Your hips aren’t just for bearing strong babies or busting moves when it’s time to hit the dance floor. They’re complex joints— the largest in your body— that play a very important role in ensuring your body’s mobility and optimum postural stability while standing, stepping, lifting, and running. Plus, they provide support to your spine and other body organs.

As such, when your hips aren’t functioning properly or when they hurt, that can impact both your overall physical health and quality of life. Thankfully, regular visits to a chiropractor can provide you with relief from hip pain. Read on and you’ll learn what chiropractic care is all about and how it can help you treat your hip pain. But first…

Why Do Your Hips Hurt?

Recent research shows that hip pain affects approximately 10 percent of the general population, and tends to increase with age. Common causes often include:

• Inflammation. When the space around your hip joint becomes inflamed, as a result of illness, overuse, or injury, it can cause hip pain. Inflammation in the small, fluid-filled sacs outside your hips— also known as bursitis— can also be a source of pain.
• Osteoarthritis. The protective cartilage covering your hip joint bone can break down over time, causing pain when your joint bones rub together. This is common among older adults.
• Trauma. Fractures and dislocations of your pelvis or hip following an accident or traumatic incident can be a source of chronic hip pain.
• Injury. Mild to moderate injuries to the hip are common among active people and athletes. While there are cases where such injuries heal on their own with rest, it’s important to seek medical evaluation when they persist for a couple of days without improving.
• Pregnancy. Hip pain during pregnancy is a common symptom that expectant women experience, especially in the second and third trimesters as you and your baby gain weight. Plus, transient osteoporosis has been shown to cause hip pain during this time. Additionally, the hormone relaxin is responsible for pelvic discomfort and hip pain during pregnancy. 

What is Chiropractic Care and How can a Chiropractor Help with Hip Pain?

Chiropractic care is a type of alternative medicine that focuses on the use of various techniques, including electrotherapy, manual adjustments, and soft tissue or joint manipulation, to achieve alignment in the body. It’s often used for alleviating and treating musculoskeletal and nervous system disorders.

Whatever the cause of your hip pain, chiropractic care is a safe and effective way to get relief from the pain and improve your mobility. When you visit a chiropractor for hip pain, they’ll take the time to conduct a physical examination and find out more about your familial and personal history before determining the source of your hip pain. They’ll then create a personalized treatment plan to lessen the pain and increase mobility. Some of the chiropractic treatments include:

• Chiropractic Adjustments
• Soft-Tissue Therapy
• Electrotherapy
• Exercises Therapy
• Cold Laser Therapy
• Posture advice
• Stretching
• Referrals to Integrative Medicine Experts

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