Painkillers: will they support my treatment?

Suffering from pain is difficult. It’s quite natural to want to remove discomfort quickly. This often leads our patients to ask about painkillers. Let’s answer from a chiropractic perspective.

As chiropractors, we believe that your body has an innate ability to heal. You are, in fact, your own incredible healer. When healing is obstructed, the right interventions can unlock this ability, however we believe medications can interfere with this process. To understand this we first need to look at how pain works.

Your body has pain receptors or nerve endings which are designed to feel sensations in different areas – such as your skin and internal organs. Eventually, all nerves make their way to your spinal cord and then to your brain. Basically, different areas in your brain process and interpret the signals from the nerve fibres to work out the cause and location of the pain, identify any risks of further damage and how much pain you feel.

You could say that when you are injured or uncomfortable, it doesn’t actually hurt – it’s your brain making you think 
it hurts. It’s your body’s way of saying, “Hey, there’s a problem here... stop!” It’s meant to urge you to keep the affected area safe so it can heal.

Painkilling medication, by definition, aims to block these signals. When you don’t get the “help” signal, it’s easier to push yourself. You might falsely believe that you’re better because you don’t notice discomfort and this may lead to further damage. It’s also important that you are able to describe your pain to help identify the cause.

Chiropractic care is non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical, and is based on the diagnosis and treatment of dysfunction. Or dis- ease. Adjustments may restore motion to the joints of your spine, pelvis, and extremities, and may help with pain.
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Pain doesn’t have to rule your life. Non-drug therapy − like chiropractic − is the first option we recommend you consider for both effectiveness and safety. The goal is to live your life to the fullest, where you’re in control of the pain and it doesn’t control you!