Many people do not realize just how many problems can occur when your nervous system is out of whack. It’s part of why chiropractic care can be so helpful, not only to help you recover from injuries and persistent pain, but also to balance your health by keeping your nervous system in good, functioning condition. 

If you’re sick, your first thought may not be that the culprit is an impaired nervous system, but that could very well be the case. As can other issues, such as with your digestion, with your sleep, with your mood, with your overall range of motion… The nervous system is called the command center of your body for a reason! Here’s what you need to know about your nervous system, how it works, and how chiropractic care can help balance your health by improving your nervous system’s functionality. Let’s get into it!

What Is The Nervous System?

So, we just mentioned that your nervous system is basically like the command center of your body. You would probably think that that’s the brain’s job, and you’d be partially right! Your nervous system originates in your brain, but then spreads down through your spine and includes your nerves. 

There are two main parts to your nervous system: the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system.

• Central Nervous System. This consists of your brain and spinal cord. 
• Peripheral Nervous System. This consists of the nerves that branch out from your central nervous system all throughout your body. 

What Does The Nervous System Do?

Quite a lot, to be honest with you. There’s a reason why if you want to balance your health, you look to the nervous system. It’s also why chiropractic care can balance your health, because it improves the function and communication of your nervous system, which can alleviate and even resolve all sorts of different health concerns. 

Your nervous system is responsible for guiding pretty much everything that we do, even thoughts and feelings. It regulates all the systems throughout your body. This allows for things such as:

• Movement
• Thinking
• Feeling
• Sensing
• Sleep
• Stress responses
• Body processes
• Digestion
• Heartbeat patterns
• Breathing patterns

How Can Your Nervous System Balance Your Health?

As you can see, your nervous system is vital to doing pretty much everything in our day-to-day lives. It does this by having the brain send messages through our nerves throughout our body, telling it what to do. If it is unbalanced or nerves are pinched, interfering with how your brain and your organs can communicate with each other, this results in all sorts of different problems, from pain to illness and more. 

It is absolutely crucial that you balance your health by keeping your nervous system healthy. Otherwise, you could end up struggling with critical tasks, ranging from focus to moving with ease to potential immunity issues.

How Chiropractic Care Can Help Balance Your Health

Okay, so we told you earlier that chiropractic care can help to balance your health by improving the function of your nervous system, right? But just telling you, “This helps!” isn’t a very satisfying answer for anyone. People want to know how something can help to balance your health and why it works. So, that’s what we’re going to tell you!

Many people hear chiropractic care and immediately think of back pain. It’s true, chiropractors definitely help with back pain! However, chiropractic care goes beyond that. Chiropractors are specialists when it comes to your spine, which is part of your central nervous system. Did you know that you don’t need to be hurt or in pain in order to see a chiropractor? Many people don’t! However, regular chiropractic adjustments can help balance your health by keeping your nervous system healthy. 

Some of the ways that chiropractors can help balance your health include:

• Diagnosing problems, such as pinched nerves, that are impairing the function of your nervous system and your health.
• Personalized treatment plans designed for you and your body to keep you healthy. This includes practices such as spinal manipulations, which keep your spine aligned and prevent problems such as impaired communication in your nervous system. It also includes treatments such as chiropractic massage, which can increase blood flow and relax your body, as well as many others. 
• Helping your body heal itself. With natural and non-invasive treatments, chiropractic care can help to balance your health by reducing swelling, stress on your nerves, blockages, and more, all of which can result from vertebrae thrown out of place.

Do You Need Chiropractic Care?

Grant Chiropractic can help you balance your health with our professional chiropractic care. We’re passionate about ensuring your nervous system is as healthy as possible, and do everything in our power to make that happen. Contact us today to schedule your chiropractic adjustment and let us help you balance your health!

If you’re experiencing significant back pain, you may be wondering whether you should go to the emergency room or to a chiropractor. How do you determine whether the E.R. vs chiropractic care will be more helpful to you? 

The truth is that it will depend on the cause of your pain. In some instances, your back pain may necessitate medical care, so you should go to the E.R. In many medical cases involving back pain, your medical doctor will refer you to a chiropractor to help you heal after they’ve treated you. In other cases, you can skip the E.R. and just head right to your chiropractor. 

Sometimes, it’s obvious to tell whether you should seek the help of the E.R. vs chiropractic care. In others, not so much. Here’s what you need to know about when you should seek out the E.R. vs chiropractic care. 

