5 Reasons to Use Chiropractic Care as Self-Care

July 24th is International Self-Care Day. With everything in our lives, we want to take the time to address self-care, the importance of it, and more. Self-care means taking care of yourself to keep yourself healthy physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It’s about the steps an individual takes to manage stressors in their life and take care of their overall well-being. Not properly coping with those stressors and challenges can lead to negative lasting effects on your mind and body. Self-care can include a variety of activities, including journaling, going for a walk, listening to a podcast, exercising, meditating, etc. Since stress can have a strong impact on your body, chiropractic care is another beneficial activity to add to your self-care. 

Stress and Self-Care

Overall, self-care is about listening to your body and prioritizing your own needs often. When you feel stressed, your muscles tense up to protect you from injury from outside threats. Your muscles should release when the “threat” is gone. However, if you’re constantly stressed, your muscles may not get a chance to relax and release the tension. Tight muscles can cause headaches, back and shoulder pain, and body aches and fatigue. Stress, especially frequent stress, can also cause brain fog, a decrease in athletic performance, weakened immune system, and more. 

While chiropractic care can’t resolve all the causes of frequent stress, it can help with a lot when you incorporate it into your self-care. Here are 5 reasons to include chiropractic care into your self-care:

Helps you feel better physically overall

One of the most common reasons people seek out chiropractic care is due to pain. Chiropractors help remove joint restrictions, reduce muscle tension, and eliminate pain caused by daily stressors and physical activity. You’ll begin to see improvements in mobility and overall comfort as pain and muscle tension are reduced. It also helps you stay physically active, allowing you to maintain and improve strength, flexibility, and balance. 

Boosts your immune system 

Chiropractic care helps lower stress hormones that compromise the immune system. It also improves function and mobility in the spine and body. By stimulating the lymphatic system to rid of toxins from the body and promote better blood flow, chiropractic care ensures optimal function of your immune system. Chiropractic care also helps to increase the body’s antibody levels. When more antibodies are formed, more are used, and fighting off illnesses and viruses becomes easier. 

Improves athletic performance

Whether you’re training to run a 5k, going hiking, or just trying to keep up with the kids, pain-free movement is necessary for optimal performance. Your performance declines and the risk of injury increases when your movement is restricted or there are muscle imbalances. Awkward movement patterns while training can establish poor habits that impair performance and keep you from achieving your fitness goals. 

A lot of professional athletes utilize chiropractic care to stay in top condition and reduce their risk of injury. You don’t have to be a pro athlete to move like one in your active lifestyle, though. Chiropractic care can keep you in prime shape for the game of life at any age. 

Enhances brain function

Your nervous system acts as a highway for information that constantly sends messages between your brain and body. All movement stressors are relaying information to the brain and back to allow for proper movement and coordination. Fixated joints can interfere with that communication and can create interferences that keep your body and brain from achieving optimal health. These interferences affect your cognitive function because the brain is working harder to understand where you are. Chiropractic care can help support a healthy brain. 

Aids in better sleep and increasing energy levels

Many things contribute to loss of sleep, including stress, sleep apnea, muscle tension, aches, pains, and more. Chronic sleep deprivation and insomnia lead to numerous health problems, such as irritability, difficulty concentrating, delayed reaction time, weakened immune system, memory issues and more. It also depletes your energy levels, keeping you from enjoying the life you want. Chiropractic care improves both your quality and quantity of sleep by promoting the release of sleep hormones and relieving muscle tension, pain, and discomfort that could be causing restlessness. 

Self-care is about enjoying life by taking care of you and your overall well-being. No matter where you are in life, chiropractic is a self-care activity that offers several benefits to help keep you feeling good inside and out. If you’re ready to add chiropractic care to your self-care routine, call for your free phone consultation or book your first appointment online, so you can live your best life!