Kyphosis is the forward curvature or “hunch” of the upper spine that sometimes occurs in older adults. Your chiropractor may use a type of spinal manipulation—also called a spinal adjustment—to improve joint motion. Spinal manipulation is an active, hands-on treatment, and there are multiple variations of this technique.

Specific spinal manipulation helps your chiropractor identify restricted joints or those that show abnormal motion. Using a gentle thrusting technique, he or she can rapidly stretch soft tissue and stimulate the nervous system to return normal motion to the spine.

Flexion-distraction technique is a gentle, non-thrusting spinal manipulation that is used for people with kyphosis that is associated with degenerative disc disease and/or motion restrictions in the thoracic spine (mid-back).

Instrument-assisted manipulation is another non-thrusting spinal manipulation. Your chiropractor uses a hand-held instrument to apply force without thrusting into the spine.

Manual therapy treatments are also sometimes used to treat injured ligaments and/or muscles.

Trigger point therapy helps the chiropractor identify specific tight, painful points on a muscle. He or she places direct pressure on these points to relieve tension.

Manual joint stretching and resistance techniques can help reduce kyphosis symptoms. Muscle energy therapy—an osteopathic technique—is an example of this type of therapy.

Instrument-assisted soft tissue therapy can help treat any injured tissues. Your chiropractor may use Graston technique—an instrument-assisted therapy—in which he or she performs gentle repeated strokes of the instrument over the muscle injury.

Regardless of the technique, if we don’t work at maintaining our posture, gravity alone is enough to alter it significantly as we get older.

Presented as a service to the community by: Union County Chiropractic Clinic, 110 Skyline Drive, Maynardville, TN (865) 992-7000 www.unioncountychiropractic.com