Improving Your Body's Natural Energy Level with Chiropractic
Everything in life seems much harder when you're constantly tired and rundown. Luckily, chiropractic treatment can boost your energy level, in addition to providing benefits for your joints and muscles,
How Joint and Muscle Problems Affect Energy and Health
Constant fatigue is a sign that something isn't quite right with your body. Fatigue can be due to illness and stress, but may also occur when your body becomes imbalanced.
Your organs, tissues, muscles, and joints work best when your body is properly aligned. Unfortunately, it only takes a slightly misaligned vertebra or a tight muscle or tendon to cause imbalances that can be subtle or very noticeable. For example, a spinal misalignment, or subluxation, could make one of your legs shorter than the other or one shoulder higher than the other.
Muscles and tissues that become too tight may pull on joints and vertebrae or press on nerves. Although nerve pressure may cause pain, that's not always the case. You could suffer from a slight nerve impingement without being aware of the problem.
In addition to causing pain, pressure on nerves may interfere with the normal functioning of organs and your immune system. Do you recall feeling more tired than usual when you were hurt or sick? Repairing and healing your body takes a lot of energy, which can leave you feeling tired and worn out.
Unfortunately, if you're sick or in pain, it may be difficult to get the sleep you desperately need to rebuild your energy reserves. Fatigue could even worsen your symptoms or even lengthen healing time.
Chronic pain, a symptom that affects more than 20% of Americans, according to the 2019 National Health Interview Survey, can be a factor in fatigue. People with chronic musculoskeletal (muscle, joint, ligament, tendon) pain tend to experience pain first before becoming fatigued, according to a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorder in 2022. Study authors note that prioritizing early treatment of musculoskeletal pain might reduce fatigue and make it easier for patients to participate in rehab activities and treatments.
If you don't do anything to correct imbalances, fatigue may not be the only problem you'll experience. In some cases, you may increase your risk of developing a variety of health problems, including:
- Headaches and Migraines
- Trouble Sleeping
- Stiff, Painful Muscles and Joints
- Digestive Problems
- Back Pain
- Frequent Illnesses
- Depression or Anxiety
- Weight Gain
- Sprains, Strains and Other Injuries
Improving Energy with Chiropractic
Although medication can be very effective in treating pain, symptoms often return soon after you stop taking the drug. Chiropractic treatments focus on the cause of your pain and fatigue, in addition to easing pain.
Chiropractors use several approaches to treat the underlying causes of fatigue, including spinal manipulation. Also referred to as "adjustments," spinal manipulation realigns vertebrae, the small bones in your back that protect your spinal cord. During an adjustment, your chiropractor uses quick thrusts to bring the vertebrae back into alignment.
In addition to relieving pain, spinal manipulation treatment reduces pressure on nerves, which may decrease fatigue and improve organ and immune system function. The treatment may also ease muscle tension and decrease inflammation, a condition that can play a role in a range of health problems, including chronic fatigue, asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure and depression.
Treatments like massage and soft tissue mobilization loosen tight muscles and tissues. Whether the tissues tightened due to a subluxation, poor posture, injury or stress, muscle tension can cause pain, headaches and fatigue. These therapies relieve pain and also increase the production of endorphins, hormones that treat pain naturally and also help you feel relaxed.
Have you been feeling lethargic lately? Recharging your energy level could be as simple as paying a visit to the chiropractor. Contact us to schedule a convenient appointment.
Sources:
BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders: The Temporal Relationship Between Pain and Fatigue in Individuals Receiving Treatment for Chronic Pain, 3/7/2022
https://bmcmusculoskeletdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12891-022-05162-7
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Chronic Pain and High-Impact Chronic Pain Among U.S. Adults, 2019, 11/2020
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db390.htm
National Safety Council: Who is at Risk for Fatigue?
https://www.nsc.org/workplace/safety-topics/fatigue/fatigue-whos-at-risk
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences: Inflammation, 4/8/2021
https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/conditions/inflammation/index.cfm