When You Should Go To The E.R.

If you have back pain, you’ll probably end up seeing a chiropractor anyway, right? So, why not just skip the emergency room and head right to the chiropractor’s office? Why even question when you’ll need the E.R. vs chiropractic care at all?

While it’s rare that you’ll need to see an emergency doctor for back pain, there are a few instances where you’ll need to go to the E.R. rather than a chiropractor. Usually, this is when your symptoms are severe or your pain is the result of trauma. 

If you’re bleeding, have lacerations, have a suspected broken bone, have a severe headache, dizziness, nausea, or have bowel or bladder incontinence go to the emergency room right away. Some of the above have severe consequences that if you wait too long could lead to severe long term consequences and even death. The emergency department is there to make sure you live and survive. And they do a fantastic job of that!

Once you know you are going to live, or your symptoms are not life-threatening, a chiropractic physician can help you get your health back, so you can enjoy your life!

When You Should See A Chiropractor

Chiropractors are experts when it comes to your spine, which is why more often than not, you’ll see a chiropractor for your back pain. It’s common for people who go to medical doctors for back pain to be referred to a chiropractor, as chiropractors have extensive training and expertise in how to help a wide variety of issues that stem from spinal misalignments and problems. 

This is why people wonder when you need the E.R. vs chiropractic care, if the emergency doctors are just going to tell you to go see a chiropractor anyway. We’ve covered the instances in which you’ll need to go to the E.R., because experts though chiropractors are, chiropractic care is natural and non-invasive, so it wouldn’t be able to fix a problem that necessitates medical procedures, like surgery.

However, more often than not, you’ll be able to see a chiropractor for your back pain, where in the case of the E.R. vs chiropractic care, you’ll opt for the latter. Chiropractors will be able to diagnose the root cause of your pain, and in many cases, can help you avoid other treatments that merely cover up your pain rather than actually treating it. Pain killers may be able to provide initial relief for a couple of hours, but they’re a temporary solution to a long-term problem. 

Chiropractic physicians can diagnose and treat: concussions, whiplash, disc herniations, Piriformis syndrome, brachial plexus neuropathy such as thoracic outlet syndrome  sprains and strains, knee shoulder and hip sprains and strains that are all common motor vehicle injuries. 

A good chiropractor can be your best friend, because chiropractors are all about getting to the cause of your pain and correcting the problem versus just giving you pain pills to cover up the symptoms.

Medication can often help you deal with the initial pain, but if used alone, it’s a lot like trying to deal with the symptoms of a fire only covering up the fire alarm speaker with masking tape or cutting the wires. It never addresses the real cause of the alarm going off. Like a fire, we need to get to the root cause of the problem, the flame, and put it out. Then, the fire alarm will go off by itself.

In addition, a doctor of chiropractic who has extra training in motor vehicle occupant injuries (a whiplash specialist) will have additional tools and methods to be able to help you document your injuries thoroughly, and often has specialized equipment to help you get better even faster.

The E.R. Vs Chiropractic Care: Treatment

If you are not experiencing life-threatening or severe symptoms, you should see a chiropractor for your back pain. E.R. physicians are wonderful, but their job is to stabilize your condition and then refer you out to a specialist, if you need it. They will reduce your pain with medications, but they won’t repair any damages to your musculoskeletal system, which is why they would refer you out to a chiropractor. 

Thus, in many cases, it’s often more beneficial to go right to a chiropractor, rather than the E.R. Chiropractors can often help you avoid more invasive measures such as surgery and offer you more expert, specialized care, seeing as how the spine is their area of expertise. 

When you come to Grant Chiropractic for treatment, we can provide you with said expert care. This includes an in-depth evaluation of your condition that includes questions about your medical history and when the symptoms starts, along with: 

• Full Diagnosis Equipment
• Chiropractic Testing
• Chiropractic Orthopedic Testing
• Neurological Assessment
• X-Rays when needed to find the root cause of the problem
• Individualized Treatment Plans

Chiropractors can treat a wide range of issues, including whiplash, sciatica, back injuries, misalignment, and more. Rather than covering up the symptoms, we get to the root cause of your pain, so that you can enjoy lasting relief.

Do you ever feel like you’re in a mill? Do you want specialized care? Contact Grant Chiropractic to schedule your consultation today, and let us restore your body to its proper functioning and relieve your pain.

