5 Ways a Chiropractor Helps You Address Pain and Stiffness at the Source

There are a myriad of ways in which a great chiropractor helps you address pain and stiffness, whether your symptoms are chronic or acute. The goal of chiropractic care is to address the underlying cause of your discomfort so that you can achieve better mobility and health in the long term. This means offering each patient a treatment plan that’s tailored to their needs, lifestyles, and goals. Today, we’re exploring some of the most useful ways in which chiropractors get to the source of physical discomfort in order to create treatments that work. First up, let’s start at the beginning: what do chiropractors actually do?

What is a Chiropractor?

Chiropractors are healthcare professionals who specialize in the neuromusculoskeletal system, which is a really long way of saying muscles, nerves, bones, tendons, and ligaments. The goal of a chiropractor is to help patients manage and minimize pain by focusing on the body’s self-healing capabilities and promoting skeletal and muscular alignment.

Often, chiropractic manipulation is combined with other specialties, such as physical therapy, nutrition, and exercise, in order to bring about the best possible results. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most popular iterations of chiropractic care, along with how they can help you address the root cause of your pain or stiffness.

Spinal Decompression

An estimated 16 million adults in the United States experience back pain. This is caused by a variety of factors, including car accidents, hernias, poor postures, and even chronic strain. Of all the potential causes of back pain that exist, disc issues are among the most common; herniating, bulging, and degenerated discs can all cause a great deal of spinal discomfort.

Spinal decompression is a straightforward treatment that addresses the root cause of back pain. It consists of a consultation between the patient and chiropractor to discuss the origin, intensity, and manifestations of the pain. Then, the patient is placed on a computerized spinal decompression table, which places negative pressure on the spine to alleviate pressure on the discs.

Most people will need multiple sessions in order to effectively treat spinal issues; the chiropractor and patient will work together to determine how many sessions are needed to achieve the desired results.

Soft Tissue Therapy

Soft tissue therapy, also referred to as manual therapy, is a targeted massage meant to address the source of muscular pain. During this process, the chiropractor stimulates blood flow to the muscles with the goal of improving overall mobility.

In addition to addressing muscular pain, soft tissue therapy can be a fantastic way to reduce stress, decrease the frequency and intensity of muscle spasms, decrease anxiety, and improve the flow of blood to the patient’s lymph nodes, thereby leading to an immune boost.

Exercise Therapy

Exercise therapy is not unlike physical therapy. It seeks to strengthen weakened or underused muscles in your body in order to alleviate the strain that is being placed on other muscles, joints, and bones (and thereby causing pain). Pain–especially chronic pain–can often be caused by undue stress being placed on a specific part of the body.

For example, an old knee injury attained during a tennis game may appear fully healed, but decreased confidence in that knee may have caused the patient to place excess pressure on their calves and ankles over many years, thereby causing chronic ankle pain. Exercise therapy can work to strengthen the knee and encourage a better balance in weight and strain between the knee and the ankle.

Ultrasounds

Ultrasounds aren’t just used for a closer look at what’s going on inside your body; they can be leveraged for a promising form of physical therapy. Ultrasound therapy is the use of soundwaves that send ultrasonic vibrations to a specific area of the body. These tiny soundwaves generate tiny amounts of heat that, when delivered in a targeted manner to a specific part of the body, can stimulate blood flow in the area.

Low-intensity treatments are common to start, with increasingly higher doses being delivered to the patient as their chiropractor sees fit. Ultrasound therapy can lead to reduced pain, improved mobility, and the reduction of scar tissue in a previously injured body part.

Lifestyle and Diet Plans

The most effective treatment plans are the ones that treat the patient as a whole, rather than as the sum of their parts. One of the most important ways to promote healthy mobility and reduced pain is to live an active lifestyle while eating a well-balanced diet.

Adhering to this will not only help you maintain the results of your chiropractic treatment long-term; it will help you avoid future complications from injuries in the future. Your chiropractor will work with you to create a diet and lifestyle plan that makes sense for you and your needs so that you’re well set up for a happy, healthy life in the long term.

Achieving long-term relief from discomfort means addressing the root cause of your pain. Chiropractors help you address pain and stiffness at the source so that you can live your life to the fullest. To learn more about how you can benefit from chiropractic treatment, don’t hesitate to schedule a free consultation with us.