The bones inour bodies are connected to the muscles that support them by ligaments and tendons. An injury, arthritis, or other trauma could involve all three. When it does, pain results. Now, you have a choice: you can take pain pills or you can get better with the aid of chiropractic.
What Is Chiropractic?
Chiropractic is the science of moving the bones and joints in order to realign the spine to take pressure off the muscles. Muscles, ligaments, and tendons become inflamed due to a trauma and tighten up in order to prevent further damage. In response to the trauma, the immune system sends inflammation to the injury to further protect it.
Chiropractic care involves manipulating the body to expose the injured part. The doctor will then apply pressure to the turned body. This has the effect of releasing the pressure on the muscles, ligaments, and tendons. The release gets rid of the pain. Now, it might take a couple of adjustments (which is what the manipulations are called) to get the spine back into alignment. The body will have less pain, though.
What Can Chiropractic Help With?
Did you think migraines didn’t have anything to do with the spine? That would be incorrect. Perhaps you thought blood circulation had no relationship to the spine. How about energy and sleep? Don’t you think they apply to the spine?
When the spine is adjusted, joint health improves. This means arthritis improves, too. The nerves carrying pain messages to the brain get a break, because chiropractic takes the pressure off them, too. Chiropractic has been shown to help with:
- digestion
- increased energy
- restful sleep
- fewer if any headaches and/or migraines
- improvement of cognitive function
Most injuries happen to the back, and most of those happen to the lower back. Pain in the hips and legs result. Pain in the shoulders and arms happen with upper back injuries. Some of the organs beneath these bones and muscles can be affected as well. Let’s say you lifted your arms to retrieve a box from a high shelf. You could almost feel the moment the nerve was pinched.
What actually happened was that the muscles were stretched tight. The nerve has too much pressure applied on it, and it can’t function properly. It pinches the muscle, causing pain. Pinched nerves can happen anywhere there is a muscle to stretch tight around them.
Let’s further say that the pinched nerve occurred over the lungs. You can’t breathe. If you have asthma or COPD, then the problem is worse. A chiropractor will adjust the spine at the point of the pinch. The pressure on the nerve is released. You will be able to breathe. Your back will be pain free.
What About Blood Circulation, Sleep, And Energy?
Putting your feet up is what any doctor will tell you as help for the pain of a lower back injury. The result will be stagnant blood. You need better circulation. Chiropractic helps with this.
Regular adjustments to the neck help with sleep apnea. Moreover, regular adjustments decrease the hormone cortisol or the stress hormone. Less stress and a clear breathing pathway means restful sleep.
Everyone has at some time heard of the mind-body-spirit connection. It’s real, and not just a catch phrase to get you to buy something. Chiropractic takes it seriously. Your doctor will ask questions about your lifestyle, your physical habits like sitting, walking, and positions you lie in on a bed, your diet, and more. Energy comes when all parts of the body are in alignment: body, mind, and spirit.
Your chiropractor can adjust the body, talk with you about the mind, and the spirit will improve when these are properly aligned. Changes in diet, exercises, stress control, mindfulness, and something as simple as patting your dog can do immeasurable good for the body, mind, and spirit.
Cognitive Function Was Mentioned
A 2016 study performed by a medical professor in the Aalborg University Hospital in Denmark shows that cognitive function is improved by around 20 percent by adjustments to the spine.
The prefrontal cortex controls the sense of where the joints are against their surroundings as well as mental rotation. The study shows that spinal function equates to brain function. Among other things, the prefrontal cortex controls how pain is perceived and the emotional response thereto.
The study shows how a spinal adjustment affects the part of the brain that controls pain and the emotional response to it, how the brain perceives the arms and legs and how they relate to what’s around them, in addition to motor control in order to prevent falls.
To learn more about chiropractic and how we can help, please call 205-637-1363 today.
