Exercise and Chiropractic Care

Maintaining your health can be challenging when the responsibilities of work and family take priority. However, making time to eat right, hydrate properly and exercise can help you avoid medical issues such as Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. You may have also heard about the possible benefits of chiropractic care for neck and spinal alignment and wonder whether these treatments can replace exercise. Understanding the facts and how these two activities differ may help you maintain better health.

How Exercise Affects the Body 

You can carry out a daily exercise routine either at your home, a park or a gym. If you have certain medical problems that affect how strenuously you can exercise, even a 30-minute daily walk can improve your health and has several benefits, including:

  • Improved blood circulation 
  • Increased muscle strength 
  • Weight loss

You may want to ask your doctor what type of exercise is best suited for you before you begin to ensure a safer workout.

The Effects of Chiropractic Care 

Like exercise, chiropractic care can benefit the body and reduce pain and discomfort in the neck and back. When performed by a licensed professional, adjustments can release air pockets in between vertebrae and increase range of motion in the neck. If you have a past spinal injury, chiropractic care may offer relief from chronic pain. While adjustments do not offer the same benefits of daily exercise, they may be useful for reducing pain that may prevent you from working out.

Maintaining a Balance 

Chiropractic care and exercise are typically not interchangeable because of the different benefits they offer. For example, chiropractic adjustments do not burn calories and fat the way a workout might, and exercise does not provide the type of skeletal and muscular manipulations that chiropractic adjustments do. Combining the two, however, may provide you with a health regimen that allows you to lose weight and exercise as you overcome chronic pain.

Creating a Wellness Plan 

If you want to combine exercise with chiropractic care, you can work with your healthcare professionals to create an individual wellness plan that provides you with the benefits of both. Chiropractic adjustments may keep you limber and control chronic pain from past injuries or aches and pains that may come with aging. You can protect your health by keeping your general practitioner informed of your workout routines and how often you undergo chiropractic care.

Exercise and chiropractic adjustments can improve your overall health when combined into a wellness plan.