Dr. Troy Allam is a practicing chiropractor serving the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex who specializes in a variety of spinal adjustments and adjunctive therapies like soft tissue and massage therapy.
Although born in Michigan, Dr. Allam is Texas-bred, having grown up primarily in the Houston area. When he sustained a severe sports injury years ago, surgery and intensive rehab followed. A family friend recommended he visit a chiropractor, who not only helped with his rehab but also was able to relieve his headache pain and lessen the effects of some allergies. That experience made Dr. Allam want to help others in a similar fashion, and so he eventually became a chiropractor himself.
After completing his undergraduate studies with degrees in biology, chemistry and history, Dr. Allam attended the Parker College of Chiropractic in Dallas, where he graduated with a doctorate of chiropractic. He also took courses in neurology, pediatrics and applied kinesiology while at Parker. To this day, Dr. Allam continues to take new courses, always seeking to expand his knowledge of the human body and its intricacies.
Chiropractic Care is an essential part of our program here at Optimal Wellness and Nutrition.
Skeletal subluxations prevent you from having proper postural alignment, in fact subluxations often cause poor posture. We treat the body as a whole as opposed to treating just one region at a time. When treating the body as a whole, we have to affect the entire musculoskeletal system in order to truly obtain proper postural alignment and body balance. If you only get Medical Massage without Chiropractic Care, your muscles will tense back up because you didn’t change what caused the muscle tension in the first place. The same can be said for Chiropractic Care. If you only get adjusted and do not utilize Medical Massage the joints tend to fall right back out of place because the muscles are so tight, pulling them right back out of alignment. Have you ever wondered why most chiropractors want to see you three times per week in the beginning of your treatment? It’s because your muscles have “muscle memory”, it’s true, your muscles remember what your body structure was prior to starting chiropractic care, and until those muscles are re-educated to remember what proper alignment really is, they will fight against the adjustment.
That’s why Optimal Wellness and Nutrition is so different from other chiropractic clinics. Our Medical professionals function as a team and coordinate care on every patient. We are all working together to achieve the same goal “Proper Postural Alignment” We collaborate with each other to formulate the perfect treatment plan for every patient, utilizing a combination of, Chiropractic Care, Medical Massage and Corrective Exercises! By combining all three of these services we are able to cut your number of visits and your financial obligation by nearly 40% in comparison to other chiropractic clinics, all while helping you achieve proper postural alignment creating a pain free lifestyle!
Arthritis is not just one disease. It’s a term that refers to many types of joint pain and joint disease. In all, over 100 different forms of arthritis or related conditions exist. Arthritis is the most common cause of disability in the United States and affects men and women alike, as well as people of all ages and races. Your risk increases as you get older and more women get arthritis than men.
Some different types of arthritis include:
Degenerative arthritis
As you get older, the strength of your joints deteriorates and chronic pain can occur. You might be at risk if you put on excess weight, this type of arthritis runs in your family, or you've suffered a serious injury like an ACL tear.
Inflammatory arthritis
When your immune system mistakenly attacks your joints, you end up with inflammatory arthritis, which results in joint erosion and damage to internal organs.
Infectious arthritis
With infectious arthritis, bacteria, a virus, or fungus may enter the joints, causing inflammation.
Metabolic arthritis
This form of arthritis is the result of overproduction of acid in the body that forms into needle-shaped crystals that cause joint pain.
To properly diagnose arthritis, Dr. Allam relies on a three-pronged approach:
He inquires about your symptoms, recent and past health, lifestyle, and family history. He also performs a thorough joint evaluation, checking for joint stiffness and swelling. Lastly, Dr. Allam may opt for X-rays, which is the most effective method to view the joints and check for issues such as structural changes, joint erosion, soft tissue tears, and inflammation. At the offices of Craig Ranch Chiropractic, Dr. Allam uses X-ray procedures that minimize the amount of radiation you are exposed to, ensuring that the imaging test procedures are safe.
Dr. Allam offers individualized non-spinal adjustments that target joint pain, restoring and enhancing your overall joint and extremity function. Adjustments can also minimize the wear and tear your joints already incur. Therapeutic stretching and exercise can offer additional joint pain relief.
Since arthritis is often a result of lifestyle choices, Dr. Allam might recommend diet and nutritional counseling and lifestyle modification counseling. The supportive counseling team at Craig Ranch Chiropractic can help you make necessary changes to your diet, your exercise regimen, and other lifestyle habits that could be contributing to the onset of your arthritic condition.
