How Chiropractors Can Help Elderly After a Fall
One in four Americans over the age of sixty-five will fall each year. Every eleven seconds, a senior patient enters the emergency room due to a fall, and every nineteen seconds, an older patient dies from a fall. There’s a vital need to help elderly after a fall, but also to prevent them in the first place. Chiropractic care might be the solution for some patients.
Chiropractic Care to Prevent Injury and Help Elderly After a Fall
While there are many ways chiropractic care can benefit and help elderly after a fall, it can also be a valuable preventative health tool. Regular spinal manipulation therapy and chiropractic care can provide relief for chronic pain, but it also provides a host of other benefits, including:
- Improved mobility and range of motion
- Better balance and coordination
- Decreased degeneration of joints
- Better quality of life
- Lowered falling risk
By reducing the risk of falls, chiropractic care does have the potential to help older Americans stay out of nursing homes and retain their independence. Spinal degeneration due to age is associated with coordination and balance problems, and mechanoreceptors can become impaired due to spinal subluxations. These mechanoreceptors are located in the posterior joints of the cervical spine, tasked with providing balance and coordination information to the brain. Chiropractic care targets subluxation to reduce mechanoreceptor impairment, which can be incredibly useful as a preventative treatment.
After a fall occurs, treatment is of vital importance. A serious fall is often the triggering event for a cascade of related problems that eventually lead to the need for assisted living or nursing facilities.
In many cases, chiropractic treatment can offer substantial help to the elderly after a fall. Because chiropractic therapy is a non-invasive approach centered around the avoidance of prescription pain medication, chiropractic care doesn’t involve pills or surgical procedures. Injuries to the musculoskeletal system can be debilitating and painful, but they can also be treated with quality chiropractic care.
A treatment plan with realistic goals can mean pain relief without the risk of more medication and related side effects; a better quality of life and a chance at retaining independence despite a serious fall. In addition to treating any existing traumatic injuries related to a fall, chiropractic care can help to prevent future incidents.
Benefits of Chiropractic Care for Older Patients
Safe, effective, non-invasive and free of prescription medications, chiropractic care offers a conservative course of treatment and prevention for older patients that won’t interfere with treatments for other conditions or introduce a medication interaction risk. From acute care for traumatic injuries in the aftermath of a fall to decreasing the risk of falling incidents, there’s no denying the value and efficacy of spinal manipulation for the treatment of pain, loss of mobility, limited range of motion and acute care.
It’s not the fountain of youth, but chiropractic care does have the potential to help the elderly retain independence and avoid serious injuries. It can also provide necessary relief and treatment after a falling event, making it a valuable treatment option for many patients.
