In addition to providing basic structural support for your body, the spine serves several important functions, such as protecting your spinal cord and ensuring your body’s mobility. The nerves that branch off the spinal cord are responsible for all the sensations you feel, the coordination of every movement you make, and the communication between all of your organ systems (what keeps you alive and healthy). These reasons alone make your spinal health incredibly important.
With a healthy spine, your body functions at its best. However, when the spine is misaligned or damaged, your central nervous system and joint function are disrupted, triggering painful symptoms and systemic dysfunction.
This is where spinal correction comes into play. In this article, we’ll answer a commonly asked question in the chiropractic community, “What is spinal correction and what can it do for me?”
What is Spinal Correction?
Spinal correction can have varying specific meanings and therapies for different chiropractors, so please check first before undergoing corrective therapy. True spinal correction is the process of rehabilitating the spinal curvatures back to their natural alignment. At PostureWorks, we follow evidence-based rehabilitation protocols for spinal correction. This includes postural adjustments, focused core exercises, and spinal traction to stretch and remodel the ligaments and tissues of the spine. This form of spinal correction is designed to not only fix spinal misalignments but also to help slow or stop the degeneration of discs and joints, reduce inflammation and pain, and improve nerve function. Results are repeatable, reliable, and measurable pre-and post-care.
Our spinal rehabilitation process begins with performing a thorough examination and x-rays to measure your current spinal alignment and understand your individual goals and needs for your overall health. We look at each patient as a whole so that we can determine the root cause of the pain or discomfort. After the consultation, we develop a comprehensive treatment plan to address your individual needs to correct the problem. Our patients undergo the following three care phases during treatment:
Initial Care
This phase is for treating immediate pain and discomfort. After the initial assessment, we focus on pain relief through adjustments, muscle work, and stretches geared to alleviate symptoms and prepare your body for the corrective phase. This phase could take as little as a few sessions to complete.
Corrective Care
This second phase focuses on addressing the underlying cause of the problem—your spinal misalignment. We use the most advanced and evidence-based chiropractic and physical therapy protocols from Chiropractic BioPhysics®, which include:
- Spinal traction: To restore spinal alignment and break up adhesions in ligaments
- Spinal decompression: To restore height and function of the discs and joints
- Neuro-muscular re-education: To retrain your unconscious postural habits
- Customized home care exercises: To strengthen your core musculature
- Ergonomic advice: To minimize the negative effects of our modern lifestyle
Like all medical practices, there are safe and optimal ranges of spinal curvatures. On average, this phase lasts between three to six months to reach these healthy ranges.
Maintenance Care
The final phase focuses on ensuring pain reduction and that increased function stays stable or even improves further beyond what you achieved in the corrective phase. Maintenance patients generally see us one or two times per month as we continue to work with them to improve postural, exercise, and ergonomic habits. Annual check-ups will also help us re-measure your posture and guarantee no backward slippage or regression.
What Can Spinal Correction Do For Me?
Restoring the spine to its optimal alignment helps your body function at peak efficiency in the long run. The most sought-after benefits of seeing a chiropractor for spinal care include alleviating back pain, neck pain, and headaches as well as treating spine and joint injuries. In an NHIS study among U.S. adults who used a chiropractor, it was noted that 67.1 percent of participants used it to treat specific health conditions, whereas 53.4 percent used it for overall wellness. The following stats show the specific breakdown of those wellness benefits:
- 43.2% used it for general wellness/disease prevention.
- 11.4% used it to improve their immune function.
- 16.2% used it to increase their energy levels.
- 24.9% used it for enhanced wellness of their mind, body, and spirit.
- 5.3% used it to improve their memory and/or concentration.
Overall, the research found that people reported both positive health experiences and pain reduction as a result of receiving chiropractic care.
Many people choose to undergo spinal correction for specific health conditions that can include but are not limited to:
- Headaches/migraines.
- Back, neck, joint, and jaw pain.
- Myofascial pain.
- Fibromyalgia.
- Disc herniations.
- Scoliosis.
- Dizziness.
- Pelvic and hip imbalances.
- Round shoulder and hunched back.
- Numbness and radiating pain in extremities.
- Whiplash after a car accident.
- Reduced lung capacity.
- Hip and shoulder pain.
- Sciatica.
Spinal and postural rehabilitation provides a host of benefits, including relaxing tight muscles, creating great posture and confidence, increasing your flexibility by realigning the spine and joints, improving performance function by balancing the body, reducing inflammation and pain symptoms, and promoting overall well-being.
If you want to know more about your current spinal alignment and what spinal correction can do for your overall health goals, contact our office today to schedule an appointment.
Chiropractic BioPhysics®, or CBP, is a deeply researched and results-oriented corrective care technique. CBP-trained chiropractors aim to realign the spine back to health and optimal function while eliminating the source of pain and circulatory and nervous dysfunction. CBP is conservative, evidence-based, and non-invasive. To find out more about what spinal correction is or to schedule your appointment with PostureWorks, contact us today.
