This week we’re highlighting some key benefits of our services that you may not be aware of. If you’re wondering if acupuncture, chiropractic or massage might be for you, here are just a few ways in which these modalities improve people’s lives.

Acupuncture

1. Stress relief and disease prevention. Acupuncture has been shown to be effective in treatment of anxiety and other types of mental stress. Stress leads to inflammation, which plays a significant role in almost every disease. Acupuncture can help regulate stress hormones, as well as stimulate the vagus nerve, lowering inflammation and potentially preventing disease. Acupuncture treatments should be combined with stress-reducing measures to address the issue at it’s source.

2. Headaches and migraine relief. There are quite a few tools in the acupuncture tradition to address headaches and their various causes, so your practitioner will be able to work with you and try a variety of different approaches if need be. The regulatory action of acupuncture can be employed to decrease tension, balance hormones, and facilitate blood flow depending on the cause of the headaches.

3. Pain Relief. The U.S. military employs battlefield acupuncture to provide immediate relief for acute and chronic pain with no risk of side effects or addiction. Fortunately pain relief from acupuncture is not exclusive to service members. Civilians, service members and veterans alike can experience immediate and lasting pain relief through acupuncture. The needle stimulates a nerve, which sends a signal to the brain to release beta-endorphins. These chemicals work as the body’s own opioids.

Chiropractic

1. Low back & neck pain. Back pain is one of the most common health complaints, affecting 8 out of 10 people at some point during their lives. The lower back is the area most often affected. The Agency for Health Care Research and Quality recommended spinal manipulation as the only safe and effective drugless form of initial professional treatment for acute low back problems in adults after an extensive study of all available forms of care for low back problems. In fact, one of the largest comparative effectiveness trials determined that chiropractic care contributes to greater pain relief and greater reduction in disability than medical care alone.

2. Sciatica. The European Spine Journal published findings from a clinical trial uncovering how chiropractic adjustments resulted in a 72% success rate in treating sciatica-related symptoms. This can be compared to a 20% success rate from treatment with physical therapy, and a 50% success rate from corticosteroid injections. Because chiropractic directly affects the spine, focusing on the relationship between structure and function to promote the preservation and restoration of health, it is a well-suited modality to treat this kind of nerve pain.

3. Pregnancy. Chiropractic evaluation and treatment during pregnancy is a safe and effective means of treating common musculoskeletal symptoms that accompany pregnancy. Approximately 50% of all pregnant women experience back pain during their pregnancy due to weight load distribution changes, which causes structural adaptation and spinal dysfunction trying to manage the changing loads. Chiropractic care helps to ensure a comfortable pregnancy and facilitates an uncomplicated labor and delivery. It has also been reported that there may be a relationship between back pain throughout pregnancy and a longer duration of the labor and delivery process. Statistics show that women who seek chiropractic care throughout gestation have an average of 25% shorter labor time.

Massage

1. Posture and muscle tension. Poor posture is often a negative feedback loop in which the body is frequently put in an unbeneficial position, which creates unnatural tension. Over time that tension becomes entrenched in the body with fascial adhesions and muscle imbalances. Massage allows the body to relax and loosen the muscles made tense and sore, freeing the body to position itself in its organic and pain-free posture.

2. Stress relief. Many find massages to be relaxing and stress-relieving. As with Acupuncture, when stress hormones decrease inflammation decreases, leading to lower susceptibility for illnesses including RA, MS, IBS and autoimmune diseases. Treating the underlying cause of stress with a modality like massage helps teach the body how to downregulate, insuring more long-term wellness than simply treating the inflammation with NSAIDs.

3. Joint pain. Massage stimulates the production of natural lubrication in the joints, allowing patients to regain greater freedom, flexibility, and range of motion. In one study, regular massage was shown to significantly improve pain associated with osteoarthritis of the knee joint.