Extremity Care

Did you know that Chiropractors can also adjust your feet, ankles, hips, hands, wrists, shoulders and even your jaw? It’s called extremity adjusting.

The definition of adjusting an extremity is to instill motion within that joint. Joints are the places where your bones meet, such as the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles. Within your joints, misalignment of the bones, soft-tissue restrictions, nerve impingement and inflammation can all cause pain, weakness, and numbness or tingling which can interfere with proper functioning and range of motion. Extremity adjusting is the technique of manipulating the joint of an extremity to restore the proper function and range of motion within the joint. If you’ve ever had your shoulder or wrist freeze up on you, you can imagine just how important these types of adjustments can be. If left untreated, the extremity pain can cause the body to overcompensate, resulting in more severe pain.

At times neck or back pain can be caused by an extremity. The most common example of this is with lower back pain. Believe it or not, it can actually be coming from your feet! Not having adequate arch support can cause the arch in your foot to drop and as your feet fall to the floor, causing the bones in your legs to rotate inward and put pressure on your hips and lower back.

Another example is having mid back, upper back or neck pain that is being caused by shoulder dysfunction. A shoulder dysfunction may occur from a simple fall on an outstretched arm, a direct blow to the shoulder, or abnormal twisting or bending. When joints begin to lose motion, they eventually start to break down over time. More often than not, shoulder dysfunction will present itself as spinal pain.