Chiropractic or Physical Therapy?
The question of whether or not to go to a physical therapist or a chiropractor comes up more often than you might think. Both healthcare professions aid in the body’s ability to recover from injury and help with the maintenance of normal bodily function in the long term, but what makes them different and which one should you go to?
Physical therapy is defined by the oxford dictionary as: the treatment of disease, injury, or deformity by physical methods such as massage, heat treatment, and exercise rather than by drugs or surgery.
Chiropractic is defined as: a form of complementary medicine based on the diagnosis and manipulative treatment of misalignments of the joints, especially those of the spinal column, which are believed to cause other disorders by affecting the nerves, muscles, and organs.
Reading that definition, it sounds like the two professions are pretty in line with each other, and they really are! Physical therapy has a primary focus in muscular rehabilitation through strengthening, stretching, and manual manipulation of the muscular system. Chiropractic has a primary focus on the nervous system through working with the alignment of the spinal vertebrae that protect the spinal cord and nerves that exit between the vertebra. Both professions will occasionally use modalities like heat, cold, ultrasound therapy, or other instruments to aid in accomplishing their primary goals.
The question of which one should I go to, really is not an either/or thing because if the main goal is to help our body recover from injury and maintain its bodily functions, you should go to both! The muscular system attaches to the bones and is controlled by our nerves, so if there is a problem with one system, it is going to create a problem with the other system. For the best results you cannot treat one without also addressing the other.