There are many benefits to getting chiropractic care. Some, like pain relief and improved movement, are well-known. But one of the amazing details about chiropractic, and specifically spinal adjustments, is that they are multi-factorial in “how they work”. That means results may vary based on the person’s lifestyle and physiology; their life outside the chiropractic office.
That’s why we will always talk about what our patients should and shouldn’t do, what sort of lifestyle habits they should be following, to enhance their chiropractic treatment, specifically their adjustments.
Some of the benefits listed below are directly delivered by the chiropractic adjustment; others are by the impact we can make with our specific recommendations for you.
1) — Receiving Periodic Chiropractic Care Can Promote an Improvement in Your Sleep Patterns
Did you know that a whopping 1 in 5 suffer from sleeping issues or insomnia from a wide range of reasons?
It’s no secret that irregular sleeping patterns can disturb your mood, memory, and focus and even cause weight gain.
So, it’s essential to get approximately 7+ hours of quality sleep every night to help the body function at its best.
Know This:
Chiropractors can help improve a person’s quality of sleep by first helping to restore any faulty biomechanical patterns to reduce the levels of pain they may be dealing with day in and day out.
Adequate sleep helps ensure the nervous system is able to work at optimal capacity.
In very basic terms, this also allows individuals to maintain an optimal balance in their internal systems.
One of the benefits of visiting a chiropractor is that many chiropractic patients often report feeling a significant difference in the quality of their sleep over the span of their first two visits.
And once they start sleeping properly, it’s then that they notice an improvement in their focus, memory, and productivity. Better sleep means better health, which means less pain, which means better sleep, and so on.
Research has indicated that well-rested people are at a lesser risk of health problems like cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
2) Chiropractic care can also be a big help when it comes to the care of chronic pain. Routine chiropractic care can reduce the need for drugs and other more invasive treatments. Chiropractic adjustments and lifestyle changes can help patients reduce and even eliminate their chronic pain and, likewise, their need for pain medications. More and more people are becoming aware that prescription medication can have unwanted side effects on your body.
To add insult to injury, these medications merely conceal or mask the pain and do very little to address the root cause of the pain that bis the reason for the prescription. Also, treating pain with medication often only keeps the pain at bay for a few hours.
Once the effects of the medication(s) wear off, the pain returns… often at an increased intensity.
The targeted adjustments provided by chiropractors are intended to ultimately help your body deal with the demands placed on it and the stresses of everyday life more efficiently.
In other words, one of the benefits of visiting a chiropractor is that patients ultimately feel generally better and a lot more relaxed as their chiropractors address the physiological pain points and stressors they’ve been living with through adjustments and follow-up.
The improvement they feel in their quality of life means it’s more likely they’ll have a reduced need to reach for pain pills or to seek prescription medications.
And less pain often means less stress.
3) — Making Time for Regular Chiropractic Adjustments Can Help Lessen Your Tension and Stress
Stress can be a significant part of anyone’s life, whether they’re a bank manager or a professional athlete.
Interestingly, it’s often a lack of movement and physical activity that’s behind the levels of stress we all deal with.
A lack of daily exercise, for example, can manifest as both physical and mental stress.
And, as you may have guessed from our brief look at sleep early on in this brief, a person’s stress levels are directly linked to their sleeping patterns.
Remember, one of the benefits of visiting a chiropractor and of starting chiropractic care – specifically chiropractic adjustments – can help remove any built-up stress from your neuromusculoskeletal system.
By examining and then adjusting the joints of the body, a chiropractor can help improve the body’s range of motion so patients can move more freely and complete their day-to-day activities without pain.
In fact, it’s often as soon as these adjustments (or manipulations) are performed that many patients report feeling less tension and more overall comfort and calm.
A big part of the success of those chiropractic adjustments includes lifestyle analysis, patient education, and so on – patient participation in their own care is crucially important.
For instance, when a patient makes drinking plenty of water and avoiding processed foods in their diet a priority while also maintaining their regular sessions with their chiropractor, it’s far more likely they’ll get well, stay well, and stay motivated.
