When it comes to back pain, neck pain, headaches, and general aches and pains, there are a multitude of treatment options available to you. Which one is the most suitable for you?

You and your family should expect nothing less than the most beneficial care. With spinal-related back and neck pain being one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, finding the right approach to solving your problems is critical.

So where does chiropractic fit into this? Is it really just reduce bread?

What is pain?

Pain is simply a symptom. That is important to understand when talking about health and chiropractic.

Over time, most pain will eventually go away to a tolerable degree, if not completely, whether or not it is aided by medication. The underlying problem is that the bread pan is often still there; however, once he no longer experiences any pain, he mistakenly believes he is cured. Hence the “just toughen up and deal with it” mentality.

This leads to many people experiencing intermittent chronic pain that never goes away wondering why. The result is often a larger problem over time that goes beyond the annoyance and affects your ability to function.

An alternative approach, and one that is gaining increasing popularity with prescription painkiller abuse now classified as an epidemic(1), is chiropractic care.

Surveys show that chiropractors are used more frequently than any other alternative provider group with a high satisfaction rate and a steady increase in patient use, which has tripled in the last two decades.(2)

What is chiropractic?

Across a broad spectrum, you may seek conservative or non-conservative care for a health condition. Let’s dive deeper to assess our options. Chiropractic, physical therapy, massage, and acupuncture are forms of conservative care. Non-conservative care tends to require a more invasive approach, such as surgery, injections, or prescription drugs (chemicals ingested), and is recommended and performed by doctors.

Depending on the severity of the injury, illness, or condition, you may need immediate medical intervention or even surgery. This is a rare scenario, but it still needs to be addressed. Logic would tell us that any condition that is not life-threatening should be treated initially with a more conservative approach and then progress to more invasive approaches if conservative care does not work within a reasonable period of time.

Chiropractors are musculoskeletal specialists who are experienced in caring for a variety of spinal-related conditions, including neck pain, back pain, and headaches. One of the main differences between chiropractors and other health care providers is their ability to find and correct a condition called subluxation. A subluxation is a slight misalignment and restriction of movement in the joint space that connects two bones of the spine (called the “intervertebral joint space”). This restriction can lead to associated muscle tension, nerve irritation, and a number of accompanying symptoms, including pain.

Depending on the resources you access, a subluxation can cause anything from back pain to compromised lung function. This argument of how far a subluxation can go is not within the scope of this document. The research is there.

However, an irrefutable fact is that if left untreated it can lead to the development of adhesions in the stuck joint space (3) and evidence shows that immobilized joints can also lead to premature osteoarthritis (degeneration). (4)

What is an Adjustment?

Chiropractors improve subluxed spinal bones by administering targeted force to stuck spinal bones and joint spaces to release movement and in some cases even improve alignment. force is called settings.

It can be administered by hand or by an electrical or spring-loaded instrument. The amount of pressure or force applied to the stuck spinal bones depends on the patient’s age and size, as well as their general health.

For example, the average pressure used to fit a healthy adult might be 300 to 400 newtons. The tightening force for a child is usually less than 30 newtons. As a point of reference, the typical pressure used to type on a keyboard is 13 newtons of force.

While a chiropractic office may limit the practice to adjustment, many chiropractors offer services beyond ‘chiropractic’. It is important to understand that chiropractic is not the only strategy you should employ to conservatively improve spinal-related problems such as subluxations. Stretching and getting stronger, improving your diet, getting more rest, reducing stress, and changing your posture at work and at home are great examples of the next steps to take for lasting spinal improvements.

Chiropractic is a field that philosophically incorporates preventive or maintenance care that is part of a healthy lifestyle. Most chiropractors encourage and educate their patients to lead a healthy and active lifestyle that allows them to be functionally. Like anything else, it takes time to learn and incorporate a new lifestyle to prevent future subluxations.

Most chiropractic care plans require multiple visits to restore proper motion and then recommend continued care, less frequently, beyond this point to prevent future subluxations and ensure the spine remains mobile and healthy.

Chiropractic care is a lot like exercise. You train to get fit, but you have to keep training to keep fit. form. And just like exercise, routine chiropractic maintenance care isn’t something you need to do to stay alive, but many studies have shown that it improves the quality of your life.

Sources

1. Unintentional drug poisoning in the United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010. prescription drug abuse. White House Office on National Drug Policy. Accessed November 2013.

2.Source: Meeker, Haldeman (2002)Annals of Internal Medicine

3. Cramer GD, Henderson CNR. Little JW, et al; Zygapophyseal joint adhesions after induced hypomobility. JMPT 2010;33(7); 508

4. Videoman, Experimental models of osteoarthritis: The role of immobilization. Clinical Biomechanics, 2:223-229, 1987