Category: Journals

Mental health experts believe the best way to start a new year is by reflecting on the highs and lows, the wins and losses of the past year, and evaluating them in a way that will improve one’s overall performance in the next year. This includes mentally preparing your mind to change behaviours, thoughts, and emotions, causing problems or distress, and interrupting your journey towards achieving your life goals.

Psychotherapy, also known as talk or psychology therapy, comes as a reliable solution here to define and realign one’s mind in a way that eliminates or controls troubling symptoms. This helps their mind function better and increases well-being. Here is more on psychotherapy and how it acts as the ideal mental detox program to give you the perfect start for 2023.

The Concept

Psychotherapy refers to techniques that help people change their points of view, opinions, and perspectives in a way that allows them to alter their behaviours, reactions, and emotions, causing frequent problems and distress in their life. It is an umbrella term that defines the treatment process catering to psychological disorders and mental distress through verbal and psychological techniques.

Depending on your specific problem, your clinical psychologist will choose a suitable therapy approach with complementing techniques and strategies.

How Does It Work

Psychotherapy offers a collaborative, non-judgmental, and supportive treatment developed primarily on the therapeutic relationship between an individual and a psychologist. Grounded mainly in dialogue and conversation, the treatment provides a supportive environment for a person to talk openly with someone whose perspective on your distress or problem is neutral and non–judgmental in all terms.

Based on the conversation, your psychologist will then work together with you to identify and change the mindset, thought, and behaviour patterns that are keeping you from feeling the best. This includes situations that easily trigger you, cause distress, anxiety, or even uneasiness.

By the time the treatment sessions are done, you will not only have solved the problems you have brought in, but you will have learned new skills and developed an optimistic personality that can keep you focused and organised for the new year ahead.

Who Are They Suitable For

Generally, psychotherapy focuses on difficulties in coping with daily life, the impact of trauma, medical illness or loss, death of a loved one, mental disorders, depression, anxiety, or imposter syndrome. It is suitable for people of all ages who want to combat challenges they face daily mentally and want to live happier, healthier, and more productive lives.

Psychotherapy doesn’t take a one-size-fits-all approach. There are several different types of psychotherapy, ranging from cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, and other kinds of talk therapy. Some types may work better for your specific problem or issue- which the psychotherapist usually decides.

Sometimes psychotherapy may be used in combination with other medications or therapies. Normally, psychologists use scientifically validated procedures, but this again depends on the wellness clinic or the centre you choose.

What To Expect From Therapy Sessions

Depending on your problem, the therapy sessions can be conducted individually, with a family, as a couple, or in a group setting. The sessions are typically held once a week for about 60 minutes. For the therapy sessions to be practical and start benefiting your life, it is essential to establish good trust with your psychotherapist.

Psychotherapy can be short-term (a few sessions), more suitable for dealing with immediate issues, or long-term (months or years), to help tackle longstanding and complex problems. The client and the therapist mutually decide how often one needs the therapy sessions.

Detox is a natural biological process that happens in your body all the time. It is a mechanism that helps you eliminate waste through sweat, urine, bowels, and breath. The liver, kidney, lungs, and skin are important organs that help with the detoxifying process.

However, today, we are overly exposed to toxins from harsh chemicals, smoke, pesticides, and preservatives. Toxic overload in the body can impact your mental and physical health when necessary attention is not given.

If your body cannot self-cleanse them, it may show signs and symptoms to let you know it’s time to detox. Here are a few such signs you need to pay attention to.

Constant Fatigue

Feeling tired all the time or dizzy even after a good night of sleep is a good sign that your body needs a detox. Fatigue normally creates a lot of stress for the adrenal glands. A long-term toxic load in the adrenal gland leads to a condition called adrenal fatigue. It makes your glands function improperly due to excessive cholesterol levels from toxins. A detox program can restore your health and make you feel lighter and more energetic.

Body Weight Oscillation

If you find it difficult to lose weight, no matter how much strict calorie counting or exercise you follow, your body is raising the alarm for a detox. Adipose tissues, also known as ‘fat cells,’ tend to hold onto toxins. When our body feels it is unsafe to break down the fat cells, it releases these toxins, causing unwanted weight gain.

