• FOUR BAD REASONS NOT TO GO TO A CHIROPRACTOR
• “CRACKING YOUR NECK”
• RESET THE CIRCUIT BREAKER
• THE MOST INCREDIBLE HEALING MACHINE --- YOU!

In all my years in practice I have heard a wide variety of reasons why people choose not to seek chiropractic care. Most of these reasons are based on misinformation, fear, or just plain ignorance. I would like to list four of them here and offer my commentary so as to set the record straight.

1. It might hurt.

This concern is common, primarily amongst those who have never had chiropractic care. However, in most cases the chiropractic spinal adjustment is painless and gentle. Even if a patient comes in severe pain and spasm the adjustment can be delivered effectively without aggravating the painful condition. Occasionally there would be a temporary increase in symptoms due to stretching and adaptation of the muscles, tendons, and ligaments surrounding the spine - not unlike the soreness after a work out. As more adjustments are given the body adapts and residual soreness or pain disappears.

2. It’s not safe.

This fear can also be easily calmed. Research comparing risk of adverse reaction of chiropractic treatments versus the taking of one acetaminophen (Tylenol) every 4 days reveals that chiropractic care is 400 times safer than taking Tylenol.

Now stop and think a moment. Many people take acetaminophen (Tylenol) and ibuprophen (Advil) without any concern yet they balk at the idea of receiving chiropractic care because of safety concerns. The plain reality is chiropractic is much safer and has much less side effects than any medication or surgical treatment. Even our malpractice insurance rates are a small fraction of the rates paid by other medical professionals who utilize much riskier treatments. Chiropractic care can be safely delivered to all ages from newborns to the elderly with excellent results.

3. My back doesn’t hurt.

When I ask someone if they have been or are now under chiropractic care they often state, “No, my back doesn’t hurt.”

The point that is being missed here is that chiropractic care can help many different conditions not just the spine (back) because the adjustment restores normal nerve function that affects every cell, tissue, and organ of the body. For this reason, regular chiropractic care can maintain a higher level of body function, and should not be used to only treat a painful condition - whether it is low back pain, headaches, neck pain, etc.

4. Once you go you always have to come back.

Just because you are under chiropractic care doesn’t mean that you always have to continue going. For instance, once you begin eating a healthy diet and exercising doesn’t mean you can’t stop. Sure you can, but why would you want to? If it’s good for you – keep doing it!

That is smart thinking. The same holds with keeping your spine clear of subluxations - if it’s good for you - why wouldn’t you keep it up. Your body doesn’t get addicted to chiropractic care - it’s just that you feel much better when you get adjusted as needed throughout the year.

“CRACKING YOUR NECK”

One of the common habits that many people engage in is self manipulation or “cracking” of the neck and back. A person who feels muscle tension in the neck or feels pressure and tightness and then either consciously or unconsciously stretches or twists until they feel a release or “pop”. This maneuver sometimes affords them a brief moment of relief or lessening of tension but then their neck or back retightens again and they feel the need to do it again. Many times many of these “self manipulators” perform this motion many times each and every day. Most of these people suffer from headaches, neck, mid and lower back pain, and basically develop this habit in an unsuccessful attempt to reduce their symptoms.

Unfortunately this habit has some significant adverse effects on the body’s spinal joints, ligaments, tendons, and nerves.

First of all, the reason why people perform this type of habit is because their spine is subluxated and is, therefore, out of alignment. These subluxated vertebral joints create the tension and pressure in the spine that compels people to instinctively try to self correct the problem by stretching and twisting their necks. Unfortunately, when they get that “pop” the spine is not being “put back into place” at all. What is really happening is that the true subluxation in the spine remains unchanged but other compensatory, hypermobile vertebrae shift and “pop”.

When a person constantly self adjusts themselves this way they are overstretching their ligaments, which makes the spine unstable and even weaker.