Whiplash is a common injury seen after being involved in an auto accident or other traumatic event, such as physical assault or a fall. Many people assume that whiplash is just to be expected as a result of such traumas and that they need to grin and bear this – this isn’t so. Chiropractors help whiplash in a number of ways that can treat your pain and help stimulate your body’s natural healing process. Here’s what you need to know about how chiropractors help whiplash and whether you may be at heightened risk for suffering a whiplash injury. 

What Is Whiplash?

Whiplash is an injury to your neck that results from a forced, rapid back and forth movement of your neck, like that of a whip lash. While most commonly associated with car accidents, especially rear-enders, whiplash can result from a number of other causes too. Sports accidents, falls, physical abuse, shaken baby syndrome, and other such traumas can all cause whiplash. 

Symptoms Of Whiplash

While most people who suffer whiplash can recover within a few weeks, whiplash doesn’t always manifest right away. Left untreated, whiplash can result in long-term complications such as chronic neck pain and more. The sooner you seek treatment, the sooner chiropractors help whiplash, the sooner you’ll be able to recover and return to your life as normal.

Symptoms of whiplash include:

• Neck pain
• Stiffness
• Lessened range of motion in the neck
• Headaches
• Tingling and/or numbness in the arms
• Tenderness and/or pain in your shoulders, upper back, and/or arms
• Fatigue
• Dizziness
• Blurred vision
• Irritability
• Ringing in the ears
• Depression
• Memory problems
• Difficulty concentrating
• Trouble sleeping
• Nausea
• Difficulty swallowing
• Low back pain and/or stiffness
• Pain in your jaw or face

Chiropractors help whiplash symptoms such as these in a number of ways. If you’re experiencing any of the symptoms of whiplash, it’s best to seek out chiropractic care sooner rather than later. 

Risk Factors For Whiplash

The same as everything else, there are factors that can put you at higher risk for this injury. Risk factors for whiplash include:

• Car headrests that are too low or more than 2 inches from your head
• Your seat being reclined too far back
• Poor posture while driving
• Age, as your ligaments become less pliable and your range of motion is already lessened
• Being of a shorter height, as this can put you too close to the steering wheel and air bag or cause your seatbelt to fit poorly
• Pre-existing conditions, such as arthritis

How Chiropractors Help Whiplash

Symptoms of whiplash usually appear within a few days following the injury, but this isn’t always the case. There are cases where it takes years for symptoms to manifest, and they can result in further problems, such as premature disc generation. As such the sooner you can obtain treatment, the better. Chiropractors help whiplash with a variety of different treatment methods. Here’s what you need to know about how chiropractors help whiplash.

Chiropractic Treatment For Whiplash

Chiropractors help whiplash in several of the following ways:

• Spinal Manipulation

What chiropractic care is most renowned for, spinal manipulation is a primary way chiropractors help whiplash. Spinal manipulation involves utilizing spinal manipulation techniques that apply pressure to the areas of your spine that are misaligned, which can provide relief by putting your spine back into alignment. 

• Spinal Decompression

Spinal decompression is another way chiropractors help whiplash. This treatment method involves gentle stretching of your spine in order to alleviate pressure on your spinal disks. 

• Soft Tissue Therapy

Soft tissue therapy restores your muscular function through stretching or applying pressure to your muscles that have excessive tension. This can be done with chiropractic massage, as well as muscle energy therapy and stretch-and-resist techniques.

Other ways chiropractors help whiplash include: muscle stimulation and relaxation, ergonomic changes, exercises that you can do at home, therapeutic massage, and more. The treatment method chiropractors use for you will depend on the circumstances of your specific injury and the symptoms you’re experiencing. 

Benefits Of Chiropractic Care For Whiplash

When chiropractors help whiplash injuries, people report a number of benefits from their treatments. Some of the benefits of chiropractic care for whiplash include:

• Reduced inflammation
• Reduced pain
• Restored range of motion
• Improved muscle tone
• Treatment of and prevention of headache
• Sped up recovery process
• Boosted overall wellness

Professional Certified Care For Whiplash

As it can take a while for symptoms to show, it’s better to obtain chiropractic care for whiplash as soon as you’ve suffered a trauma that could result in whiplash. Grant Chiropractic offers certified, professional care for whiplash. Our chiropractors help whiplash in a number of ways and will be able to determine the best treatment method for you. Contact us today for any questions or to set up an appointment.