Chiropractic and Weight Loss: What’s the Connection?
A growing number of doctors of chiropractic are specializing in weight loss. The relationship between chiropractic care and weight loss may not be obvious at first glance, but it’s important to understand that the benefits of chiropractic treatments (mainly spinal adjustments) are not limited to pain relief from sore backs or slipped discs. Chiropractors maintain that spinal misalignments can affect the flow of energy that is necessary for good health. Healthy body alignment enhances neurological health, relieves stress, improves organ function, and is said to enhance the immunity system and the circulation and the delivery of nutrients and oxygen in the body.
It stands to reason that enjoying a higher level of resistance to disease, more flexibility and having a body that maximizes the use of nutrients and oxygen will increase your chances of successfully losing excess weight.
However, what makes chiropractic care particularly appealing for people who have been trying to loose weight unsuccessfully (or who tend to gain back the excess pounds they shed), is the fact that chiropractic care, first and foremost, is a holistic system of healing. From a chiropractic standpoint, excess weight is actually a symptom of poor health. Rather than focus on weight loss alone, chiropractors explain that the primary aim must be to create a healthy body. To loose weight successfully and permanently, it is critical to heal your body and improve your general health and wellness first.
This means that a doctor of chiropractic will examine all your health problems and issues, including your weight problem, simultaneously. Typically, chiropractic weight loss therapy begins with a complete analysis of your overall health in order to design a personalized weight loss program. The focus is on benefiting the general health and wellness of both your body and mind as an underlying component to successful weight loss. Excess weight is not viewed as the source of your health problems, but as a single component of healing the entire body.