How Chiropractics Can Help Heal Chronic Illness and Improve Overall Health
Maintaining your structural integrity for overall health is disastrously overlooked
As with many of the health practices, supplements, diets, and philosophies I’ve found over the years, I didn’t purposely start seeing a chiropractor for my gut issues and chronic illness. Funny how we stumble onto the exact support that we really need sometimes.
Like many people, I started getting chiropractic adjustments for back pain.
A few years ago, I noticed my lower back was becoming more and more uncomfortable. There were days where just walking for longer than 20 minutes was bothersome, and sitting at a desk chair for eight hours a day made my back muscles feel tight and achy.
A year or so prior, I had been told after having an MRI that I had a *slightly* herniated disc in my lower back, L5/S1. (Slightly?!)
I was initially alarmed by this, as I had noticed some discomfort in that area but never dreamed it could be a structural issue. However, they told me that since there was “no nerve involvement,” the disc wasn’t a concern. Never-mind that it could easily get worse and become a much bigger concern later on, but I digress. I filed the information away and tried not to worry about it.
But finally, after I mentioned my lower back troubles in an appointment with my nutritionist one day, she suggested a chiropractor she went to, Dr. K. Dr. K was magical, she said, and there weren’t a lot of chiropractors like him. He used muscle testing and other holistic principles in his practice, and she highly recommended him.
Having no desire to go see an orthopedic specialist and have them tell me 1) here just do these exercises, 2) try a cortisol shot, or 3) the worst option, you need surgery, I decided to give him a shot.
It was one of the best decisions for my health that I ever made.
Expectations vs. Reality
Going into the appointment, I had no frame of reference as to what the experience would actually be like. I had only seen a few distressing videos of chiropractors making very loud manual adjustments on people, their bones and joints emitting terrible cracks and pops. The consolation was that they all seemed to feel enormously better after the process was said and done, so I steeled myself for a similar experience.
However, going into the initial appointment, it became very clear that Dr. K, at least, did not operate in this flashy way. After a quick conversation and intake of my issue, he first took me to what I now call the stretching table (I believe it’s actually called a flexion table): a padded table with a gap that cushions your head as you lay face down, with a bottom half that hinges at your waist.
This allows the chiropractor to apply manual pressure along the spine and then drop the bottom half of the table down, stretching the spine and releasing pressure between the vertebrae (which most people find is extremely compressed after hours of sitting every day).
In my opinion, this is where I find the most value in my appointments. Just after that one stretching session, my spine feels taller and straighter every time. It’s a pretty crazy feeling to just stand up and suddenly feel taller than you were before you lied down on the table.
Targeted treatments
The second half of the appointment consisted of more targeted adjustments, first using this amazing massage pad thing (I really need better names for this stuff) that he ran all over my back to relax the muscles. I am also notoriously tight in the neck and shoulder area, and this feels amazing.
The rest of the time he used a tool called an activator, which looks like this:
This is a tool that allows the chiropractor to make very targeted adjustments to the spine and other trigger points on the body. It’s much more gentle than a manual adjustment, which involves lots of pushing and pulling on the body and can result in those disturbingly loud cracks between your joints.
Many sensitive patients, such as those with fibromyalgia, Lyme, or other pain-causing conditions, can not handle manual adjustments well. This makes the activator a much better tool for them to still get much needed structural realignment, without the stress of manual manipulation on the body.
Results Over Time
I did walk away from that first appointment feeling pretty good, but the real results came with a consistent schedule of adjustments at least once a month over the next couple of years.
No more back pain
First of all, Dr. K helped me decrease my back pain until it was negligible to nonexistent. For the record, things like adding collagen powder to my daily routine and an MSM supplement also greatly helped with this, but I can’t discount the adjustments by any means.
Better posture
Chiropractors, understandably, are obsessed with your posture. If you’re seeing a chiropractor regularly, and you keep showing up hunched over and slumped, you’re going to hear about it. Dr. K showed me early on how I should sit in my desk chair (both feet on the floor, back supported) and how I should stand.
Heightened body awareness
One really cool thing that happened was I really began to notice when my body was structurally out of whack. I became much more aware of the alignment of my spine and my hips, and I can now tell when they start to twist a little bit too far one way or when my spine feels really compressed. Having this heightened awareness has also improved my yoga practice, since yoga is basically all about body awareness.
I think this is one of the best benefits of chiropractic, especially if you have chronic illness. Awareness of your body is absolutely essential to maintaining your long-term health.
Nervous system regulation
Getting an adjustment even has a calming effect on the parasympathetic nervous system, the rest and digest state our bodies prefer to operate from. There have definitely been times where I even needed to go home and take a nap post adjustment; it can be a big shift for your body to go through depending on how out of alignment you are going in.
Overall, I feel more centered and grounded in my body after an adjustment, which helps my nervous system regulate everything better.
Better digestion
Now I have a history of serious digestive issues, and this was no miracle cure by any means. But I definitely started noticing a difference in my gut after my adjustments. Especially if you deal with slow transit or constipation, regular chiropractic adjustment can be a game changer for your system.
When you’re structurally unaligned, it's that much more difficult for your nervous system to regulate your gut, getting signals where they need to go to stimulate digestion and elimination. Getting back into realignment can help your body more easily perform those functions.
I’ve even had times where I struggled with my ileocecal valve (valve between the small and large intestine) being stuck closed, and Dr. K was able to get it open and working again in a matter of minutes with a simple adjustment. My nutritionist was right; he is kind of magical.
Detox
Detox has been a trendy buzzword in the health and wellness world over the last several years, with juice cleanses, fasting and other more extreme practices taking the spotlight.
But a simple adjustment might be one of the best, most gentle ways to get your body to detoxify more efficiently. Your body knows how to detox inherently, sometimes it just needs a slight recalibration to perform its job correctly.
Besides the digestive/gut health benefits I mentioned above, which is one of your main detoxification channels, chiropractic adjustment also stimulates your lymph system. Especially if you have persistent joint pain, this can be a sign that your lymph is not draining efficiently.
Getting adjusted moves the lymph and allows it to flow better, improving your detoxification pathways.
Who to Look For
Now that you know the many benefits of adding chiropractic to your health maintenance routine, here’s a list of criteria to look out for when you’re searching for a chiropractor for the first time.
- Someone who explains what they’re doing to you, at least the first time
- Someone who has experience with chronically ill patients, not just acute injuries. Be specific about your condition and ask whether they have treated someone similar before.
- Relatedly, someone who uses tools like the massage pad and the activator, if you are uncomfortable with manual adjustments.
- If you can get a glowing recommendation for a chiropractor from someone with a similar issue to yours, that’s ideal.
- Someone with their own practice or who operates in an independent clinic.
- Someone who has a process and does a full workup on you each time you come. You should spend at least half an hour with them.
Like any provider, if you see a chiropractor a few times and you don’t vibe with their style or you don’t feel like they’ve helped you, find someone else. It’s your responsibility to find the providers that work for you. Don’t give up!
I would encourage everyone to see a chiropractor, even as a once-a-month health maintenance routine. Everyone can benefit from an adjustment, but if you’re someone dealing with any type of chronic illness, even more so.
Conclusion
I wish I could go every other week, but I make it a priority to get adjusted at least once a month. I know it’s one of the easiest things I can do to maintain my health (which is better now than ever before, by the way).
With regular chiropractic, you’ll come to know your body better and what it feels like when you are structurally misaligned, and even energetically blocked in certain areas. And when that happens, you’ll know how to fix it.
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