Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic manipulation is an evolved area of practice that extends and overlaps into multiple areas of concentration—tissue work, nutrition, and exercise—to build a comprehensive approach to solving physical problems. This practice utilizes the body’s recuperative abilities and restores the relationship between the brain, the spinal cord, and the rest of the body. Chiropractic treatment improves the communication between the brain and the organs resulting in better overall health.
So, forget the outdated conjured image of doctors “cracking backs.” Our chiropractic services in Ballard offer a modern methodology to resolving conditions affecting the human body.
At MG Chiropractic, Dr. Mason M. Greenslade, DC, works to find the root of the problem and uses multiple methods in order to help patients find physical relief. Specifically in the area of chiropractic manipulation, two potential techniques are performed to help alleviate pain:
- Using a small instrument to adjust joints; or
- Using a process to remove tension from and provide adjustment to affected joints and areas of the body.
Instrument adjustment (or Advanced Certified Activator) is a technique that utilizes a small device to touch, manipulate, and impact joints. This technique is gentle, precise, and safe, and it essentially helps to put patients into alignment or balance without using manual force. Using the activator instrument is actually faster and more comfortable than using hand manipulation for realignment. And the results are amazing. This seemingly simple tool is able to provide incredible relief.
Using the Sacro Occipital Technique (SOT) focuses on removing tension and helping issues related to back pain, neck pain, joint pain, sciatica, scoliosis, headaches, TMJ, and more. SOT is a system to define a patient’s category of pain and then to perform the appropriate pain-blocking technique to provide relief. The specific techniques involved use padded blocks placed in strategic locations under the patient’s body to allow bodyweight to help adjust and correct the affected area. Essentially, the SOT process gives a patient’s body what it needs to begin healing correctly.
You can get these treatments from Dr. Mason M Greenslade. Whether you pay the clinic a visit because of chronic pain or issues that resulted from an accident, the chiropractic techniques, including TMJ treatment, we can address your body pains and other musculoskeletal injuries.
Why Do You Need Chiropractic Care?
Regular exercise and a healthy diet are not sometimes enough to keep you feeling great. Under inevitable circumstances, you will sustain injuries and experience stress in many forms. When subjected to mental and physical stress, the body creates hormones that cause chronic inflammation and suppress the immune system, making you prone to illnesses.
Chiropractic care counteracts these reactions by restoring the balance and communication between the brain and the rest of your body. Unlike pain medications, which can stress the liver and kidneys, or medical surgeries, chiropractic is a non-invasive method of addressing issues within your body.
With chiropractic care by MG Chiropractic a part of your routine care, you achieve the following benefits:
- Feel immediate relief from chronic pain
- Experience natural recovery from injuries
- Reduce stiffness, soreness, or aches in your body
- Boost your immunity
- Improve your blood pressure
- Improve your balance
Cold Laser Therapy
Laser therapy is a treatment that utilizes specific wavelengths of light to interact with tissue and help accelerate your healing process. Laser treatment can be used on people suffering from acute and chronic conditions in order to eliminate pain and swelling, increase functionality, and reduce spasms.
Activator Method
Many people think that chiropractic care consists of just popping, cracking, and moving things back into place. In many cases, this is what you’ll likely find when you visit your chiropractor. However, there are methods of helping to provide you with longer-lasting relief that does not rely on these techniques. The Activator Method is one such technique that Dr. Greenslade uses to help provide you with relief without the unsettling popping and cracking.
What Is The Activator Method?
The Activator Method is a method of chiropractic care that utilizes a hand-held device designed to pinpoint the exact point of the problem, and offer a quick, low-force impulse at specific points to help provide relief. This differs from traditional manual adjustments in that the impulse created by the device is so fast, that the body does not have time to react to it. This means that muscles will not tense up, which reduces the possibility of complications at the site of the adjustment.
What’s Wrong With Traditional Manual Adjustments?
While there’s nothing wrong with it, the traditional method of popping and cracking creates a very different effect in your body to help relieve your symptoms. With the traditional technique, the popping and cracking means of adjustment releases nitrogen into your body which puts your body into a mode as if it had just sustained an injury.
Thinking that you’ve been injured, your body will release endorphins to help manage the trauma, which is why popping and cracking joints feels so good after it happens. There is also the issue of muscles tensing up and possibly causing complications with this method as well.
Massage Therapy
Chiropractic care is often thought of as only cracking bones and relieving pressure from joints. However, chiropractic care actually involves a full repertoire of tools and methodologies to target specific ailments naturally. Chiropractic massage therapy in Seattle is the perfect example. Take a closer look at how massage therapy may be used as part of your chiropractic care plan at MG Chiropractic.
A Closer Look at Chiropractic Massage Therapy
Chiropractic care is all about targeting the nerves, muscles, and bone structures in the body with direct pressure and manipulations applied to certain parts of the body. Massage therapy, by contrast, is all about targeting the nerves, muscles, and soft tissues that make up the musculoskeletal system. Massage therapy helps to force lactic acid that can contribute to inflammation to natural drainage points. It also relieves tension by encouraging oxygenated blood flow to certain areas.
Several types of massage therapy may be used to target ailments, including something like deep tissue, trigger point, or reflexology massage. Each type of massage brings its own advantages to a treatment plan, whether you are recovering after an injury or otherwise.
Conditions Treated
Chiropractic massage therapy may be recommended for quite a few conditions and ailments, including:
- Arthritis
- Musculoskeletal injuries
- Low back pain
- Menstrual pain
- Headaches or migraines
- Neck and shoulder pain
- Whiplash
- Asthma and chronic coughing
The techniques used for one ailment can be completely different from those used for another. For example, a patient with whiplash may need deep tissue massage around the cervical spine. By contrast, someone looking for help with asthma may need a light massage around the ribcage.
The Benefits
- Pain relief for harder-to-treat conditions
- Pain prevention during recovery after an injury
- Quicker recovery from certain ailments
- Improved blood circulation to support your range of motion
- Overall stress reduction
The Scientific Effectiveness of Massage Therapy
Massage therapy has long been known to be effective for many common ailments. A few studies have shown this to be true, while also highlighting why massage therapy seems to help.
In a study published in the International Journal of General Medicine, researchers found that massage therapy was effective for the treatment of non-specific lower back pain. In another study, lumbar massage enhanced blood flow and deterred muscular fatigue.
Find Out More About Chiropractic Massage Therapy in Seattle
Pairing massage therapy with chiropractic care may offer even more value than just one type of treatment. Whether you are dealing with low back pain, migraines, or an injury, massage therapy could be a key component in getting better. Reach out to us at MG Chiropractic to schedule an appointment or find out about chiropractic massage.