Chiropractic Care for Addressing Ankle Pain
When it comes to your activities of daily living, your ankle plays a more crucial role in being able to complete them successfully than you would think at first. The ankle joint not only supports your body weight but also promotes proper biomechanics with each step you take or when standing. Therefore, when for any reason pain or imbalance appears in the area of the ankle joint, it can have a significant impact on your everyday life. Moreover, it can cause further issues (mostly imbalances) in other areas of your body as well, such as at your knees, hips, and spine. This is why it’s important to seek care as soon as possible when you are experiencing this type of pain or sustain an ankle injury.
If you are looking for long-term recovery, one of the best things you can do is to see a chiropractor. These specialists can help you get relief from ankle pain and restore balance to the ankle and other affected areas of your body. In the following, we will explain in detail why chiropractic care is an excellent potential choice for addressing ankle pain.
Determining the Real Cause of an Imbalance
Maybe you have already heard that it can be difficult to determine the real cause of a health issue, like a biomechanical imbalance. It’s a little bit similar to the “chicken or the egg” causality dilemma.
This is because when you encounter an ankle dysfunction – just like in the case of the chicken and the egg – some questions can come up concerning the problem of origin: Is there another imbalance somewhere in the body (for example, spine misalignment) that initiated the onset of ankle pain? Or is it the ankle dysfunction that causes pain and other issues (for example, knee pain or low back pain) within your body?
Answering these questions can be challenging. Thankfully, chiropractors are experts in the functioning of the neuromusculoskeletal system. Thus, you can be assured that they understand how your body parts are interconnected and they can help pinpoint the root cause of your health issues as well.
Taking the Extra Step for Long-Term Recovery
When dealing with some kind of ankle issue, your priority is probably to get relief from your local symptoms. These symptoms may include pain, instability, inflammation, swelling, and many more. However, once your local symptoms improve, the treatment should not stop at that point. It’s also necessary to address the real underlying problems (such as imbalances within your body) that lead to the onset of your current health issues.
Luckily, chiropractors can detect these underlying issues during a full-body evaluation and design a holistic treatment plan that can help you feel your best in the long term. In fact, this extra step is one of the main reasons why chiropractic care is one of the best treatment options for ankle pain. When seeing a chiropractor, particularly one that is specialized in a research-based effective protocol like Chiropractic BioPhysics (CBP), you may expect fewer flare-ups and complications down the road. Plus, chances are that you can prevent future injuries as well!
What Can Cause Ankle Pain?
Now we have arrived at one of the most important questions regarding ankle pain. What can cause this type of pain? There are numerous potential reasons why you may end up experiencing ankle symptoms. Some of the most common causes that chiropractors can help you with include the following:
- Foot, ankle, or lower leg fracture
- Inflammation or irritation of a tendon
- Arthritis
- Stretching or tearing of ligaments
- Chronic inflammation (most often secondary to poor diet, injury, or illness)
- Biomechanical issues in the area of ankle or foot
While a few of these causes are obvious (such as a fracture due to a high-impact injury), others, especially those that stem from other areas of your body, can only be determined after a thorough full-body evaluation is conducted by a healthcare professional.
How Chiropractors Address Ankle Pain?
Since everyone’s ankle-related symptoms, dysfunctions, and preferences are different, there is no one-size-fits-all treatment for ankle pain. When your chiropractor creates your treatment plan, they will consider all these factors and they will discuss all options with you before getting started with any kind of treatment. To give you an idea of the potential treatment options, here are the most common alternatives:
- Pain management with natural modalities (for example, ultrasound, compression, electrical stimulation, temperature therapy, etc.)
- Soft tissue massage
- Exercise training for improving overall health, restoring muscle balance, and optimizing coordination
- Biomechanical training to help reduce the strain on local joints
- Chiropractic adjustments/manipulation can be applied to the spine and other local joints in order to improve their alignment and promote optimal tissue health
- Education and lifestyle recommendations for enhancing the body’s natural healing capabilities and boosting overall health
Seeking Care from a Trusted CBP Provider
If it’s your first time seeking care from a chiropractor, make sure to find a trusted provider in your area. There are a handful of CBP-certified chiropractors in the U.S. who can help you get back on your feet with non-invasive treatment options.
At Symmetry Health Center, we are all specialized in CBP. Thus, we are properly trained to address your ankle pain or ankle injuries. Give us a call in Oakland or Alameda, CA, to schedule your very first consultation with us!
See more: