How Chiropractic Care Helps Reduce Pain

Many people seek chiropractic care to help alleviate acute or chronic pain, most commonly in the lower back or neck and shoulders. Reducing pain enables you to enjoy the things you love to do rather than the activities your body allows.

Healthy spinal alignment is necessary to relay electrical signals from the brain to all of the organ systems of your body. These signals are carried via the spinal cord and nerves that ultimately branch out and link to every cell in your body. It is only with this direct link to the brain that you can control healing within your body. Conversely, spinal joint dysfunction will lead to excess strain and wear on the body, causing inflammation and pain. Joint dysfunction can occur over time from bad posture, repetitive activities (such as performing certain sports or occupations) and degenerative disease. It may also happen suddenly due to trauma from a motor vehicle accident, a fall or a particular sports injury.

Chiropractic care helps to restore function by improving range of motion of the affected joints that tend to stiffen in problem areas. The body is comprised of many muscles, tendons, ligaments and nerves, all of which have the potential to cause pain when stressed or damaged. Muscle strain and spasm can occur on its own or as the result of postural problems. In the latter case, a spasm may not only be causing pain but may also prevent the body from returning to its natural alignment. Chiropractic soft tissue therapies can ease muscle spasms and relax the spinal joints to proper function so as to lessen pain, if not relieve it completely.

If soft tissue therapy alone is insufficient, spinal manipulations or adjustments will often be used to correct underlying stress and postural problems. Dr. Nenshi may use her hands to apply gentle pressure or use instruments to alleviate stress on the delicate joints protecting your nervous system. Pinched nerves are rare and only occur in less than 2 percent of injuries. Most discomfort may be resolved by reducing inflammation in nerve tissue via improving mobility in the spinal joints.

Painful injuries such as shoulder rotator cuff injuries and slipped discs may take some time to heal. In these cases, spinal manipulation and soft tissue therapies offer reduced physical stress on the injured structures offering the best possible conditions for repair to take place. Patients will often involuntarily tense their muscles around an area of pain, which can both prolong the healing time and increase their discomfort. In these cases, chiropractic treatment is important to both relieve the pain and to promote natural healing in the affected area.

Although spinal adjustments are very helpful in the treatment of both acute and chronic pain, Dr. Nenshi recognizes that sometimes additional measures may be needed for short-term pain control such as natural anti-inflammatories and analgesic creams. Whereas the ultimate goal is to restore function to the body, relieving pain and inflammation is a critical component of your health and healing.