Only a specific, skilled, precise spinal adjustment by a Doctor of Chiropractic can properly realign the spine so that the stress and pressure is eliminated and the patient no longer feels the need to self manipulate the spine.

In fact, practically every patient that exhibits this habit is able to stop it once they undergo a program of chiropractic adjustments. When the subluxation is corrected they no longer feel the need to self manipulate anymore.

If you, your children, or anyone you know is engaging in this damaging activity it is important that a chiropractor is seen immediately as to prevent further damage to the body.

RESET THE CIRCUIT BREAKER

Neck pain, back pain, headaches, leg pain - these are some of the more common symptoms that most people associate with a need for chiropractic care. In fact, chiropractic care is very effective in eliminating these and many other symptoms.

However, the true universal benefit of chiropractic care is to keep the body’s wondrous electrical system flowing in an uninterrupted and balanced fashion. This flow of electricity throughout the nerves is the actual “life force” that keeps us healthy and in optimum condition.

A spinal subluxation is a vertebra that is abnormally aligned and distorting this vital nerve flow thereby adversely affecting our full expression of health and well being. Spinal subluxations occur to just about everyone at some point in their lives from one of three major cases:

My favorite analogy is to compare the spinal vertebrae as “circuit breakers” that get “tripped” when the body is overstressed by one, some, or all of these three causes. When that happens, the nerve flow through the nerves that are associated with the subluxated vertebra will not function normally. Only when you “reset the circuit breaker” (correct the subluxation with chiropractic care) will the nerve flow be restored to normal and then optimum body function returns.

The bad news is that just about everyone has these “tripped circuit breakers” (subluxations) in their spines at some point if not throughout their lives. Sometimes the effects are dramatic and noticeable – like the classic neck, back, leg, headache pain that sends people running or crawling to the chiropractor.

Quite often however, the effects are not so obvious and are more insidious — subtly affecting a person’s mood, energy, and general sense of well being without any obvious neck or back pain. Gradually the body’s resistance to this abnormal nerve function can result in a major problem which can manifest at any time.

The good news is that with regular check ups with a Doctor of Chiropractic these subluxations can be detected and corrected so that any “power failure” in the bio-electrical system is quickly restored.

Why wait until you have a “full power outage” that “shuts you down”? Reset those circuit breakers so that your body runs as close to 100% as possible. This is the true benefit of regular chiropractic care.

THE MOST INCREDIBLE HEALING MACHINE --- YOU!

Did you know that there have been many cases of advanced cancer that have spontaneously healed when medical science predicted them to be hopeless?

Many of these patients were given very little time to live - some just weeks. Treatments ranged from conventional chemotherapy, herbs, vitamins, diet regimens, and in others, just prayer. The one thing that they all had in common was that they overcame the illness that by all odds should have killed them. Also, there are some people who are alive and well even after being infected with AIDS twenty years before. Many other conditions which have been designated as incurable such as multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and other chronic degenerative conditions, have all been beaten by people whose bodies were able to find a way to recover.

What does this mean? Well, the point that I’m making is that the innate wisdom of the human body is capable of performing amazing things to sustain and recover health. Our immune system, if properly working, can even destroy deadly cancer cells and viruses and bacteria which invade the body.

So what does this have to do with chiropractic? Well, in a word - everything! You see, the master controlling center for the immune system, the circulatory system, the digestive system and all of the body’s systems and cells is the brain and the nervous system. Nervous system function is adversely affected by vertebral subluxations (irritated spinal nerves and joints). This loss of proper function could be a key step in the gradual deterioration of the body’s health and resistance.

Chiropractic care locates and corrects these subluxations so that our nervous systems can operate at full efficiency. Whether you have a serious illness or are generally healthy and want to stay that way, it makes sense to incorporate chiropractic care into a health maintenance regimen which includes diet, exercise, and rest.

That’s the best way to insure that the incredible healing machine that is your body is up and running with “all systems go!”