These are not the only thing that are important to having a healthy treatment process, however, these are a few of the things we are going to touch on at the moment.
As we’ve chatted about before osteopathic treatment has a goal of getting you to be as healthy as possible. Obviously, treatment itself can only help you get as healthy as you can be with what you are currently working with. So here are a few things you can focus on to improve other aspects of life.
As movement is reintroduced to different areas of the body there is a chance that there is some discomfort, there is also a chance that the body reverts back to its previous condition. Part of this is because the body has other layers of lesion or compensation that must also be taken care of. However, another component to consider is the nervous system and its understanding of what its capable of.,
To elaborate on this, the body thinks it can move in certain ranges that are adapted over time, meaning there was a period of time in which your body lost its ranges and the nervous system has adapted to these limitations and often wants to revert when these ranges are changed. One thing we can do to limit this and improve the changes is making sure we have regular movement. This doesn’t mean we are in the gym lifting heavy weights. It means we need to move daily, move the joints in question, go for a walk, do some hip swings, some arm circles whatever we need to do to keep those ranges moving and help train the body in its new found ranges.
Outside of this movement capacity breathing is extremely important in all things health, from the mechanical movement of your ribs, leading to changes in pressure which helps drive the lymphatic systems, the vascular system, and the digestive system. In this case, there are many things that can go wrong with breathing, and it’s important to have it assessed, and work on it via treatment, and at home work to develop better patterns. With lack of breathing you can see a decrease in healing, performance, movement, energy, digestion, and just about any other function that requires oxygen, or waste product removal.
Lastly, it would be ideal for each patient to develop some stress management strategies. There is no one correct or perfect way to do this and it may be different for every person. Things can range from reading a book, walking your dog, a hug to many others. The important part is that if your stress levels are higher than they should be, it is a good idea to implement a few strategies.
If you take on these 3 components along with treatment your body will heal faster and adapt to the changes more efficiently. If you have questions about your specific case please ask your practitioner.
