
You may not know – but adjusting can be a big part of a naturopathic doctor’s practice. Like in my practice!
Adjusting is an extremely useful treatment tool and can relieve pain very quickly. Essentially, what can happen is that some form of trauma like: sleeping funny, doing an exercise poorly at the gym, or bad posture at work causes an unwanted type of movement in your joints. What we doctors call a malposition is just a fancy name for your joint slightly “slipping out” from its normal centered position - an action that tends to cause "pinching", limited movement, pain, associated muscle spasm and sometimes even nerve pain.
Here’s what you can expect if you see me for an adjustment:
There are many additional treatments that can be added to adjustment treatments to make them more effective and last longer. Some of these include: supplementing with magnesium or intravenously injecting it – the relaxing effects can be felt within minutes. Proper posture and stretching along with adequate water intake and hydration status. Also, IMS (intramuscular stimulation) or acupuncture can be helpful for relaxing tense muscle and reducing pain. I also often use botanical medicine to help decrease the inflammation and pain.
Adjusting is an extremely useful treatment tool and can relieve pain very quickly. Essentially, what can happen is that some form of trauma like: sleeping funny, doing an exercise poorly at the gym, or bad posture at work causes an unwanted type of movement in your joints. What we doctors call a malposition is just a fancy name for your joint slightly “slipping out” from its normal centered position - an action that tends to cause "pinching", limited movement, pain, associated muscle spasm and sometimes even nerve pain.
Here’s what you can expect if you see me for an adjustment:
- Heat application prior to any muscle work or adjustment to loosen and warm up the muscles - a key component that is very relaxing and also pain relieving.
- Trigger point soft tissue work that will help to release the associated tightened or spasming muscles – it is my belief that it is super important to relieve the muscle tension/spasm prior to an adjustment otherwise the joint might just get pulled back in by the muscle!
- Topical application of an all-natural pain reliever which helps reduce pain and improve blood flow
- The adjustment: to gently re-align the joint needing to be restored to its naturally aligned position
- Counselling on proper posture alignment and habitual patterns that may be contributing to your pain or joints going out recurrently.
There are many additional treatments that can be added to adjustment treatments to make them more effective and last longer. Some of these include: supplementing with magnesium or intravenously injecting it – the relaxing effects can be felt within minutes. Proper posture and stretching along with adequate water intake and hydration status. Also, IMS (intramuscular stimulation) or acupuncture can be helpful for relaxing tense muscle and reducing pain. I also often use botanical medicine to help decrease the inflammation and pain.