Did you know that 3.1 million Canadians are working from home right now because of the COVID-19 pandemic? If sitting is the new smoking, how can we keep our bodies healthy? More than ever before, it’s important that Canadians take charge of their health and seek out care as soon problems present. Today, we are taking a look at some ways in which Chiropractic care can help patients.
Chiropractic treatment has, actually, been around for hundreds of years and in various cultures throughout the world. And because it’s been around for so long, chiropractic has been heavily and extensively researched in universities. There are lots of peer reviews, journal articles about it, and studies show it to be highly effective. Chiropractic is only one of five regulated health professionals in Ontario. This is why we have a doctorate title, meaning that we are bound to our diagnosis. Just like your family doctor or your dentist gives you a diagnosis, we too are legally bound to our diagnosis as chiropractors. So we owe it to our patients to provide them with the best care possible, just like your family doctor. And here at our practice at Bodyworks, we deal with all kinds of issues. We have seen it all: from ankle issues to shin splints to knee pain; we do not only treat low back pain! We see shoulders, migraines, headaches, and jaw pain. If you have a joint, if you have a muscle, we can deal with that!
With the COVID-19 pandemic, things have really pivoted in healthcare. People are forced to work from home and have now set up the “home office,” which in reality is more like the “Ikea dining room table.” So we ask our patients, where are you working with your laptop? Or with your mobile phones? What we are seeing a lot of is low back pain and a lot of headaches. We are also seeing a lot of jaw pain from people wearing mask! You know that feeling when you just have to get that mask off your face? Or when you’re trying to talk through a mask? We are even seeing these problems in children, because of the online learning they are doing. They’re staring at a screen and hunched over like an orangutan!
There are so many techniques that we have in our toolbox for treating these issues! Some of the basic techniques are soft tissue work. We need to get into your muscles and stretch them out to relax them. We also need to know where the source of this pain is coming from. Is it from sitting a lot? Is it from repetitive strain? Standing? Figuring this out may lead us to manual therapy.
Manual therapy is used when a joint is stuck or it’s not moving properly. We gently mobilize that joint to give it some joint range. We need to see movement in the joint! If there is no movement, then the muscles around that joint are going to get stuck. The muscles are going to spasm and prevent your joint from moving in the angles and axises that it’s supposed to move. After manual therapy we do what’s called an adjustment. An adjustment is a very safe and effective way to mobilize the joint to free up restrictions.
The third tool in the box is not only will we treat you here at Bodyworks, but we are going to send you home with tools you need to help yourself! We are going to send you home with exercises and various self-management techniques. We might ask, “What’s going on at your desk? Do you have a proper chair? Do you have lumbar support? Do you have something under your feet?” If you’re an athlete, we might say, “Okay, what kind of stretches are you doing?” and give you some additional stretches to make it a bigger part of your daily routine. We strive to not overwhelm you, as we know life gets away from us, but we also want something that is manageable and tangible that we can help you with at home!
Chiropractic is not just “low backs” and “neck pain”. Chiropractic is also postpartum. So I have a lot of patients who are pre- or postpartum. You want to make sure that that mom is able to deal with the low back pain, the increased weight that they’re going to take on while the baby’s developing in the body. We want to give them support techniques, make sure the joints are moving, make sure everything’s doing what it’s supposed to do so that the nine months do not seem excruciating all in that time.
We also see a lot of athletes. High-performance athletes that need us to keep them on their marks. Their bodies need to be maintained throughout their whole professional or semi-professional career. We have also seen a lot of factory workers and construction workers that are saying they need to get back to work at 100% function. It’s a matter of their job, their family income. We need to work around their schedules and figure out what we can do with them to keep them coming back in and be able to work in their jobs.
During the pandemic lockdowns, we had a lot of patients that had us as their only touch base points. Because everything was shut down, they had no one else to talk to, and they’re just dealing with a lot of emotional stress. We were their sounding boards, because stress has a huge effect on the body. We could read that stress, and help them through it physically. But sometimes that meant just communicating with our patients and realizing, “Well, they just needed someone to talk to.” A chiropractic adjustment is all encompassing. It’s not just ‘cracking low backs;. It’s physical, emotional and mental health; it’s everything!
We are also huge advocates of maintenance care. Helping you achieve an optimal quality of life. Visiting a chiropractor get you to a certain point of healing and function, but we want to maintain that great results that we got with you. So we truly believe in coming and seeing your chiropractor once every four to six weeks. You tune your car up, you tune your body up! You see your dentist every six months, so why not also get your spine checked every six week! Like clockwork, you book; we don’t hesitate, because our health is everything. Your body is the most important thing that you have, so keeping up your maintenance is really important.
Next step? All of these skills and qualifications we mentioned today are all in the bag for Body Works Physiotherapy. Now you know how important it is to see a chiropractor and what kinds of conditions they can help you with. Looking to find the right fit for you? Body Works is here to help! You can check out our contact page, or you can give us a call at 1-866-7PHYSIO.