In such situations you must cleanse your body of the accumulated toxins to lose weight. Alongside starting a healthy detox program, it’s highly recommended to consult a nutritionist to guide you on a sustainable weight loss journey.

Frequent Mood Swings, Anxiety, And Insomnia

Stress can bring unpleasant effects into your life in the form of moodiness, anxiety, depression, headaches, and even insomnia. Hormonal and cortisol imbalances in the body are two main reasons that lead to these frequent mood swings.

Especially an overload of toxins like xenoestrogens, a synthetic mixture of several hormones acting as estrogens in our body, can cause hormonal imbalances in the body.

The accumulation of toxins like aspartame can also affect the optimal functioning of brain cells and show symptoms like mood swings, anxiety, or depression.

So if such symptoms have been disorienting your routine for a long-time, then it’s time to get your body detoxed.

Excessive Constipation Or Diarrhoea

Constipation or lack of proper bowel movement can be caused by insufficient antioxidants in your diet, which in turn leads to toxins getting absorbed into your bloodstream.

Similarly, extreme episodes of diarrhoea occur when your body cannot hold too many toxins, thereby flushing essential vitamins and nutrients from the body.

If either of these happen to you frequently, you need a cleansing and detox plan to restore your gut health and its natural digestive tendencies.

Skin Issues That Are Difficult To Manage

Excessive build-up of toxins in your body can sometimes manifest as rashes, breakouts, eczema, and other issues on the skin, which is the largest organ and barrier to pathogens and toxins.

If you’re going through breakouts, rashes, dry patches, bumps, itchiness, discoloration, or flakiness that you can’t seem to manage or get under control, then your body may be having an internal hormonal imbalance or environmental stress. Hidden or not-so-hidden sources of toxins on the skin can include cleaning products, fragrances, and cosmetics.

Detoxing is one of the most effective solutions to get around such skin issues. It can improve your skin’s health and relieve unhealthy symptoms in your skin.

According to WHO (World Health Organization), one in every eight people lives with some mental or anxiety disorder that involves significant disturbances in emotion regulation, thinking, and behaviour.

Psychologists say that defining your emotions is the foundation for preventing mental health risks at their early stages. Here is a detailed outlook on why recognizing your emotions is important for your life.

For Your Well-being

Our mental health plays a vital role in our overall well-being, and it can be achieved only when we can define our emotions and address them accordingly. Emotions and feelings are our body’s ways of communicating what is happening and those that matter in our lives.

However, as emotions are very dynamic, some feelings are more difficult to manage than others, such as shame or the loss of a loved one.

The more connected you are to your emotions, the easier it is for you to respond emotionally to them the right way. It helps you control them more effectively with minimal impact on your mental health.

In contrast, if you find it difficult to express or identify your emotions, you can feel stuck or even develop easy anger towards simple things, which can harm your well-being in the long run.

It is also believed that getting angry because of emotions can negatively impact physical health. Often anger masks other feelings like hurt and sadness. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge, define, and address all emotions as you experience them.

To Maintain Healthy Relationships

Emotional awareness is undoubtedly a necessity for maintaining healthy relationships in life. However, if 90% of the time, how you respond to someone or even your significant other is triggered by unaddressed emotions, then it’s a good sign that you don’t recognize your emotions.

The more you can understand your emotions, the easier it is to recognize your trigger points and emotional responses. This makes it easy to communicate your needs, sore spots, and what you want or expect from a bond. It also makes it easy to have difficult conversations and always solve problems with a solution-oriented mind.

Struggling to understand your emotions can potentially lead you to create scenarios in your head, increase anxiety, and make it easy for you to jump to conclusions causing a series of unsuccessful relationships.

For Good Parenting

Parenting on its own is an emotional rollercoaster as your little one challenges your ability to stay calm and tune in with your emotions daily. However, to practise healthy parenting, you should recognize your emotions and address them appropriately.

