People often seek chiropractic treatment for neck and back pain, but regular chiropractic care can also increase range of motion and flexibility. This blog post explains what chiropractic treatment is and how it can help.
What is Chiropractic Care?
Chiropractic adjustments are treatments by trained chiropractors where they use their hands or special instruments to exert controlled force on a misaligned area of the body, like the spinal vertebrae, to manipulate it back into alignment. To do this, chiropractors have patients lie on a special, padded table. Feeling along the vertebrae of the spine allows the chiropractor to determine what is misaligned. They will then manipulate it back into place. You may hear a popping or cracking sound, which is just gases like nitrogen, oxygen, or carbon being released from the joint. This adjustment process can be used on any joint that is out of place.
Chiropractic is based on the idea that the body can heal itself with a little help. All the body’s systems, like the neurological system or immune system, work best when the body is in alignment, so chiropractic adjustments help them function optimally. A chiropractic adjustment helps your body to function at its best by making sure it is in the correct alignment.
After an adjustment, your body may feel sore because it’s trying to adjust to the realignment. It is a similar sensation to lifting weights, but it shouldn’t be painful. Regular chiropractic care can help your body adjust to these new changes more quickly. Drinking lots of water and rest can help alleviate the soreness.
Chiropractic adjustments should be short about 15 to 30 minutes. A first adjustment takes longer because your chiropractor is identifying the areas of your body that need realignment and developing a treatment plan, which typically includes one to two adjustments a month. A treatment plan for your situation will be developed by your chiropractor and could take anywhere from a few weeks to months.
The benefits of chiropractic care are wide-ranging but include pain relief, improved posture, improved range of motion and flexibility, and more energy. In addition, it promotes muscle recovery and improves immune response.
Groups Who Should Seek Chiropractic Treatment
Athletes need their bodies to perform optimally for their athletic pursuits. Regular chiropractic care helps improve athletic performance because misalignments in the body can interfere with the functions of all the body’s systems causing athletic performance to suffer. Chiropractic is beneficial to athletes because regular treatment will be able to relieve pain without drugs or surgery. Regular chiropractic care can also help prevent injuries because putting the body back in alignment reduces unnecessary stress on the body. Chiropractors can also offer tailored programs for injury avoidance, such as helping a golfer correct his or her posture so they do not injure themselves with poor posture while swinging. Best of all, chiropractic treatment is non-invasive and drug-free so it will help athletes heal faster without side effects.
Chiropractors can also help those with chronic conditions such as kyphosis, a condition defined by a humped back. It is typically caused by chronic poor posture, so the body adjusts the way the vertebrae sit on top of each other. A traumatic accident can also cause this condition. Chiropractic care can help resolve this condition and alleviate the pain with regular adjustments that realign the spine and encourage it to correct itself into its proper shape.
Chiropractic Alternatives
Chiropractors and massage therapists target different areas of the body. Chiropractors focus on manipulating the joints and bones back into alignment to alleviate pain. Massage therapists manipulate soft tissue and muscles to relieve pain. Both can help alleviate your pain so seek out both treatments for the best results.
Physical therapy and chiropractic share similar goals: to help you move better with less pain. A chiropractor is the best choice if you have pain related to misalignments of the spine or neck; the realignments of chiropractic adjustments will help relieve your pain. Physical therapists offer exercises that help improve your range of motion and strength to help you treat pain. Depending on your needs, you may need to seek out both, but typically a chiropractor helps with realignment from daily stresses while physical therapists are more useful for recovering from injuries.
It is difficult to realign your spine without a chiropractor because you can’t correct a misalignment that you can’t detect. Often you know where the pain is coming from, but you don’t know the misalignment that is causing it. A foam roller can be beneficial if you do the exercises correctly, however, it will not resolve pain caused by misalignments or realign your spine. Chiropractors identify the misalignment and can correct it with adjustments.
