Most people seek out a chiropractor because they are in some kind of physical pain. This is because chiropractic care is a fast and effective method for alleviating acute pain. But there are many other health advantages associated with regular chiropractic care and adjustments. Better sleep, better posture, an improved mood, and less stress are just four of the amazing benefits of regular chiropractic care.

Better Sleep

Sleep issues have become prevalent in America today. Although there are many factors involved in getting a good night’s sleep, the majority of sleep troubles stem from either stress, body pain, or both. By having regular chiropractic adjustments, you can address both issues, easing your aches and reducing your stress level at the same time. Consistent chiropractic care can enable you to get better rest each night.

Better Posture

Modern life — with all of its sitting, computer and phone use, and driving — can have a negative impact on your posture. Fortunately, consistent chiropractic adjustments can align your spine and improve your posture over time. If you have curvatures in your spine or neck, or if you simply spend a lot of time at your desk, chiropractic care can slowly correct any imbalances and help you to stand and sit up straight.

An Improved Mood

When you receive a chiropractic adjustment, you are working to adjust your whole body system, including your body chemistry. Chiropractic adjustments can help correct chemical and hormonal imbalances, leading to better moods. Individuals suffering from depression, ADHD and other ailments have shown improvement with regular chiropractic care.

Less Stress

When your body doesn’t feel right, this can contribute to feelings of stress. When your stress begins to spiral out of control, you hold tension in your body, contributing to increased pain. Chiropractic care can help you break this pain-stress cycle. Regular chiropractic adjustments can allow your body to find balance, release tension, and relax. When you are relaxed, you can address whatever problems life throws at you without becoming overwhelmed. Relieve the source of your physical stress with regular chiropractic treatment, and allow the mental stress to follow.

This list only begins to scratch the surface when it comes to the beneficial aspects of regular chiropractic treatment. If you are in physical pain, or you find yourself afflicted by any of the conditions mentioned above, contact Accident Care Chiropractic to make an appointment today.

Chiropractic treatment is proven effective in the treatment of several different injuries. Whether you are suffering from chronic headaches or muscle spasms, if you’ve been involved in a car accident or suffering from too many hours in front of a laptop – chiropractic treatment can help. However, researching chiropractors and treatment options is akin to finding any other medical assistance, and an injured individual must be particular in finding the best chiropractor of his or her injury.

Understand How a Chiropractor Is Certified

The best chiropractor for your injury treatment should hold some qualification to perform adjustments and provide treatment advice. A certified chiropractor is required to complete a stringent program called a Doctor of Chiropractic. A DC after the chiropractor’s name denotes this educational requirement and certification, similar to a MD or JD, for medical doctor and juris doctor, respectively. Usually you can determine a chiropractor’s level of education and type of certification by a quick online search, but if it isn’t specified on a website or industry referral, feel free to ask.

The specific field of study or specialization of a certification program, and potential benefit of a specific qualification to your improvement, varies by injury. Some of the possible areas of focus include pharmacology, gross anatomy, and neurology. And there are many others that deal with a specific area of the body or method of treatment.

Be Scrupulous About the Technique and Treatments Used

In the world of modern medicine the same illness or injury can be treated through different techniques and approaches. For example, if you see a doctor with complaints of lower back pain, one could prescribe a prescription drug, while the other recommends a specific lifestyle change. In many instances, these treatment plans are divisive, but both can be medically sound way to advise and treat a patient.

The same differences in technique and treatment exist among chiropractors. Returning to the issue of lower back pain, it’s entirely possible that two chiropractors will recommend and use two different techniques to treat the same pain. You should know and understand a chiropractor’s preferred technique before you arrive for your first correction or treatment.

It could be helpful for your particular injury to see a chiropractor that offers additional treatments, such as acupuncture or massage therapy. Other treatments that might be offered by a chiropractor, or someone in the chiropractic office, are interferential electric muscle stimulation, cryotherapy, sensory deprivation, counseling for emotional issues, chronic stress, or on nutritional information, and other alternative therapies.

Understand How the Treatments Will Be Structured

Before your first chiropractic treatment, and for every treatment after that, the best chiropractor for your injury will have an intended, but malleable, treatment plan. This treatment plan should be shared with you.

