When you think of a professional athlete, you also think of the team of professionals behind the scenes—doctors, physical therapists, nutritionists—and chiropractors.
As an athlete, when your job is dependent on your body, you need it to work as functional as possible. Not only that—you need to keep your body as healthy and as injury-free as you can.
Chiropractic care can do both, as well as promote good health and prevent chronic diseases.
A chiropractor can treat an athlete to cover his or her needs, from pain relief to taking preventative measures. It’s not uncommon to see chiropractors being added to a team of professionals supporting rigorous and competitive athletes.
When you think of the word “chiropractor”, you think of the word “back”. However, what a chiropractor does goes much further beyond that.
Here are a few ways that professional athletes can benefit from chiropractic care:
1. Drug-Free Care: Especially if an injury can be traced to the back as an origin of the problem—or if it is a major player in the cause of the injury—chiropractic treatment is a perfect way to solve the issue at hand. It’s a method that avoids surgery and is as non-invasive as possible, omitting painkillers for treatment—which can be quite addicting and dangerous for the athlete.
2. Prevents Injuries: Chiropractors are trained to get to the source of the problem—before it even becomes a problem. Regular visits and care can enhance performance and decrease the risk of injury. When a doctor focuses on the entire body and not simply just the back, they can help target all issues that an athlete is having, no matter how minor or major they may be. Through proper care, doctors can get rid of the possibility of an issue before it even becomes one.
3. Make Necessary Adjustments: These treatments are not limited to just physical contact sports. All athletes’ bodies take a beating—no matter what sport you play—and at some point need to be corrected. Chiropractic career can analyze where your body needs adjusting, keeping the spine as aligned as possible and keeping performance high.
4. Targets and Takes Care of Pain: Some sources of your injury can even be rooted back to your spine—even if it isn’t back pain. However, your spine also has multiple pain-sensitive tissues, which can easily feel pain, stress, and strain. A chiropractor can take care of this pain using spinal manipulation and chiropractic adjustments.
5. Get You Back on the Field: No matter if you're feeling back pain or pain somewhere else on your body—shoulders, headaches, hips, chiropractic treatment can help an athlete get the pain out and playing potential back.
It’s All Connected
From your head to your toes, from your nervous system to your digestive system, everything is connected.
In chiropractic care, this theory is the same—if not, magnified. Not only should alignment, positioning, and joint function go hand-in-hand, all of this also affects nerve flow and bodily functions.
Your brain dictates chemical reactions and inner-workings of the body, then, all of it goes through your spinal cord. Treatment from a chiropractor can help ease that flow and communication, leading your body to optimal function.
How does that connect with nutrition?
What you put in your body—from dietary modification to addressing those nutritional imbalances—has a direct effect on healing and body support. Therefore, if you don’t have good nutrition, you're not giving your body a chance to heal. Chiropractic care and good nutrition are synergistic, working together for a healthier body.
As a professional athlete, diet plays an extremely impacting role—not only in the performance of the athlete but also in the play of injury prevention. It can also be a helpful tool, if done correctly, to help chiropractic treatments get the athlete back on the field after suffering from an injury.
For the non-athlete population, when a doctor notices that a high BMI could be an initiator or promoter of pain—especially through the spinal region, diet can be considered a risk factor for your health and you'll be able to benefit from a nutritional change and lifestyle modification.
Whether you're a professional athlete or an office worker, you can benefit from chiropractic care. When it is paired with a nutritious diet, your body has the best chance to heal itself and reach optimal health.