- Chiropractic alleviates chronic pain
Chronic pain can be miserable to live with. The pain can wax and wane depending on stress levels, ergonomics, repetitive movements, or potentially for no reason at all. The right chiropractor can help you identify these triggers and develop a plan to break the chronic pain cycle and give you the tools to manage it on your own or help with more severe flare ups. It all comes down to a thorough assessment that can identify issues you may or not be aware of and determining the best course of action for long term results. The McKenzie Method is a wonderful assessment approach that can determine if your pain is the result of something easily manageable with a specific exercise or two, or if tissue remodeling is necessary. Muscle & Joint Chiropractic also utilizes principles of Neurodynamics that can help free sticky nerve roots and influence neural physiology to a normal baseline. Throw in some functional movement assessment, joint palpation, and soft tissue evaluation and a clear picture for resolution can be developed.
- Chiropractic care can shorten the amount of time for acute injuries to heal
Maybe you’ve thrown your back out or tweaked your neck. Maybe it’s happened a few times, with each episode lasting longer in duration or potentially less time between episodes. A great chiropractor can identify the root cause of these injuries and give you the tools to manage these symptoms on your own or help you reduce the frequency these injuries occur. If a sticky or stiff joint is the culprit, an adjustment is a wonderful tool. If it’s a repetitive movement that goes unaddressed, a chiropractor can help you identify that movement and stop the reoccurrence of injury in its tracks. Healthy soft tissues and freely gliding nerves can also create an ideal environment for healing and prevention.
- Improve posture
This one is pretty obvious when you see our current culture of prolonged sitting and too much time on our devices. Forward head posture from looking at screens can put a ton of extra stress on the neck and shoulders. Sitting too long can cause the pelvis to become more stiff so when we stand or bend the joints and soft tissues can’t move properly and often cause pain. Not only can chiropractic treatments give your body space and freedom of movement to counteract these postural changes, but a great chiropractor can help with workstation ergonomics and simple exercises you can do on your own to keep you upright with the correct muscle activation patterns.
- Break the overuse cycle
Poor posture is one example that can lead to an overuse injury, but in our office we often see this with folks who spend a lot of time hitting the gym or running the trails. Lifting weights is by nature very repetitive and often only in one plane of motion. This can lead to joint or muscle stiffness and incorrect movement patterns. The same goes for running. If your joints or muscles aren’t working effectively in multiples planes of motion, a person can find themselves stuck in the repetitive injury cycle. The best chiropractors can use the tools in their toolbox to get these tissues moving optimally and break the cycle once and for all. Dry needling and myofascial release techniques can also break up scar tissue that may have developed and encourage more blood flow and oxygen to injured tissues that will allow for more optimal healing to take place.
- Real pain relief without drugs or surgery
Drugs and surgery can absolutely be necessary for certain injuries or certain people. However, there is a plethora of research that shows comparable or even more beneficial long term outcomes with chiropractic care. Rehabilitative functional exercise is often your best bet, but adding in proper joint motion with an adjustment, optimizing soft tissue tone and function with dry needling and myofasical release, or even pain relief with deep tissue laser therapy. When added together and implemented in a way that best suits your body and your condition, lasting results can often be achieved without the side effects from drugs or the uncertainty of surgery.
- Functional problems are rarely seen on advanced imaging
This topic is on that has gained so much traction over the last several years. A small disc herniation or bulge on an MRI can create an immense amount of pain, and a large multisegmental disc injury has the potential to cause minimal pain or discomfort. In fact, most people over the age of 30 will show signs of arthritic changes on an Xray with or without the presence of pain. If all your doctor does is diagnose based on an advanced image, a huge amount of information on your pain and injury is missed. A thorough assessment can stress joint, muscle, and nerve tissue in a way that is more functional to what you do in daily life. A plan of action can be determined based on these assessments without ever needing an X-ray or MRI. In fact, conservative care has now become the standard of care with most neck and lower back pain before an image is even needed. This results in faster recovery times and less money out of the patient’s pocket.
- Chiropractors truly care about your health and well being
Chiropractors are consistently rated the highest out of all health practitioners on their bedside manner. We are often small business owners who are active in the community and are not affiliated with large medical corporations or hospitals. Because of this, we take the time to actually listen to our patients and develop relationships that can last a lifetime. Take a quick glance at our Google reviews and you will see how much our patients trust us and their families with their care. In my opinion, the best chiropractors are the ones who care the most, irregardless of their techniques or trainings (although we rank pretty high with those too!).
If you’re on the fence about working with a chiropractor in Bozeman, trust me, you won’t be disappointed with the level of care and service you will receive at Bozeman Muscle & Joint Clinic. If you have further questions on how we may be able to help feel free to reach out or easily schedule your first appointment online!
