To learn if seeing a chiropractor is right for you, let’s look at what chiropractors do, their overall approach, and the top benefits of getting a chiropractic adjustment.

Chiropractic is a licensed health care profession that emphasizes the body’s ability to heal itself. Treatment typically involves manual therapy, often including spinal manipulation. Other forms of treatment, such as exercise and nutritional counseling, may be used as well.

What Will Happen the First Time You See a Chiropractor?

Chiropractors often treat problems related to the musculoskeletal system, though as you’ll see, their overall approach is holistic.

Similar to an appointment with a doctor practicing conventional medicine, a chiropractor will interview you to get a detailed health history; they’ll perform an examination, run tests and develop a prognosis and treatment plan.

The manual treatment methods used by chiropractors range from stretching and sustained pressure to specific joint manipulations, which are usually delivered by hand and involve a quick and gentle thrust. The purpose of the manipulations is to improve joint motion and function. Manipulations are most commonly done on the spine, but other parts of the body may also be treated in this way.

Why Do People Seek out Chiropractors?

While people most often seek out a chiropractor for neck and back pain, visiting a chiropractor will most likely help you overcome many additional symptoms. When a chiropractor physically adjusts your vertebrae, the procedure can have myriad positive benefits without the stress or invasiveness of surgery.

Neck and Lower Back Pain

Getting support, relief, and healing for this part of the body is probably the most well known reasons for going to the chiropractor. 80% of all Americans experience some sort of lower back pain in their lifetime.

Medications and surgeries are options for this type of pain, but those can be dangerous, expensive, and ineffective. A non-invasive technique such as an adjustment for a chiropractor is safer, less expensive, and effective for both mild and chronic pain.

Sciatica

Sciatica refers to pain that radiates along the path of the sciatic nerve, which branches from your lower back through your hips and buttocks and down each leg. Typically, sciatica affects only one side of your body.

Sciatica most commonly occurs when a herniated disk, bone spur on the spine or narrowing of the spine (spinal stenosis) compresses part of the nerve. This causes inflammation, pain and often some numbness in the affected leg.

This type of chronic pain can lead to over-medicating and chronic pain. Chiropractic treatment can help relieve pressure on the sciatic nerve that is causing your sciatica. Studies show that patients receiving adjustments reduced the number of pain days they had. They also experienced a reduction in the severity of their pain.

Headaches

Headaches are another of the top issues that people seek out chiropractors to treat. Back misalignment can cause muscle tension and pain which can result in both tension headaches and migraine headaches.

There are over 200 studies examining the benefits and effectiveness of chiropractic adjustments and spinal manipulation for headache relief.

Blood Pressure

A study published in the Human Journal of Hypertension showed that a chiropractic adjustment could give people suffering from high blood pressure the same effect as taking certain high blood pressure medications.

This study also showed that the effects of the adjustment would persist for 6 months after the adjustment.

High blood pressure medications can have negative side effects including:

• Fatigue
• Nausea
• Dizziness
• Anxiety
• Weight loss

Chiropractic adjustments have been shown to help patients with low blood pressure as well.

Scoliosis

Scoliosis is a sideways curvature of the spine that most often is diagnosed in adolescents. While scoliosis can occur in people with conditions such as cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy, the cause of most childhood scoliosis is unknown.

Most cases of scoliosis are mild, but some curves worsen as children grow. Severe scoliosis can be disabling.

Most scoliosis patients have few options for treatment. But a chiropractic adjustment has been shown to help treat scoliosis patients.

Chiropractic treatment combined with physical therapy could help treat and prevent the progression of scoliosis. The effectiveness of this treatment option varies from patient to patient, but it is a viable option.

Inflammation

Inflammation is one of the top causes of pain, joint issues, and tension. Chronic inflammation has been linked to a number of diseases like heart disease, chronic pain, and cancer.

Chiropractic adjustments have been shown to reduce inflammation, which can lead to a number of positive benefits, including:

Chronic lower back pain relief
Reduced muscle tension
Relief of joint pain

Read > Moving Away From Inflammation and Dis-Ease and interview with Dr. Leslie Prins

Vertigo

Dizziness and vertigo can make it impossible to do everyday tasks or even get up out of bed without feeling disoriented and nauseous. This is a common condition after experiencing a head or neck injury.

A chiropractic adjustment can help target joints and vertebrae that aren’t moving correctly and help reduce vertigo episodes. An adjustment can also help fix your body’s natural balance, which can also cause vertigo if it’s misaligned.

Chiropractic Care for Seniors

Older Medicare patients with chronic low back pain and other medical problems who received spinal manipulation from a chiropractic physician had lower costs of care and shorter episodes of back pain than patients in other treatment groups. Patients who received a combination of chiropractic and medical care had the next lowest Medicare costs, and patients who received medical care only incurred the highest costs.

Holistic Approaches to Healthcare

We love approaches that take the entire person into account. Holistic medicine is a whole-body approach to healthcare. It aims to improve health and wellness through the body, mind, and soul. Usually, holistic medicine combines traditional medicine and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

Your Natural Healthcare partners with numerous chiropractors who carry our CBD products as a complementary approach to restoring balance to the body.

Learn more:

The Endocannabinoid System and Homeostasis
How CBD Works

References:
https://bmcmusculoskeletdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12891-016-0912-3
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322038#takeaway
https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/chiropractic-in-depth