Trying Chiropractic for Lupus Treatment
Many people with chronic degenerative diseases such as lupus, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, arthritis, and multiple sclerosis have found great benefits from chiropractic treatments. Lupus can’t be cured with chiropractic, but there are many ways you may benefit.
Benefits of Chiropractic Treatment for Lupus
Pain Management
Chiropractors are truly the experts at knowing how to decrease pain and do it naturally without any side effects. The inflammation that is found in lupus is what causes damage to the joints and organs. Inflammation can subside with chiropractic treatments, and your dependency on NSAIDs can be significantly lowered.
Symptom Relief
Many lupus patients have joint pain and stiffness from the minute they wake up to the moment their eyes close at night. Spinal and joint manipulation coupled with moist heat, stretch therapy and even therapeutic myofascial release massage can go far towards reducing the muscle and joint pain as well as back and neck pain.
Spinal manipulation restores the correct nerve interference or pressure in the spine. This ends up affecting your nervous system (and even moods), which in turn affects your entire body. It also impacts your immune system in a positive way.
Diet and Food Recommendations
There’s a way you can change your diet and focus on foods that decrease inflammation. Supplements are another great way to decrease inflammation, and your chiropractor will know the most effective way to start reaping benefits and experience less pain.
Foods can also positively impact your immune system. For example, probiotics are immunomodulators that boost parts of the immune system that need to be boosted while suppressing other parts that are overstimulated.
Since lupus is clearly tied to the immune system, having a doctor who understands therapeutic nutrition is clearly a major key to your wellness. And you may not realize it, but there is a connection between the immune system and chiropractic adjustments that have already been suggested in several research studies.
Chiropractic researchers at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College examined 64 healthy patients before and after either a sham chiropractic manipulation or a real spinal manipulation to see whether or not the immune system was affected. Their adjustment was in the thoracic (mid-back) spine.
Compared to the sham group, those receiving the real chiropractic adjustment showed a significant reduction of inflammatory chemicals in the body. They concluded that even though no one knows how it is happening, the spinal manipulation was causing less inflammation in the body.
Studies at the National College of Chiropractic also show that spinal manipulation of the thoracic spine increases the activity of the white blood cells within 15 minutes.
What Alternative Treatments Should You Discuss With Your Chiropractor?
When deciding which chiropractor is best to work with, ask whether or not he or she has already worked with lupus patients. You’ll most likely choose the best one based on the answer to this question. Chiropractors who treat lupus patients realize that treatments will always vary depending on the symptoms.
Here’s a list of potential helpful therapies to ask your chiropractor about:
- Light trigger therapy
- Manipulation of the joints in the rest of the body as well as the spine
- Isokinetic stretch, which restores flexibility to muscles and elasticity to connective tissues and improve range of motion
- Electric stimulation with a low impulse current
- Cold laser treatments or ultrasound
- Specific therapeutic nutrition measures to reduce inflammation
Take some action today and include a chiropractor as part of your alternative treatments for lupus. You’ll be glad you did.