The Importance of Chiropractic Care for Women
By Dr. Molly Casey
Chiropractic care is an important tool in the toolbox of the health and wellness journey regardless of gender. Although both men and women benefit from receiving regular chiropractic care, this article is focused more specifically on the importance of chiropractic care for women. However, don’t stop reading this if you are a man. Some of the information may not apply to you directly, but it does apply to your mom, your sister, your wife, your daughter, or even your female friends. Knowledge is power when it is applied in daily life, and this information can help you or someone you care about if you act on it.
So how does receiving chiropractic care help women?
The Nervous System
The brain is the body’s master control and processing system. It sends information (via electrical and chemical impulses) down through the spinal cord and out miles and miles of nerves to every cell, structure, organ and system in the body. Those cells, structures, organs and systems send information back through the nerves, up the spine, and to the brain. This is the master communication system; you live your entire life through this system. It is called the nervous system. The better the nerves function, the better the system functions, the healthier you, the better the quality of your life.
Chiropractic Care
The spine houses and protects the nervous system. The healthier the spine is, the greater opportunity the nervous system has to function optimally without interference and the greater your chances for optimal health and wellness. Achieving and maintaining a healthy spine is not something most people are educated about in their lifetimes. Spinal manipulation from licensed chiropractors promotes optimal nervous system function by providing the patient with the healthiest spine possible.
Optimal spine health requires that the structure remain intact with proper curvatures, optimal joint mobility and joint range of motion. When spinal joints lose their range of motion, this can cause interference with the nervous system function. Chiropractors call this “subluxation.” Approximately 10 percent of the nervous system can transmit pain, but because it’s such a small percentage, more often than not you won’t experience any outward symptoms associated with decreased function of the spinal joints.
The chiropractic adjustment is often done by hand and it restores joint range of motion. The intention of the chiropractor is optimal nervous system function, and the tool used to facilitate this is the adjustment of the spine.
Chiropractic care is a phenomenal conservative treatment option if you are dealing with intermittent or chronic pain as the adjustment is known to reduce pain (or even relieve pain) and reduce inflammation. Most experience little or no negative side effects after chiropractic treatment.
Regular chiropractic care is also a profound addition to your preventative care in order to improve your overall health. With hundreds of clinics across the United States.
Hormones and Chiropractic Care
Hormone cycle length and the ability to get pregnant and give birth present different reasons chiropractic care uniquely helps women. Both men and women have the same hormones in their bodies, but the levels of each hormone and the length of time it takes for those hormones to cycle throughout the male and female body differ. Men cycle through their hormones in the span of a day, but women cycle through their hormones every 28-30 days on average.
Because of the longer length in cycle in women and the ability to get pregnant, carry a baby to term, and birth a child, the processes of the female body are more complex.
Pregnancy and Chiropractic Care
Greater complexity in the female body means more intricacies in the hormonal process. More intricacies mean more opportunities for things to go askew. When things go awry in the hormonal processes, the list of symptoms and problems can seem endless. This means it is even more imperative that the nervous communication be as precise and optimally functioning as possible.
If the spine is moving and functioning less than optimally, the structural interference can be enough to block the nervous system from doing what it needs to, which is to heal. Oftentimes, chiropractic treatment (removing the subluxations) are enough to allow the body to achieve the relief it needs to correct the malfunction on its own without further intervention.
Although women’s hormonal cycles are more complex than men’s hormonal cycles, pregnancy is obviously an even more elaborate and sophisticated process. Not only is optimal communication from the brain to the body and the body to the brain necessary for the woman, but it is also critical for the growth of the healthiest baby possible.
The baby’s overall health is heavily dependent on the health of the mother. Routine chiropractic care for Mom may have benefits to both mother and baby.This means chiropractic care during pregnancy is wildly important -- from a neurological standpoint -- for giving birth to the healthiest possible baby.
There is also a strong component of structural support that chiropractic care offers women during the pregnancy process. Joints become more lax because of the hormones and growth process. The mother’s body increases in energetic needs, expenditure, and weight. This has a great deal of effect and generates a great deal of stress on the mother’s body. Joints can easily become “stuck” or subluxated, limiting range of motion. Due to this, women may be subjected to pain and symptoms that can be debilitating. Regular chiropractic care may help relieve common pregnancy pain and symptoms, and helps prepare the body for the birthing process.
Chiropractic care is one of the most conservative care options when you find yourself experiencing the physical stresses of life. It is also one of the most profound things you can do to support your overall health and well-being.
As a woman, visiting a chiropractor has unique benefits because it has the capacity to help the body function optimally through life. If you are a woman (or know one) desiring better health, or who is experiencing difficulty -- ranging from pain and symptoms in the joints to a struggle with the pregnancy process -- look to get evaluated by a chiropractor to see what a chiropractic adjustment can do to help you in your journey of health.
The information, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material contained on this page are for informational purposes only. The purpose of this post is to promote broad consumer understanding and knowledge of various health topics, including but not limited to the benefits of chiropractic care, exercise and nutrition. It is not intended to provide or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your chiropractor, physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, and never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this page.