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Why does chiropractic work?

Chiropractic works because your nervous system, consisting of your brain, spinal cord and all the nerves of your body, controls and regulates every cell, tissue, organ and system of your body. A chiropractor locates and reduces areas of nervous system compromise (usually along the spine) so your capacity to heal is restored. Chiropractic works by helping your body work as it was designed.

Are chiropractors just concerned with the spine?

Our interest in the spine is because it covers the major communications conduit between your brain and your body. As a Bozeman chiropractor my job is to locate areas (usually along the spine) that interfere with proper nerve communications to and from your brain. Chiropractic adjustments help restore nervous system integrity. In this way, chiropractic care can affect the function of your entire body.

What Causes Muscle Cramps?

Many endurance athletes and daily exercisers alike suffer the pain of muscle cramps, usually in the calves, either during a sporting event or workout session or directly after. What causes these painful cramps?

There are many possible causes for why the cramping occurs. Some of these include dehydration, low blood sugar, salt imbalance due to sweating, nerve damage, compromised blood flow, heat or cold and even a disruption of energy along acupuncture meridians. While many of these are general causes of cramps, there is disagreement whether they are actually involved in exercise-induced cramping.

Research conducted by South African doctors on triathletes, and reported in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, July 2005, found that none of the these conditions seemed to actually cause the cramping. Rather, by conducting EMG studies on the athletes, the researchers demonstrated that the most likely cause of the cramping was muscle fatigue or a tear in the affected muscle itself.

The EMG studies showed noticeably higher electrical activity in the nerves that controlled the cramped muscles. They concluded that the muscle cramps appeared to be caused by exercise-induced damage to the muscles themselves. If that’s the case, muscle cramping can be prevented by slowing down when you feel tightness or soreness in any particular muscle.

Regular chiropractic care, along with pre-exercise stretching of the muscles are probably the two best ways to avoid muscle cramping. Should you start to feel a cramp or tightening, grabbing your toes and stretching the calf may stop the cramp, but most often, the muscle needs to simply rest for a bit.