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Back pain, neck pain and headaches are just a few of the painful and distressing conditions that affect many of us at some time. Chiropractic and massage therapy used in combination, from a powerful healing approach that addresses your pain on many levels. Whether your pain is the result of traumatic injury, orveruse or illness, chiropractic and massage combined can greatly speed your return to a pain-free productive life.
Chiropractic is based on a simple but powerful premise: With a healthy lifestyle and normally functioning spinal joints and nerves, your body is better able to heal itself. That's because the spinal cord, which is protected by the spine, is the main pathway of the nervous system. It controls movement, feeling and function throughout your body. Chiropractic care focuses on treating joint dysfunction of the spine, known as sublimations. This joint dysfunction can put pressure on the spinal cord or on the nerves that exit through the spinal cord. The result is pain or other symptoms, such as numbness or tingling, both at the site of the misalignment and frequently related sites elsewhere in the body. Chiropractors use adjustments to return the bone to a more normal position or motion, removing pain and ill health.
To understand the importance of massage, it helps us to understand stress. Stress is an automatic reaction to anything we perceive as a threat. In a stressful situation, our response is fight of flight. It doesn't matter f it's danger or the stress of everyday living. Our body responds with tensing of the muscles, shallow and more rapid breathing, increased adrenaline, heart rate and blood pressure. Hopefully, once removed from the stressful situation, things return to normal. However if you find yourself consistently under a great deal of stress, it becomes more difficult to let go and relax.
Therapeutic massage and stretching can help you regain and maintain proper alignment. When muscles are relaxed and restored to their optimal length, correct posture and alignment are more easily sustained.
Massage can trigger the relaxation response, relieving the negative effects of stress and restoring balance in the body. Some positive effects of the relaxation response include slower heart rate, deeper breathing more relaxed muscles, and better internal circulation and digestion.
Therapeutic massage is an age-old remedy, which has proven to be an effective complement to chiropractic care. Both are based on belief in the innate power of the body. Together chiropractic and massage facilitate the natural healing process by keeping the body in proper alignment and ensuring a free flow of nerve impulses and circulation of fluids.
Problems in the musculo-skeletal system can impede the natural healing process, and often cause dysfunction and pain. Most chiropractic doctors would agree that it is important to treat soft tissues such as muscles and tendons to help prevent and correct subluxations, and lessen the accompanying pain. Together, chiropractic and massage provide you with a more complete and effective system of health care.
Local massage is often used in preparation for adjustments. Massage relieves the muscle tension and warms up the soft tissues in the area, making joints more pliable and more easily adjusted. Many chiropractors themselves (or an assistant) prepare an area with local massage.
A Therapeutic massage can also be good preparation for an adjustment. In addition to preparing the immediate area of concern, it helps you relax.
To the extent that both chiropractic and massage therapy help resolve your pain and improve mobility, you may find it easier to stretch and exercise. This can help you maintain and even improve the flexibility, strength, and balance needed to prevent tension, injury and new subluxation.
Massage is also a powerful tool for helping you to become aware of areas of chronic tension or postural problems, and to understand how these affect your body mechanics. You can take preventive measures on your own before pain develops.
-Recovery is normally faster and more complete when
you address multiple components of your pain.
-Chiropractic treatment often proceeds more easily, with
less discomfort, when soft tissue has been relaxed with massage.
-You may be less anxious and more ready to receive
chiropractic adjustment after a relaxing massage.
-Adjustments frequently last longer when muscle tension is
released that might otherwise pull your joints out of alignment again.
If you are seeking massage therapy for pain but find your pain persists,
recurs or even worsens after your massage, chiropractic could help in these ways:
-If your pain involves subluxation, chiropractic adjustments may give
immediate relief as your joint is restored to alignment and mobility.
-You may find that surrounding soft tissue heals quickly once
it is no longer subjected to the stress of misaligned joints.
-The joint movement in chiropractic adjustments can sometimes relax
deep layers of soft tissue that can be difficult to reach with massage.
-Your chiropractor can use x-rays and manual diagnostic techniques to
elevate other possible causes for your pain and can make appropriate referrals if necessary.
Massage and chiropractic are compatible natural therapies that share the goal of your total well-being, not simply an absence of illness. Both offer natural, effective, safe and drug-free techniques. they can be used as preventive as wall as restorative therapies. Both work to resolve the cause of your pain rather than treat isolated symptoms. Used in combination, they can help you maintain your optimum health and enjoy life to the fullest.
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