I have discovered over the years that a lot of patients present with back pain that has been diagnosed as a pulled muscle or a muscle spasm. Of course the typical treatment is muscle relaxers and pain medications from the medical model. Chiropractic takes a different approach. First I’ll explain a little bit of anatomy and physiology for you to better understand what is actually happening when you have a muscle spasm or “knot” in your back or neck.
Muscle knots can be caused my misalignments of the spine.
As you can see from the picture above the muscles of your back and neck are attached to your spine. When the spine becomes subluxated or misaligned it can cause a pulling on these muscles. This can cause the muscle to be over stretched and then causes “muscle knots” or trigger points. Also, when you have a subluxation it pinches the nerves and this causes a response from your body to protect the nerve. Your body does this by tensing the muscles around the spine, so the nerve does not get pinched more and cause a neurological issue such as numbness, tingling, weakness or atrophy.
When you get adjusted by a chiropractor this aligns the bones of your spine and decreases the pressure on the nerve. This correction will then reverse the muscle knot and spasm. You can also strain the muscle that will cause the spine to become subluxated also. Usually this is caused by over exertion, stress, trauma or even toxins in your body. Getting adjusted can help with this side of things too.
Give us a call to schedule an appointment and find our if chiropractic care is right for you.
269-381-2200