Women face some specific health concerns and challenges throughout their lives. Efforts to become pregnant, the nine months of pregnancy itself, the hormonal shifts that accompany menopause, and age-related degenerative conditions can all throw obstacles in the way of a woman's health, wellness, comfort, and function.
Whatever stage of life you're currently going through, you may be looking for answers to these women's health issues -- preferably answers that don't involve drugs or invasive treatment methods. Our Aurora chiropractor here at Total Wellness Center, Dr. Holly Geersen, understands your concerns. That's why she offers safe, gentle chiropractic techniques to help you feel better and keep your body in optimal condition.
How Chiropractors Address Women's Health Concerns
Why are chiropractors uniquely well qualified to address a variety of women's health concerns? To understand this, we must first understand the delicate interactions between the nervous system, the musculoskeletal system, and all of the body's other systemic functions. When the joints of the spinal column or other weight-bearing structures fall out of alignment with each other, they can cause a number of painful problems, from chronic soft tissue strain to premature joint wear.
These alignment errors also affect the nerves. Displaced vertebrae, discs, or other structures pinch the nerves, major nerve roots, or even the spinal cord tissue. When this happens, the brain can no longer send and receive messages to various parts of the body efficiently. The most obvious symptoms include pain, numbness, or weakness in the arms or legs -- but the major organs, immune system, and endocrine system can also become impaired. This can lead to hormonal imbalances which in turn affect the female reproductive system.
Chiropractic care can undo or minimize all of these unnatural influences on your body. Corrections your musculoskeletal alignment ease pain and stiffness while also improving nerve function. Better nerve function means more normal biochemical responses across the board, making chiropractic adjustment an invaluable aid to women's health. Our clinic can create customized treatment programs to help you with:
Infertility - Infertility can turn the quest to get pregnant into an epic battle. The causes can range from emotional and physical stress to poor nutrition and impaired nervous system function. If you're hoping to avoid the need for in-vitro fertilization, or at least reduce the amount of IVF treatment you might need, chiropractic care makes good sense as a cost-effective conservative therapy. Recent studies have shown that acupuncture is quite useful in the treatment of fertility. And, for women whose infertility is due to neurological interference, chiropractic adjustment is extremely effective in promoting pregnancy, as well. In addition to addressing nerve impingement, we can also recommend nutritional or lifestyle changes to boost your odds of becoming pregnant. Dr. Geersen uses neurological scanning technology that can determine whether or not a woman is a good candidate for acupuncture treatment for infertility.
Prenatal - Once you do become pregnant, you may find your delight tinged with discomfort as your body weight increases, your spinal and pelvic alignment shift, and your nerve function faces challenges as a result. Fortunately, prenatal chiropractic care is perfectly safe and can prove highly soothing. Our Prenatal chiropractor can help you manage symptoms such as neck pain, low back pain, swelling of the extremities, and radiculopathy (numbness, tingling, or pain in the upper or lower extremities). We can even make sure your pelvic alignment is ready to accommodate a normal, healthy delivery. Chiropractic care can help keep everything as stable and as aligned as is possible. Also, Dr. Geersen can make sure that the pelvic bowl is spreading evenly, which will help the childbirth process be comfortable. In addition, for those women who carry to term and beyond, there is an acupuncture protocol to help a woman's body release the hormones that trigger labor naturally. Many ob-gyn clinics send their overdue patients to Dr. Geersen so that she can help induce labor in a non-chemical, less-painful way.
Menopause - Menopause can feel like a hormonal roller coaster as the body adjusts to a new, post-fertility phase of life. Insomnia, hot flashes, mood disorders, and exhaustion are just some of the unpleasantness you may experience. For years, the medical community recommended Hormone Replacement Therapy for menopausal changes. Then, of course, this treatment was found to be harmful; not only did it not prevent against osteoporosis, the therapy also increased a woman's risk of heart disease and virulent breast cancers. Dr. Geersen focuses on methods that will help ease a woman through the menopausal phase of her life, rather than working to try and unnaturally eradicate all symptoms. She works with a woman to find natural supplements, herbs and progesterone creams, that will soften a woman's symptoms, including hot flashes and the loss of libido. Once again, chiropractic care can ease your symptoms by normalizing your nerve and hormonal function -- especially nerve communication with the hypothalamus, which regulates estrogen and progesterone.
Geriatric - The geriatric years bring yet another set of physical challenges for women. Osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and decreased mobility are some of the concerns of women in their later years. Osteoporosis reduces bone density and may alter your posture, while osteoarthritis can cause chronic joint pain. We can provide safe, gentle chiropractic adjustments featuring the comfortable, low-force method known as the Activator Technique. These adjustments help your body maintain a healthier posture and improve your range of pain-free motion. Acupuncture and nutritional counseling can enhance your treatment program for even greater health and comfort in your senior years.
Learn More From Our Aurora Chiropractor
Any woman can benefit from a body that communicates with itself more effectively, enjoys a straighter spinal alignment, and maintains a higher degree of general wellness and comfort for life. If that sounds like exactly the path you want to pursue, then you owe it to yourself to talk to our Aurora chiropractor.
