Chiropractic care aims to address the entire body, including a person’s ability to move and perform. When it comes to treatment for aches and pains, chiropractors are becoming more recognized as the experts to see. Roughly half of U.S. adults have seen a chiropractor, and nearly two-thirds think chiropractic care is effective for neck and back pain.
To help you determine if a chiropractic adjustment is the right option for you, we’ll explain chiropractic adjustments and some of the benefits they provide. We’ll also help you discover how to get long-term chiropractic adjustment benefits from your appointments.
What Is a Chiropractic Adjustment?
A chiropractic adjustment, also called spinal manipulation, is a procedure performed by a chiropractor using the hands or small instruments to apply controlled force to a spinal joint. Chiropractic adjustments are used on immobile joints to help restore mobility. When the joint is stuck and unmoving, this will trigger a signal to the brain, alerting it to the problem. The brain will then go into its automatic defense mechanism against problem areas in the body. This ultimately “locks down” the damaged area, triggering inflammation and muscle tightness in the area. If left untreated, this could lead to scar tissue growth and muscle spasms.
Chiropractic adjustments deliver controlled force to the area to restore motion to the joint to help reduce inflammation, relax muscles, and reduce scar tissue. This motion restoration also helps increase blood circulation with overall joint mobility and allows the brain to discontinue its defense mechanism against that area.
3 Major Chiropractic Adjustment Benefits Patients Receive
Below are three of the most noted chiropractic adjustment benefits patients receive with regular appointments.
Pain Relief
A chiropractic adjustment can help reduce your back and neck pain via a non-invasive technique. By putting controlled force on the vertebral misalignments that are causing the neck or back pain, it can help reduce pain associated with any nerves that are being damaged by the vertebrae and/or disc and reduce inflammation that builds up in the damaged area and increases the pain even further. Reducing inflammation helps relieve both chronic pain and muscle tension.
Chiropractic adjustments also help alleviate pain associated with more specific diagnoses such as sciatica. Sciatica refers to pain that radiates down your legs from your lower back due to a damaged or pressured sciatic nerve. Chiropractic treatment can help relieve pressure on the sciatic nerve that is causing sciatica.
Improved Blood Flow
Chiropractic adjustments can help boost blood flow throughout your body. With misaligned vertebrae and immobile joints, the body has a difficult time getting blood and fluids to move freely throughout that area. Joints and discs have poor vascularization, so they rely on regular daily movement for proper blood flow. Chiropractic adjustments restore mobility to those areas, helping to restore blood flow and increasing the joint’s overall performance to normal levels. Dr. Heidi Haavak, Vice President of Research at the New Zealand College of Chiropractic, has done research that suggests that in the same way chiropractic adjustments help improve blood circulation around joints, they also improve blood circulation to the brain and reduce nerve interference to help improve overall brain function.
Reduced Opioid Use
One of the most important reasons people seek chiropractic care is because it is a completely drug-free therapy. People with chronic pain are often given prescriptions for opioid pain relievers to help manage their discomfort. However, undergoing chiropractic adjustments can help lower dependence on pain medication. A large 2020 study compared the number of prescriptions for opioid pain relievers filled for adults who visited just their doctors or who visited both a chiropractor and their doctors to treat spinal pain. The study found that adults who visited a chiropractor were less likely to get an opioid prescription filled for their pain compared to those who only saw their doctor.
See Long-Term Benefits With PostureWorks
Although chiropractic adjustments provide great benefits by restoring motion to the joint or misaligned vertebrae, these benefits are only temporary because they do not address the root of the problem—the misalignment. This is why the doctors at PostureWorks utilize the evidence-based research methods associated with Chiropractic BioPhysics®, or CBP.
We develop customized plans that include spinal remodeling traction methods that work to rid the spine and joints of the misalignments causing the symptoms, as well as provide you with postural exercises to help the body hold its optimal, aligned posture throughout the day. We also provide neuro-muscular reeducation to help good posture become your body’s new default setting so that you maintain any chiropractic adjustment benefits you receive.
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. As with all chiropractic care, CBP is conservative, painless, and non-invasive. Contact us today to schedule your appointment or to learn more about the chiropractic benefits you could receive.
