Millions of people experience back and neck pain every year. Whether caused by a recent injury or chronic condition, back pain can wreak havoc on your quality of life. Pain and discomfort can keep you from participating in activities you enjoy and even have a negative effect on your mood and sleep. Chiropractors offer an all-natural option for treating pain from injuries and health conditions. While many people associate chiropractors with the spine, a chiropractor can actually treat a wide range of issues that impact the musculoskeletal system. Chiropractic care provides you with a natural and holistic alternative to treating whatever is causing your pain. Seeking treatment for back pain is a common reason why people visit chiropractors. A chiropractor can help you in so many ways, but one thing they cannot do is prescribe you any medication.
Chiropractic Care: The Natural Healing Profession
In the United States, chiropractors go through schooling and a licensing process similar to other medical doctors. The training for chiropractors differs slightly from traditional health professions because chiropractic education focuses on the body’s natural healing processes. Chiropractic is considered the natural healing profession because of how chiropractors approach health concerns. Chiropractic is also sometimes referred to as alternative medicine or natural medicine. The chiropractic perspective is that the human body has the tools necessary to heal itself in many situations. When you visit a chiropractor for treatment of an injury or health condition, they will work with you to determine the source of your symptoms and encourage the body’s natural healing processes with chiropractic techniques. Chiropractors use hands-on techniques and noninvasive approaches to treat a wide variety of injuries and health conditions.
An Alternative to Pain Medications
Instead of asking, “can chiropractors prescribe medicine?” you might instead consider, “why don’t chiropractors prescribe medication?” It isn’t just that chiropractors are not allowed to write prescriptions. The profession of chiropractic does not view prescriptions and medications as beneficial to your health and well-being compared to other, more natural approaches. When it comes to chiropractic care or opioid use, doctors and chiropractors are encouraging other options for pain management and pain relief. Medications for pain do not address the root cause of your discomfort. Instead, they can simply mask your pain for a short period of time. You would have to keep taking medications to keep the pain at bay. Other treatment options like chiropractic care provide longer-lasting results than pain medication.
Some prescription drugs have raised alarms in both the chiropractic and medical communities, like opioids. These powerful medications can cause dependence and addiction in people who are trying to manage pain. In fact, the increase in opioid prescriptions over the last few decades has caused a rise in overdoses and death from these powerful medications. Instead of recommending or prescribing medications with uncomfortable or dangerous side effects, chiropractors utilize natural approaches to pain relief. When you visit a chiropractor for pain, they will use non-surgical treatment approaches like chiropractic adjustments to help relieve your pain and improve healthy functioning.
Chiropractic Adjustments for Pain Relief
If you have never experienced a chiropractic adjustment before, then you may not know quite what to expect. You might associate the chiropractor with “popping” or “cracking” your neck or back. However, chiropractors do a lot more than simply cracking your spine. Chiropractic adjustments refer to the technique chiropractors use that can sometimes cause that loud crack or pop sound. However, those sounds do not always happen with a chiropractic adjustment. It is also worth noting that chiropractic adjustments do not actually cause damage to your bones. That cracking or popping sound is actually caused by a release of gasses that have built up in your spinal joints, known as vertebrae. A chiropractic adjustment involves your chiropractor using their hands or a chiropractic tool to gently and forcefully realign joints in the body. Chiropractors can use these adjustments on the spine and joints like your shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. When a joint is out of alignment, it can cause pain, discomfort, and other symptoms depending on the location and severity. A chiropractor will use controlled pressure on a targeted area to manipulate the joint into proper realignment. Licensed chiropractors use chiropractic adjustments and other therapeutic treatments every day with patients to address many different issues that can impact healthy functioning in the body.
Benefits of Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic care involves improving health and wellness through all-natural and noninvasive treatments and techniques. Chiropractors can use these approaches to address pain and other symptoms that affect your bones, joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments, spinal discs, and other soft tissues in the body. From chiropractic adjustments to soft tissue therapy, here are some of the main benefits of drug-free chiropractic care.
Less Invasive
Chiropractic care offers a noninvasive approach to treating injuries and health conditions. Prescription medications and steroid injections for pain can sometimes cause adverse reactions in the body. On the other hand, chiropractors offer a less invasive approach that involves hands-on therapy and a natural approach to treating the root cause of your pain. Since chiropractors do not use any tools or techniques that are invasive, you can trust in the safety and efficacy of this type of treatment. By promoting the body’s natural healing abilities, chiropractors encourage your body to heal itself without the need for invasive measures.
Minimal Side Effects
Medications can cause nasty side effects, especially prescription pain relievers. You can experience an upset stomach, nausea, drowsiness, headaches, and more from prescription medications. Prescription medications like opioids also have a higher risk for dependence, addiction, and abuse. Chiropractic care has minimal side effects. You may feel sore after your initial chiropractic adjustments as your body gets used to supporting a more proper posture and healthier alignment. Something like poor posture can cause muscles to weaken, and it will take time to regain proper strength and stability to support your spine more effectively. Sometimes a chiropractic adjustment can also lead to mild cold symptoms, like a runny nose or cough. This is the body’s way of removing toxins that were dislodged during the natural treatment process and will typically go away in a few hours.
Less Expensive
When you invest in chiropractic care, you can experience long-term pain relief for a much more affordable price. Unlike medications that can be expensive and have you spending lots of money on refills, chiropractic will not mask your symptoms, so they keep coming back. Instead, your chiropractor will treat the source of your pain so that you can experience lasting relief from your symptoms. Chiropractic care is now covered by many health insurance companies, which makes it easier for you to get access to this healthy and noninvasive approach to treatment and pain relief. Your chiropractor can also teach you stretches, exercises, and other techniques to do at home that will help you maintain your pain-free status and prevent future flare-ups. When it comes to chiropractic care or opioid use, you will save a lot of money by skipping these expensive medicines and going with a treatment that will last.
Treat Pain at the Source
A chiropractor will treat your pain at the source. Instead of masking your symptoms with pain medications, they will use techniques supported in research and practice to address the root cause. Chiropractors can diagnose a wide range of injuries and health conditions, including whiplash, frozen shoulder, and sciatica. The only way to experience lasting relief is to treat what is actually causing your symptoms. By restoring healthy functioning to your body, chiropractors will help you to fully heal and recover. In many cases, misalignments and poor support and stability of soft tissues end up causing or contributing to your pain and discomfort. Your chiropractor will use chiropractic techniques to reduce the stress of pain and injury on your body so you can experience an improvement in functioning, flexibility, and stamina.
Long-Lasting Results
Visit a chiropractor for long-lasting results. Because pain medications do not treat the source of your pain, you will keep experiencing pain until the root cause is addressed. Chiropractic care offers long-lasting pain relief and helps you improve overall functioning so that your body works like it’s meant to for longer periods of time. Chiropractors also focus on health and wellness by promoting tools and techniques to prevent future issues. People visit their chiropractors even when they aren’t experiencing any pain to help support healthy functioning and provide proactive treatment and care.
Comprehensive Treatment Plan at AICA Orthopedics
At AICA Orthopedics in Lithia Springs, we recognize and respect chiropractic medicine in health care. Our team of healthcare providers includes orthopedic doctors, surgeons, neurologists, physical therapists, and chiropractors who all work together to provide you with comprehensive treatment. We offer in-house diagnostic imaging tools so you can get an X-ray or CT scan and meet with your doctor in one convenient location. Visit your Lithia Springs chiropractor at AICA Orthopedics and learn more about how our team of doctors and chiropractors can provide you with comprehensive treatment and an individualized plan of care that addresses your needs.