Massage Therapy and Chiropractic
Back pain, neck pain and headaches are just a few of the painful and distressing conditions that affect many of us at some time. Chiropractic and Massage Therapy used in combination, form a powerful healing approach that addresses your pain on many levels. Whether your pain is the result of traumatic injury, overuse or illness, Chiropractic and Massage Therapy combined can greatly speed your return to a pain-free productive life.
To understand the importance of Massage, it helps us to understand stress. Stress is an automatic reaction to anything we perceive as a threat. In a stressful situation, our response is fight or flight. It doesn’t matter if it’s danger or the stress of everyday living. Our body responds with tensing of the muscles, shallow and more rapid breathing, increased adrenaline, heart rate and blood pressure.
Hopefully, once removed from the stressful situation, things return to normal. However if you find yourself consistently under a great deal of stress, it becomes more difficult to let go and relax.
Therapeutic Massage and stretching can help you regain and maintain proper alignment. When muscles are relaxed and restored to their optimal length, correct posture and alignment are more easily sustained.
Massage can trigger the relaxation response, relieving the negative effects of stress and restoring balance in the body. Some positive effects of the relaxation response include slower heart rate, deeper breathing more relaxed muscles, and better internal circulation and digestion.
Local Massage is often used in preparation for adjustments. Massage relieves the muscle tension and warms up the soft tissues in the area, making joints more pliable and more easily adjusted. A Therapeutic Massage can also be good preparation for an adjustment. In addition to preparing the immediate area of concern for your Chiropractic adjustment, it helps you relax.
Both Chiropractic and Massage Therapy combined may help resolve your pain and improve mobility, and you may find it easier to stretch and exercise. This can help you maintain and even improve the flexibility, strength, and balance needed to prevent tension, injury and new subluxation.
Massage is also a powerful tool for helping you to become aware of areas of chronic tension or postural problems, and to understand how these affect your body mechanics. You can take preventive measures on your own before pain develops.
Massage and Chiropractic Care are compatible natural therapies that share the goal of your total well-being, not simply an absence of illness. Both offer natural, effective, safe and drug-free techniques. They can be used as preventive as well as restorative therapies. Used in combination, they can help you maintain your optimum health and enjoy life to the fullest.