Common Adverse Responses to Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic care is a holistic approach to treating neuromusculoskeletal pain and dysfunction. It is proven to be one of the safest and most effective forms of treatment for low back and neck pain.

With every chiropractic visit, the doctors intentions are never to cause harm or worsen patient symptoms. Unfortunately like every profession, there is always the risk of an adverse response. Patients who do experience adverse responses to chiropractic care most frequently describe having mild to moderate joint and/or muscle aches and pains. Other potential adverse responses include headaches, costochondritis, increase in soreness and continued pain.

Increase in soreness

Following a patients first treatment it is common to experience mild body aches and soreness, often described as being similar to “feeling sore from a workout.” Chiropractic adjustments are used to improve joint motion and decrease pain. With the increase in joint movement, comes an increase in muscle responsibility, which in turn results in soreness. This is usually temporary, and should be gone within approximately 24 hours and usually only happens after the first visit.

Headaches
Chiropractic care is proven to improve cervical mobility as well as decrease muscle tension. On rare occasion patients can get what is called a “rebound headache,” This is when the cervical spine muscles tighten in the response to a chiropractic adjustment. This can result in a headache and continued neck pain which usually resolves within 24 hours of treatment.

Sore ribs

Ribs attach onto the thoracic vertebrae, when chiropractors treat these areas it is possible for ribs to become aggravated and sore. Rib subluxations are a very common complaint of patients. when these subluxations are corrected, the muscles surrounding the rib will decrease in tension over time. Therefore, it is not uncommon to still have muscle discomfort for a short amount of time following a rib adjustment.

Costochondritis
Ribs, just like any joint in the body can lose mobility, become inflamed and become painful. Chiropractors are trained in palpating and finding immobile problematic ribs and often have great success in treating rib pain. On very rare occasions chiropractic care can result in fractured ribs or costochondritis. Costochondritis is inflammation of the cartilage that supports the ribs. It is a very slow healer, usually 6-8 weeks from the onset due to the lack of blood flow to the ribs. Applying ice and performing gentle range of motion exercises is encouraged.

Continued pain

Chiropractors have extremely high success rates for decreasing the average patients pain. Every now and then, the patients pain does not dissipate and can continue on. This is often the time when the physician will dive deeper into the patients health history evaluating other factors such as diet, sleep, daily stressors or predisposed beliefs that treatment shouldn't work. 

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