"What is the difference between Chiropractic and physiotherapy or massage therapy?

​Both physiotherapy and massage therapy are wonderful professions. They have been helping people for a long time and in many cases prove successful in dealing with symptoms and aiding in the reparation of the underlying cause. Physio and massage play a large role in the recovery of athletic injuries. 

​Their approach to the body is different than Chiropractic. Massage therapy is primarily concerned with manipulation of your soft tissues such as tendons, connective tissues, muscles, joints and ligaments, and relaxing muscles and relieving stress on the muscular system.  Massage therapists use a variety of hands on techniques that are very effective to relax muscles.  Quite often the results are successful and Physiotherapy primarily works to mobilize the body, strengthen the muscles and relieve pain using a variety of techniques including various machines such as ultrasound and electrotherapy.  When pain and swelling is a result of muscle trauma, the massage and physio methods can increase blood flow and speed up healing.

Chiropractic is unique in that it focuses on optimizing the nervous system, not so much the musculoskeletal system.  Since the nervous system controls every function of the human body it is imperative that the communication network of the body is optimized and working to maintain health. Most pain is a result of a nervous system that is not working at optimum performance and trauma is a leading cause of that disruption.  

pain and healing, chiropractic approach

​The approach of a chiropractor is to not necessarily just focus on an area of pain to provide temporary relief, but rather to focus on the "WHY?" an individual is experiencing symptoms. Where massage and physio may alleviate pain and symptoms quickly, but not necessarily for good, a chiropractor will identify areas of the spine that are out of alignment causing nerve interference.  Once identified, they are corrected using gentle hands on techniques that release the healing messages in the body's nervous system. The combination may be the perfect complement to pain relief and healing. 

To be clear, what is amazing about the chiropractic adjustment is that it often brings rapid relief without actually manipulating the specific area with laser, sound or hands on while allowing the body to heal and repair itself faster.
 
Each profession offers benefit to the patient, but the approaches are not the same.   Many of our patients will utilize massage therapy or physiotherapy in lock step with their chiropractic adjustments.  Utilizing techniques that support the adjustment can help people to hold their alignment longer which encourages health and healing where necessary.
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At Scott Family Chiropractic we have two of the finest massage therapists you will ever find.  They each offer their approach that can benefit the body as it heals and repairs."