Pain can cause a vicious cycle of stress, anxiety, and discomfort. A chiropractor can soothe your body’s tension and help you relax, reducing the symptoms that trigger your anxiety.
Chiropractors take a holistic approach to health care. This involves counseling patients on interconnected lifestyle factors that impact their musculoskeletal and nervous systems.
Reduces Stress
Most people don’t associate chiropractic care with stress relief, an important pillar of holistic health. This is because chiropractors focus on the relationship between the spine and the nervous system, which controls your body’s functions, including your stress response. Misalignments in the spine can disrupt this communication, leading to stress and anxiety symptoms. Pain management with a chiropractor uses spinal adjustments to restore proper alignment and promote better nerve function, thus reducing stress and anxiety.
Nervous system tension also negatively affects your immune system, making you more susceptible to illnesses and infections. Chiropractic adjustments help to alleviate stress and stiffness, allowing for the free flow of nerve impulses in the immune system. This reduces inflammation and enhances the healing process. It can also stimulate the release of positive hormones like oxytocin and cortisol, which help you to relax and feel less stressed.
Relieves Pain
Unlike pain-relieving medications, chiropractic care addresses the root causes of pain. This allows the body to heal faster, reducing your risk of future injury.
For example, suppose you injure your neck in an accident and develop whiplash. In that case, spinal manipulations can help relieve muscle and nerve pain, improve posture, and strengthen the muscles around your spine and joints. This prevents the injury from recurring and makes it easier to do the activities you love without pain.
Regular chiropractic treatments also improve blood flow to the injured areas. This enables your body to send white blood cells and nutrients to the area to heal it more quickly. It also prevents compression of nerves, which can lead to fatigue and decrease your immune system’s ability to fight off viruses or infections.
Improves Sleep
Chiropractors adjust the spine to promote spinal balance and work with clients on reducing pain, alleviating stress, changing eating habits, increasing movement, and more. The resulting holistic health approach enhances the functioning of the central nervous system, which plays a role in how well you sleep.
Spinal misalignment can cause tension, pressure, and numbness, making it difficult to fall or stay asleep. Chiropractic adjustments and soft-tissue manipulation remove pinched nerves to relieve discomfort and improve sleep.
Restless sleep deprives your body of essential nutrients and energy, leading to a host of problems like low productivity, irritability, and even mental health issues. Chiropractic care helps restore normal blood flow, speeding healing and improving sleep. In addition, chiropractic treatments reduce inflammation, contributing to poor sleep.
Reduces Inflammation
Inflammation is your body’s natural immune system response to protect you from illnesses and injuries. But when inflammation becomes chronic, it can lead to autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and hay fever. Certain foods, lack of sleep, excessive stress, and genetic conditions also increase the risk of inflammation.
A chiropractic adjustment helps alleviate inflammation by restoring spinal alignment. Unlike anti-inflammatory drugs, chiropractic care doesn’t cause stomach upset or raise the risk of kidney disease and high blood pressure. Chiropractors use various techniques to reduce inflammation, including cold and hot packs, massage therapy, soft tissue mobilization, and trigger point therapy. This helps to ease muscle spasms and speed up healing after injury. It also promotes overall wellness by promoting nervous and immune system balance.
Improves Blood Flow
The spinal cord transmits vital nutrients throughout the body, and chiropractic care can improve circulation by addressing misalignments and tight muscles. This treatment also promotes overall wellness and relieves negative symptoms such as pain and fatigue.
Poor circulation can lead to various health problems, from blood clots in the legs (DVT) to pulmonary embolisms. These conditions are typically the result of lifestyle factors such as smoking, a sedentary lifestyle, and obesity.
In addition to reducing stress and improving posture, holistic chiropractors can improve circulation through massage therapy and nutrition advice. This combination of treatments opens communication lines within the body and boosts immune function. It also helps fight inflammation and fuel repair. Moreover, it reduces the risk of heart disease by improving your blood pressure and pulse rate.
