Have you ever been to the chiropractor for neck pain and felt worse afterward? It happens to many people and is more common than you think. NOTE: it is typically not because the chiropractor did something wrong. When your body is in pain before you arrive at a chiropractic office, this means that something is under stress. This could be physical stress caused by an injury or emotional stress affecting how you feel physically. Although you may feel even more pain at times after first leaving the chiropractor, there is a reason for that. We are here to unwrap why!
Here is a breakdown of why your neck pain can feel worse after seeing the chiropractor.
What Does a Chiropractor Do?
Chiropractors specialize in helping people recover from injuries, such as neck pain. A chiropractor will first take your medical history. This helps them gain a full perspective on what their body has been through. Doctors of Chiropractic will also take a full analysis of how you’re currently feeling now – both physically and emotionally. These two components go hand-in-hand. Our emotions can create more physical turbulence than physical injuries sometimes! Your emotional state also affects physical functions, including:
- Nervous system functionality
- Digestion
- Heart rate
Chiropractors consider the body as a whole when working with a patient. If you see a chiropractor because of severe neck pain, the doctor will take that into consideration when creating a customized care plan for you. Each healing journey is unique to an individual. Past medical history and current lifestyle are both factors that help a chiropractor determine the best route to helping you heal.
A chiropractic adjustment can seem frightening at first. It can involve cracking or popping bones/joints to help realign parts of your body that are out of place. If you are nervous about the cracking part of chiropractic, we completely understand. At Twin Waves Wellness Center, we provide chiropractic adjustments without neck cracking. That’s right! Instead, we use gentle contacts along the spinal cord and neck to help relieve tension stored in your muscles. Before we dive too deep into our gentle force chiropractic technique, let’s review why neck pain can feel worse after seeing the chiropractor.
Reason Neck Pain Can Feel Worse After Seeing the Chiropractor
Extended pain is not uncommon to experience after seeing a chiropractor. Neck pain can feel worse after receiving chiropractic care regardless of the technique performed. At our chiropractic office, where we don’t crack or pop bones, it can happen too. Why is that?
Our job as chiropractors is to bring parts of your body back online. When we suffer from injuries, such as neck pain, areas around it become less active. This is because it hurts to move these areas! Over time, as parts of your neck muscles and joints stay inactive, they become stiff. Chiropractic care not only helps your injuries heal, but it also brings awareness to the entire area of stress. Your physical awareness of your neck will heighten and sharpen, allowing you to regain flexibility and mobility. Imagine if you haven’t used certain neck muscles for months and then get a full range of motion for them again? There’s a chance that this could feel painful at first. Your body is relearning how to make certain movements. It takes time to readjust to new physical movements that you aren’t used to performing.
There is a lot going on when you see a chiropractor for neck pain. The chiropractic adjustments that we perform, although gentle, reawaken a ton of energy in areas of stress. For example, your cells become reactivated through our gentle force adjustments. Parts of your body may not be used to this occurring since they’ve been less active recently due to your injury. As different muscles and joints become more online (active), you can experience minor pain from this. Not to worry! This is normal. Your body is regaining function and mobility.
What should you do if your pain is worse after chiropractic care?
Let your chiropractor know how you’re feeling at all times. As professional chiropractors, we want to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly. We can provide reassurance when you are dealing with pain after receiving chiropractic care. Depending on your previous medical history and if there was a prior injury, your neck could still be under extreme physical stress. Recovery and healing take time. A major injury can affect multiple parts of your body surrounding the actual point of stress.
What is Pain?
Since this is something we review with people that see us at our wellness center, here is what pain can mean. Of course, physical stress or impact on the body can result in pain. But what IS pain? Pain is when our mind tells our body that something is off. It doesn’t necessarily mean that something is wrong. Not at all actually. It could mean that something needs to be changed, worked through, shifted, or altered.
If you experience physical pain, it could mean that something needs to be changed or is currently changing. Have you ever experienced back pain during a major transition in life? Our minds and bodies are connected in many ways. How we feel emotionally can impact how we feel physically. Pain is a signal from the mind to the body, letting us know that we need to pay attention to a particular area.
Gentle Force Chiropractic Care for Neck Pain
At Twin Waves Wellness Center, we practice a gentle force chiropractic technique called Network Spinal Analysis. Also known as NSA or Network Spinal, this chiropractic treatment brings a holistic approach to healing. We work with energy that is stuck within your body. Our goal is to help your muscles release stored tension and relax. Fight or flight mode can keep bodies stressed, which can lead to more injuries and make recovery take longer.
Chiropractic care helps provide people with neck pain relief when they need it. If you have ever woken up with neck pain or dealt with a chronic neck injury, give us a call today. Our team of chiropractors is here to help you recover from pain fast. Our chiropractors consider the body as a whole. The gentle force chiropractic adjustments we provide will help relieve you of pain and get you back on your feet. Twin Waves Wellness Center is here to help you along your journey to healing. If your neck pain is worse after seeing the chiropractor, contact our team today.