(202) 887-5375
Welcome to my Practice
About Me
Dr. Ritchie is the President and Chiropractic Director at Cibelle Chiropractic of Georgetown. Dr. Ritchie is board certified by the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners. Dr. Ritchie is licensed by the New Jersey Board of Chiropractic Examiners, and the District of Columbia Board of Chiropractic Examiners, with certification to perform ancillary procedures. She has done extensive post-graduate study in the area of mechanisms of musculoskeletal injuries, and development and implementation of comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation programs for injured individuals. Member of ICA, ICPA, and ADA (International Chiropractic Association, International Chiropractic Pediatric Association, and American Dietetic Association. Webster's technique certified.
All Services
Chiropractic
The Care You Deserve
Chiropractic is a health care profession that focuses on disorders of the musculoskeletal system and the nervous system and the effects of these disorders on general health. Chiropractic care is used most often to treat neuromusculoskeletal complaints, including but not limited to back pain, neck pain, pain in the joints of the arms or legs, and headaches.
Prenatal Chiropractic
Wellness from the Beginning
Dr. Ritchie has been trained to work with pregnant women, and utilizes a table that adjusts for a pregnant woman’s body, and techniques are used that avoid unneeded pressure on the abdomen. Investing in the fertility and wellness of women who are pregnant or trying to conceive is a routine care for most chiropractors.
Pediatric Chiropractic
First Steps
It is never too early to bring your child to the chiropractor. Infants just minutes old are often checked by the loving hands of the family chiropractor and it is not uncommon to stop by the chiropractor’s office on the way home from the hospital. The birthing process is physically strenuous for both mom and baby, so it is best to get them both cared for as soon as possible afterwards.
Accident Injury
Healing from Trauma
The day of the accident, you may have quite a bit of discomfort immediately following the accident. However, there are many times when victims of the accident only feel, some pain in the neck, back arms or legs. The amount of adrenaline that streams through our bodies following an accident can tend to mask the severity of the injuries that a person may have sustained during the accident. Many accident victims go to the Hospital Emergency Rooms, following an accident, with some pains. However, the accident victims are usually instructed to monitor themselves, because the discomfort from the injuries that they have sustained is likely to get worse.
Nutritional Counseling
Wellness Within
Even if you are not a chiropractic patient, you may come in for a nutritional consultation. Dr. Ritchie received her bachelors degree from Life University in dietetics in 2006 and will advise you based on your medical history, available lab results, medical diagnosis or other recent, valid test results to allow for a proper assessment of nutritional needs.
Featured Services
Health Comes First
Zerona
Body Contouring
ZERONA is the only FDA cleared medical procedure for the circumferential reduction of the waist, hips, thighs, and upper arms. ZERONA contours an anatomical area by safely disrupting the fat cell’s outer membranes, resulting in the release of stored intracellular lipids. Once released, the
stored lipids can be safely removed and processed by the body. Knowing that the fat removal process will take several hours, perhaps several days, how is it possible that ZERONA can reduce a person’s waist circumference after just one treatment? Simple – hydrophobicity! For all you chefs out there, you are already familiar with the principles of hydrophobicity. When oil is added to water, what happens? Oil droplets form.
Featured Services
Spinal Decompression Therapy
Patients who suffer from the chronic pain associated with bulging, degenerating, or herniated discs may benefit from treatment using a spinal decompression table. This type of pain, which can manifest as back or neck pain itself as well as associated pain in the arms and legs, may have already been treated by traditional traction methods or even by spinal surgery to limited improvement. In these cases, a spinal decompression table that uses computerized sensors to perform stretching actions on the spine and promote healing can be uniquely effective.
But what is a spinal decompression table, and how it can be used to treat patients who have not been able to find relief in other ways?
What is Spinal Decompression Therapy?
Spinal decompression therapy, also known as non-surgical spinal decompression, is a practice that utilizes spinal decompression tables to relieve pain by creating a scenario in which bulging or herniated disc tissue is able to move back into place and heal, alleviating the pain this condition causes.
Spinal decompression therapy aims to help patients who suffer from debilitating pain due to bulging, degenerating, or herniated discs. It Pcan also be used for the pain management and treatment of many causes of sciatica, injured or diseased spinal nerve roots, and worn spinal joints.
The therapy itself works to stretch the spine, using a spinal decompression table or other device, in order to create negative pressure and space within the disc to allow disc fluid to move back into place. This creates an environment in which the disc can receive more nutrients and therefore heal itself more quickly and effectively. The ultimate goal of spinal decompression therapy is to relieve the patient’s chronic back, arm, neck, and/or leg pain, and to heal the source of said pain.
Spinal decompression therapy is also referred to as non-surgical decompression therapy, since it is often used as a safe, affordable, and extremely effective alternative to spinal surgery. The distinction between surgical and non-surgical spinal decompression is an important one, as surgical spinal procedures are often considered a last option, while spinal decompression therapy is a safe treatment at any stage of back pain. The most common spinal decompression surgeries are laminectomy and microdiscectomy, which present a greater risk of complication or failure.Spinal Decompression Table Research
Research into spinal decompression therapy is ongoing, with a number of studies showing benefits to patients experiencing chronic or acute pain. For instance, a study from the Rio Grande Regional Hospital and Health Sciences Center and the University Texas showed:
The specific and important clinical action of decompression therapy that makes it effective. Intradiscal pressure measurement was performed by connecting a cannula inserted into the patient's L4-L5 disc space to a pressure transducer. Spinal decompression was introduced and changes in pressure were recorded at a resting state and again while controlled tension was applied by the equipment. The results of this study indicate that it is possible to lower pressure in the nucleus pulposus of herniated lumbar discs to below -100 mm Hg when distraction tension is applied according to the protocol described for decompression therapy. The lowest intradiscal pressure measured during progressive traction was 40 mm Hg compared to 75 mm Hg resting supine.(2) Standard decompression therapy, therefore, differs from standard traction by creating a unique clinical circumstance of prolonged negative intradiscal pressure.
Lowering the pressure in a herniated disc is the objective way to measure whether decompression is working, since lower pressure means, by definition, less compression. When the pressure within a lumbar disc is lower, patients will experience less low-back pain.
In an outcome study from 1998, spinal decompression therapy was effective in 71% of cases, with patients reporting a decrease in pain to either 0 or 1 on a scale of 0 to 5.
Another low-back pain study found that patients with chronic pain experienced relief from spinal decompression therapy in as little as eight weeks. It is important to note that 80% of the patients in this particular study had been experiencing symptoms for more than 6 months and had tried at least two other interventions to relieve their pain before turning to a spinal decompression table.
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Erchonia
The North American Association of Laser Therapy (NAALT) adopted the term Phototherapy in 2003. This inclusive term is defined as: a therapeutic physical modality using photons (light energy) from the visible and infrared spectrum for tissue healing and pain.
Contact Me
908 New Hampshire Ave. NW Ste 200, Washington DC 20037
(202) 887-5375