Sedentary lifestyle prevention through chiropractic is highly recommended for seniors. With advanced age, the body’s muscles, bones, and spinal system begin to wear down and need to be maintained to retain their mobility and flexibility. Regular chiropractic adjustments are recommended as part of an active/fitness lifestyle for seniors and can help older individuals maintain optimal health.
Sedentary Lifestyle Prevention
Many seniors tend to reduce physical activity after reaching retirement age. Many individuals just want to kick back and relax. However, living too laid-back can impact overall health. A lack of exercise and physical activity can cause the muscles, cardiovascular system, and skeletal system to prematurely wear out. Living an active lifestyle will keep individuals at their best when retiring and maintain a healthy quality of life.
Pain Management
Chiropractic can help individuals realize their full potential. The chiropractic approach to achieving top health means treating the source of symptoms, and not just the symptoms. This helps maintain a high quality of life. Chiropractic sedentary prevention includes:
Adjustments
Adjustments to the body are the core of chiropractic. Adjustments are utilized to realign the spine that helps treat various nervous system-related conditions. These include subluxations, slipped discs, sciatica, nerve damage, and more. Adjustments also increase the immune system’s functionality. This is extremely beneficial for older individuals.
Nutritional Recommendations
Older individuals can benefit from a customized nutrition plan to help with any deficits in their diets. Often older individuals need more calcium to help fortify bone health. Chiropractors and health coaches can provide individuals with nutritional information needed to live a healthy life.
Exercise Program
An active lifestyle is an essential component of staying healthy. Chiropractors can provide individuals with specialized exercises that take into account their specific and specialized needs.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy is another component of chiropractic, as it helps enhance the adjustments.
Health Coaching
Health coaching can provide individuals with the tools necessary to take charge of their health. Counseling involves exercise recommendations, nutritional advice, healthy habits development, and more depending on the individual’s abilities.
Stay Moving
A sedentary lifestyle places an older individual’s spine in a compromised position. Older individuals have an increased risk of developing detrimental spinal conditions. Overexertion happens more easily in weakened bodies. The solution is to maintain physical activity with proper support. Chiropractic is designed to improve the whole-body. If you�re looking for sedentary prevention and the latest care approaches, contact us, we’re ready to help!
Chiropractic Shoulder Pain Treatment
Dr. Alex Jimenez�s Blog Post Disclaimer
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic, musculoskeletal, physical medicines, wellness, and sensitive health issues and/or functional medicine articles, topics, and discussions. We use functional health & wellness protocols to treat and support care for injuries or disorders of the musculoskeletal system. Our posts, topics, subjects, and insights cover clinical matters, issues, and topics that relate and support directly or indirectly our clinical scope of practice.*
Our office has made a reasonable attempt to provide supportive citations and has identified the relevant research study or studies supporting our posts. We also make copies of supporting research studies available to the board and or the public upon request. We understand that we cover matters that require an additional explanation as to how it may assist in a particular care plan or treatment protocol; therefore, to further discuss the subject matter above, please feel free to ask Dr. Alex Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900. The provider(s) Licensed in Texas& New Mexico*
References
Hawk, Cheryl et al. �Best Practices for Chiropractic Care for Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Consensus Update.��Journal of manipulative and physiological therapeutics�vol. 40,4 (2017): 217-229. doi:10.1016/j.jmpt.2017.02.001
As you move into your senior years, you may expect some discomfort and loss of mobility. Aging is hard on the body. But it is important to understand that there are things you can do to feel better. Regular exercise, a healthy diet, and chiropractic care can all make your senior years active and thriving.
How Chiropractic Can Make Your Senior Years Fantastic
The benefits of chiropractic for seniors can be considerable, including:
1. Takes away the pain.
If you are experiencing pain due to spinal or joint issues, chiropractic can help. Chiropractic care focuses on providing pain relief without the need for prescription medications or surgery.
Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of chiropractic for pain relief. In fact, one study showed that chiropractic was considerably more effective than prescribed medications. Unfortunately, many seniors assume that their pain is here to stay when it may be reduced or eliminated through regular chiropractic care.
2. Improves balance.
Seniors who are suffering from balance and coordination issues often have problems with the cervical spine, the technical term for the neck. When degenerative disc disease or other injuries disrupt the function of the mechanoreceptors located in the neck responsible for sending to the brain important information related to balance, then problems with balance can result.
Chiropractic adjustments and other related therapies are quite effective in treating neck injuries and degenerative disc disease. Regular adjustments from your chiropractor may be enough to help you get your balance back.
3. Improves mobility.
Injuries and aging can lead to a loss of range of motion, both in the spine and in the extremities. Fortunately, chiropractic care is designed to help you regain range of motion.
Your chiropractor has a variety of treatment methods to heal existing injuries while also improving range of motion. It may take several treatments to achieve the results you want, but a few visits to the chiropractor are well worth the increased range of motion you will enjoy.
4. Wear and tear on the joints are reduced.
The spine and joints need to be aligned to minimize wear on discs, bones, and other tissues. When you go for an extended period of time with a misaligned spine, it will increase the rate that your joints wear down.
