Therapeutic massage, commonly known as ‘massage therapy,’ is the scientific manipulation of the body’s soft tissues through hands-on techniques, treating body stress or pain naturally. This practice can be performed by a masseuse, physical therapist, and chiropractor. Many people sought this natural treatment in conjunction with chiropractic care. Chiropractic medicine focuses on disorders of the musculoskeletal system and nervous system that generally affect a person’s overall health. Experts commonly combine these two all-natural therapies because of the increased benefits offered by both concurrently.
When coupled, chiropractic can improve how massage heals the body, providing maximum relief to any patient’s discomfort. Many chiropractors know how well these two work together and use them in tandem regularly.
To help you understand more about the two practices — here are their individual and combined benefits.
Benefits of Massage Therapy
Massage therapy manipulates the body’s soft tissues, primarily on their tendons and muscles, reducing inflammation, pain, and other uncomfortable physical symptoms from stress.
Here are some of the most notable benefits provided by massage therapy:
It Promotes Muscle Relaxation
The main aim of massage therapy is to locate the source of the body’s pain and eliminate them through hands-on techniques, mitigating tense muscles, improving flexibility, and promoting overall relaxation to the affected muscles and your body as a whole. Moreover, massage therapy releases endorphins known as your ‘pain-killing’ hormones, boosting your dopamine and serotonin levels, instilling a sense of relaxation throughout your body. In essence, it promotes healing, pain management, and euphoria, allowing you to reach the maximum level of peace.
It Improves Circulation
Improved blood circulation is a long-term benefit of massage therapy, bringing damaged or tense muscles the blood supply they need, promoting healing. Plus, massage therapy also promotes improved circulation via hands-on pressure, moving the blood efficiently through the affected areas of your body, causing new blood to flow into these places. In turn, it lowers your blood pressure levels and improves overall body function.
It Improves Posture
Millions of people experience back, neck, and muscle pain due to various reasons, but the most common cause of these discomforts is poor posture. Chronic back pain is the number one reason for many missed workdays and the second cause of disability, often resulting from improper posture when standing or sitting. It can also cause strain on your hips, glutes, and legs. Massage therapy can help your proper posture back naturally.
With the help of a professional massage therapist or masseuse, you’ll be able to relax and experience a unique ‘heightened’ state of well-being, improving mental and emotional resilience while lessening the impact of stress. Physical therapists, massage therapists or masseuses, and chiropractors are the ones capable of providing these services.
Benefits of Chiropractic Treatment
A chiropractic adjustment is a natural approach to improving overall health and well-being. The practice aims to ensure that your body’s skeletal system’s alignment is aligned and maintain that optimal condition. With the skeletal system in its proper alignment, the muscles align accordingly, which, in turn, reduces pressure on your joints, improving your body’s mobility and range of motion.
When your body maintains that ideal state, your nervous system starts to function more efficiently, helping your body unlock its natural healing mechanisms. Because of this, it allows you to live a more active and pain-free lifestyle, making you feel significantly better mentally and physically while making you more resistant to injury and disease.
Besides unlocking your body’s full potential to health itself, here are other notable benefits provided by chiropractic treatment:
Reduces and Regulates Blood Pressure
Chiropractic adjustments can help people lower their high blood pressures, providing the same effects of certain hypertension medications but naturally. Researchers have also proven that the adjustment’s positive effects would persist for six consecutive months after the treatment. It can mitigate several adverse side effects of high blood pressure, including fatigue, nausea, and anxiety. There have been studies that adjustments have also helped patients suffering from low blood pressure by regulating their blood flow.
Ease Neck and Lower Back Pain
This benefit is the mainstay of chiropractic adjustments. Lower back pain is widespread, where over 80% of Americans experience it at some point in their lives. Although surgery and medication are viable options for this, they can be harmful, expensive, and ineffective. Getting an adjustment can significantly reduce your back and neck pain through all-natural and non-invasive techniques. It’s generally cheaper than other back and neck pain management methods, saving yourself from mild and chronic pain.
Prevents and Treat Scoliosis
Scoliosis is when a person has an abnormal curve on their spine, causing pain, abnormal posture, and reduced range of motion. Chiropractic adjustments can help treat and prevent the progression of this disease, improving one’s overall health. However, keep in mind that the effectiveness of chiropractic adjustment combined with massage therapy varies from patient to patient, but it’s still a viable option to consider.
