Chiropractic Care can help people improve balance, coordination, reduce risk of falling, and risk of injury.

A recent research paper out of New Zealand looked at how 12 weeks of chiropractic treatment can effect brain function and relate to reduced risk of falling.

The findings were really amazing.

The researchers measured reaction times in seniors ability to step.

This is an important factor in our ability to maintain their balance while walking.

At 4 weeks, little difference was noted between the chiropractic group and the control, untreated group, but here’s where everything changed…

The chiropractic group started to really pull away from the untreated group after 4 weeks.

At 12 weeks a very big difference between the 2 groups was seen with the chiropractic group showing a huge improvement.

How big was the improvement in ability to react and step in seniors?

12 weeks of chiropractic care had 2.5 X the improvement compared to a study looking at 6 months of exercise!

Half the time with 250% better results with chiropractic care!

The researchers also looked at something called multi-sensory integration.

This big complicated sounding word basically means how your brain processes all the different information coming in from the environment.

In this case the researchers looked at how the people in the study processed sight and sound.

Other researchers have found problems with slower processing in older people, particularly those that fall.

The speed of processing is important so that the person can walk and move while responding quickly to things on the floor or in the environment.

At 4 weeks, the researchers found that the chiropractic treated group was better able to process sight and sound… by 12 weeks they improved even more.

The researchers also looked at joint position sense in the ankle.

This complicated sounding thing just means your ability to know where your foot and ankle are without looking at them.

This is incredibly important, obviously for fall risk but also for risk of injury in general and for performing your best when exercising or playing a sport.

The chiropractic group significantly improved their ability to know where their foot was in space.

Remarkably this was even though the chiropractors only adjusted the spine and not the extremity.

These findings taken together make a strong case for chiropractic reducing the risk of falls by improving neurological function.

The study also really suggests that chiropractic treatment would be very helpful in sports and athletics.

If our body is functioning better, we also feel better which was the final thing that the researchers measured.

So 12 weeks of chiropractic care helped people have faster reaction times, faster processing of sight and sound, better ability to know where their body was in space, and they felt better!

The researchers weren’t measuring specific pain levels, joint stiffness, or muscle spasms that are traditionally thought of as findings chiropractic can help.

In this research, the subjects were older adults. This is important because older adults are often injured seriously from falls.

However, it would make sense that improvements in all age groups would be seen in a similar fashion…

Even though it might be that the elderly because of their greater starting deficits see a bigger change or it might be that because they are older and have much more chronic problems in general that their changes are not as great as what would be seen in a younger adult, teen, or child.

We don’t know for sure because the research hasn’t been done yet.

Most people see a Chiropractor for some painful spinal conditions and injuries. Of course Chiropractic helps these spinal problems as well as other types of injuries to the extremities.

There is much more to it though and you can find evidence for this through out this Texarkana Health Blog with posts ranging from functional neurology to back pain, neck pain, whiplash, migraines, vertigo, diet, sleep, and a lot more.

Our job as chiropractors is to move you toward this improved function and health as much as possible using conservative care with different types of physical treatment, physiotherapy, rehabilitation, ergonomic and lifestyle recommendations.

These can have a massive, positive impact on not just relieving your pain and symptoms… but improving your health and wellness.

Chiropractors identify dysfunctional areas so that they can restore appropriate flow of information between the body and the brain.

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