Most people think Chiropractic care is just beneficial for back and neck pain – but this couldn’t be further from the truth! Chiropractic treatment can benefit you in ways you may never have expected, and while most people may visit the chiropractor’s office for the first time to relieve back pain, they choose to keep returning even after the pain is gone because of the other benefits. Read more to find out about the benefits of chiropractic care that may surprise you!
What Are 7 Possible Benefits of Chiropractic Care that May Be Unexpected?
Though the majority of people who visit the chiropractor intend to relieve and improve lower back or neck pain, many of them continue to return because of the unexpected benefits that accompany chiropractic treatment. So, what are some of the unexpected benefits of chiropractic treatment?
- Boosted Immunity
- Improved Digestion
- Lower Blood Pressure
- Increased Energy
- Better Breathing
- Better Posture
- Healthier Pregnancy and Easier Delivery
Now that we know some of the benefits that may result from chiropractic care, let’s explore more about what chiropractic treatment looks like and how these benefits come to be.
What Is Chiropractic Care?
Chiropractic care is based on the belief that proper alignment of the body’s musculoskeletal structure will enable the body to heal itself without surgery or medication. Chiropractors use hands-on spinal manipulation to re-align the body along the spine. This spinal manipulation treatment occurs when chiropractors use their hands or other tools to apply a controlled force to a joint on your spine.
Spinal adjustments release pressure on the nerves and muscles along your spine and neck, which in turn relieves some of the pain you experience. You will likely hear a pop as the joints are moved out of their regular range of motion – but this is not painful! It is simply the audible release of gas between your joints as the pressure is relieved. These treatments will help to alleviate and control pain, strengthen areas of the body that carry stress and tension, and stimulate muscles and the body to heal and function properly.
Chiropractic treatment is primarily used as a pain relief alternative from strong medications and/or surgeries. Similar to conventional medicine, when you visit your chiropractor they will do a preliminary examination in order to determine a treatment plan. Oftentimes treatment plans will involve more than one visit to the chiropractor, but frequency will vary depending on your individual needs.
Let’s explore how chiropractic care can benefit you beyond your initial reasoning for going to the chiropractor!
Boosted Immunity
Everything in your body is connected through your central nervous system – which centers along your spine. The nervous system controls the functions of cells, organs, and tissues in the body and helps the immune system to fight off bacteria and viruses that enter your body. Whenever your body is misaligned, the nervous system’s abilities may be reduced and limited, impacting your ability to fight off illnesses.
Chiropractic care re-aligns the spine, taking pressure off the nerves and muscles in your spine and freeing up the immune system to fight off intruders. With consistent chiropractic treatment, studies have shown that individuals experience fewer colds and get sick less often than those who do not receive chiropractic care.
Improved Digestion
Guess what? Those same nerves in your spine that impact your immune system’s ability to fight off intruders also control your stomach and its functions. Crazy right! This means that if the vertebrae in this area are improperly aligned, the nerves may begin signaling a need for more acid production in the stomach – resulting in gas, heartburn, and acid reflux.
A chiropractic treatment can help the nerves in the spine work properly, meaning your body will go back to the normal levels of acid production and eliminate excessive gas, heartburn, or acid reflux. You may experience quick digestive relief after a spinal adjustment, and may not even realize it was a result of the adjustment!
Lower Blood Pressure
Often times we are told that in order to lower our blood pressure, a medication regimen is required. What we don’t always think about is that adjustments focused in the neck area can be just as effective as taking a double dose of blood pressure medications. This type of treatment is known in chiropractic circles as the “Atlas Adjustment” and can have stabilizing effects on blood pressure.
Just as spinal adjustments help to relieve back pain without having to take strong pain medications, they can also reduce our need to take blood pressure medication by improving our body’s functions naturally.
Increased Energy
Chiropractic treatments can increase your energy by: reducing tension in the spine and freeing the nerves to work more effectively. In other words, work smarter not harder! When your body functions as it was meant to, without any added pressure, tension, stress, etc. the added energy that was needed to function around those problems is freed up!
As our bodies struggle with aches and pains that may not even be noticeable after a while, we find ourselves rundown and tired. A chiropractic adjustment removes the pressure on your spine and allows the body to function naturally – freeing up that added energy and giving you an automatic boost.
Better Breathing
Just like any other part of the body, our lungs rely on nerve function to travel unimpeded from the brain to the spinal cord. Misalignment in the thoracic and mid-cervical regions of the spine lead to lung abnormalities such as asthma or difficulty breathing. By correcting subluxations, inflammation in the lungs is reduced and our ability to breathe properly is increased immediately.
Subluxation is known as a partial abnormal separation of the articular surfaces of a joint. Chiropractic treatments like spinal adjustments reduce the subluxation – increase the range of motion, reduce nerve irritability, and improve function. All of this results in your ability to breathe better.
Better Posture
Whether you sit in front of a computer five days a week from 9-5 or you simply have bad posture, chiropractic spinal adjustments can help you improve your posture. We often put undue stress and tension on our shoulders and neck, resulting in a hunched or rounded back posture.
After a series of chiropractic treatments and practice sitting with your shoulders back and spine straight, a noticeable change in posture can be seen – as well as pain relief in your upper back and neck areas.
Healthier Pregnancy and Easier Delivery
Chiropractic care is special because it can be used on people of all ages and sizes – even pregnant women! During pregnancy, a woman’s body goes through many significant changes that impact the nervous system’s ability to function properly. This can result in extreme discomfort and pain, especially in the advanced stages of the pregnancy. And taking strong medications is discouraged so women are often left living with it until birth (but they don’t have to!)
Regular chiropractic care throughout pregnancy can help reduce the added pressure on the mother’s spine and pelvic area, relieving a large portion of pain and discomfort they may be experiencing. At the same time, these treatments can help your body stay in prime condition for birth – even making birth a much easier process.
Regular Chiropractic Visits Are Beneficial
The first time you visit a chiropractor, you will go through a preliminary examination so that they can determine a treatment plan for you going forward. This treatment plan will determine how often you should visit, as well as anything you can do outside of your visits to help relieve pressure and improve mobility.
Most patients find that once their treatment is concluded, a continuation of chiropractic visits can help them continue to improve their overall health. The unexpected benefits we just reviewed lead patients to visit regularly to maintain and build upon their health – the only thing that may change is the frequency of their visits.
If you have never been to a chiropractor, hopefully, this article encourages you to try out a new approach to healthcare, one that won’t require you to take strong medications or even need to undergo invasive surgery.
Related Questions
Do Chiropractors Work With Insurance?
In recent years, chiropractic care has grown in popularity and insurance coverage has expanded to cover it. Most insurance policies will include chiropractic treatments, to a certain extent. However, many of them may have stipulations regarding the coverage, such as restrictions to the number of times insurance will cover a visit, the need for a physician referral stating that treatment is medically necessary, the need to use in-network chiropractors, etc.
Some policies will only cover short-term care, such as following a car accident and won’t pay for long-term care such as regular visits to help reduce chronic pain. To find out if your insurance policy supports chiropractic care, call your agent and see if your primary physician can help you get what you need.
With insurance, you can expect a chiropractic visit to cost $30 and under. Without insurance, your chiropractic visit may cost closer to $50-$75.
– the article sponsor the Longevity Effect
