Chiropractic Tips and Tricks for Everyday Aches and Pains

Time for a little chiropractic fun. Balance is the name of the game for chiropractors, especially those of us with a structurally focused chiropractic office. If your foundation is crooked or unlevel, then you will be too. The body has an ideal structure which, the closer your spine approximates the more likely you are to NOT have headaches, neck pain, mid back pain, low back pain, sciatica, degenerative disc disease, degeneration of the spine, and a host of other nerve related maladies. If the structure of your spine is shifted then it’s possible for it to negatively affect the muscles and nerves that are attached to and protected by the spine.

Think of a house. It is critical for the foundation to be solid. This has been known for thousands of years. See Matthew 7:24. To build your house on an unstable foundation is dangerous. As a structurally focused chiropractor, I would argue that having a spine that has shifted from that ideal, straight from the front and three specific curves when looking at it from the side, is also very dangerous.

If the foundation of your house is cracking and shifting you’re likely to see some secondary conditions (symptoms);

1. • cracks in the walls

   • squeaky floorboards

   • windows that don’t open and close right

Once you see these issues you have a choice. You can ignore the potentially dangerous foundation problem and just put some plaster on the walls to cover up the cracks, nail down the squeaky floorboards, sand down the doors and add WD-40 to the window hoping they open and close better. The other option is that you can fix the foundation so that the secondary conditions don’t get any worse. Now fixing the foundation might be costly and more expensive but it has the potential to save you a LOT of money and hassle in the future plus it’s ultimately much safer. If you do fix the foundation you then may even want to address any potential cause for the shift or crack e.g. maybe you need gutters to safely move water away from the house during heavy rains.

Similarly, if your spine shifts away from that ideal structure you will likely see some secondary condition (symptoms);

• neck pain

• mid back pain

• low back pain

• sciatica

• radiating pain

• disc bulges

• headaches

• migraines

• numbness

• tingling

• muscle spasms

• muscle weakness

This is just a FEW of the most common types of secondary conditions that Corrective Chiropractic regularly sees as a result of a spinal shift. The possibilities are nearly endless when you consider that a shift from that ideal can affect the nerves which send a message to every cell, tissue and organ in your body to tell them how to function.

Just like with your house, you have a choice to make with how to treat your health problems. You can use drugs or surgery to get rid of the obvious secondary conditions or fix the underlying structural issue with your spine. This is the foundational difference between medicine and even traditional chiropractic when compared to structurally focused chiropractic that is one at Corrective Chiropractic.

Here’re some tips for helping prevent a shift in your spine away from the ideal.

• Movement

  • Motion is life and regular movement is essential to prevent abnormal changes in your spine. Even simple daily walking is very impactful. Even more so if your job has you sitting a lot make sure to take regular breaks and get up from the desk to move around.
  • This is why proper exercise is great and helps to strengthen the muscles which can help stabilize the spine.
  • Regular exercise also improves oxygen flow to tissues, including the muscles, discs, ligaments and bones.  Tissue without oxygen dies or rots  and will optimally be more susceptible to degeneration of the discs and spine, allowing more of a shift away from the normal structure.

• Balance

  • Unilateral (one sided) activities will create an imbalance. This doesn’t mean you should avoid them at all costs, however when they become highly repetitive it can attribute to significant shifts away from the ideal spinal structure. This is particularly common with athletes who play a sport or position that is one hand dominant (tennis, baseball, disc golf etc.), musicians (tuba, guitar, violin), factory workers who do the same actions all day, and office workers who use their mouse a lot.
  • Avoid problems by dedicating one day a week or an hour or two a day for “Opposite Day” by using your non-dominant hand. You can change the buttons on the mouse for a lefty if you’re a righty. Most people don’t realize that the way they sit in their office chair is very unbalanced because they will often lean away from the mouse so it’s easier to use. Athletes, you’ll be surprised at how much better of an overall athlete you’ll become with by practicing with the opposite hand.

• Chiropractic

  • The foundation of your house is a solid (hopefully) immobile structure. As such, if built properly, it should not require any regular adjustments barring any damage. Your spine, like all precisely movable equipment, requires regular adjustments to its foundation to stay in line with the ideal structure.
  • Like your house’s foundation, your spine requires a specialist or a structurally focused chiropractor to inspect the foundation for damage or spinal shifts after an injury like whiplash, auto accident, athletic injury, etc.