One of the major benefits of chiropractic care is the way it keeps your whole body in alignment. As long as alignment is maintained, wear is minimized. Of course, alignment is lost in day-to-day life, but you can get it back by revisiting the chiropractor.
When you visit your chiropractor, he or she will ask you several questions and listen to your story to better understand the challenges you are dealing with. Once the chiropractor understands your situation, he or she will design an overall treatment plan designed to help you be as healthy as possible. Seniors that get regular chiropractic care often say they feel much better than they did before, which allows them to do more of the things they love to do.
The information herein is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified healthcare professional or licensed physician and is not medical advice. We encourage you to make your own health care decisions based on your research and partnership with a qualified health care professional. Our information scope is limited to chiropractic, musculoskeletal, physical medicines, wellness, sensitive health issues, functional medicine articles, topics, and discussions. We provide and present clinical collaboration with specialists from a wide array of disciplines. Each specialist is governed by their professional scope of practice and their jurisdiction of licensure. We use functional health & wellness protocols to treat and support care for the injuries or disorders of the musculoskeletal system. Our videos, posts, topics, subjects, and insights cover clinical matters, issues, and topics that relate to and support, directly or indirectly, our clinical scope of practice.* Our office has made a reasonable attempt to provide supportive citations and has identified the relevant research study or studies supporting our posts. We provide copies of supporting research studies available to regulatory boards and the public upon request.
We understand that we cover matters that require an additional explanation of how it may assist in a particular care plan or treatment protocol; therefore, to further discuss the subject matter above, please feel free to ask Dr. Alex Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900.
The aging process can usher in a variety of conditions and health issues that are confined (mostly) to the elderly. Chronic pain, arthritis, loss of mobility, and other issues can occur as a person get older, but senior citizens are finding that chiropractic provides some great benefits for the older demographic.
Senior Citizens
Better Range Of Motion
Regular chiropractic care has been shown to increase spinal range of motion as well as in the extremities. Limited range of motion can occur due to age or inactivity � sometimes a combination of the two.
Having the ability to move easier has many great benefits. It allows seniors to more actively engage with their environment. They can get on their hands and knees to work in the garden, bend down to pick up grandchildren, and improve leisure activities like golfing. Increased range of motion is one of the most common (and appreciated!) benefits of chiropractic treatment.
Decreased Degeneration Of Joints
When the spine is misaligned it can lead to other parts of the body becoming misaligned as well. This can lead to unusual and unnatural wearing of the joints. Over time, the joints can become worn down, painful, and cause difficulty in mobility and flexibility.
Chiropractic care is a very effective treatment for decreasing the degeneration of the spine and even other joints. When the body is in proper alignment it no longer has to adapt through postural compensation. This reduces stress on the spine and joints while relieving pain and restoring mobility.
Pain Relief
Chiropractic has long been recognized for its effectiveness in providing drug free pain relief for everything from back pain to headaches to arthritis. While pain medication and anti-inflammatory drugs only suppress the symptoms, chiropractic addresses the root of the problem.
Spinal alignments and other chiropractic techniques help to relieve pain for a variety of issues, not just back and neck pain. What�s more, chiropractic does not have the undesirable, sometimes dangerous side effects that drugs can.
Overall Better Health & Wellbeing
Proper spinal alignment can greatly benefit a person�s health, wellbeing, and even their mood. It allows them to become more active so they get exercise. They sleep better and have more energy.
An aligned spine also lets them more fully engage with their family, friends, and the world. They can get out and do things they were once unable to do and when they are active and happier the entire body benefits.
Improved Coordination & Balance
The aging process can have a significant impact on a person�s balance and coordination. This can have a variety of causes including degenerative changes to the spine, typically in the neck area. Injury to this area is another culprit.
There are special receptors that reside along the cervical spine in the rear of the joints. These receptors work to send vital messages to the brain regarding coordination and balance. When the spine and especially the neck are out of alignment, it can hinder how these receptors send and receive messages to the brain. The result is a condition called loss of proprioception, or sense of body awareness.
As the condition progresses, the patient relies on vision to determine the location of their feet, legs, and other limbs. The worse it gets, the less able the patient is in compensating and can become prone to falling.
Injuries from falling are one of the most common reasons elderly people visit emergency departments each year. Chiropractic can help realign the neck and spine, allowing the messages to move much easier, thus restoring balance and coordination.
Prevents Seniors From Being Confined To Nursing Homes
Senior citizens who are regular chiropractic patients are more likely to engage in exercise that is more strenuous. They are more active, have fewer injuries, and are basically happier and more positive.
The more active and mobile senior citizens are, the less likely they are to be placed in a nursing home due to medical conditions or the �typical� aging issues. Simply put, chiropractic for seniors changes the way many people look at aging � and places it in a much more positive, active light.
Injury Medical Clinic: Elderly & Geriatric Fitness
IFM's Find A Practitioner tool is the largest referral network in Functional Medicine, created to help patients locate Functional Medicine practitioners anywhere in the world. IFM Certified Practitioners are listed first in the search results, given their extensive education in Functional Medicine