While it’s a common occurrence, it’s imperative that you come to the chiropractor to make sure it doesn’t get worse (or that the pain or discomfort you’re living with) can be managed and helped. Get beyond your embarrassment (we’ve all been there) and seek chiropractic care.

How Chiropractic Helps with Falls

How can chiropractic help with falls? Chiropractic is the best kind of provider to seek because injuries sustained from a fall are typically part of the musculoskeletal system—that’s exactly what chiropractors are focused on.
When you come to the chiropractor you can expect the following from your care:

• Full exam: We’ll check for your alignment and go through your full medical history to determine if there are any recurring problem areas and which spots hurt the most and need immediate attention
• Treatment Plan: We’ll collaborate to come up with a plan that will work for you so you can feel your best as soon as possible
• Pain management and relief (for neck and back pain—the most commonly injured areas): While your body is healing, we want you to have minimized pain. We do this through therapeutic massage and gentle exercise recommendations.
• Realignment, if possible or referral to specialists, as needed: When we’re certain we will not worsen any injury, we’ll help gently adjust your spine and the rest of your body with our Arthrostim.
• Regular check-ins: After you’re feeling better, we’ll want to see you every once in a while to make sure there aren’t lasting effects from your original injury (and to prevent re-injury).

In addition to the above, you may also experience a sort of reignited enjoyment of life, thanks to less pain and better alignment, allowing your body to feel its best. Read on for a few of the most common types of injuries associated with falling accidents, and how to best prevent them in the future.

Common Injuries from Falling

When you fall, you’re not thinking about what’s going to hurt the most when you try to get back up—you’re most likely just trying to prevent your face from hitting the ground. So, you land on your bottom (a pratfall) or you put your hands out to break your fall. While you may have successfully saved your face from a “road rash,” now you may have other injuries to deal with, such as tailbone (coccyx pain) or severe back pain from a herniated disc. If you tried to break your fall, you may have sprained one or both of your wrists. If you tripped and landed on your ankle the wrong way, you may have sprained that, too. Keep an eye out for muscle spasms as well, for those can occur after traumatic impact on certain joints. Chiropractic care can address the associated pain and create a treatment plan with the goal to get all of your joints feeling normal again.

Preventing backward falls

Backward falls can do serious damage to your spine, your tailbone, and even your head and neck area. It’s best to use common sense and find ways to prevent these types of backward falls by:

• Wearing indoor slippers (with soles) inside for walking on hardwood or linoleum floors
• Using a handrail when going down any stairs
• Walking with care outdoors in wet conditions (rainy or snowy weather)
• Activating your core and leg muscles when walking to stay stable
• Considering getting snow cleats to walk in if you walk on regularly icy or snowy paths in the winter

Preventing forward falls

Tripping and falling forward happens with nearly everyone, regardless of how “graceful” we may feel. When hiking, it’s particularly normal to trip over a tree root or misjudge the step and tweak your ankle, falling forward. To help prevent forward falls, be sure to:

• Lift your knees
• Don’t drag your feet while walking
• Avoid looking down at your phone when en route by foot
• Be aware of your surroundings and mindful of where you are standing

As much as it might help prevent injuries, walking around highly cautious and overly anxious just isn’t the best way to live your life. Take the above precautions to help prevent slips and falls, and in the event that you do have an injury due to falling, be sure to call us at Shephard Chiropractic Clinic in Portland. We can help you back on the road to recovery after your slip and fall (and back to your regular, daily activities)!