Falls can occur in the workplace as a result of slippery flooring or exposed cables. They may also occur as a result of poor coordination and balance, which increase with age. You can also easily take a spill while exercising or playing team sports.

Regardless of the reason for your fall, it’s become obvious that you now require more than just the RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) therapy, along with over the counter painkillers, that your primary care doctor has recommended. You are still dealing with ongoing pain, stiffness, and tenderness that have lingered for more than a week. Fortunately, chiropractic care can treat soft tissue damage to the musculoskeletal system after injury from a fall onto a hard surface.

How exactly can chiropractic care treat ongoing symptoms from a fall? Below, Dr. Nathen Horst explains how your body is injured from a fall, as well as how chiropractic care can help speed along healing from such injuries.

Injuries from a Fall

The most common injuries from a fall include:

• Fractures
• Muscle sprains
• Muscle strains
• Herniated discs
• Whiplash
• Concussions
• Broken bones

While falls can happen to anybody at any age, they are particularly dangerous for the elderly. According to the Centers for Disease Prevention & Control (CDC):

• One in five falls results in serious injury, most often broken bones or a head injury
• Almost 3 million older people are treated in ERs each year for injuries from falling
• More than 800,000 elderly people are hospitalized each year because of injuries from a fall
• Hip fractures are the most common fall injury among the elderly

How Can Chiropractic Care Help?

Depending upon the severity of the fall, you may only feel a little bit sore or stiff for a day or two after the fall, or may not even feel anything at all. This does not mean that you didn’t suffer any injuries. The truth is that it is highly likely that, depending on the surface upon which you landed, as well as which part of your body hit the ground, you almost certainly suffered some soft tissue damage and may have shifted joints out of alignment.

As a general rule, the harder the surface, the more injury you are likely sustain, due to the fact that a harder surface has less “give.” A fall on carpet, for example, runs less risk of serious injury than a fall on an icy concrete sidewalk. If you fell on your back, you may have shifted your vertebrae out of alignment. Once your joints or vertebrae are out of alignment, they may be placing pressure on or pinching certain nerves, causing your soreness and stiffness.

Dr. Horst can help alleviate these symptoms with a chiropractic adjustment to the joint or area of the back where the nerves are pinched. This adjustment will open up the constricted area, thus releasing pressure on the nerves, relieving any pain, stiffness or soreness. Soft tissue injury, strained or sprained muscles, and ligament or tendon injury can be addressed by a variety of techniques designed to reduce pain and inflammation, as well as break up any scar tissue that may have formed. Such techniques can include massage, stretching, or mobilization.

A fall can happen to anybody, no matter how careful they may be. Even if you don’t think that you suffered an injury, other than to your pride, there may well be soft tissue damage. This is where chiropractic care can really help get you back on your feet.