Chiropractic helps Mental Health

July 1, 2021

Chiropractic Care, Health and Wellness, Uncategorized

Chiropractic Care, mental health, prioprioception, simon biles, sports performance

With a increased focus on mental health issues seen during the 2020 lockdown and now during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics people are searching for solutions. One strategy that is not getting much attention is how Chiropractic helps mental health. Over the past 20+ years in practice I have seen and experienced this first hand. Patients often say that when they are getting regular chiropractic adjustments that they just “feel” better. They have more energy, or that they sleep better. These are all symptoms but they are “feeling” symptoms. The positive changes in how you “feel” is part of your mental health and the sense of well being.

In this blog I will explain why chiropractic helps mental health. Chiropractic care has the potential to be critical piece in the treatment and prevention of conditions like anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, depression, and other mental health challenges.

What is Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic is a profession that was founded on the principle that the body is a self healing organism that has in innate ability to heal itself as long as there is no interference. The interference that a chiropractor is trained to located is the interference between the brain and the body. Typically this is found within the nervous system and spinal column. It is this loss of connection that results in what we call “dis-ease”. This is different to the medical term disease. In the medical profession they refer to “disease” as a condition that has a know cause and will result in a common set of symptoms and anatomical changes.

How Chiropractic Helps Mental Health

Many people suffering from mental health issues have symptoms can be very different from person to person. When looking for help they may spend a lot of time and money getting medical test, labs, and procedures done looking for a specific diagnosis. When all of the tests and labs come back with negative results, it is not only frustrating for the patient they are left with the feeling that no one believe me or I am just going to have to live with this the rest of my like. And the feeling of being alone and hopeless is the worst thing for someone who is dealing with mental health issues. In the discussion of how chiropractic helps with metal health issues, hope and a different approach to the work “dis-ease” is key. Our core philosophy that ones health comes from within and that we all can be healthy if our body is working at 100%. We are not interested in trying to treat any specific disease or condition, we are focused on removing any stress or interference in ones nervous system that may be causing you or a loved one to have a altered brain body connection. In a 2019 article Dr. Brent Wells writes about different ways that Chiropractic care can help with anxiety, depression, and mental health. So this is not new, but with COVID lock downs causing isolation, fear, worry, anxiety like no other time before in their life. The are new feeling for many Americans and everyone going through it at once has brought on a rise in the awareness of how these issues can and will effect our health and well being. It is now accepted that mental stress needs to be addressed. but how is the question, from our prospective chiropractic and other natural solutions should be the primary treatment options. The good news is that as county we we are now talking about mental health as a condition that comes in many different form and is real, regardless if it can be specifically diagnosed. Just offering someone the hope that chiropractic care has the potential to help is very powerful in their recovery.

Chiropractic Care for Athletic Performance and Mental Health

Yesterday the sports work was shocked to here that the USA’s best gymnast was pulling out from competition due to mental health concerns. Mental struggles are nothing new to the sports world, but again they are just now being talked about more out in the open. For years almost all elite professional athletes have had mental coaches of called sports performance coaches on staff. So how does this related to Chiropractic? Well, most mental health or sports performance coaches understand that the better the brain and body can work together, the better and more consistent the athlete can perform. Back when I was an athletic trainer at the University of Arizona in the late 90’s even then this was the norm. The university had on its athletic department staff a sports performance coach and I remember working with him directly with a few of our athletes who were struggling mentally. Typically they would struggle trusting their bodies after coming back from an injury. In term of Simone Biles, I have now idea if she does or does not utilize chiropractic care but I would suggest from my past experience and current research that I have read that it most likely could assist her while working through in her current issues.

Back then I did not know about how chiropractic could have helped us out and restoring that mid body connection. Thankfully after studding chiropractic and ready many articles on the topic I know can use this knowledge to help my current patients restore that brain body connection after injury of even just as a preventative measure. In an article written by the Atlantic Chiropractic and Wellness Center they talk about how chiropractic care can make your body “smarter”. This happens through the balancing of proprioceptors. According to a study written in Current Psychiatry. 2012 August;11(8):4-5, proprioception is key. In this article they discuss that proprioception is necessary for the body to recognize “self”. And people who have schizophrenia are deficient in this connection. It is here with improvements in proprioception after chiropractic care that it is believed to explain why chiropractic care can help with mental health.

How Do I Know If Chiropractic Care Can Help Me?

Chiropractic care by definition is not a treatment for any disease or condition so the only way to know if it can help is to be evaluated for spinal stress and lack of motion in the spine. In our office we do this in two man ways.

We will put you through some basic spinal ranges of motion to see if and where there are any limitations or restrictions.
Next we will take spinal x-rays which will allow us to evaluate any chronic stress or structural abnormalities that can be seen as a result in the lack of spinal mobility
Lastly we will perform spinal adjustments to the areas of the spine that are not moving as they should and then evaluate if there has been any positive changes seen or felt
If a short course of chiropractic care is affective we will continue with chiropractic care decreasing the frequency as indicated.