Hip Pain and Chiropractic Care: What May Help

Hip pain is a common reason people in Sussex and Morris County look for a chiropractor. The short answer: chiropractic care may help some people with hip discomfort, especially when it involves how the hip joint, the muscles around it and the lower back move together.

The hip is a large ball-and-socket joint that carries a lot of your body weight with every step. Discomfort here can come from several places. Sometimes the joint itself is the source. Other times the muscles, tendons or bursae around the hip are strained, or the pain is actually referred from the lower back. That's why a proper evaluation matters: what feels like a hip problem is not always a hip problem.

Research on manual therapy for hip pain is encouraging but modest. A 2016 systematic review in Clinical Rehabilitation found that manual therapy, exercise, or both produced small to moderate reductions in pain and improvements in function for people with hip osteoarthritis. A 2022 review in the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy found that adding manual therapy to exercise added benefit for pain and function in hip or knee osteoarthritis. The effect sizes are real but not dramatic, and results vary from person to person.

Dr. Gregory Martin's approach to hip pain starts the same way his care always does: with listening. He'll ask about your history, when the pain started, what makes it better or worse, and how it affects your daily activities and your movement. Then he examines how your hip, pelvis and lower back actually move, and tells you honestly whether chiropractic care fits or whether another provider would be a better first stop.

If you're active, hip mobility often matters as much as comfort. One small study of young male runners found significantly greater hip extension after a course of chiropractic care than in a control group. That kind of finding is preliminary, but it points to something practical: for active people, improving how the hip moves may help with both comfort and performance.

Chiropractic care is not a guaranteed fix for every hip problem, and it is not right for everyone. Severe joint damage, fractures or certain conditions may need medical or surgical care instead. That's exactly why a proper evaluation comes first.

If hip pain is slowing you down, an evaluation is a reasonable next step. Dr. Gregory Martin has practiced chiropractic since 1996 and sees patients in Sparta, New Jersey. Call or text (973) 699-4100 to schedule an appointment.