The more than 100 types of arthritis have different risk factors and features. You can’t modify all of the risk factors. For example, if you’re a woman with a genetic history of arthritis, you’re at risk. However, you can reduce your risk of certain types of arthritis by taking steps to improve your lifestyle, including:
Your peripheral nervous system carries instructions from your brain to your limbs, spinal cord, joints, and muscles. It also controls bodily functions you do without thinking like digestion. Disturbances to your peripheral nervous system, which is made up of the nerves that affect the functions of many different parts of your body, create the condition known as peripheral neuropathy.
There are a number of different underlying conditions that can lead to nerve damage and bring on peripheral neuropathy symptoms, including but not limited to:
Genetics is a common risk factor. If you have a family history of peripheral neuropathy, you may be more susceptible.
Since all of the nerves in your peripheral nervous system work differently, symptoms vary based on the type of nerve or nerves affected. Your sensory nerves send and receive information to parts of your body and affect how you experience sensations like temperature, touch, and pain. Motor nerves affect your muscles and their motion. Autonomic nerves dictate blood pressure, heart rate, digestion, and functioning of your bladder.
Here are some common symptoms:
Even though there is no cure, Dr. Allam offers a variety of primary and adjunctive therapy options that help with pain relief, promote improved nerve function, and encourage lifestyle choices that lead to a happier, healthier life. Spinal adjustments and manipulations provide efficient relief from many neuromusculoskeletal disorders, including peripheral neuropathy.
Dr. Allam offers wide-ranging adjustments based on different techniques, characterized by varying amounts of pressure application and style. Therapeutic stretching, exercise, and massage treatment can also help ease your pain. Dr. Allam decides which technique is best for you and your condition.
He can also direct you to nutritional counseling and lifestyle modification counseling services at Craig Ranch Chiropractic if your current lifestyle is making your symptoms worse.
If you have sciatica, you typically feel pain in your lower back that extends down your legs and sometimes all the way down to your toes. Irritation to the sciatic nerve typically causes this condition. The sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in the body, beginning in the spinal cord and reaching all the way down to the buttock area, where nerve endings send signals down the lower legs.
The pain can be similar to a cramp, or it can be searing, making your everyday activities like walking, sitting, or standing up extremely difficult. In some extreme cases, you might be unable to bend your knees or move your feet and toes. Sneezing or coughing can further aggravate your pain.
Any irritation or inflammation affecting the sciatic nerve can bring about sciatica symptoms. A pinched nerve from a disk in your back is a common cause, as well as radiculopathy, an irregular intervertebral disk that irritates the nerves. Other causes of sciatica include:
Dr. Allam asks you for a complete medical history and performs tests, such as the straight-leg-raise test, to analyze the affected nerves and determine if you have any disk issues. The straight-leg-raise test helps Dr. Allam see how high up the leg your pain starts. In some cases, Dr. Allam may recommend further testing, such as X-rays, to rule out fractures in the spine that could cause sciatica symptoms.
On a case-by-case basis, Dr. Allam may elect to prescribe pain medications and anti-inflammatory drugs to help relieve your pain and stiffness. You should see improved mobility from medication, making exercise and stretching during the rehabilitation process easier.
Dr. Allam and his staff demonstrate proper techniques for a regimen of therapeutic stretching and exercise to ensure your safety and maximize pain relief. They can offer spinal adjustments as well. Based on analysis of your spine after the examination and imaging tests, Dr. Allam determines which adjustment technique is best for you.
Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder that affects your muscles, ligaments, and tendons, causing pain and tenderness, sometimes widespread throughout your body. Besides the physical problems, fibromyalgia can negatively affect your mental health and your social life.
Fibromyalgia symptoms typically manifest in different ways and range in severity from case to case. Besides pain and tenderness in the muscles, ligaments, and tendons, other commonly reported symptoms are:
Other slightly less common symptoms that you may experience with fibromyalgia include:
Stress can make your symptoms worse. If you’re experiencing symptoms of fibromyalgia, make an appointment to see Dr. Allam through the online scheduling tool.
Experts don’t know the main causes of fibromyalgia, but many in the research community agree that it is a central processing disorder. Fibromyalgia patients most likely experience pain due to issues that arise in the central nervous system. Irregularities in that part of the body can affect your sensory processing. Genetics may also play a role in how likely you are to contract it.
