How Chiropractic helps to prepare you for pregnancy

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Chiropractic is well known and highly utilised for pain, especially back pain. Did you know that Chiropractic may have positive effects on the body other than just alleviating pain?

In a society where more and more people are turning away from drugs and surgery and towards a more natural and holistic approach to health, Chiropractic is a great place to start and the benefits of a healthier spine and nervous system should not be under-estimated when preparing for pregnancy.

Your brain oversees everything in your body. Everything! In your brain there are maps, or specific circuitry, for every part of your body. A map for your shoulder, your neck, the skin on your left knee even has its own map. Depending on how clear and detailed these maps are, or maybe how ‘smudged’ and small they are, allows the brain to either work at its best potential or maybe only as best as it knows how with the limited information available.

Chiropractic may positively affect the nervous system to promote overall health and well-being.

For example if you continually get sore necks, your muscles seize up to try limit the movement and therefore the amount of pain. But this decreased movement then becomes your new ‘normal’, these tight muscular patterns become your new ‘normal’. Chiropractic care may help to restore the joint range of motion and muscular control needed for full and proper spinal function, often in areas distant from where you actually feel your pain.

In this way Chiropractic not only alleviates pain, but may help you get back to functioning at your best. When could be a more important time in your life to function at your best than when you are getting ready to conceive?

Did you know that Chiropractic care can also cause far reaching changes in seemingly unrelated areas of the body?

When your neuromusculoskeletal system is functioning optimally your brain and body work together better. We often see in practice that when we help with pain, other seeminly unrelated health concerns also change for the better. While Chiropractic is not a specific treatment for issues such IBS and general fatigue, favourable changes in areas such as these can sometimes occur when someone feels better in their own skin, has less pain and becomes more active as a result.

So in relation to fertility, aside from the mechanical benefits of good pelvic alignment and control only good things can come from a body that is less stressed and more at ease. There is no downside to a healthy spine, pelvis and nervous system.

At Better Health our chiropractors work closely when needed with our naturopaths to get each of our clients in the best shape possible for pregnancy.

 

References, continued reading.

  • Clar, et al. Clinical effectiveness of manual therapy for the management of musculoskeletal and non-musculoskeletal conditions: systematic review and update of UK evidence report. Chiropractic & manual therapies. 2014
  • Bolton & Budgell. Visceral responses to spinal manipulation. Journal of electromyography and kinesiology.2012
  • Hawk, Long & Boulanger. Prevalence of nonmusculoskeletal complaints in chiropractic practice: report from a practice-based research program. Journal of manipulative and physiological therapeutics. 2001
  • Williams et al. Psychological response in spinal manipulation (PRISM): a systematic review of psychological outcomes in randomised controlled trials. Complementary therapies in medicine. 2007
  • Wand et al. Cortical changes in chronic low back pain: Current start of the art and implications for clinical practice. 2010 Manual therapy
  • Pelletier, Higgins & Bourbonnais 2015 Is neuroplasticity in the central nervous system the missing link to  our understanding of chronic musculoskeletal disorders? BMC Musculoskelet Disord 16 (1) 15-31
  • Madeline, Behrendt. Insult, Interference and Infertility: An Overview of Chiropractic Research. Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research.
  • Shelley, Jessica. Healthy Pregnancy In a Previously Infertile Patient Following D.N.F.T. Chiropractic Care: A Case Report. Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research.
  • Kaminski, Tammy. Female Infertility and Chiropractic Wellness Care: A Case Study On the Autonomic Nervous System Response while Under Subluxation Based Chiropractic Care and subsequent Fertility. Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research.