Treats Sciatica
Sciatic portrays the pain radiating from your lower back down to your legs due to a damaged or pressured sciatic nerve that usually starts from your hip down to your feet. This chronic pain can severely affect one’s daily life. Chiropractic treatment relieves pressure from the sciatic nerve, shortening the number of ‘pain days’ patients may have while reducing its severity.
How Chiropractic And Massage Therapy Work Together
Massage therapy and chiropractic care can restore mobility, relieve pain, and improve overall health. When coupled together, these natural therapies extend each treatment’s health and wellness advantages, benefiting patients in various ways. Massage therapy focuses on soft tissues, while chiropractic deals with the musculoskeletal structure, nervous system, and hard tissues — understanding how these two work together can significantly improve your body’s function and overall health.
Here’s how chiropractic adjustments and massage therapy go hand in hand:
- Massage Therapy Prepares The Muscles And Attachments for An Adjustment – Since massage therapy deals with soft tissues like tendons, muscles, and ligaments, this improves your circulation and blood flow, causing your soft tissues to loosen and relax. When this happens, you’re going to have more elasticity and function. Because of this, it makes the adjustment process smoother and decreases the chances of spasm post-adjustment.
- Faster Pain Recovery – When massage therapy and chiropractic adjustments work together, they can alleviate pain quicker and better as the two therapies simultaneously address different components.
- Boosts Your Circulatory System – The proper circulation of your blood, lymph, and interstitial fluids is crucial to the natural homeostasis of your body and its ability to heal and regenerate. The combination of massage therapy and chiropractic adjustment improves your circulation significantly.
- Promotes A General Sense Of Wellness – Massage therapy and chiropractic adjustments help your body relax, decreasing stress, and reducing anxiety. Plus, these two can cleanse your body of impurities by breaking down built-up toxins, promoting a sense of calmness.
Combined Benefits of Chiropractic and Massage
Now that you know what each natural treatment provides to a patient and how they work together, here’s what they can offer when combined.
Massage therapy revolves around manipulating soft tissues such as muscles, tendons, and ligaments to improve circulation and blood flow, promoting relaxation, and reducing muscle tension. It can achieve this thanks to the increasing circulation delivering oxygen and nutrients to your muscles, stimulating better function. This factor allows your body to respond faster and more ‘fully’ to chiropractic adjustments.
Moreover, combining massage therapy and spinal adjustments help maintain optimal alignment for a more extended period. Because of this, it allows your body to ‘reset,’ improving your overall physical state. Besides that, massage and chiropractic enhance emotional well-being. In essence, the two therapies make pain relief more ‘profound’ and longer-lasting — and when you follow the recommended regimen by your chiropractor, these treatments together can prevent pain from returning long-term.
Getting A Massage: Before or After A Chiropractic Adjustment?
If you’re wondering when to get a massage, the answer to that will depend on your preference. However, in general, getting a chiropractic massage before and after can give you different benefits. When performed immediately after a chiropractic therapy or adjustment, expect any massage therapy benefits to be significantly enhanced.
After an adjustment, receiving chiropractic massage therapy can help the body recover faster, enabling the nerves and muscles to align themselves correctly quicker than a spinal adjustment alone. Plus, getting a massage after an adjustment decreases soreness that some individuals experience right after an adjustment. Meanwhile, getting a massage before an adjustment can make your muscles more loose and relaxed, giving your chiropractor an easier time to adjust your spine.
Can Chiropractors Provide Massage Therapy?
Chiropractors not only relieve back pain and other ailments through spinal manipulation, but they also use deep tissue massage therapy or chiropractic massage techniques to mitigate discomfort, promoting pain relief, relaxation, and overall wellness.
If you’re looking for a reliable chiropractor to relieve pain through the incredible benefits of coupling massage therapy and chiropractic treatment, Dr. Norman O’Dell is the professional you need. Dr. O’Dell is a well-known chiropractor, speaker, and wellness advocate that boasts years of experience.
He strives to provide complete care for all their patients by providing an array of all-natural chiropractic services, ranging from spinal manipulation, spinal decompression to deep tissue massage.
Choose the best care for yourself and go with Dr. Norman O’Dell for the best massage therapy and chiropractic care services, improving your overall health and well-being.
