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Want to Get Your Back…Back? Tired of that Pain in Your Neck?
Quality Chiropractic Care to Naturally Heal Your Pain.
Chiropractic care involves hands-on adjustments to reduce pain, helping a person’s body heal itself naturally. Chiropractic care’s major focus is spine issues. Care by a chiropractor is often effective for treating various back or neck pain and can reduce the need for pain relievers or the need to undergo more invasive treatments like surgery. People with chronic pain are often prescribed opioid pain relievers to manage discomfort - chiropractic treatment may lower your need to take these. Chiropractic care may also help improve posture and even athletic performance.
Getting Your Back…Back.
The American College of Physicians recommends that medical providers refer patients experiencing chronic low back pain to non-medication treatment first, such as chiropractic care along with other treatments listed below:
- Chiropractic Care - spinal manipulation
- Yoga
- Tai chi
- Progressive Muscle Relaxation
- Acupuncture
- Meditation
- Exercise
Getting Rid of that Pain in Your Neck.
Chiropractic care can ease neck pain with spinal manipulation to realign your spine, easing tension in your neck muscles. Having poor posture, sitting for hours, or bending your neck when on the phone are common causes of neck pain.
A 2019 study found that cervical spine manipulation may help decrease neck pain in the short-term by modifying levels of neuropeptides in your blood. Neuropeptides are proteins made in your nervous system that function as neurotransmitters or hormones.
Reduce 3 Types of Symptoms - Headache, Osteoarthritis, and Scoliosis
- If you suffer from tension headaches and headaches that originate in your neck, chiropractic spinal manipulation may be effective at treating them.
- Osteoarthritis pain, caused by cartilage degeneration in a joint that makes the ends of your bones rub together, may be helped by chiropractic adjustments that align your joints. Using chiropractic care to improve the status of cartilage, bone, and joint capsule may even slow down osteoarthritis progression.
- People with scoliosis may find that chiropractic care helps improve the Cobb angle (a measurement of how much side-to-side deformity is in the spine).
What Does a Chiropractor Do During a Chiropractic Adjustment?
During an initial visit, your chiropractor will take your health history and perform a physical exam, paying specific attention to your spine. Your chiropractor may then recommend other examinations or tests, such as X-rays. For your actual chiropractic adjustment sessions, your chiropractor places you in specific positions to treat affected areas. Typically, you will be lying face down on a padded chiropractic table. Using their hands or small instrument, they apply a controlled, sudden force to a spinal joint, pushing the affected joint past usual range of motion. Popping/cracking sounds are often heard as your joints are adjusted.
How Safe & Effective is Chiropractic Care?
You may have heard people ask, “Is chiropractic pseudoscience?” or “Are chiropractors safe?” The answer is that chiropractic adjustment is based on outcome-based training and safe when performed by a trained and licensed provider trained. The most positive chiropractic care research is focused on spinal manipulation for low back pain. As one of the recommended alternatives to pain-relieving drugs, the American College of Physicians low back pain guideline recommends spinal manipulation along with heat, massage, and acupuncture. Chiropractic care may also help people with other musculoskeletal-related pains like neck pain as well as other symptoms noted above. Though very rare, there have been reports of serious complications, including stroke, following spinal manipulation of the neck. Sometimes minor side effects are experienced for a few days post adjustment, such as headaches, pain in parts of the body treated or just fatigue.
Serious complications are rare, but include:
- Lower spinal column nerve compression
- Herniated disk/worsening of existing disk herniation
- Post neck manipulation - a certain type of stroke may occur
Do not seek chiropractic care if you have:
- Increased risk of stroke
- A known upper neck bone abnormality
- Arm or leg numbness, tingling, or loss of strength
- Severe osteoporosis
- Spine cancer
The benefits of chiropractic care are well-known. Chiropractic care can effectively treat low back pain. However, research shows only a modest benefit - much like results of more conventional treatments. Some studies suggest spinal manipulation is effective for neck pain and headaches. Not everyone responds to chiropractic care - it varies depending on your particular pain and condition. If symptoms do not improve post several weeks of treatments, it may not be the best solution for you.
Understanding Certification & Training of Chiropractors
A Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) is required to earn a DC postgraduate degree that typically takes four years. At least 90 semester hours of undergraduate coursework is required for admission to the program (some programs require a bachelor’s degree). All states require chiropractors to be licensed. While licensing requirements vary from state to state, all states require a chiropractor to pass the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners exams. Chiropractors go on to do a residency for several more years if they choose to specialize in a particular area of chiropractic treatment.
Talk to your primary care provider about the new Hammond-Henry Chiropractic Services. Need a provider? – visit our website or call 309.944.1275.
Sources: MayoClinic and Healthline