In its most simplistic form, arthritis is the inflammation of a joint. There are many possible causes of arthritis; from an old injury, to degeneration, or a genetic predisposition, to some combination of multiple factors. However, for our purposes here we want to think mainly about the inflammatory component.
From a chiropractic philosophy if a joint is not moving right it will become irritated leading to the inflammatory process. Dysfunctional movement degrades parts of the joint by creating unbalanced and unintended stressors. Um, what?! Basically, if a joint isn’t moving the way it’s supposed to it will wear out. That’s why it’s not uncommon to see one knee (versus both) with a significant amount of arthritis. This is often attributed to ‘getting older’, but if both knees are the same age they should wear evenly. If they do not wear out at the same rate then obviously something is interfering. That is exactly why we rotate the tires on our vehicle and have its alignment checked regularly…we want our tires to wear evenly and maximize their lifespan. Same for the alignment of your body, it is vital to your overall health. When a joint isn’t moving the correct way you need to do all you can to restore proper movement. This is the primary goal of a Chiropractic adjustment!
Knees, hips, wrists and fingers are all common areas for dysfunctional movement to lead to early degeneration of joints (arthritis), but the most vital area of concern has to be your spine. The health of your spine is directly correlated with the health of your nervous system to the two function together to maximize your health. Once one area of your spine develops arthritis other areas have to begin to compensate. This compensation alters the way spinal joints move and leads to additional areas of arthritis. This is important to understand, because I have had so many patients come into my office with low back and/or neck pain who were told by another provider that they “just have a little bit of arthritis in their spine”. We know that arthritis is inflammation in a joint, which is commonly related to improper movement of that joint. When it comes to improper movement in any joint a treatment plan that includes chiropractic is necessary.
A chiropractic adjustment seeks to restore motion in a joint that has been lost. This is an all natural, minimally invasive approach to managing arthritis. It just makes sense…if improper movement is causing the symptoms, restoring proper motion should be part of the remedy. Low back pain, neck pain, hip, knee, and shoulder pain can all be addressed with this same approach. The human body is specifically designed to work a certain way and when proper movement and motion is altered, or lost, then inflammation and pain set in.
Chiropractic care is foundational to healing.
