Chiropractic Therapies

Therapeutic Exercise
Chiropractors commonly prescribe specific strengthening exercises for their patients with back, neck, and extremity problems. These exercises can decrease pain, prevent muscle deterioration, promote joint health, increase strength, stability and range of motion, and protect against new or recurring injuries.

Your chiropractor will show you how to do the exercises and supervise you until you are comfortable doing them on you own. It's important to keep up with your exercises as prescribed (similarly to drug prescriptions). Studies show that individuals who follow their exercise instructions heal faster than those who do not.

Therapeutic Stretches
Following an injury, therapeutic stretching is an important way to prevent scar tissue from forming. Even after the injury has healed, maintaining a regular stretching program helps keep tissues flexible, increases mobility, and protects you from new injuries. Like exercise, your chiropractor will instruct you on proper stretching techniques and will supervise you until you are comfortable enough to do them on your own.

Traction-Massage
In chiropractic traction-massage, the patient lies face up with a pillow under the knees. A system of rollers then moves up and down the spine, gently stretching and massaging the muscles of the back. Traction-massage usually is performed just before an adjustment to relax the spine, making the adjustment easier to perform, more comfortable, and more beneficial.

Many chiropractors also use more traditional traction in which traction devices are applied to elongate areas of the spine. This treatment helps separate the vertebrae resulting in disc decompression, reduced nerve root pressure, and decreased pain.

Soft Tissue and Massage Therapy
Massage therapy helps improve circulation and reduce pain. Chiropractors are trained in a variety of massage therapy modalities. The need and benefits of these therapies vary from patient to patient. Your chiropractor will choose the best method for your specific needs.

Physical Therapy Modalities

Muscle Stimulation
This type of therapy uses light electrical pulses that are transmitted to specific areas of the body through electrodes placed on the skin. There are many different types of electrical stimulation. Some are more beneficial for pain relief or to reduce inflammation, some for muscle spasm, and some actually cause muscles to contract in order to reduce muscle atrophy. Some have combination effects.

TENS
A TENS (transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation) unit is a small, battery-powered, portable muscle stimulation machine that can be used at home to help control pain. Variable intensities of electric current are used to control pain. This treatment is recommended to help patients get through periods of severe (acute) pain. TENS units are typically not recommended for chronic pain.

Ultrasound
Therapeutic ultrasound is a form of deep heat therapy created by sound waves. When applied to soft tissues and joints, the sound waves are a form of micro-massage that help reduce swelling, increase blood flow, and decrease pain, stiffness, and spasms.

Ice and Heat Therapy
Ice and heat have long been used to treat many painful conditions. Ice therapy is often used to reduce swelling and help control pain immediately after an injury. Heat therapy is used to relax the muscles and increase circulation and can provide relief to patients with chronic pain. Depending on the patient's condition, a combination of ice and heat can be used.

Diet and Nutritional Counseling
Studies have shown that poor diet and nutritional imbalances contribute to a number of serious illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer. Chiropractors are specifically trained in diet and nutritional counseling. Your chiropractor can design a nutritional program specific to your needs that can help you maintain good health and minimize the risk of developing these serious health conditions.

Lifestyle Modification Counseling
Good health is much more than the absence of pain or disease. The lifestyle choices you make on a daily basis can greatly affect your long-term health. We now know that years of seemingly small unhealthy lifestyle choices can, over time, turn into very large health problems. Examples of lifestyle choices and behaviors that can have negative effects on your health include:

• Lack of regular exercise
• Smoking
• Poor diet
• Excessive mental stress
• Over-reliance on medication
• Excessive consumption of alcohol
• Poor posture
• Improper lifting

Your chiropractor will talk to you about your lifestyle choices, help you sort through and identify unhealthy health habits, and give you practical strategies to deal with and manage them.

As you can see, chiropractic medicine is more than just spinal manipulations. Chiropractors use a variety of treatment modalities to help the body to heal itself and return the patient to a pain-free and healthy life.