Stretching is good. It can decrease stress, reduce pain, and boost energy. Regular stretching can also lower the risk of injury, improve balance, and increase flexibility. The drawback? Getting at those tough-to-reach spots isn't easy. That's where assisted stretching can be helpful. Certified stretch therapists are trained to manually guide muscles into places and positions that you can't reach by yourself. Adding assisted stretching to chiropractic care can help to improve the mobility of the spine, muscles, and nerves making it easier for chiropractors to treat the areas that need help. 

What are the benefits of assisted stretching and how can you incorporate
this modality into your practice?

“What are you carrying around in there?” Have you ever lifted your child’s backpack and wondered why it feels like a load of cement? With students heading back to the classroom, it is not uncommon for symptoms like headaches, upper shoulder pain, and lower back discomfort to surface due to overstuffed, improper fitting back packs. Heavy backpacks, especially when they are thrown over one shoulder, can place unnecessary stress on the neck and back that can lead to misalignments of the spine.

This blog was curated from an article in Dynamic Chiropractic published on July 1, 2018, Vol. 36, Issue 07. The author of the original article is Marc Heller, DC. The original article can be viewed here.

When I read the chart notes of other chiropractors, I am usually disappointed. They list what vertebrae are fixated or misaligned. They may describe the involved fascia and muscles. In diagnosis, I see terms such as lumbar or pelvic dysfunction, lumbar or pelvic strain or sprain, etc.

Do your patients think their care is simply about resolving their back pain? It's time to educate them that while chiropractic is about that, it's also about so much more. 

Research has demonstrated that chiropractic can actually help keep your body healthy and active and can be incorporated into anyone's lifestyle as a preventative regimen.

Chiropractors can play an important role in employee health, according to a new position paper by the nonprofit Foundation for Chiropractic Congress.

Back pain and other neuromuscular conditions are common in today's deskbound and smartphone-centric workplaces, but case studies presented in the paper demonstrate the value of having chiropractors working side by side with medical doctors at corporate health clinics, both in decreasing health care costs and improving patient satisfaction.

Chiropractic care such as adjustment offers a drug-free and non-invasive option for the care of common work-associated conditions like lower back pain. According to the paper, chiropractic care helped reduce the costs of radiology, outpatient, emergency and physical therapy services; improved neuromuscular function; demonstrated more improvement and higher satisfaction when compared to family medicine; had better outcomes, fewer surgeries and less opiod use. 

Corporate health clinics are expected to grow at a rate of 15 to 20 percent per year, according to the paper.