If you feel stiffness, discomfort, or have issues with mobility, you may have spinal misalignment. This condition can occur for many reasons, including impacts from playing contact sports, repetitive motions, car accidents, and falls.
Some people have no symptoms of spinal misalignment while others are in constant pain. Treatment will be necessary to remedy the pain, though if you suspect you have spinal misalignment, you’ll want to get a professional evaluation. Once you do, you can work on alleviating your symptoms and improving your quality of life.
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Symptoms You May Experience with Spinal Misalignment
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Spinal misalignment develops slowly over time and will take a while to reveal any signs or symptoms. One of the signs you may notice first is poor posture, though this goes beyond the typical hunching people tend to do over laptops and other devices. If you slouch or are unable to stand up straight, pay attention to this symptom.
Additionally, you may find it hard to keep your posture in the correct position because of frequent headaches; pain radiating from your hips, back, or shoulders; or numbness in your hands or feet. This causes a chain reaction of other symptoms that often come with spinal misalignment.
Breathing Issues
Respiratory problems are common for those with a misaligned spine. With poor posture, it prevents the lungs from having enough room to fully expand. You may feel weak and experience shortness of breath along with the occasional fainting spell.
Difficulty Sleeping
If you have spinal misalignment, it may be next to impossible to get comfortable when you go to bed. The pain may be so extreme that you wake from it and can’t fall back asleep.
Fatigue and Exhaustion
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When a condition causes you difficulties in falling asleep and staying asleep, it impacts your waking hours. Without a good night of sleep, it will adversely affect your cognitive function and overall performance for the day.
More Frequency with Common Illnesses
If you have frequent back pain along with getting sick more often, you may have spinal misalignment. When the spine is not properly aligned, communication gets complicated between the spinal cord and its connecting nerves. It’s not uncommon for it to mix up signals, which means the immune system can’t respond properly to intruding pathogens. When that happens, it is easy to catch colds more often.
Check Your Shoes for Clues to Spinal Misalignment
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One way to clue into this condition is to take a look at the bottom of your shoes. The tread on the bottom of both shoes should wear down evenly if your spine is in properly aligned condition. With spinal misalignment, you’ll notice one shoe in a pair has more wear than the other, a sign that you’re putting more weight on one foot.
The Mental Health Complications That Can Arise From a Misaligned Spine
It has long been known that physical health problems can cause your mental health to suffer. When you live with chronic pain, discomfort, and fatigue, you may find yourself feeling anxious and depressed.
Depending on how your spine became misaligned, you may also experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Irritability and outbursts of anger are common too because you feel frustrated about being physically hindered from what you once loved to do. It’s important to work with a mental health professional in these situations. It’s also important to get treatment for spinal misalignment which can help you improve your quality of life.
What Is the Cause of Spinal Misalignment?
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Spinal misalignment happens gradually over time though may be set off by certain circumstances. You likely won’t notice it immediately after an accident, but you may realize it years later as your spine shifts out of place.
Here are a few ways spinal misalignment can be caused.
Contact Sports or Car Crashes
Sudden impacts from contact sports or the kind you experience in a serious car accident can push your spine out of place. Left untreated, it can get worse over the years until it limits your mobility and creates major discomfort.
Repetitive Motions
Jobs that require you to do physical labor in the same way each day could leave your spine misaligned. All that wear and tear can eventually catch up to you.
Congenital Conditions
Conditions like scoliosis curve the spine to one side and can create spinal misalignment. If you have scoliosis, you may need physical therapy or in extreme cases, surgery to correct it.
Falls
Through the process of aging, senior citizens have a greater risk of falls because of poor coordination, cognitive reasoning, and eyesight. These factors make them more prone for spinal misalignment through a fall. However, it should be noted that anyone who survives a fall injury at any age may be at risk.
What to Do If Your Spine is Misaligned
What to Do If Your Spine is Misaligned
If you are in pain from spinal misalignment, you can do a few things to reduce your pain and increase your mobility.
Stretches
Believe it or not, stretching can be a great help in relieving spinal misalignment. The important thing is to do them under the guidance of a healthcare professional who can help you find the best stretches for your condition. They can alleviate your pain and help your spine realign.
Lose Weight
As you seek methods of relief from healthcare professionals, you can also change up your diet to help you lose weight. The more weight your spine has to carry, the more pain you’ll experience from this condition. Losing weight will help take the strain off your back.
Visiting a Chiropractor
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Visit a chiropractor in Jacksonville, FL and they can administer chiropractic adjustments to address the issues of a misaligned spine. They can adjust your bones, joints, and muscles to help them get into the right position, which may even bring you relief in a matter of hours.
You’ll have to make time to periodically visit your chiropractor, but it is an excellent alternative to surgery. In extreme situations of spinal misalignment, surgery may be recommended, but it is worth it to try other options first to get the relief you need and get back to living life.
