If you have hip pain or you’ve had one or more falls, you just may not feel as though you have the right balance. Or perhaps you don’t have balance concerns, but you know someone with these symptoms. If so, this is something you or they will want to read. I hate being technical, but sometimes you should know the facts. So here they are:
Hip osteoarthritis (hip OA) is a common musculoskeletal problem in older adults. It’s also a frequent cause of disability and results in nearly 200,000 total hip replacements per year in the United States. That’s a lot of surgeries that might have been prevented.
Chiropractic care for hip OA consists of mobilization and muscle stretching, which shows a beneficial effect according to research; a controlled study reported that three weeks of chiropractic care had a positive effect on patient health. In other case reports it was found that adjustments, along with strengthening exercises, offered beneficial results in hip OA patients in a short amount of time depending on the severity. Furthermore, a randomized controlled trial on the conservative treatment of hip OA found that the patients in the manual therapy treatment group (adjustment and mobilization) had better outcomes on pain, stiffness, hip function, and range of motion (ROM) than the patients in the exercise-only therapy program.
Like hip OA, poor balance and falls in older adults are major problems, as seen by the high frequency of falls in those individuals older than 65 years. It’s a shame, because getting older is no fun if you can’t do what you want to do, when you want to do it. It’s a fact that falls are a leading cause of nonfatal injury in older adults and account for two-thirds of all unintentional injury deaths!
You Can Avoid Dangerous Falls!
The cause of falls is a complex issue consisting of many factors, but impairments in balance and gait represent some of the most important modifiable risk factors. Clinical research shows a potential link between pain/dysfunction of the neuromusculoskeletal system and poor postural control/balance and gait. In a recent controlled trial—this is some more of the research I was talking about—improved gait (as measured by walking speed) was seen in hip OA patients after five weeks of the specialized therapy of the sort we do at this office. Improved balance and walking speed can be seen in this special therapy when combined with complementary forms of exercise.
The effect of specialized chiropractic care on people’s poor balance, gait, and chronic pain was shown, and we want to determine the different conditions/patients that might respond to chiropractic care with improved balance and gait.
If you or anyone you know has hip pain, a history of repetitive falls, poor balance, or hip OA, do me a big favor. Send them this post. It’s important that you (or they) do something that can help overcome these problems naturally—before gait, balance, or bodily functions are impaired. If you’re not adjusted regularly there’s a strong chance you’re going to find yourself problems like this. Call today to schedule a checkup and examination with me for osteoarthritis if you have any type of hip pains.
Dr. Scott Cabazolo
(540) 622-6400
112 E 6th Street
Front Royal, VA 22630
naturalresultschiro@yahoo.com