4) — Periodic Chiropractic Care Can Also Help You Maintain and Improve Your Posture
It’s 2023, and each and every one of us is relying on technology (and dealing with neck and back pain) more than ever. Most of us can be found hunching on our laptop screens or looking down at our phone from any number of awkward angles while we scroll and scroll for what can be hours on end.
This can lead to less-than-ideal compensatory physiological changes in our neck and spine – i.e. the development of poor posture. And, as most of us also know, poor posture can cause back pain and muscle fatigue. Fortunately, it’s well-known that chiropractic care is a wonderful tool for improving posture.
When working to restore proper posture, a chiropractor will often start by adjusting the shoulders, mid-back, low back, or neck to help first restore their normal movement patterns. They’ll focus on joint movement and function with a special eye toward ensuring proper alignment to help reduce tension in the muscles at a foundational level.
Additionally, an x-ray may be ordered so they have a clearer picture of their body’s current condition during their initial visit and as treatment progresses.
Chiropractic adjustments actually involve very subtle movements within and around the joints of the body. You won’t experience any jarring changes or pain, but, rather, a steady improvement in your posture over time. Knowing this, it’s likely your chiropractor will also prescribe certain maintenance exercises to help boost the results of your adjustments and to help keep you feeling great and relaxed overall.
And better posture can contribute to another of the many great benefits of visiting a chiropractor – more natural energy.
5) — Getting Adjusted by a Chiropractor Can Help Boost Your Natural Energy Levels
It’s no secret that a sedentary lifestyle is one of the primary reasons many of us lack the motivation to be productive. A body in motion tends to stay in motion, and a body at rest tends to stay at rest.
If follows that being inactive for hours on end day after day after day can affect your mental health and lead to constant feelings of fatigue and tiredness. The good news is that if you are looking for ways to live a more active lifestyle, yes – it’s on the list of benefits of visiting a chiropractor. Recent research strongly suggests that spinal adjustments can promote increased levels of endorphins – aka the “feel-good” chemicals in your brain.
Some chiropractic patients have reported an increase in their natural energy levels after just a couple of visits with their chiropractor. The benefit is that an energy boost is just what most of us need to get motivated to get up, get active, and even make time for hobbies and activities we may have let fall by the wayside.
That said, it’s probably no surprise that many professional athletes are under chiropractic care right now.
6) — Keeping Up on Routine Chiropractic Care Can Help Enhance Your Athletic Performance
Believe it or not, athletes use the services of chiropractors more than just about any of us.
For instance, team chiropractors often travel with just about every professional sports team, and it’s easy to see why. At the high level that professional athletes compete at, it’s likely that they’ll regularly strain their muscles or sustain internal injuries during games – especially if they participate in contact sports.
And over-exerting the body without the proper maintenance and recovery care can lead to complicated joint issues and an increased risk of suffering further injury or re-injury.
Chiropractors can provide timely relief from such probable issues with specialized spinal adjustments and manipulation techniques. Again, these adjustments can not only help athletes find relief at the time they are treated but can also help support the body in a way that can lessen the chance of future injuries.
That’s why players are always encouraged to seek care before, during, and after every season to take advantage of the many benefits of visiting a chiropractor. Doing so helps them stay on track which, in turn, can help boost their athletic performance by keeping them off the sideline and in the game.
Knowing such care is readily available can also help athletes maintain a positive outlook, and the same can be said for anyone who receives chiropractic care.
7) — It’s Possible That Simply Experiencing Chiropractic Care Can Help Improve Your Mood
Obviously, constantly being “stuck” in a lousy mood can impact a person’s mental health, and some of the biggest reasons many of us find ourselves in a “bad” mood are chronic pain, over-exhaustion, stress, and strain on our spines and bodies.
While it should be stated that chiropractors are not mental health specialists, researchers have observed a strong correlation between the presence of mental health issues and the presence of chronic pain which is why an improved mood can be considered one of the benefits of visiting a chiropractor. For instance, once a person is able to lessen or relieve the chronic pain they’ve been living with, it’s likely they’ll feel happier and more content over all.
Again, these are just a few of the many benefits of checking in and seeing a chiropractor!