Benefits of Chiropractic Care for Patients with Mesothelioma

The benefits of chiropractic care for patients with mesothelioma include pain management, stress relief, improved mobility, and more. Talk to your medical team about using chiropractic care to supplement standard medical treatments for mesothelioma.

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What Is Chiropractic Care?

Chiropractors are trained and licensed practitioners of a type of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) dedicated to working with the musculoskeletal system of the body. This means that chiropractors examine, diagnose, and treat patients, often in conjunction with a traditional physician.

Chiropractors treat symptoms and conditions by applying controlled forces to the body, most often to the spine. This kind of physical manipulation can improve the mobility of joints and realign the spine, resulting in less pain and greater mobility.

Chiropractors treat symptoms and conditions without the use of drugs or surgery. Chiropractic care cannot treat everything, but it can be a valuable and beneficial supplement to traditional medicine.

Chiropractic Care for Mesothelioma Patients

Mesothelioma should be treated with traditional medicine. However, patients often get more relief from symptoms when they include a variety of specialists in their medical teams. There is plenty of evidence that certain CAM practitioners can help improve symptoms for mesothelioma patients.

If you have mesothelioma and are interested in chiropractic care, talk to your doctor and medical team about it beforehand. Your oncologist may even have a chiropractor to recommend.

While chiropractic care can help you and bring additional relief, there are limitations and risks too. You need to be sure you can withstand the physical manipulations a chiropractor will use and that your practitioner will understand your limitations and unique needs as a cancer patient.

If you take all of these things into consideration, you could receive many benefits of chiropractic care.

Chiropractic Care Reduces Pain

Pain is the number one reason that people visit chiropractors for care. It is well documented in research that chiropractic manipulation can reduce pain, especially back pain, neck pain, and headaches.

Mesothelioma patients experience pain, sometimes from cancer itself, such as when tumors push against the spine, and sometimes from the treatments.

Chiropractors may not be able to eliminate pain for these patients, but they are likely to reduce it.

Increase Mobility

A serious consequence of chronic pain is limited mobility. For a patient with mesothelioma, being in pain can seriously limit mobility, which in turn limits activity.

When chiropractic care can make a dent in that chronic and sometimes debilitating pain, it means that patients can move more, be more active, and do at least some of the things they used to do before getting sick.

Limit Pain Medications

In one study of cancer patients treated by chiropractors, researchers found that the patients reduced the narcotic painkillers they took thanks to chiropractic care.

These prescription painkillers cause their own side effects and can also be habit-forming Chiropractic care, by reducing pain, can also reduce the need for these drugs. 

Anxiety and Stress Reduction

Chiropractic care has also been proven to reduce negative emotions. Being in pain and being immobile can contribute to anxiety, stress, and depression.

By relieving that pain and helping mesothelioma patients to regain some mobility, chiropractors can help them reduce stress, anxiety, and depression and elevate mood.

Fight Nausea and Indigestion

Mesothelioma and its treatments, like chemotherapy, can cause a range of symptoms and side effects. These may include digestive tract symptoms, like indigestion, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Studies show that chiropractic manipulations impact the nervous system and that this, in turn, can have a therapeutic effect on the digestive system, reducing symptoms like nausea and indigestion.

Better Nutrition

Nutrition is often a concern for mesothelioma patients for several reasons. Symptoms like nausea and vomiting make eating difficult. Chemotherapy reduces appetite, and certain medications can reduce the absorption of nutrients from food.

Most chiropractors have received nutrition training and take a holistic approach to treating patients. They can counsel mesothelioma patients about nutrition and what to eat for maximum benefits. 

Better Quality of Life

With mesothelioma, there is no cure. Patients are living with limited time. The most important thing that CAM can do for a patient is improve the time a patient has left. The many benefits of chiropractic care combine to provide cancer patients with a better quality of life than they would otherwise have.

These patients can live a better life with less pain, less stress, better sleep, better nutrition, and greater mobility that allows them to be more active and enjoy life more.

Chiropractic Care and Massage

Chiropractors approach patient care from a holistic perspective, which means embracing other care types, including massage. Chiropractors often work together with massage therapists to help patients feel better.

As with chiropractic care, massage therapy has been proven to help cancer patients find relief from pain and immobility and enjoy a better quality of life.

If a chiropractor is limited in treating a patient, they may turn to a massage therapist to help the patient.

Chiropractic Care as Part of Medical Care

Many physicians consider chiropractic care legitimate health care. If you think chiropractic care could help you feel better, talk to your physician about it. Most insurance plans cover chiropractic care since it’s recognized as medical care.

From pain relief to better nutrition and reduced stress, this type of care can improve quality of life. Be sure to talk to your medical team before beginning treatment and take their recommendations for a trained professional experienced in working with patients being treated for cancer.

Chiropractic care is not a substitute for traditional care, but it is a supplement that can provide many benefits.