So, what is chiropractic?

You’ve heard about chiropractors before and probably know a few people that see one on a regular basis or you even visit one yourself. Then you might have heard the term ‘adjustment’ before, but you don’t really understand what that even means?

Chiropractors are health practitioners who use manual therapy to adjust your spine as well as other joints of the body to treat various muscle and skeletal conditions. Muscles, tendons and ligaments are connected to bones which make up joints, if either of them aren’t working properly, the body loses the ability to function properly and pain can present. Makes sense, right?

Okay, so now you know what chiropractic is, but how does a chiropractor diagnose conditions?

Chiropractors have many methods to find out what’s going on with your body, including taking a thorough history, a physical examination including orthopaedic and neurological testing, and diagnostic imaging if necessary (e.g. x-rays or MRIs) . Based on our findings, we will recommend a specific treatment plan tailor-made for you which may include recommended exercises, nutritional and lifestyle advice.

A big part of chiropractic treatment is adjustments to the bones in your body. As explained earlier, ligaments, tendons and muscles are connected to the bone and if a bone is out of alignment, this will affect your nervous system which can negatively affect your muscles, sensation, joint range of movement, and balance. While being adjusted, you may hear a popping noise. Don’t be alarmed, this is totally normal and simply put is the sound of gas escaping the joints that are being worked on. These adjustments are generally not painful and have been clinically proven to be save and effective.

Sometimes, chiropractic might not be appropriate for your condition, in which case we will refer you to another health care professional who is better suited to help you.

And what are the main areas you can help me with? Well, we can help with many conditions such as:

·        back pain & neck pain

·        headaches

·        sports injuries

·        injuries resulting from overuse

·        whiplash

·        strains and sprains

·        arthritis

·        restriction of movement (back, shoulders, neck or extremities)

One of the most common conditions we deal with is backpain. Due to our modern-day lifestyle – mostly seated and sedentary – our body is not used in the way it was designed to, which causes many biomechanical problems, dysfunction and pain. Underused muscles mean that the spine is not supported in a healthy way and the result can be acute or chronic back pain.

At Back to Function, we consider ourselves somewhat experts in back pain. In 2014 I published a book about back pain together with Professor Rod Bonello and I am highly experienced and passionate about treating backpain.

Back pain is a very complex and multifaceted issue and I will explain the topic further in our upcoming blog posts. For now, if you struggle with backpain or any other health issue discussed above, why not come and see us and get assessed? Or get in touch. We would love to have a chat with you.

Cheers,

Adam and the Back to Function Team