Chiropractic Health & Wellness Blog

Chiropractors are known to help many people with neck and back pain, and the majority of chiropractic practices work on conditions relating to the neck and back.  Most all chiropractors also work on the different extremity joints of the body.  Some chiropractors specialize more in sports injuries, and occupational injuries and perform adjustments on these joints more than other chiropractors.  Today I will talk of the common extremity adjustments that can help people with many joint conditions.

Let’s start at the foot, and head upward.  The foot has 13 bones, and all of these Quick read more or view full article bonesarticulate with their neighboring bone.  Many times due to traumatic events in sports and/or injuries relating to auto or work these joints become misaligned and dysfunctional.  Each one of the thirteen bones and their related joints can be manually adjusted and/or adjusted utilizing hand instruments.  The long axis distraction of the talus adjustment is probably the most popular and well known chiropractic adjustment.  It can be beneficial for sprained ankles, plantar fasciitis and other conditions relating to the foot.

Heading north the knee joint can be adjusted also by manual and/or mechanical device.  My favorite adjustment is an adjustment on the medial meniscus which helps the meniscus function better.  The fibular head also goes anterior often.  There are great fibular head adjustments to ease lateral knee pain.

Adjustments on the hips and pelvis are very common.  The main hip adjustment is a long axis distraction maneuver.  This adjustment helps many patients with arthritis in their hip.

The upper extremity adjustments are more commonly used than the lower extremity adjustments.  As patients often have common injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, rotator cuff injuries and frozen shoulder.  Shoulder adjustments include sternal clavicular ac joint adjustments and glenohumural adjustments.  Chiropractors also utilize many muscle techniques when addressing shoulder injuries.  There are 8 carpal bones in the wrist, and all of these articulations can be adjusted by chiropractors.  The middle bone in the wrist is called the lunate.  This bone many times falls forward and closes the carpal tunnel.  Adjusting this bone is my favorite adjustment to help someone with carpal tunnel syndrome.

The last joint is the elbow.  The radial head is the most often misaligned joint in the elbow.  Adjustments on the cranial head are very helpful with common elbow injuries.

If you are suffering from any type of extremity injury, most chiropractors will have treatments that will help you recover.

Author:  Michelle Caron