An illness or injury that results in trauma to the body can speed up and amplify the progression of fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia can be difficult to accurately diagnose. In order to do so, Dr. Allam examines your medical history, reviews your reported symptoms, and performs a thorough physical examination. He also does an examination of 18 tender points of pain throughout your body above and below the waist to determine if your pain is widespread. Fibromyalgia patients are often people who have tested negative for other illnesses, since symptoms can overlap with many other conditions.
Besides prescribing medications for your pain, Dr. Allam performs spinal adjustments and manipulations that target the sources of your pain. Since fibromyalgia can involve widespread pain or acute concentrated pain, depending on your condition and response to treatment, Dr. Allam may combine one or more therapies in your treatment plan.
Often with fibromyalgia patients, treatment includes soft tissue and massage therapy techniques, including traditional massage therapy, trigger point therapy, somatic therapy, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, acupressure point therapy, and rolfing.
Most headaches can be classified as either primary or secondary. Primary headaches include:
Tension headaches
These are the most common kind, and some people suffer from them daily. Tension headaches feel like pressure, dull pain or tightness in the back of your head or your forehead.
Migraine headaches
These are the second most common kind, often recurring and affecting one side of the head with intense throbbing pain. They can also result in nausea and sensitivity to light and sound.
Cluster headaches
These are less common headaches that recur usually over a period of days or weeks and are usually limited to one side of the head, often behind the eye.
Secondary headaches are those that are usually the result of an underlying condition affecting the neck or head.
Dr. Allam takes into account your symptoms to help identify what might be triggering your headaches. Lifestyle factors, environmental factors, and underlying conditions can all cause headaches.
Abnormal chemical activity in your brain typically causes primary headaches. Nerves or blood vessels in your brain or the muscles that make up your head and neck play a role. Genetics can be a factor too. Some primary headaches are the result of poor habits, including:
Secondary headaches can typically be traced to underlying conditions. Analyzing symptoms helps Dr. Allam decode what causes them. Some conditions that can cause secondary headaches include:
Dr. Allam asks questions about your daily routine to uncover patterns that might provide clues about your headaches. Since lifestyle and environment factors might be at play, he needs to rule out causes and narrow down what might or might not be triggering your headaches. For example, if Dr. Allam ascertains that certain workplace environments such as light or loud sounds are causing your migraines, he recommends specific modifications you can make to reduce the chances of continuing to get migraines.
Dr. Allam and his staff offer comprehensive nutritional counseling that can help you make changes to your diet that might be causing headaches in your daily life. If you’re looking for pain relief from migraines, Dr. Allam performs soft tissue massage therapy that, among other things, stimulates neuromuscular function, which can help against nerve-related causes of certain headaches.
Most headaches can be classified as either primary or secondary. Primary headaches include:
Tension headaches
These are the most common kind, and some people suffer from them daily. Tension headaches feel like pressure, dull pain or tightness in the back of your head or your forehead.
Migraine headaches
These are the second most common kind, often recurring and affecting one side of the head with intense throbbing pain. They can also result in nausea and sensitivity to light and sound.
Cluster headaches
These are less common headaches that recur usually over a period of days or weeks and are usually limited to one side of the head, often behind the eye.
Secondary headaches are those that are usually the result of an underlying condition affecting the neck or head.
Dr. Allam takes into account your symptoms to help identify what might be triggering your headaches. Lifestyle factors, environmental factors, and underlying conditions can all cause headaches.
Abnormal chemical activity in your brain typically causes primary headaches. Nerves or blood vessels in your brain or the muscles that make up your head and neck play a role. Genetics can be a factor too. Some primary headaches are the result of poor habits, including:
Secondary headaches can typically be traced to underlying conditions. Analyzing symptoms helps Dr. Allam decode what causes them. Some conditions that can cause secondary headaches include:
Dr. Allam asks questions about your daily routine to uncover patterns that might provide clues about your headaches. Since lifestyle and environment factors might be at play, he needs to rule out causes and narrow down what might or might not be triggering your headaches. For example, if Dr. Allam ascertains that certain workplace environments such as light or loud sounds are causing your migraines, he recommends specific modifications you can make to reduce the chances of continuing to get migraines.
Dr. Allam and his staff offer comprehensive nutritional counseling that can help you make changes to your diet that might be causing headaches in your daily life. If you’re looking for pain relief from migraines, Dr. Allam performs soft tissue massage therapy that, among other things, stimulates neuromuscular function, which can help against nerve-related causes of certain headaches.
