Pain Relief for Joint Disorders

When answers are as limited as funds, it's understandable that medical assistance may not seem like an option. If you're a military veteran, there may be a few options that can help with not only your immediate pain, but also your continued health and financial security if the problem could have been caused by military service. Take a look at the Department of Veterans Affairs' helping opportunities in certain situations and how a chiropractor can fit into your road to recovery in more ways than one.

Think About How Your Pain Could Have Started

The military is full of situations that lead to wear and tear more than the average lifestyle. Heavy duty jobs such as construction, mechanical work or sports jobs have the same issue, but the military is a large organization that brings all walks of life to the challenge of defending the nation. At some point between the beginning of boot camp to taking off your official uniform for the last time, you could have encountered many situations that your body wasn't ready for.

Don't discount working through a desk job or a no-combat job within the military. Physical readiness tests, expeditionary trips and other excursions can still affect service members, especially if they're not used to the situation. You don't need to go into depth about your job code or your opinion of duty; the only thing that matters is that your body could have undergone joint and muscle damage.

Field service veterans of all kinds can almost guarantee some muscle and joint pain. Military uniforms are designed to protect veterans from life-threatening situations and to keep them going under extreme conditions, but those drastic protections are lacking in other ways. Boots are great for treading rough or dangerous terrain, but your feet, ankles and posture in general could have been affected after years of crossing fields, climbing, crawling and running.

Combat veterans have a different issue when it comes to focusing on certain chiropractic issues. If you've dealt with a lot of trauma during your time in service, you may simply have too many other issues to think about to the point of forgetting about your body.

For every type of veteran, take a few days to slow down and really think about the pain, discomfort and mobility issues that you may have been fighting through for the sake of the mission. You wouldn't want your body to fail when you least expect it.

How Can A Chiropractor And The VA Help?

The previous section should have opened up a few ideas for how the military is related to your current condition. This is important because Veterans Affairs (VA) officials are ready to help you with recovery.

Recovery ranges from basic medical coverage for all veterans who have an other-than-dishonorable discharge to veterans with service-connected disabilities. At the very least, you could get a cursory examination and some medication. Ideally, you could get some percentage of disability for your condition and medical assistance for the rest of your life.

In the middle of those two options are various forms of assistance. If your pain is severe enough and you can get proof of a problem from a chiropractor, you could ask for continued non-VA chiropractic referrals. That same proof may be necessary in order to file a successful VA claim. Success means proving that you're both suffering from a problem and that problem can be linked to the VA.

Contact a chiropractor to begin discussing aches, pains, mobility issues and ways to continue a treatment deal funded by the VA.