As soon as I tweaked my back, I knew that I had a serious problem. I couldn't stand up straight and the pain was excruciating. I tried to hobble to the car, but I realized that I would need help. That day, my wife drove me to the nearest chiropractor, and that doctor helped me more than I thought was possible. After evaluating my condition, he informed me that I had a herniated disc in my back. In addition to adjusting my back to alleviate the pressure, the doctor also recommended some strengthening exercises that he said would help. These days, I can walk pain-free because of my chiropractor. Check out this blog to learn how a chiropractor can help you.
Getting Help With My Back
3 Chiropractic Techniques For Back Pain
Tyrone Berry
While medication and exercise both play important roles in managing back pain, seeing a chiropractor could provide the extra pain relief that you have been looking for. Here are three techniques that chiropractors use to treat back pain.
Massage Therapy
Massage therapy is most effective for back pain that results from excess tension in the soft tissues around the spine. Chiropractic massage relaxes muscles, tendons, and ligaments in the back to provide temporary relief from pain. As these soft tissues relax, blood flow is restored and your body is better able to filter oxygen into and waste out of the tissues.
In addition to temporary pain relief, massage therapy promotes mobility by loosening up stiff muscles. Many chiropractors will perform a deep-tissue massage before attempting spinal manipulation to minimize the risk of injury to surrounding tissues caused by the sudden jerking movements of an adjustment.
Spinal Manipulation
Spinal manipulation is the most well-known procedure that chiropractors perform. Spinal adjustments are thought to relieve back pain by reducing pressure on the spinal nerves caused by discs that are out of alignment. Spinal adjustments can address both local issues, such as pinched nerves, as well as the total alignment of your spine that could be causing poor posture or uneven weight distribution on the spinal discs.
Electrical Stimulation
Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation, or TENS, is a procedure designed to relieve back pain by blocking pain signals in the nerves of the spine. It is thought that the pain signals do not disappear, but that the nerves activated by the therapy send "scrambled" signals to the brain that mask pain signals.
When your chiropractor performs a TENS treatment, he or she will first apply electrodes to the surface of the skin in the area where back pain is present. The TENS machine is typically a small, battery-powered device that is wired to the electrodes. Your chiropractor may experiment with several different electrical pulse frequency settings to find the one that works best for your specific pain types and locations.
If you find that TENS is especially effective in relieving your back pain, your chiropractor may be able to provide you with your own unit to use at home. This will allow you the continuous pain relief of TENS even when you are unable to make it to your chiropractic appointment.
No matter what type of back pain you suffer from, consider visiting a chiropractor like Dr Rick J Jaminet PC to discuss further treatment.
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