The better you understand your emotions, feelings, thoughts, and triggers, the more patient and emotionally responsive you become as a parent. Creating this emotional mindfulness is also essential to connect with your kids, understand, support, and help them responsibly navigate their own emotions at an early stage.

Eliminates Negative Thoughts

If you consistently find it difficult to differentiate when you feel happy or sad, it can never lead to happy thoughts. It can also impact self-esteem, confidence, and outlook on life and even worsen issues like imposter syndrome.

In the long run, this will affect your mindset and the way you see situations in life. Acknowledging your emotions makes you believe you can control them and how you feel about them. It helps you make structured decisions around your emotions, change negative perceptions, come to effective solutions, reframe negativity, and mould your life positively.

If you need professional help defining and managing your emotions and stabilising your mental health, an emotional coach is a suitable option to consider.

Muscle strains are common injuries that happen when your muscles are past the normal range. Sometimes called a “Pulled muscle” or “Muscle tear,” they are often associated with sports because of the repetitive use of muscles and the extra load or stress it encounters on a routine basis. Muscle strains have many degrees ranging from mild to severe, but they all show some common symptoms, such as swelling, pain, stiffness, and bruising.

While there are many ways to treat muscle strains, recently, physiotherapy has become a revolutionary approach to managing muscle strains and restoring their functionality. Here is how it works.

Treatment Approaches

The physiotherapy designed for your muscle strain will depend on its intensity and healing phase. Before creating a treatment plan, your physio will do a thorough assessment by gaining background knowledge of your strain or injury.

Then a physical examination will evaluate the extent of the strain, classified as 1st, 2nd, or 3rd degree, which helps define the severity, treatment method required, and the anticipated recovery time. The physiotherapy process for muscle strains also includes education and suggestions to prevent recurrent and future injuries.

Some common physio interventions used for muscle strains include ;

Compression

This method is mainly used to reduce swelling and inflammation causing pain. It helps in enhancing the process of healing and giving more pain resistance. Statistic compression is sometimes done using an elastic bandage to apply consistent pressure and prevent further swelling. It also aids significantly in removing excess fluid in the strained area and increases the flow of oxygenated blood required for tissue repair and healing.

Massage

Using therapeutic massages increases blood flow and loosens tight muscles, helping to heal damaged tissues. Again applying pressure to injured muscle tissues removes excess fluid and cellular waste in the strained area. It also reduces pain in the surrounding muscles and improves the range of motion.

Thermotherapy

This is another method mainly used for relieving pain and increasing blood flow to promote the healing and relaxation of muscles. Thermotherapy can be given in the form of hot water bottles, electric pads, hot cloths, or warm baths.

TENS

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) provides pain relief caused by muscle strain.

Ultrasound

Ultrasound is very effective in breaking adhesions and thus increases circulation and mobility.

Shockwave Therapy

Shockwave therapy produces and transfers high energy to painful spots around the strained muscles and promotes regeneration resulting in healing.

Laser

Used to reduce inflammation and pain and increase the healing capacity of damaged tissues. Laser intervention in physiotherapy is also aimed at reducing the healing time by increasing intracellular metabolism.

Range Of Motion

A physiotherapist uses hands-on techniques to maintain the range of motions in your joints. Initially, a simple range of motion exercises is given to maintain mobility in the strained area. After acute management, other interventions such as crutches, bracing, or pain relief are given.

Strengthening And Stretching Exercises

These methods are used to improve muscle strength, resistance, and mobility and to increase the capacity of the muscles to prevent re-injury. Stretching exercises mainly help to maintain flexibility and range of motion. Your physio will first start with gentle muscle toning exercises and then slowly progress to weights, repetitions, and other stretching exercises, depending on your condition.

Eczema is a skin condition that often leaves the skin hot, itchy, and uncomfortable. Because it doesn’t have a complete cure, it decreases confidence and self-esteem for those experiencing it. Recently infrared saunas have caught the attention of the derma industry and skin experts as a promising solution to manage the symptoms of eczema and reduce the physical and emotional toll associated with it.

