Chiropractic Senior Care

Many Seniors today believe that aging and pain are synonymous. While aging is a natural part of our lives, pain in our bodies is a signal that something isn’t right. Some diseases like arthritis can attack the joints and cause inflammation, pain, and reduce our ability to move. However, the intensity or amount of pain that you experience is often an unnecessary side effect, and there are ways to help reduce or eliminate these problems. If you haven’t considered contacting a chiropractor, then you should keep reading. There are several benefits that chiropractors can offer you to increase your quality of life during your Golden Years.
 

Pain Relief

Pain relief is one of the most common reasons that any patient visits with their chiropractor. While it is common to consider visiting a chiropractor for neck or back pain, you may consider a consultation any type of discomfort.

Chiropractors commonly adjust the spinal column. Your brain stem and the nerves that travel throughout your body must pass through your vertebrae. This means that if you are having discomfort anywhere, it may be resolved or reduced by making sure that the nerve can easily pass signals to the brain.
 

Increased Range of Motion

Many seniors will tell you that aging commonly attacks their joints. Painful and inflamed joints can restrict the body’s ability to move freely. Over time, as these muscles go unused, they begin to shrink and become weaker. After a visit with their chiropractor, many senior golfers have found that they have gained distance in their drives, or gardeners find that they can finally collect their harvest without pain for the first time in years.
 

Better Balance and Movement

As the bones and muscles in our necks begin to deteriorate, one of the first signs can be a change in our ability to maintain balance. There are specific structures called mechanoreceptors that reside in our cervical spine. These mechanoreceptors are partially responsible for helping us maintain our balance. As we age, they can often experience some minor defects. Chiropractic care has been shown to help restore and stimulate the mechanoreceptors function and leads to an increase in our ability to balance. Improved balance can also mean fewer falls and less chance of injury.
 

Reduced Joint Degeneration

If your spine is not aligned correctly, it can cause additional strain and wear on many of our other joints. When we don’t hold proper body position, our legs, hips, neck and other joints must compensate for this change. Over time this can cause damage to the joints that leads to increased discomfort and a reduction in our ability or desire to move. Chiropractic adjustments can help to bring the spine into proper alignment which allows our body positioning. These factors reduce the demands that we place on joints throughout the body and can leave you feeling better and moving more.
 

Increased Quality of Life

A study in 1996 suggested that patients who used chiropractic care to aid in their health versus those who did not receive several benefits. These include:
 

• Less evidence of arthritis

• Increased strenuous exercise levels

• Fewer hospitalizations

• Fewer falls
   

In fact, these patients also found that receiving chiropractic care may have even influenced their ability to stay out of the nursing home. At a follow-up interview three years after the study, only 5% of the patients who received chiropractic care had moved to a nursing home compared to 48% of those who did not receive care.
 

Overview

Chiropractic care has been shown to be a safe and effective treatment for people of all ages. However, as our bodies age, we need to be increasingly cautious about the medications we take or the treatments that we use to maintain or improve our health. Chiropractic care is used for athletes, teens, adults, for injuries, pregnant women, and even babies. If you think that you may benefit from chiropractic care, schedule an appointment today.