Welcome to the chiropractic lifestyle

More and more people are beginning chiropractic care because they want a natural approach to health, avoiding addictive drugs or irreversible surgery. A continuing schedule of regular chiropractic checkups
can help detect, correct, and maintain optimum spinal and nervous system function.

What to expect on your first visit

After setting an appointment and arriving for your first visit, and meeting the friendly staff of our vibrant atmosphere, you will be asked to complete some simple paper work to help the doctor understand the
history of your health. After finishing your paper work, you will then meet the doctor.

Your doctor will review your health history and determine if your problem is likely to be helped with
chiropractic care. If it is, a thorough examination usually follows. Your reflexes may be testes, your ability to turn and bend, and other standard orthopedic, neurological and chiropractic tests will be conducted. If necessary, X-ray view of your spine may be taken.

Your doctor will study the results of these examinations and explain what they mean. If X-rays were taken, you’ll see them and have your questions answered. Then the doctor will recommend a care program based upon how you function not how you feel, and is designed for your unique health problem.

Types of stages of chiropractic care:

There are three types of stages of chiropractic care. How long you decide to benefit from chiropractic care is always up to you. The Three stages are: Initial Intensive Care, Rehabilitative Care, and Wellness Care. Most patients start with initial intensive care.

In the beginning visits may be frequent, and with patients ache or pain reduced, visit frequency is reduced as patients respond to improved spinal function.

Initial Intensive Care Stage:

In this stage, the doctor looks at the “obvious symptoms”, joint instability and nervous system dysfunction, monitors if patient reports some relief, and checks the reducing of inflammation, and soft tissue reconstruction.

Your chiropractic adjustments may be combined with other procedures to help relieve your symptoms. Depending upon your age, condition, and lifestyle, repeated visits over weeks or months may be needed to reduce your symptoms.

Rehabilitative Care Stage:

In this stage, the doctor will check patient’s increased range of motion, and if the patient is feeling better, of the symptom is gone, and for any improved function.

With your ache or pain reduced, the goal or Rehabilitative Care is for more complete healing to occur. Underlying muscle and soft tissue damage can remain, even after you feel better. At this stage, visit
frequency is reduced.

Wellness Care Stage:

In this stage, the doctor focuses on muscle and ligament strengthening, spinal stabilization, and optimum function, by introducing the patients to prevention and maintenance exercises, and help them establish a
pre-complaint status while enjoying optimum health.

Without complete healing, discontinuing care now can set the stage for a relapse. After the recovery of your original problem, regular chiropractic “checkups” can help preserve your progress. You may be urged to supplement your care with exercises, dietary changes, or other self-care procedures.

Safety:

Is chiropractic care safe? Yes! Especially when compared with other forms of treatment. Years of training
and experiences of giving thousands of adjustments make chiropractic care safe.

Many people take aspirin, ibuprofen, muscle relaxers, and other pain relief drugs. Besides covering up symptoms and ignoring the underlying causes, at least 4,000 people will die this year from reactions and overdosing to medically prescribed drugs. Chiropractic care is much safer than drug therapy.

What’s an adjustment?

A chiropractic adjustment is the use of a specific force in a precise direction that helps normalize spinal function. The force is applied to a joint that is fixated, “locked up”, or not moving properly. Adjustments help return the bones to a more normal position or motion, relieving pain and ill health.

Adjustments help normalize spinal function and avoid bone and soft tissue degeneration. When nervous system function improves in this way, the body can begin the natural healing process.

There are hundreds of ways to adjust the spine. Usually the doctor’s hands or a specially designed instrument delivers a brief and highly accurate thrust. Regardless of the technique used, each chiropractic adjustment is tailored to the patient’s age, size, and unique spinal problem.

Extremities:

Many people are surprised to learn that joint pain in the hand, wrist, elbow, shoulder, ankle, or knee can
often be helped by chiropractic care, avoiding braces, drugs, or surgery.

When joint function is impaired, there is reduced range of motion, inflammation, calcium buildup, and scar tissue. This can be caused from repetitive motions, improper sitting, overexertion, slips, falls, accidents,
and other causes.

These problems have become more common with terms like “tennis elbow”, “runner’s knee”, “frozen shoulder”, and “carpal tunnel syndrome”.

Headaches:

Because headaches are so common, some people think that getting a headache is just a normal part of life! Headaches are a sign that something’s wrong. A frequent and overlooked cause of headaches is the malfunction of spinal bones and loss of normal spinal curves in the neck and upper back.

When bones of the spine lose their normal position or motion, sensitive nerves and blood vessels to the head can be affected. When spinal nerves and related tissues are stretched or irritated they can produce throbbing headache.

Aspirin and medications may cover up these warning signs, but do not correct the underlying structural cause. Many people find relief and correction with chiropractic care.

How does stress affect you?

For some, it’s an upset stomach. For others, recurring headaches, back pain, or muscle stiffness. Still
others respond with nervous twitches, allergic reactions, or sensitivities to chemicals. Regardless of your response, the function of your nervous system is involved. That’s why chiropractic can be so helpful.

The chiropractic approach is to help normalize the function of your nervous system by removing interferences caused by the Vertebral Subluxation Complex. Chiropractic adjustments help reduce tension of the nervous system, improving your ability to tolerate and adapt to the stresses of modern life.

What is the “Vertebral subluxation Complex?

The Vertebral Subluxation Complex describes what happens when spinal bones lose their normal position and motion from stress, trauma, or chemical imbalances.

Another words, it is the underlying cause of many health problems. Instead of treating your symptoms, your Doctor of Chiropractic is primarily interested in detecting, reducing, and preventing the Vertebral Subluxation Complex.

What is Scoliosis?

Scoliosis is a sideways curving of the spine that often gets started in childhood, when the bones of the spine are still growing. In many cases, the exact cause of Scoliosis is unknown.

It is thought that Scoliosis is the result of a hereditary problem or an adaptation to some type of trauma, such as the birth process, or an injury, such as falling off a bicycle. It usually starts with problems in the lower back. Scoliosis is detected by uneven shoulder heights, a loss of structural balance, or a change in posture.

Unfortunately, the traditional approaches attempt to correct the problem by surgery which a technique of immobilizing the spine with braces. The chiropractic approach, however, is to use specific spinal adjustments, often combined with corrective exercises. If detected early enough, chiropractic doctors have
had excellent success with Scoliosis cases.