How Infrared Saunas Work

For those unaware infrared waves are a type of light that is invisible to the human eye as it has a longer wavelength than the visible spectrum. Generally, there are three different types of infrared waves, each with unique properties.

This infrared light can penetrate approximately 4 centimeters into your skin, creating a certain vibration in the water molecules, generating heat, and causing your skin to sweat. This is why infrared is used in saunas.

Normally infrared saunas work just like a regular sauna, except for how it heats your body. In a traditional sauna, the body temperature is heated through convection. This is where the air around you is heated, and then the heated air is transferred to your body.

In contrast, an infrared sauna uses infrared waves to produce heat within the body. This mechanism eliminates the need to heat the air around you, making it much more comfortable as there is no stifling hot air.

How It Helps With Eczema

Eczema is primarily caused by environmental factors such as dust, heat, and changes in weather conditions. However, it is also triggered by fragrances, stress, or particular soap products.

The use of an infrared sauna assists with the management of eczema mainly by

• Reduce stress levels which can be a large risk factor for flare-ups
• Boosting the immune system so it can respond effectively in the event of a flare-up
• Increasing blood flow to the affected area
• Enhances a soothing feeling around the site of eczema following an infrared sauna
• Remove dead skin cells
• Delivers nutrient supplies to the epidermis layer of the skin
• Boosts the immune system to function healthy and ward off nasty organisms which may be trying to invade through the skin
• Excrete toxins through the skin

Promotes Healthy Skin To Control Eczema

Good blood circulation is essential to promote healthy skin. Infrared saunas increase blood circulation by deeply penetrating infrared waves into the body, significantly enhancing your body’s capacity to heal and rejuvenate.

Similarly, many skin conditions require proper management of triggers for flare-ups. Stress, lack of sleep, or poor sleep quality are some other factors that can trigger eczema and other common skin conditions. Releasing sweat from your body has effectively kept these provoking factors under control.

This non-invasive, relaxing, and soothing effect of skin from infrared makes it safe to say that regular sweat sessions may just be what your body needs if you want to manage eczema or similar skin conditions.

Adding to these, research has also shown that rather than drying the skin out, the deep penetration of the infrared rays during your sauna will improve blood circulation, enabling healing benefits. The study also found that infrared saunas allow multiple energy transfer, which goes as deep as 2-3 cm into the subcutaneous tissue without causing any irritation or overheating to the skin.

At the Hundred Wellness Centre in Dubai, we believe that health is holistic, and so we take a mind, body, and soul approach to everything we offer. We provide a dynamic range of highly specialized clinical, nutritional and rehabilitative treatments, including the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases like eczema. Our infrared sauna is one such treatment that provides a deep, detoxifying heat therapy that can be completely transformative for your health and well-being.

The most common question Physiotherapists hear during initial consultations and first-time assessments is how long the patient has been in pain or trying to manage the pain. We frequently recognize that a body, injury, or trauma has deteriorated as a result of being ignored for so long. Most people appear to be unaware of when to seek professional assistance and advice from a physiotherapist.

If you are experiencing pain that is not going away on its own, please seek treatment as soon as possible. When you decide to seek therapy, the longer you wait to address an issue, the longer it may take to resolve the underlying issue.

Whether you’re suffering from a muscle strain, a pulled muscle, or another type of soft tissue injury. Or if you have a more serious condition such as arthritis, bursitis, or a stress fracture. Regardless of the cause, you should see a physiotherapist as soon as possible.

Here are some indicators that you should see a physiotherapist.

You’re constantly in pain.

If you are in pain almost all of the time, you should see a physiotherapist. This could even be a sign that you should see a physiotherapist right away. You could have an acute injury causing your pain, which could lead to a chronic problem. If this describes you, make an appointment with a physiotherapist right away.

You are unable to carry out routine tasks

This could be due to a lack of mobility in your joints or muscles, or to the pain you’re experiencing. If you can’t do the things you used to do without pain, you should see a physiotherapist. You could be suffering from a chronic condition that is causing you pain, or you could be suffering from another health problem. It’s also possible that you have a structural issue that needs to be addressed. If you’re experiencing pain that prevents you from doing what you used to do, it’s time to see a physiotherapist.

