Chiropractic care is very prominent in the world of competitive athletics with athletes looking to prevent injury, heal injury or just trying to achieve their top performance. As athlete, figure skater, Ashley Wagner opens up for ESPN’s body issue, she reveals her personal experience with chiropractic care.
“I have suffered about five concussions. Back in 2009 I received a concussion from a really bad fall in which I fell onto my back and my neck snapped and my head hit the ice. My body started to shut down on me entirely. It was bad enough that I would suffer from full-on body tremors, I could barely walk, I couldn’t even speak through them. I would have heart palpitations. That was the most traumatizing thing that my body has ever had to go through. And it was coming up on Olympic trials — that moment when you don’t know if your season is going to be possible is terrifying. My body was literally doing everything it could to work against me. I just felt trapped in my body. I was experiencing these symptoms for probably 3 months, and for 3 months no one could tell me what was wrong and I was getting no relief. I was worried that this was a lifestyle that I was just going to have to adjust to.
I went to a neurologist, I went to a cardiologist, I went to just about any -ologist you can come up with. Finally I came across a chiropractor, and he suggested I take a look at my neck. What ended up happening was the vertebra in my neck was actually pressing into my spinal cord. The vertebra would become dislodged, press into my spinal cord and literally cause my entire body, including my heart, to short-circuit. I had to go through a couple months of really painful adjustments, so that way I could get my neck strong enough to be able to help pull the vertebra back into the place [it] needed to be in.”
The body is truly an amazing thing and innately wants to heal itself. Chiropractic care is based on these principles and works to rid of interference that may be preventing your body from its natural healing state. The interference is called subluxation, usually the result of some form of physical or emotional stress. When you have a subluxation, you have breakdown in communication in the nervous system which controls the functions of your major organs. Good communication is a matter of health.
Usually when people start coming to see me, they are in a lot of pain. Chronic pain usually occurs after ignoring other body signals that are telling us we have an interference, which may include – indigestion, small pains, headaches, upset stomach, skin breakouts, abnormal tingling, nausea, just to name a few. With practice and increased awareness, we learn to listen to our bodies so we can be well.
How and what is your body communicating?