxations or misalignme...

Drs. Richard Cohen, Rob Josefsson, and Paul Newhouse provide quality chiropractic care to our patients in the Redondo Beach, CA, area. At Catalina Medical Center, we provide treatment for a variety of conditions, including Spinal Stenosis. This spinal condition happens when the open spaces within the spine start to narrow. Contact our office to learn more about spinal stenosis and how it’s treated.   Spinal stenosis begins with the bordering structures of the spinal canal moving away from their desired positions. This limits the appropriate amount of space on the spine. There are a few contributing factors to this development. Growing older is one of them. As we age, the discs between each vertebra begin to shrink. Thickened ligaments also occur. These produce spurs that grow into the spinal canal. Other spinal conditions also put you at risk for spinal stenosis. This includes arthritis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and spondylolisthesis.   The biggest and most common symptom ...

Degenerative Disc Disease is less of a disease and more of a byproduct of aging. As we grow older, our bodies naturally begin to wear down. The spinal discs protect the vertebrae from everyday wear and tear. Once they weaken you can experience problems like bulging and herniated discs, osteoarthritis, and spinal stenosis. Drs. Richard Cohen, Rob Josefsson, and Paul Newhouse work with you to relieve any painful symptoms. To learn more, contact our office in Redondo Beach, CA.   Any noticeable symptoms depend entirely on the patient. The biggest factor is the severity of the condition. Some patients don’t even notice that they have it. Pain is noted in the back or neck, wherever the affected disc is located. It can even spread through the arms, legs, and buttocks. Overall, pain levels range from mild to severe.   As mentioned, the biggest cause of degenerative disc disease is aging. Discs naturally lose fluid, making them stiffer and smaller. Everyday use leaves a toll. Repeated physical...

With warm weather comes fun days in the sun enjoying the great outdoors! After a cold winter, spending some time outside is a great stress reliever. Yet the blooming plant life brings a dangerous threat: allergy season. Your allergies can make you downright miserable in the warmer seasons. Drs. Richard Cohen, Rob Josefsson, and Paul Newhouse offer chiropractic treatment for allergies. Contact Catalina Medical Center in Redondo Beach, CA, to learn more.   You may not think so, but your immune system and nervous system are closely connected. Allergy season knocks them both down a notch and off their game. Spinal adjustments are the solution. Your Redondo Beach chiropractor realigns your spine to increase your overall body function.   The nervous system is housed in the spine. Its function is to keep constant communication between your body and brain. Any blockages in the spine or neck halt this communication. Spinal adjustments correct misalignments and subluxation. It relieves bulging o...

This June is Scoliosis Awareness Month. At Catalina Medical Center in Redondo Beach, CA, we provide spinal adjustments and manipulations to improve our patients quality of life. Drs. Richard Cohen, Rob Josefsson, and Paul Newhouse also offer scoliosis screenings and evaluation. Early detection and prevention is the key to a healthy life. Diagnosing scoliosis during childhood produces the best results. Treatment before the bones have fully formed can correct potential problems.   To better understand how we treat scoliosis, you’ll need to understand what it is exactly. Scoliosis is caused by an abnormal spinal shape. Left untreated, adolescent scoliosis will follow a patient into adulthood. Other causes are injury, abnormal nerve or muscle formations, and/or bone abnormalities. The condition creates problems with your balance and height. It can also lead to degenerative disc disease and spinal osteoarthritis. There are four types of adult scoliosis: degenerative, idiopathic, neuromuscul...

When a patient has Sciatica, what their really experiencing is a pain in their sciatic nerve. This is the largest nerve in the body. It runs all through your torso and into your legs. Because of this, it is really more of a symptom than an actual medical condition. The pain is caused by the nerve being pinched or agitated in some way. Our staff at Catalina Medical Center, located in Redondo Beach, CA, can provide treatment. Drs. Richard Cohen, Rob Josefsson, and Paul Newhouse are available by appointment.   Common symptoms of sciatic pain are burning sensations running through the buttock or leg, lower back pain, difficulty controlling the lower extremities, and tingling or loss of sensation in the legs and feet. The main causes behind sciatica are bulging or herniated discs, spinal misalignment, or spinal stenosis.   The biggest problem that patients have with sciatic pain is that it comes and goes erratically. This can make it hard to diagnose and treat. Until you locate the cause of...

If you work in an office, you might have heard your coworkers talking about Office Ergonomics. But what exactly is it? And how can it help you? Ergonomics focuses on adapting your surroundings to accommodate the human body. Drs. Richard Cohen, Rob Josefsson, and Paul Newhouse of Catalina Medical Center recommend it to all patients. It improves your productivity, efficiency, and minimizes your physical discomfort. To learn more, contact our office in Redondo Beach, CA.   Your desk is the first thing you’ll adjust when adhering to office ergonomics. Making sure its best suited for your physical needs is vital. After all, you spend the majority of your work day there. Try to adjust your desk to best match your height. Place everything on your desk within proper reach. When it comes to sitting, have your feet on the ground at all times. You want your legs to be at a 90-110 degree angle. This allows for proper blood flow. Sit completely upright with your back straight against the chair.   F...

The Activator Method Chiropractic Technique is used by Dr. Richard Cohen and Dr. Rob Josefsson at Catalina Medical Center. It is used to treat types of back pain, neck pain, and headaches.   It is a relatively painless procedure, an alternative to the chiropractic method of spinal adjustment and manipulation. Our staff will have you first come in for a consultation. This allows us to learn of your medical history and perform a physical evaluation. It’s also a great time for you to voice any concerns that you may have. Open communication lets us know what you want to achieve and how best to do it. The treatment will occur over a few sessions, allowing for progress to be recorded. Most patients begin to see improvement between four to six weeks.   At your appointment, you will come in and lie face down on the adjustment table. The Activator Adjusting Instrument will be placed upon each area of the spine individually. The device will push against the spine to relieve and restore motion. I...

Cold Laser Therapy (CLT), also known as Low Level Laser Therapy, is a chiropractic treatment that uses specific wavelengths of light to accelerate the healing process within the body. At Catalina Medical Center, Dr. Richard Cohen and Dr. Rob Josefsson offer CLT to our eligible patients.   Cold lasers are handheld devices typically the size of a flashlight. The doctor places the laser over the injured or affected area for 30 seconds to several minutes. This all depends on the size of the area being treated and the dose of the laser.   Cold Laser Therapy is FDA approved and can be used to treat acute and chronic pain, ligament sprains, muscle strain, soft tissue injuries, tendonitis, arthritis, tennis elbow, back pain, bursitis, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Fibromyalgia.   The procedure is painless, noninvasive, and a nonaddicting treatment method. The light from the lasers travels throughout the body to open communication between your cells and the brain. This allows your brain to release...

At Catalina Medical Center, we offer Acupuncture treatment to our patients. Acupuncture is based on the theory of ‘qi’ or energy that flows throughout the body. Acupuncture needles are used to correct any disruptions in the flow of Qi.   Acupuncture is a noninvasive and nontoxic treatment method for chronic pain. At your appointment, metallic needles are placed on specific areas of your body. The process is relatively painless. Some patients report feeling a warm, pulling sensation while others feel cool and light. Treatments awaken the nervous system and internal organs, allowing them to begin their own self-healing power. The goal is not to just relieve symptoms, but to understand the underlying causes of disease. Each session provides both the body and mind with relaxation and restoration.   Traditional Chinese medicinal herbs are used to alleviate certain symptoms during acupuncture therapy. Each blend of herbs is catered to the patient and their unique needs. These formulas have b...