Can Upper Cervical Chiropractic Help with Arthritis?

Arthritis is joint inflammation, which causes pain and stiffness. There are many different forms of arthritis, but there is no cure for this condition. For most patients, there is little that their healthcare providers can do other than manage pain and inflammation. 

Management is most often done through prescription or over-the-counter pain medications, but may also be helped with diet, exercise, and—on occasion—surgery. There is another treatment option that is natural, drug-free, and non-invasive that arthritis sufferers may want to look into: chiropractic care. 

Signs and Symptoms of Arthritis

Stiffness and pain in the joints are the most common symptoms of arthritis, and they can range in severity from patient to patient.  There may also be swelling or redness around the affected joint when pain is flaring up.

It is most common for people to get arthritis in the hands, hips, and/or knees, but it can strike any joint. Some patients have arthritis in just one joint, while others may have it in multiple joints. 

Arthritis can strike people of any age but tends to get worse with age. 

Is Chiropractic Care Safe for Arthritis?

Chiropractors can't cure arthritis, as there is no known cure at this time. However, any misalignments of the joints can exacerbate the symptoms of arthritis and cause more pain and mobility problems than necessary. Chiropractic care can help bring the spine into correct alignment, reducing some inflammation and alleviating the joints, ligaments, cartilage, muscles, and surrounding tissue of undue stress. 

The upper cervical spine, which consists of the uppermost seven vertebrae, is most prone to injuries that set off a domino effect down the rest of the body. In particular, the atlas (C1) and axis (C2) are the most prone to injury. These vertebrae sit just below the base of the skull and are responsible for the carriage and movement of the head. Any jolt to the head from a fall, accident, sports injury, or even just persistent poor posture can cause these vertebrae to slip out of alignment. 

When vertebrae in the upper cervical spine are misaligned, the body shifts to compensate and keep the head up straight. You may not even notice this shift, but the strain it puts on the rest of your joints and tissue going down the body can cause inflammation, swelling, and pain. For people with arthritis, it just increases suffering.

When properly adjusted, arthritis patients will find some relief and improvement in their range of motion.

Let Us Help With Your Arthritis Pain

Chiropractic care is a safe, non-invasive, drug-free treatment option that helps many people suffering from inflammatory conditions like arthritis. At Blair Chiropractic Clinic in Lubbock, Texas, Dr. Gordon Elder is a specialist in the Blair Chiropractic Technique. This technique is gentler and more precise than traditional chiropractic methods, making it suitable for many sufferers of arthritis. 

Dr. Elder has a three-step process for patients that begins with a thorough health screening and 3D diagnostic imaging scans. These scans give the doctor a much better look at your unique anatomy.

In the second step, the doctor will discuss his findings and discuss a treatment plan with you. With the use of state-of-the-art technology, corrections can be applied with more precision and much less pressure than traditional chiropractic methods. 

The third step of Dr. Elder's process is aftercare which involves regular chiropractic check-ups. This enables the doctor to ensure corrections are holding and nip any problems in the bud to prevent future issues. 

Don't let arthritis hold you back from doing the things you love. Contact Dr. Elder to see if upper cervical care can help you. Areas of coverage include Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland, Odessa, Abilene, and El Paso in Texas, as well as Hobbs in New Mexico. 

Published by Vic Belonogoff: A Blair Chiropractic doctor helped heal vertigo, among other conditions that Vic Belonogoff suffered from, and it gave him his life back. He continues to see an upper cervical chiropractor as a preventative measure. Vic Belonogoff is passionate about upper cervical chiropractic and how much it helps patients.

Arthritis & Upper Cervical Chiropractic Care | Dr. Gordon Elder

Dr. Gordon D. Elder of The Blair Chiropractic Clinic, Lubbock Texas explains how Upper Cervical Chiropractic can help reduce Arthritic pain.

Arthritis can come in many forms but the most common kind is caused by the body’s joints wearing away for one reason or another. Many times, this condition is caused by poor alignment, which makes a lot of sense; if your alignment is wrong, your joints are going to wear wrong.  This causes the inflammation, burning sensation, and pain that’s usually associated with arthritis.  This does not apply to ALL types of arthritis – for example, autoimmune arthritities like Rheumatoid arthritis is caused by a part of the body eating or disintegrating its own joints, which is a different issue.  At this time, we want to focus on arthritis that’s caused by cervical misalignment – which can be repaired over time with proper Upper Cervical Chiropractic Care.

Regardless of the type of arthritis you may have, chances are you’ve had the problem for much longer than your symptoms have been showing. Another one of the challenges associated with treating arthritis is that the problem doesn’t ‘start’ when the joints get hot and swollen.  These symptoms occur after years of the joint being worn down, which is what is causing the irritation and inflammation in the joint.  For example, many of our patients are amazed because we can look at an X-Ray of the neck and ask, “What happened to you 20 (or 50) years ago?”  We can even point out where the trauma occurred, since the X-Ray shows us where the arthritis is developed.

Contrary to what many people believe, having arthritis does NOT mean you’re old; it simply means you have an “old problem. We’ve seen relatively young patients with significant arthritis in their joints, and we’ve seen elderly patients who had virtually no arthritis until, for example, a spinal injury occurs. In these cases, when we fix the patient’s neck and take the pressure off the brainstem, their body starts to move back into the proper position. As this happens, we can relieve the pressure on those irritated joints.

Unfortunately, if the injury or damage has been there for a long time, some of the arthritic symptoms may be permanent. However, when a patient’s body is healthy enough to straighten things out, it has the ability to “work around” the damage. In many cases, people with arthritis can live fairly normal lives, not having to think about the pain of the arthritis because everything else is functioning properly and the body can compensate for the damage.  Upper cervical alignment can play a big role in this as well, because of how closely this area of the neck is associated with total body alignment.

If you or someone you know is experiencing severe pain from arthritis, we would love to see how we can help. Upper Cervical Chiropractic care has shown tremendous success in helping patients get back to normal, without being burdened by arthritic pain.  At Blair Chiropractic Clinic in Lubbock, TX , we want to fix the underlyingnproblem you’re having.  Our motto is “Find it, fix it, then leave it alone”.  Visit www.blairclinic.com or call (806) 747-2735 today to speak with a member of our staff about scheduling a screening.