Chiropractic adjustment is not just for the back. Different parts of the body can be helped through spinal and joint manipulation. An adjustment can relieve pain, correct your body's alignment and improve your overall function.
A licensed chiropractor uses special instruments or their hands to manipulate joints in the body. This process is also called spinal or joint manipulation. It can help reduce pain and correct the body’s alignment and overall physical function.
Chiropractors treat many conditions affecting the nervous system and musculoskeletal system.
What is the prognosis (outlook) for people who have chiropractic adjustment?
Many people feel almost immediate relief from symptoms after chiropractic treatment.
But the goal of chiropractic care is to restore your health over the long term, rather than to relieve your symptoms over the short term. So a chiropractor will ask how you move throughout the day (standing, sitting, walking) and how you sleep at night.
Learning how to position your body at your desk, when you’re standing and moving, and when you’re in bed — and incorporating stretches into your daily routine — can be invaluable in preventing future problems.
10 Benefits of Chiropractic Adjustments:
1. Improves neck pain
Neck pain is a common problem, especially if you sit for many hours a day, frequently bend your neck to use your phone, or have poor posture. A chiropractor may help ease your neck pain by realigning your spine and easing tension in your neck muscles.
An older 2012 study found that 12 weeks of spinal manipulation was more effective than medication at treating non-specific neck pain in a group of 272 adults at 8-, 12-, 26-, and 52-week follow-ups.
A 2019 studyTrusted Source found that cervical spine manipulation may help decrease neck pain in the short-term by modifying levels of neuropeptides in your blood. Neuropeptides are proteins made in your nervous system that function as neurotransmitters or hormones.
2. Reduces reliance on opioid pain relievers
People with chronic pain are often given prescriptions for opioid pain relievers to help manage their discomfort. However, undergoing chiropractic treatment may lower your need to take these pain relievers.
A large 2020 studyTrusted Source compared the number of prescriptions for opioid pain relievers filled for adults who visited just their doctor or who visited both a chiropractor and their doctor to treat spinal pain.
The study found that adults who visited a chiropractor were less likely to get an opioid prescription filled for their pain compared to those who only saw their doctor.
3. Eases back pain
Chiropractic treatment may be a good alternative to more invasive alternatives like surgery or injections for treating short-term or chronic back pain.
The American College of Physicians recommends that doctors encourage people with chronic low back pain to first seek non-medication treatments before taking medication to treat their pain. Some of the treatment options recommended include:
spinal manipulation (chiropractic care)
exercise
acupuncture
yoga
tai chi
progressive muscle relaxation
meditation
A 2017 review of studiesTrusted Source found that spinal manipulation was associated with moderate improvements in short-term back pain and function compared to placebo treatment for up to 6 weeks.
4. Possible reduction of osteoarthritis symptoms
Osteoarthritis pain is caused by the degeneration of the cartilage in a joint that causes the ends of your bones to rub together. Some types of chiropractic adjustments may help align your joints and reduce how much your bones rub together.
There hasn’t been a lot of research on the benefits of chiropractic manipulation for osteoarthritis. However, a 2020 animal studyTrusted Source found some evidence that chiropractic manipulation may help slow down the progression of arthritis by improving the status of cartilage, bone, and the joint capsule.
5. Eases headache symptoms
Spinal manipulation may be effective at treating tension headaches and headaches that originate in your neck.
A 2016 studyTrusted Source found that 6 to 8 sessions of cervical and upper thoracic spine manipulation were more effective than movement and exercise for relieving pain in people with chronic headaches. This was still the case at a 3-month follow-up.
6. More affordable treatment for chronic back pain
Chiropractic treatment may be a cheaper alternative to conventional treatment for chronic low back pain.
In a 2016 study, researchers looked at the potential financial benefits of chiropractic treatment for Medicare recipients with chronic back pain.
The researchers found that people who received chiropractic treatment had a lower overall treatment cost. The study also determined that their treatment duration was shorter than that of those who had conventional medical treatment.
7. High satisfaction
Studies have generally reported relatively high levels of satisfaction with chiropractic treatment.
For example, in a 2015 studyTrusted Source, researchers found that a group of 544 people in chiropractic care reported a high level of satisfaction.
Also, 92 percent of the people in this study had improvements in their pain, and 80 percent reported improvements in their ability to move around.
8. Reduces scoliosis symptoms
Chiropractic care may help improve the Cobb angle of people with scoliosis. The Cobb angle is a measurement of how much side-to-side deformity there is in the spine.
A 2016 studyTrusted Source found that the Cobb angle in a group of five children with scoliosis improved after 8 weeks of chiropractic treatment. Noticeable improvements were seen after 4 weeks of treatment.
9. Helps improve posture
Undergoing chiropractic treatment may potentially help correct poor posture, especially if your poor posture is caused by too much sitting.
A 2017 case studyTrusted Source examined the effect of chiropractic treatment on a 27-year-old woman suffering from back pain, neck pain, and headaches caused by hyperkyphosis posture. Hyperkyphosis is commonly known as a hunchback posture.
After 30 treatments over 6 months, she showed a significant improvement in her posture and pain relief in both her head and neck.
10. May help athletic performance
Spinal adjustments may potentially improve your athletic performance. This could be due to increased joint mobility, reduced pain, and less tissue restriction.
However, there are still some questionsTrusted Source about whether spinal adjustments improve sports performance. Chiropractic adjustments may be effective when used to deal with pain caused by an injury.
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