You are experiencing unusual pain as you recover

You may experience pain following an injury, but this does not imply that the pain is normal. You should never feel pain that you don’t understand. If your pain is out of the ordinary, you should consult a physiotherapist. You could be suffering from direct nerve pain as a result of a sprain, or you could have a nerve problem that needs to be addressed. The discomfort could also be caused by your bones, joints, muscles, or ligaments. It’s critical to rule out these common causes of pain so you can get it treated and back to normal as soon as possible.

You’re having pain in new places

You might feel pain in places you’ve never felt before. You could be suffering from an emotional issue, or you could be suffering from a physical issue that is affecting your body. If you are experiencing pain in a new area, it is critical that you see your family doctor or a physiotherapist.

You have a history of recurrent injuries

If you have a history of recurring injuries, you should see a physiotherapist. Overtraining is the most common cause of repetitive injuries, but they can also be the result of an underlying problem. It could be due to a genetic predisposition, poor biomechanics, incorrect lifting technique, or insufficient rest. Whatever the cause, it’s critical to get it checked out so that the injury doesn’t worsen and flare up at work.

Joseph Pilates created Pilates in the first half of the twentieth century. His father was a gymnast, his mother a naturopath, and he studied a variety of Eastern and Western exercise forms, including Yoga, bodybuilding, and various martial arts, including jiu jitsu. The Pilates method was created using a variety of equipment to advance the stretching, strengthening, and body alignment that resulted from the non-equipment based mat work.

Two students of the late Romana Kryzanowska published the first modern book on Pilates, The Pilates Method of Physical and Mental Conditioning. Romana began as a student of Joseph Pilates at their New York studio on 8th Avenue. When Joseph died in 1968, Romana took over as studio director of what was then known as “The Pilates Studio.”

Pilates today includes variations on the ‘Modern’ Pilates method, which stems from some of the first generation students, as well as the ‘Classical’ or ‘Traditional’ method, which aims to preserve Joseph Pilates’ original work.

The previously mentioned book outlined six ‘Principles of Pilates.’ Concentration, control, center, flow, precision, and breathing are the original six principles.

Concentration

This emphasizes the importance of focusing on your entire body during Pilates to ensure smooth movements. This is difficult. In many ways, Pilates exercise technique and how exercises are performed are more important than the exercises themselves.

Control

Every Pilates exercise must be performed with control. It is fundamentally about you having control over your body.

Centering

In order to effectively control your body, you must have a starting point, which is your center. This is often referred to as the ‘powerhouse,’ which refers to your center and includes the abs, upper and lower back, hips, buttocks, and inner thighs. All Pilates movement should start in your center, your powerhouse, and work its way out to your limbs.

Flow

Pilates exercises are designed to flow into one another to help build strength and stamina. The use of appropriate transitions and movement economy is highly valued and is one of the key differences between novice and advanced practitioners.

Precision

Pilates is not about performing a large number of repetitions incorrectly or with poor technique. Pilates, on the other hand, strives for precise and perfect movement. With consistent Pilates and expert instruction, this precision will become second nature and will carry over into everyday life. A professional Pilates instructor can learn a lot about a person just by watching them walk.

Breathing

In Pilates, you typically focus on breathing out with effort and on the return. Breathing and movement must be coordinated, and good instructors will constantly remind you when to breathe in and when to breathe out. As with everything in Pilates, you should focus on each breath and feel your powerhouse engage.

Pilates is appropriate for men and women in a wide range of physical conditions, from professional athletes to out-of-shape retirees looking to improve their quality of life.

Pilates has quickly become the foundation of many people’s physical conditioning, including countless celebrities, due to its low impact and effectiveness. Pilates, when done correctly and consistently, with proper instruction that helps you embrace the key principles, will change your life, improve your lifestyle, and keep you looking great.

Depression is a serious medical condition that affects millions of people around the world. Depression symptoms can go untreated for months or years in some cases, despite the harm they cause. Fortunately, if you know how to recognize depression symptoms, you can assist friends, family members, and coworkers in dealing with depression.

