Not Sure What to Do About Your Hip Pain? Chiropractic Care Could Be the Answer to Your Problem
Gritting your teeth and ignoring the pain aren't the only options available when your hip aches. If hip pain has begun to affect your life, it's time to consider chiropractic care. Your chiropractor offers several treatments designed to improve hip function and reduce aches, pain, and muscle spasms.
What Causes Hip Pain?
Although falls are one cause of hip pain, several other issues can trigger pain as well. Exercise may stress or strain hip flexor muscles and soft tissues, as can a change in your gait or posture. If you've recently taken up running or another sport, you may be more likely to experience muscle spasms or tight, sore muscles around your hips. Thirty to forty percent of adults who play sports have chronic hip pain, according to UpToDate.
Age can be another factor in hip pain, even if you've never fallen. UpToDate estimates that 12 to 15% of adults over 60 experience hip pain.
The type of work you do could be to blame for your pain. British researchers discovered that people who sat or stood for prolonged periods, walked long distances over rough ground, lifted or moved heavy weights, or jumped were more likely to experience hip pain.
In some cases, hip pain occurs due to an issue with the arches in your feet. Your arches support your weight and help keep your ankles, knees, hips, and back properly aligned. If your feet turn too far in or are flat, or you wear shoes that don't support your feet adequately, the alignment of your legs, hips, and back can be affected.
A spinal misalignment, or subluxation, could also be to blame for your hip issues. Subluxations affect the vertebrae, the small bones that make up your spine. Spinal discs between the vertebrae give the spine its flexibility and allow you to bend, twist, and move easily.
Sometimes the vertebrae become misaligned, causing pain that can extend from your back to your hips and pelvis. Subluxations may also affect the ball-and-socket hip joint, causing pain every time you walk or move your hips.
Other causes of hip pain include:
- Osteoarthritis
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Bursitis
- Sciatica
- Tendinitis
- Overuse Injuries
- Stress Fractures
- Weak Core Muscles
- Inguinal Hernias
- Iliotibial Band Syndrome
- Fibromyalgia
Using Manipulation to Treat Hip Pain
Chiropractors treat the source of pain rather than focusing primarily on symptoms. After a thorough examination that may involve X-rays or other tests, your doctor prepares a treatment plan. The specifics of your plan will depend on the cause and severity of your pain but may include spinal or joint manipulation.
If your hip pain is due to a subluxation in your spine, your chiropractor might recommend spinal manipulation. Using quick thrusts, he or she relieves pain by moving misaligned vertebrae back into their normal position. Manipulation can also be used to realign your hip joints. Joint manipulation relieves pressure and pain on surrounding muscles and tissues while reducing inflammation and irritation, improving blood flow, and restoring normal range of motion.
Dulling Pain with Hot and Cold Therapy
Both heat and cold offer natural pain-relieving properties. Cold packs reduce inflammation and dull pain, while heat soothes sore, tight muscles, taking the edge off pain. These therapies may be used before and after your chiropractic treatment.
Improving Foot Alignment with Orthotics
If your chiropractor determines that an issue with the arches in your feet causes or contributes to your hip pain, orthotics may be recommended. The custom-designed shoe inserts support your feet and keep your legs, hips, and back properly aligned.
Soothing Tight Tissues with Massage Therapy
Massage loosens and relaxes tight muscles and tissues and reduces muscle spasms and stiffness. This therapy, like many other treatments your chiropractor provides, prompts the body to produce natural pain-killing hormones.
Other Therapies
Your treatment plan may also include ultrasound, trigger point, or electrical stimulation therapies. Ultrasound relaxes tight muscles and tissues, boosts blood flow, and improves pain. Trigger point therapy breaks up knots that can cause hip pain, while electric stimulation prevents pain signals from reaching the brain.
Do you suffer from frequent hip pain? Contact our office to schedule an appointment with the chiropractor to discuss treatment options.
Sources:
UpToDate: Approach to the Adult with Unspecified Hip Pain, 6/14/2023
https://www.uptodate.com/contents/approach-to-the-adult-with-unspecified-hip-pain
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases: Hip Pain Onset in Relation to Cumulative Workplace and Leisure Time Mechanical Load: A Population- Based Case-Control Study, 4/1/2003
https://ard.bmj.com/content/62/4/322
WebMD: Hip Pain: Causes and Treatment, 3/8/2022
https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/hip-pain-causes-and-treatment
Prevention: How a Chiropractor Can Help Relieve Your Nagging Hip Pain, 11/14/2020
https://www.prevention.com/health/a34285910/chiropractor-for-hip-pain/