Dr. Allam asks questions about your daily routine to uncover patterns that might provide clues about your headaches. Since lifestyle and environment factors might be at play, he needs to rule out causes and narrow down what might or might not be triggering your headaches. For example, if Dr. Allam ascertains that certain workplace environments such as light or loud sounds are causing your migraines, he recommends specific modifications you can make to reduce the chances of continuing to get migraines.
Dr. Allam and his staff offer comprehensive nutritional counseling that can help you make changes to your diet that might be causing headaches in your daily life. If you’re looking for pain relief from migraines, Dr. Allam performs soft tissue massage therapy that, among other things, stimulates neuromuscular function, which can help against nerve-related causes of certain headaches.
Dr. Allam asks questions about your daily routine to uncover patterns that might provide clues about your headaches. Since lifestyle and environment factors might be at play, he needs to rule out causes and narrow down what might or might not be triggering your headaches. For example, if Dr. Allam ascertains that certain workplace environments such as light or loud sounds are causing your migraines, he recommends specific modifications you can make to reduce the chances of continuing to get migraines.
Dr. Allam and his staff offer comprehensive nutritional counseling that can help you make changes to your diet that might be causing headaches in your daily life. If you’re looking for pain relief from migraines, Dr. Allam performs soft tissue massage therapy that, among other things, stimulates neuromuscular function, which can help against nerve-related causes of certain headaches.
Whiplash usually occurs when your head is jarringly and swiftly thrust backward and then forward right away. The action can harm bones in the spine, disks between bones, ligaments, muscles, nerves, and tissues that make up the neck.
Common causes include:
Symptoms of whiplash are wide-ranging and often develop quickly, as in the first 24 hours after sustaining whiplash. They include:
Some other symptoms you might experience include:
If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms after a car accident or sports injury, make an appointment to see Dr. Allam right away. It’s critical to get an accurate diagnosis as quickly as possible and to potentially rule out more serious conditions that might be causing symptoms.
After Dr. Allam takes your complete medical history, he performs a physical exam, observing the spine and neck for abnormalities and any misalignments. He checks for tightness or tenderness in the neck and tests your range of motion. If Dr. Allam suspects that irritation of nerves is involved, he does more in-office tests that check reflexes and muscle power, as he tries to narrow down which section of your spine is causing the symptoms. Furthermore, Dr. Allam may decide to order X-rays to help locate any fractures.
Dr. Allam usually recommends lots of rest and may prescribe muscle relaxants. He may also introduce you to therapeutic stretching to slowly restore familiar, basic movements to your neck. Dr. Allam also offers spinal adjustments or spinal manipulations, applying quick pressure to subluxated, or misaligned, sections of the spine. The processes are gentle and not painful and help correct soft tissue and other disorders. They usually provide immense pain relief.
As you get older, your joints and your spinal disks and bones take on more stress. This normal wear and tear on your spine causes most lower back pain.
The most prevalent direct causes of lower back pain are sprains and strains. The overstretching or tearing of ligaments in the back can lead to sprains, while strains are tears in the tendons or muscles. Bending or twisting to lift heavy objects with improper form or overstretching can cause either sprains or strains, or even spasms in your back muscles.
Some underlying conditions can also expose you to lower back pain, including:
Besides underlying conditions, certain risk factors can increase the likelihood you will experience lower back pain, including:
Dr. Allam provides many different types of spinal adjustments with varying techniques to give you relief and help treat your lower back pain. The techniques vary by how much-controlled force Dr. Allam applies to subluxations or misalignments, he finds in your spine. The procedures help regain and fully restore range of motion.
Dr. Allam works with each patient, taking into account medical history, symptoms, examinations, and imaging tests to determine what type of chiropractic adjustments are right for them. Pain medication, as well as therapeutic stretching and exercise, can also help alleviate and cure lower back pain.
You can often prevent lower back pain if you pay close attention to how you stand, sit, and move. Proper body mechanics help you avoid movements that put pressure on and strain the back. Also, ergonomically designed furniture in your home and workplace can greatly lessen your risk of developing lower back pain.
Here are some simple measures Dr. Allam suggests you keep in mind when trying to prevent lower back pain:
"I've had knee, hip and neck issues for years and Dr. Allam has made it possible for me to run without pain again. Highly recommend!"
"My husband calls Dr. Allam 'The Gentle Giant.' Thank you for taking the time to see us."
"Always had a good experience here. Never felt like Dr. Troy was trying to nickel and dime me like some chiropractors do. Highly recommend."