When a friend, family member, or coworker exhibits depression symptoms, it can be difficult to provide support. You probably want to do everything you can to help this person in his or her time of need. At the same time, this person might not be ready to talk about his or her depression symptoms with you. As a result, you may feel helpless, but you still want to help someone who is depressed.

There is no one-size-fits-all treatment for depression, but offering support may assist someone in determining the best way to alleviate his or her depression symptoms. Now, let’s look at 10 ways to help someone who is depressed.

Learn More About Depression

Learn about depression, its symptoms, and treatment options. Depression is complicated, and there are many different types of depression that affect people in different ways. Learning about depression will equip you to recognize depression symptoms in others. Furthermore, you may be able to assist people suffering from depression in taking the first step toward treatment.

Be a Good Active Listener

It may appear impossible to persuade someone suffering from depression to talk about his or her thoughts and feelings. Active listening, on the other hand, can help you express your concerns to someone suffering from depression symptoms.

If a person suffering from depression wishes to discuss his or her thoughts and feelings, it is critical that they concentrate, understand, and respond to what they have to say. Active listening can help you build trust with someone who is depressed. And you might be able to help this person work through his or her depression symptoms over time.

Maintain an Open Mind

Depression frequently raises concerns and questions for both the person experiencing depression symptoms and his or her friends, family members, and colleagues. It helps to be open to everything someone has to say about his or her symptoms when showing support. You might be able to help them make sense of their depression symptoms if you keep an open mind. Perhaps most importantly, you could assist someone suffering from depression in determining the best course of action for treatment.

Maintain Contact

Remember that even a text message, email, or phone call expressing your support can be beneficial to someone suffering from depression. You can be a source of support to someone suffering from depression if you make yourself available. This person may be closed off at first, but they may open up or require assistance at some point, and if you make an effort to stay in contact with them, you will be ready to provide assistance whenever they require it.

Set a Good Example

Maintaining a positive attitude reveals a lot about who you are as a person, and it may inspire someone suffering from depression to find ways to cope with his or her symptoms. You can also seek support from others to demonstrate to someone suffering from depression that he or she does not have to face depression symptoms alone.

Recommend Depression Therapy

Encourage someone suffering from depression to see therapy. You can make recommendations for local doctors with whom this person can meet to discuss his or her depression symptoms. You can also offer to accompany this person to a doctor’s appointment so that he or she feels supported during the visit.

Depression is a problem, but you can help treat it. By expressing your support for someone suffering from depression, you may make it easier for this person to seek treatment.

It is essential that everyone takes care of their heart. Even though regular exercise and a healthy diet are important, chiropractic care can also help people take care of their hearts. The thoracic region of the spinal cord provides innervation to the heart.

When you think of chiropractic care, heart health is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. Although most people associate chiropractic treatment with pain relief in the back and neck, treatments can also help you improve your heart health. In fact, going to the chiropractor on a regular basis is a simple way to protect your heart.

Relieve Chest Pain

One of the most common reasons for hospitalization is chest pain. Although many people are concerned when they experience chest pain that something is wrong with their heart, the majority of chest pain is musculoskeletal in nature. Many chest pain issues can be resolved with a simple chiropractic adjustment rather than going to the hospital or emergency room.

Reduce Inflammation All Over the Heart

Inflammation is one of the most common causes of chronic cardiovascular disease. Chiropractic adjustments can assist people in reducing inflammation all over their bodies. This includes data that would otherwise be transmitted through the arteries, veins, and heart. People can avoid developing chronic cardiovascular issues by reducing inflammation throughout the heart.

Lower Blood Pressure

One of the most common chronic medical problems is high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. Chronically high blood pressure can put a lot of strain on the heart’s arteries, veins, and chambers. When chiropractors adjust the first vertebra, also known as the Atlas, it helps people reduce their blood pressure. Individuals who control their blood pressure protect their hearts.