Some of the information a chiropractor should relay is the duration of each treatment and overall timeframe of your treatments. Within the initial meeting with a chiropractor you should know if the recommended treatment plan should take weeks or months. A chiropractor might be unwilling to provide an exact outline of your treatment, but should at least form a rough estimate based on your symptoms.

Be open to a proposed treatment plan and duration of corrections, as the best chiropractor for a particular injury may have an approach very different from what you anticipated.

It’s a Very Personal Decision

While these recommendations and tips for choosing the best chiropractor may inform your online search or give you direction, ultimately you choice in chiropractor is a personal decision. Skill and technique will always be important, critical even, but finding a good personality fit and working with a chiropractor you trust are equally essential.

When it comes to your recovery, you need a chiropractor that offers good advice, in an understandable and useable manner. Weighing these and other subjective considerations is a big step towards choosing the chiropractor for your injury.

What Are Common Workplace Injuries Helped by Chiropractic Procedures?

If you are injured at work in Portland or other parts of Oregon, you are able to seek special benefits and compensation to cover your injuries called workers compensation. Part of the medical treatment you are entitled to receive is therapy and follow-up procedures. Many employers will also cover chiropractic procedures for many musculoskeletal and similar injuries.

Wondering what common workplace injuries are improved, and even healed, by chiropractic services? It turns out, a large number of workplace injuries (one in three) impact the musculoskeletal systems, which are treated by chiropractors.

#1: Neck Strains and Injuries

The neck is a sensitive part of the body. Injuries here can result in stiffness, aches, and other types of pain, even if the accident leading to such injury isn’t severe. Frequently, neck injuries aren’t just painful, but debilitating. As well, neck strains and pulls tend to linger longer than other workplace injuries. For both of these reasons, chiropractic procedures are a great option to treat workplace incidents that result in a neck strain.

How do people suffer neck strains or other injuries at work? Slips and falls are the most common cause, but motor vehicle accidents, lifting heavy loads, and also sitting or typing in an uncomfortable position can also cause substantial problems – all of which, chiropractic procedures could solve.

#2: Repetitive Motion Injuries

Under Oregon workers’ compensation there is a specific class of workplace injury called repetitive motion injuries. Often called, repetitive strain injuries or RSI, these are conditions that arise from overuse or performing the same motion over-and-over again with bad technique.

These injuries can impact several parts of the body, including the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and even the nerves. Each of these body parts can be served and sedated by chiropractic services. Therefore, chiropractors, like those at Accident Care Chiropractic, can treat many different repetitive motion injuries.

Furthermore, repetitive motion injuries don't just occur in one part of the body but can impact the fingers, wrists, neck, shoulders, legs, ankles, or feet. The specific ailments or injuries that are associated with repetitive motion include tendinitis, bursitis, and carpal tunnel syndrome.

#3: Back Injuries from Improper Lifting

Manual manipulation of materials or equipment is a common injury in the workplace. In particular, people working in retail, hospitality, as nurses, or in home health care are frequently lifting heavy loads or moving materials and patients. Back strains and similar muscular injuries in the back and shoulders are regular occurrences in these professions. Often, short-term back injuries go untreated by employees, but that doesn’t have to be the case. 

Chiropractic procedures, including manual therapy and soft-tissue rehabilitation, can help soothe back muscles and release tightness throughout the back. Furthermore, the small adjustments made through chiropractic procedures can help prevent future back strains and muscular injuries from occurring.

#4: Headaches

The exact cause of chronic or ongoing headaches can be difficult to discern, but when traceable to a workplace injury or condition it is usually the result of poor posture. Millions upon millions of Americans spend their days working at a desk or standing in a rigid position. What happens after months or years of these working conditions? Employees start to slump, slouch, and pick up poor posture habits in an effort to be more comfortable.

However, the end result usually isn’t less pain, but a brand new source of it. After sitting in an awkward or uncomfortable position for many hours, people can develop migraines or ongoing headaches. It might be surprising, but chiropractic procedures can alleviate these headaches.

Do You Need to Address a Workplace Injury?

If you are suffering from a workplace injury the first step is to inform your employer. Workers’ compensation benefits and other rights afforded employees are only available after your employer has been informed and a claim made to the appropriate insurance provider.

Once your employer is informed, you should seek treatment. If your workplace injury is musculoskeletal or causing headaches, a chiropractor may provide relief, and could possibly resolve your injury.