Cancer and Chiropractic Care

By Alicia Kovach, DC

Kovach Chiropractic & Wellness Center

. http://kovachchiropractic.com/

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Cancer and Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic care can become an important part of your healing process and can contribute to your wellness. Chiropractors treat and alleviate bone, muscle or joint pain without the use of drugs or surgical treatment. They use a non-invasive, manual procedure to manipulate the joints of the body, particularly the spine.

Chiropractic treatment can relieve pain and stiffness in your joints and muscles caused or intensified by surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy. A chiropractic adjustment helps to properly align the spine and other joints and restore nerve function. It can also help alleviate a variety of symptoms, including back pain, neck pain, headaches, sciatic nerve pain, painful walking, nausea and neuropathy (pain or numbness in the hands and feet).

Chiropractic care can also reduce stress and increase mobility, flexibility, strength and function, as well as help improve quality of life and overall well-being.

The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) recently included the Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) as a focus of the cover story in the August 2013 issue of ACA News.

At CTCA chiropractic physicians work on teams alongside surgeons and oncologists to support cancer patients during their treatment. Its patient-centered approach came from a simple question, “If your mother had cancer, how would you want her to be treated?” CTCA’s founder, Richard J. Stephenson, lost his mother to cancer and wished that her treatment had been more focused on providing comprehensive care in addition to the advanced treatment options she needed.

Chiropractic physicians joined CTCA’s staff 10 years ago (due to patient demand), allowing its hospitals to offer comprehensive, integrated treatment under one roof. If a patient complains about a headache due to a new chemotherapy drug, his or her treatment team might first suggest the patient try a chiropractic adjustment as opposed to going on yet another medication.

CTCA’s model has influenced the way oncologists, surgeons and other clinicians around the country think about treating cancer patients. Whole-person cancer treatment combined with a compassionate, nurturing environment – known as the Mother Standard of Care – provides patients with much needed support during treatment.