When you are experiencing joint pain or discomfort, you can find it difficult to do the daily activities that you need to get done. It can be painful to sit, stand, walk or even lie down. If you only treat the symptom and not identify the underlying cause, it will typically just keep coming back.
Joints are where one bone connects with another. Our body has many different types of joints, from those that barely move at all to those that move in many different directions (like your shoulder joints, ankle joint, hip joint, spinal facet joints, etc.). When the joints move properly, your muscles and ligaments function properly. However, when your joints are not working properly, this could lead to many types of problems. Primarily, when the joints do not work properly, this can cause the muscles and ligaments to not function properly either. They will tend to either shorten or elongate, depending on the joint problem. When this occurs, they leak toxins that irritate local tissues and nerves. This leads to further pain and dysfunction that worsens until the underlying issue is resolved.
Joint pain or discomfort may be the result of several causes, including:
Trauma — A major cause of joint injury is trauma—an accident of some sort. If you have been in a car wreck, or slipped on a wet floor, you could experience injury to connective tissue in your joints, as well as inflammation caused by nerve damage.
Repetitive stress / motion injury — Essentially a series of minor traumatic injuries, repetitive stress/motion has a cumulative effect
Dietary / chemical — The food you eat can cause serious joint and circulatory problems, particularly if you consume things that cause water retention or inflammation.
Stress or mental challenges — Stress and anxiety typically lead to tension, and tension can result in neck, back or other joint pain
Arthritic joint pain — Arthritic joint pain can be caused from numerous types of arthritis. The most common is osteoarthritis.
Chiropractors correct the underlying cause of joint pain so that the body can restore normal ranges of motion in the region that allows for the compensatory soft tissue reactions to heal. This typically starts with a physical examination, and a review of other factors that may be affecting your health, from the level of stress you face at work and at home to how you are meeting your nutritional needs, from the amount of exercise you get to how your home and office are laid out.
How We Treat Joint Pain
Treatment for joint pain typically consists of some combination of chiropractic extremity adjusting, stretching, strengthening, therapeutics (heat, ice, etc.) and stabilization.
We know that joint disorders can be excruciatingly painful, and we strive at all times to provide gentle and soothing treatment. We strive to not only eliminate the joint pain, but also treat the underlying cause of the pain.