Last fall I wrote a short article on combining chiropractic care and massage therapy for pain relief for a health expo's guidebook. Personally, I am a believer in chiropractic. Professionally, I have seen amazing results for clients who received massage before a chiropractic adjustment. They didn't just get pain relief, they got it quickly. I have also seen clients who have plateaued in their massage treatment quickly take their pain relief to the next level when they added chiropractic care.
Millions of people seek chiropractic care or massage therapy to relieve or prevent pain and limited mobility. These two complementary therapies, especially in combination, form a powerful healing approach to relieve pain and increase your body’s mobility and resilience. Over time, they offer an effective way to support your ongoing vitality and well-being.
What is Chiropractic?
Chiropractic is a natural approach to health that is based on the relationship between the nervous system and the function of all the body’s glands, organs and systems. It recognizes the fact that the human body is a self-healing, self-regulating organism that is inherently designed to be healthy.
The nervous system is the body’s master control system and it holds the key to the body’s ability to heal and express itself. Chiropractors understand that the body is continually striving to achieve a state of balance with its environment. Stressors to the body affect its ability to function optimally, causing weaknesses and imbalances. By finding and correcting these imbalances through chiropractic, the body can be restored to health. Some indicators for chiropractic care are headaches, back pain, athletic injuries, whiplash, carpal tunnel syndrome, shoulder problems, TMJ syndrome, sciatica and more.
What are the benefits of massage?
Throughout human history, massage was used for everything from stiff, painful muscles to chronic disease. In China, medical texts refer to it as early as 3000 B.C.
Today massage therapy is being used by a wide range of people as a pain reliever, antidote to stress, and enhancer of athletic performance.
Recent research has shown that massage lowers blood pressure, increases circulation, relaxes muscles and improves range of motion. What's more, it reduces the effects of stress and can ease the impulse to tighten in response to pain. Because of these results, many people are finding that massage helps them heal faster from injuries and disease.
Studies also demonstrate that the benefits of regular massage tend to accumulate, easing long-term tension, conditioning tissues to help prevent injury, and enhancing your ability to breathe more deeply and relax more fully.
Total well-being is the goal
Chiropractic and massage are compatible holistic therapies that share the goal of your total well-being, not simply an absence of illness. Both offer natural, hands-on, drug-free techniques. They can be used as preventive as well as restorative therapies. Both work to resolve the cause of your pain rather than treat isolated symptoms. Used in combination, massage and chiropractic can help you maintain optimum health by relieving pain and stress and enjoying life to the fullest.
