How Can Chiropractic Care Help With Work Injuries?

Our doctors were recently asked to share about chiropractic care and workplace safety at a local manufacturing facility.  The information shared was so great, we thought you'd like to be in on it too.

The most common workplace injuries we see are lifting injuries or repetitive motion injuries.  This often results in a sprain of the ligaments or a strain of the muscles, which results in soft tissue breakdown.  Chiropractic care is the only treatment option that carries little risk and is the most cost effective.

Before an injury occurs, we like to focus on prevention.  Chiropractic care, used as a preventative measure to help joints move more freely, is the best way to reduce your chance for injury.  You can think of your joints like a hinge.  If you use chiropractic care as a preventative measure, your joints will be like a well greased hinge.  It moves, opens, closes easily without much effort.  Without preventative care, the joint becomes like a rusty hinge which takes more force to open, close, and move.  If a joint becomes fixated, like a rusty hinge, it takes more muscle power, or force, to move, thus increasing your chance for injury.

There are some other preventative measures that you should also consider.  First, consider nutrition.  The best place to start is to reduce simple carbohydrates and sugars.  Next, increase your protein intake, particularly at breakfast.  Then, do not be afraid to add good fats.  And finally, hydrate!  A good rule of thumb with hydration is to take in half your body weight in ounces of water each day.  For example if you weigh 100 lbs your should drink at least 50 ounces of water daily.

Another excellent way to prevent injuries is to engage in some type of regular exercise.  If your workplace requires some type of physical labor, starting your work day with a simple warm up can greatly reduce your risk for injury.  By doing some simple exercises such as jumping jacks, running in place, and the like, plus adding some stretching, you increase blood flow to your tissues which prepares your body for work and greatly reduces your risk for injury.

If an injury does occur, there are a few treatment options you can consider.  First, physical therapy can be offered.  This treatment can be viewed as primarily a muscle therapy.  They may offer treatment and modalities that focus on the muscle groups.  Second, traditional medical care can be considered.  In a soft tissue injury, their primary goal is to reduce pain, inflammation, and muscle spasms thru medication.  The goal is to cover or mask the pain long enough for the patient to rest to allow healing.

At our office we offer a multi-faceted approach to injury care.  We focus on the the muscle and the joint health.  We offer modailities such as Ultrasound and Electrical Muscle Stimulation to reduce inflammation and muscle spasms.  Spinal manipulations are utilized to correct and repair the joint.  We also utilize Acupuncture for more chronic conditions.  Acupuncture causes fresh tissue injury, that will recreate the healing response.  Our doctors are also trained as functional neurologists which allows them to offer a more well rounded and whole system approach.  This approach requires them to look at all systems of the body to determine the precise cause of the pain, and then offers a course of care to correct that problem.

In conclusion, we are thrilled to help our patients improve their health and prevent injuries!  However, if you have endured an injury we would enjoy helping you recover and then work on prevention of future injuries!