05/24/2022
What is Chiropractic anyways?
This is the way I like to look at Chiropractic care. Now it’s important to note there are many different techniques and specialties within the chiropractic field.
That being said, I like to look at chiropractic as creating mobility or motion in restricted joints/ joints that aren’t moving well. When a joint isn’t moving well, it can cause muscles to be chronically tight, fatigued, or painful.
It can also create nerve pain and a long list of other symptoms. If something isn’t moving right, it’s not going to work right.
What I do in my office is restore proper motion and function to these joints and muscles, which allows for healing and pain relief.
How do joints get stuck and muscles get stiff? Well, we will dive into this topic another time, but to summarize. They can get stuck/dysfunctional through big injuries or events (like car accidents) or through repetitive stresses/wear and tear (like poor posture).
So what does the process look like?
1) It starts with an examination/analysis of the dysfunctional joints and muscles. Aka what’s not moving and working properly/ what hurts, and why.
2) A plan is made to help achieve your health goals
3) Then, we restore proper motion and function to these muscles and joints. To promote healing, and get you feeling better.
There are many different ways to do this or achieve this goal.
To illustrate this a little more, let’s use a simple example. A person presents with neck pain after a car accident.
An examination is performed and determines that the patient is having trouble turning their head to the left and looking up. They have left sided neck and shoulder pain. It is determined that the surrounding muscles in the shoulder are tight and tender to the touch. As well as the joints in the upper neck are not moving properly (Improper motion/dysfunction has been identified).
Everyone should be able to turn their heads pain-free.
The goal is to regain proper movement for this patient and get pain relief. We achieve this through getting the joints moving;(chiropractic adjustment, which we will go into more detail about in another post). Trigger point release on the muscles to remove tension. As well as providing exercises and stretches to promote flexibility, strength, and stability.
That's everything in a nutshell!
