Chiropractic Care for Everyday Activities
Reviewed by: Dr. Steven Knauf, D.C.
By Martha Michael
Whether your main role is parent, employee, or athlete, your life is more complete when you have physical mobility and health as a top priority. One of the best ways to ensure mobility is to adopt a chiropractic lifestyle that includes routine chiropractic adjustments to help you get through the week, the month, the year.
Regular visits to The Joint Chiropractic can play a vital everyday role in maintaining your wellness through ongoing support, such as demonstrating mobility exercises that activate various muscle groups to help avoid injury, creating a treatment program to relieve pain, or even providing nutritional recommendations to get the most out of your diet.
Your chiropractor really is there for everyday life.
Who Can Benefit From Chiropractic Care?
Anyone can make lifestyle changes to reduce inflammation, lose weight, and lower the risk of injury. Avoiding unhealthy food and choosing exercise over a sedentary lifestyle are a good beginning, but even proper strength training can’t always mitigate the potential for health problems to arise. Chiropractic provides a holistic approach to healthcare and is described by some as a lifestyle.
From chronic pain to injury, there are many ages and stages when a person can benefit from seeking the help of a chiropractor for treatment -- regardless of who they are. In the same way that accidents occur to people of all shapes and sizes, chiropractors can treat many people suffering from painful symptoms from a fall or another source of injuries.
Injury prevention and wellness care are a part of a chiropractor’s practice, from increasing the range of motion for an elderly patient with hip mobility problems to developing a diet and exercise plan for a young person.
Every human body needs good circulation, range of motion in their joints, and enough balance to perform activities. Making sure you have proper alignment is the way to boost function in those areas.
What Does Chiropractic Treat?
Chronic pain affects nearly 70 million Americans, according to an article by Healthline. Chiropractic care is a trusted model of treatment and an alternative to other modalities that aren’t always successful. Chiropractors treat patients for a wide range of symptoms ignited by injuries, aging, and everyday conditions.
Back Pain
Although many health practitioners have a propensity to immediately turn to invasive options for treating back pain, chiropractic care leans into natural, less invasive alternatives to surgery or injections. According to the Annals of Internal Medicine, the American College of Physicians, or ACP, reviewed a series of randomized, controlled trials involving various means of treatment for low back pain and advised clinicians to recommend non-invasive methods at the outset.
The panel used the following outcomes to gauge success:
- Reduction of pain
- Elimination of pain
- Improvement in function
- Improvement in health-related quality of life
- Return to work
- Reduction of work disability
- Global improvement
- Number of episodes of back pain
- Time between episodes of back pain
- Adverse effects
- Patient satisfaction
The guidelines released by the ACP concluded that for adults with chronic, acute, and subacute low back pain, the best course of action from a chiropractor or physical therapist is to begin with non-invasive treatments including:
- Superficial heat
- Massage
- Acupuncture
- Spinal manipulation
- Exercise
- Multidisciplinary rehabilitation
- Methods of mindfulness
- Tai chi
- Yoga
- Motor control exercises
- Low-level laser therapy
- Cognitive behavioral therapy
- Progressive relaxation
Headaches
Patients with tension headaches can see a chiropractor for an assessment to explore the nature of the painful symptoms. Spinal manipulation is a common treatment for tension headaches.
An article in the journal BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders cites a study comparing two types of treatment for cervicogenic headaches: upper cervical and upper thoracic manipulation versus mobilization and exercise. Participants suffering from CH -- defined as a headache with referred pain emanating from a problem in your neck -- received one of the two treatments for four weeks with follow-up appointments one week, four weeks, and three months later.
Outcomes were based on the following factors:
- Headache intensity
- Headache frequency
- Headache duration
- Disability
- Medication intake
- Global Rating of Change, or GRC
Conclusions from the study show that spinal manipulation techniques are effective for treating headaches. Patients who received upper cervical and upper thoracic manipulation experienced fewer headaches, and pain duration was lower than the group receiving mobilization and exercise treatment. Three months later the effects were the same.
Neck Pain
For many Americans who sit at a computer during the workweek, neck pain is a common complaint. A chiropractor can assess both neck strain and symptoms of injury to determine the origin of pain and create a treatment plan.
A clinical trial cited on the National Library of Medicine website reports successful treatment of women with acute non-specific mechanical neck pain. Cervical spine manipulation was found to help reduce symptoms by increasing the concentration of chemicals such as neurotensin in the blood of participating patients. A 13-amino acid neuropeptide, neurotensin induces analgesic effects and locomotor activity that helps regulate dopamine pathways; basically, it helps your body talk to your brain and stomach.
What Are the Benefits of Chiropractic Care?
Chiropractic treatment seeks to help every patient live pain-free by addressing common discomfort and improving nervous system function. Aside from treating illness and injury, the benefits of chiropractic care on a regular basis enable you to engage in everyday activities with more energy and maximize your level of performance. You need a flexible range of abilities as you live, work, and play, and a chiropractic adjustment is the best way to achieve that result.
Live
If you’re a parent, you may consider yourself a cook, taxi driver, tutor, and bookkeeper. Multi-faceted roles require a full range of motion throughout your body at all times of day and night. The beauty of routine chiropractic care is the holistic benefit to your physical condition, how you feel, move, and perform.
Work
When your line of work is specialized it sometimes means you spend your time in one place or conduct business using repetitive motion. From lifting merchandise to reaching for the whiteboard, your shoulder mobility can become compromised if you don’t maintain your joint health. A chiropractor can share mobility training exercises with you and monitor changes in function.
Play
You may stand out in a dance class or be the best Little League coach in the state, but with nearly every physical activity there’s a risk of injury. Camping, gardening, or golfing -- whatever is your favorite pastime -- your chiropractor can help you get physically prepared for it.
Living life to the fullest is the dream of most Americans, and it’s easier to do when you’re healthy. Maybe climbing Mount Whitney isn’t on your bucket list, but some form of physical activity is surely on the schedule, whether it’s cleaning the house or going to the gym. To maximize your mobility and flexibility, make sure chiropractic care is a part of your routine. Feeling good is important for people who live, work, and play in every way, shape, and form.
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.