Reasons for Chiropractic Care
It is estimated 80% of people will suffer from back pain in there adult years with a lot of the cause being sustained throughout childhood injuries or accidents. Back pain is the most common reason for time off work. Back pain is sustained from various means, most commonly are overuse injuries from every day repetitive activities, and symptoms may include acute pain, muscle spasm and joint pain. Trauma, falls, sports injuries, and motor vehicle accidents are common injuries to the vertebral segments of the spine as well as spinal fractures and disc injuries. Anyone one can benefit from chiropractic care, from a difficult birth that may affect a babies reflexes to an elderly person who has chronic arthritis and poor balance to assist them to have a well-functioning nervous system and spine.
Who should see a chiropractor?
Newborn babies – Elderly – Sports professionals – Office workers – Students (text neck) – Growing families – Manual workers
Chiropractic care is for everybody!
“From newborns to the elderly everyone can enjoy the benefits of chiropractic care to function to their maximum potential, for a healthy, happy lifestyle.”
If you have incurred an injury and have:
Hit your head or fallen on to your buttocks
Fallen from a height of four feet or more.
Incurred a direct blow to the spine
Been hit from a sports related injury
Have back pain after lifting or twisting
Have pins and needles or numbness into your legs or back
Weakness of muscles in legs or buttocks
Headaches and migraines
Have suffered sprain or strains to the muscles around your back.
Consult your chiropractic doctor, for an assessment and diagnoses of your spine.
The Neck (Cervical Spine)
The neck is the most common injury sustained in a car accident, resulting in whip lash. Anyone who has any pain after a car accident has sustained a whiplash injury, this results in tension on the ligaments, joints, and disc of the cervical spine as well as soft tissue injury. Which can lead to long term degenerative changes throughout the spine. Anyone who has sustained a whiplash injury will require an assessment and appropriate treatment plan to heal in the best alignment, preventing further injury.
Postural stress such as poor seating, computer use and sleeping habits inhibit our natural healing ability within the spine, resulting in a loss of spinal curves. The Cervical spine (neck) develops throughout early childhood and the lack of developing the right postural curves directly affects spinal mobility and brain development throughout life.
You may notice that your head is very forward on your spine and for every inch of forward head posture the weight of the head on the spine increased by an additional 10 pounds. “Research indicates that continuous forward head posture leads to long term muscle strain, disc herniation, arthritis and pitched nerves. Your chiropractor can create a customised plan for reversing and preventing this continued spinal degeneration.
Shoulders, arms & hands
The nerves which exit the spine out of the middle neck and upper back branch off to supply shoulders, arms and elbows, wrists, hands and fingers. Various symptoms from the body can result from nerve compression if the spinal joints are degenerated or subluxated (Spinal joint out of alignment). This can result in you experiencing pain, tingling, tightness of muscles, and weakness or pins and needles in these areas. You may have neck stiffness or feel like you want to relieve muscles in your neck. Some people experience headaches, migraines, dizziness and a sore throat, which can be attributed to impinged or damaged nerves that exit the cervical spine.
You are one adjustment away from a good mood.
Upper and Lower Back
Pain anywhere in our body is a good thing it is a vital defence mechanism to protect us from doing serious damage through movement with an injury to our spine. There are many causes of upper and lower back pain, most commonly is degenerative osteoarthritis (wear and tear).
These are usually due to
Repetitive movement to spinal joints or uneven load.
- Immobile joints (two or more vertebra not moving well)
- Abnormal movement patterns in a spine results in degeneration (the inability of the body to heal bone and spinal joints against spinal stress) will result in osteo arthritis, there are different phases of degenerative change.
- With a build-up of subluxations, tension and altered movement over the years, spinal joints, discs and ligaments begin to fatigue and wear out.
- Spinal decay or degeneration begins with the first subluxation often in childhood and is not often noticed until early adulthood.
- Chiropractic is safe from the newborns to the elderly with many gentle and safe techniques to correct the spine.
Many people suffer from degenerative joint and pain, however there are things that we can do. Chiropractic adjustments relieve stress on one or more vertebra and distribute the weight throughout the spine, reducing degenerative changes. Advice on stretches, exercise, strengthening programs and joint supplements such as glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate can be taken together to maximise spinal movement and restore joint integrity.