Increase the Heart Rate Variability

If you want to better control your heart rate, you should broaden the range over which it beats. This is also referred to as heart rate variability. Many patients with severe heart problems are unable to raise or lower their heart rate as they would like. Chiropractic adjustments can help with this by improving heart strength.

Safeguard the Nerves of the Heart

The autonomic nervous system sends instructions to the nerves that control the heart. They are called autonomic because they can send signals on their own. At the same time, you must safeguard them. Chiropractic adjustments can help to protect the nerves that supply the heart. Because these nerves innervate other organs throughout your body, it is critical to keep them free of impingement with chiropractic care.

Enhance Lung Function

The heart and lungs work in tandem. If the lungs do not function properly, the heart muscle cells will not receive enough oxygen. People can benefit from chiropractic adjustments to improve their lung function. It is critical to protect lung function in people who have asthma, allergies, emphysema, or other forms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in order to avoid heart failure. Chiropractic care can help people protect their lung function while also protecting their heart.

Correcting spinal misalignments, referred to by chiropractors as vertebral subluxations, is an important step toward improving your health and lowering your risk of developing health problems such as cardiovascular disease. Atypical cholesterol metabolism can be caused by abnormal structural and neurological interference caused by vertebral subluxations, which is yet another risk factor for cardiovascular disease and heart attacks.

In addition to the many other benefits of chiropractic care, people who undergo alignment adjustments often notice a reduction in their stress and anxiety levels. Lower blood pressure indicates that your heart is not working as hard to circulate blood throughout your body, preventing the organ from becoming overworked.

It is estimated that, on average, 577 million people experience lower back pain at any given time. Although there is limited understanding of what causes this condition, age, weight, and postural habits play a huge role in spinal health and lower back pain.

Many lower back pain treatments involve medications and other invasive procedures that often come with certain side effects. This is where chiropractic care comes in as a non-invasive and sustainable method to relieve acute and chronic back pain with no absolute side effects. Here is how it works.

Spinal Manipulation

This is one of the core techniques of chiropractic care, which causes a popping or cracking sound, known as joint cavitation. It is done by applying pressure to the spine, hips, and other body parts. Generally, it is the first step in chiropractic therapy, followed by other methods, even when treating lower back pain.

For this method, your chiropractor will turn and press your body to bring the spine back into a healthy alignment. They may do this with tools, bands, or other devices. Spinal manipulation reduces pain and improves the functions of lower back pain with more flexibility. This includes making it easy for you to do simple tasks like walking, standing, and household tasks without significant pain or discomfort.

Spinal Traction

This is another technique to treat lower back pain through a special traction device to gently stretch the neck, spine, and vertebrae. This decompresses the spinal discs and reduces nerve pressure to relieve pain. The effects of the treatment method are almost instant for people with lower back pain.

Normally your lower back handles many movements throughout the day and is the common spot in your body to go through pinched nerves and pulled ligaments. Spinal traction works just fine in opening up your lower back to relieve this constant pressure and pain.

Soft Tissue Therapy

The soft tissues that surround and support your bones, joints, and organs play a major role in your overall spinal health and its effects on the rest of the body, including the lower back. Soft tissue therapy under chiropractic care improves circulation and oxygen supply to these soft tissues. This improvement reduces swelling, inflammation, and tension in areas of the body, like the lower back, which causes pain. Therapeutic massage, deep tissue massage, muscle energy technique, trigger points release acupuncture, and cupping are some methods that your physiotherapist or chiropractor may use for soft tissue therapy.

Movement and Mobilisation

This is another non-invasive and gentle alternative to spinal manipulation that can relieve pain in your lower back. It has almost the same effects as spinal manipulation, but instead of using a quick, firm pressure, spinal mobilisation uses slow and subtle pressure to mobilise the joints and relieve tension.

This method increases the passive range of motions in different joints around the body, especially the spine. It can also improve your blood flow and adapt the nervous system, reducing pain signals and triggers while increasing your pain thresholds (the point at which you become aware of the pain).

Following this procedure, your chiropractor may also guide you through stretches and movement techniques to practise at home to improve the effectiveness of the treatment.