If you find that your pain isn’t responding to typical pain management treatments, you may want to consider chiropractic care for pain management. While some pain management treatments, such as medications, don’t treat the root cause of your pain, a chiropractor will work with you to determine what’s causing your pain and what you can do about it. In fact, many patients feel immediate relief after their first chiropractic adjustment.
How can chiropractic care help you manage your pain?
Find Out What’s Causing the Problem
Your chiropractor will sit down and do an exam with you in order to find out more about what’s causing your pain. While chiropractors are spine experts, they can also manipulate joints in other parts of the body in order to relieve pain there as well. Your chiropractor can adjust your hips, your neck, and any joints in your body such as arm or hand joints that are bothering you.
Your chiropractor will likely want to check your level of sensation in the problem area, your flexibility, and ask you about your pain. Along with potentially taking an x-ray, your chiropractor should be able to diagnose what’s causing your pain and recommend a treatment plan. Remember, chiropractors are trained to look at the whole picture rather than just one part of your body. They’ll likely conduct a full body exam even if you tell them just one part of your body is hurting. Everything is connected to everything when it comes to the body!
Set a Treatment Plan
Your chiropractor will then discuss the treatment plan that they think will be best for you. Your treatment plan may involve spinal manipulation, commonly referred to as chiropractic adjustments, in order to get your spine working properly again. For example, if you have a herniated disk, your chiropractic will likely perform a maneuver that will help your disc go back to where it should be away from the nerve.
Your chiropractor may also want to work with you on your posture to help keep your spine working properly or even recommend physical therapy to increase your flexibility and ease your pain. Some chiropractors have a physical therapist in their office that can help you. Discuss the treatment plan thoroughly and your expectations as well as your chiropractor’s expectations for it.
Follow Through
Many people nowadays are looking for a “quick fix” when it comes to their pain (i.e. pain medication). However, as mentioned above, these treatments do not actually treat your condition, rather they are treating your symptoms. Getting chiropractic care is a non-invasive and drug-free approach. This means you’ll actually have to go to the chiropractor and follow their suggestions in order to start feeling better.
Dr. Jakob Taylor of True Wellness Chiropractic in Chattanooga Tennessee shares how quickly pain can go away if you follow your chiropractor’s guidance to improve your health. “Many people experience tremendous pain relief after just one visit with their chiropractor. However, it’s easy to forget but important to remember that pain is often the last alarm bell when something is wrong and the first thing to go away. Research shows that the best way to stop pain in its tracks is by sticking closely to your chiropractor’s recommendations.”
Your pain can and will go away—it just may not happen overnight. Keep in mind too that you’ll need to be open with your chiropractor about how you feel. Be patient as well when following through with your treatment—the more severe your pain is, the more time it may take for it to go away. While immediate results are possible and maybe even likely, the truth is that healing takes time.
Chiropractic care is a great option for managing your pain. There’s no risk of being addicted to pain meds or getting surgery or injections unless, of course, it’s absolutely necessary. Your chiropractor will do everything he or she can to eliminate your pain and work with you to get you feeling better. Chiropractic care has been shown to have great results when it comes to people managing their pain—give it a try!