Most people are familiar with how chiropractic can help ease the pain of physical trauma. It is most commonly where people start, but pain is just one sign of how physical trauma may be affecting your body, and your well-being.
Pain sends people in
I often get a patient who first comes in because they have hurt themselves in some way. It is causing pain and they would like for the pain to stop. For instance, say someone falls off a tractor while putting up hay and puts their hip out of alignment. He is now really sore because of that physical trauma. He comes in, and I work with him to help align his spine and help ease that problem of pain.
However, when you are in pain because of physical trauma, which has altered the alignment of your spine causing painful motion or altering your biomechanics, it is important to also consider how that trauma might be affecting the neurology underneath the spine, causing other physical problems; like maybe digestive issues or low energy levels.
Think about a crush injury to a nerve
You sit in an awkward position for too long and your leg or foot goes numb. Maybe you lay on your arm and the feeling goes out. Those are obvious to us. We know we need to get the blood flowing again to those areas to get those nerves working properly again. It is a common problem, with a generally easy solution. You’ve probably experienced this kind of thing your entire life.
Now, consider, other nerves, those that are not sensation nerves. There are nerves running through your spine that control every major function in your body. Physical trauma can affect each one of those systems. Think about the kind of stress your body goes under when the nerves affected are those which help the function of systems which run vital organs like your lungs, your kidney or your heart.
Other stress caused by physical trauma
When you are under spinal distress caused by physical trauma, it tells our whole body that we are under distress. That situation puts many people in a “fight or flight” or “danger signal” mode. The message sent from our nerves is telling all those major body systems that we need to protect ourselves. They operate differently. They are in a protective mode.
We are only supposed to be in that mode for brief periods of time, but when you have the pain caused by physical trauma, your body may get stuck. You may get stuck in a sympathetic dominance state, which causes a stress on your overall health. It can decrease energy levels and cause a variety of longer term health problems.
Chiropractic can help with the short term pain of an acute physical trauma, but keep in mind the long term goal of your overall good health.