When I meet someone new, it’s not uncommon that when they find out I am a chiropractor, they make one of two statements. The first one is usually, “Boy I could sure use you! My back is killing me.” The second one is, “I sure hope I never have to see you. My back has never given me a problem.”
These two statements tell me that most people really don’t fully understand chiropractic care. I think that most people think of chiropractors as back doctors, and for good reason. Chiropractors absolutely help people dealing with back pain — I see it every day! Just this morning, I saw a young man for the second time. He had hurt his back this past summer. On his trip to Europe, he was carrying a heavy suitcase. After that trip, his back got progressively worse to the point he had stopped doing any activity as it irritated his back. This was super frustrating to him as he loved working out. The first time I saw him, he could barely bend over. This morning when I saw him he was doing significantly better — and that was after only one visit! He had been able to work out with very few problems.
Yes, chiropractic care can help with back pain, but I would not call chiropractors “back doctors.” Rather, I would call chiropractors “nerve doctors.” The young man I referenced above had nerves that were not working properly. All I did was get them working properly. The big question is, now that he is feeling better, does he need to see me anymore?
“Chiropractors Make You Keep Coming”
I think most people have heard the comment that says once you go to a chiropractor, you have to go for the rest of your life. Or, people have told them not to go to the chiropractor because they will just make you keep going. Again, these statements tell me that most people do not understand chiropractic care. More than likely you won’t hear too many people say that about a dentist. I think we all expect that as long as I have teeth, and even if I lose them all, I will go to the dentist for the rest of my life. The reason being, dentists have taught people that if you see them regularly, you can avoid major dental problems.
The same is true for chiropractic. I encourage all my patients to come in regularly even if you don’t feel like there is a problem. There are a few reasons why I encourage people to continue to come in regularly.
Chiropractic as Prevention
The old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is very true, especially in health care. Fixing a problem when it has become a crisis is way more expensive — both when talking about money and time. There have been so many times when someone has come in to see me for routine care and mentioned that they didn’t even know a spot I was working on was painful until I started working on it. Working on it when they couldn’t feel it will most likely prevent it from becoming a bigger problem.
A great example of someone waiting for a problem to show up before they finally came in happened in our office just last week. A gentleman came in complaining of left ankle pain. When I asked him what happened to it, he did not recall a specific event that caused it. He said he just woke up with it. It is very rare that a body part starts hurting for no reason. When I looked at his posture, I could see that his left ankle was pronated, or bent in. From there I looked at his hips. His left hip was significantly higher than his right. His body was pronating his foot to shorten his left leg in an effort to try and level off his hip. After some time, this caused his left ankle to start hurting. I worked on that ankle as well as his pelvis and lower back. When he left, his hips were almost completely level. If he had come in sooner, I would have been able to catch the unlevel pelvis before it caused left ankle pain.
If You Can’t Feel It, How Do You Know?
The very first chiropractic adjustment was done on a deaf janitor who regained his hearing. The person was not complaining of back pain. The nerves that come out of our spine go to every part of the body. In fact, over 90% of the nerves in your body are not for sensation. There can be a problem with those nerves and you would have no clue. You can lose up to 70% of your kidney function and not know it, just like you can have arteries that are blocked 90–100% and have no idea until you have a heart attack. There are many vital parts of your body that depend on proper nerve function. How would you know if there is a problem with those nerves until something major happens? By getting your spine checked regularly, you can make sure the nerves going to those vital areas are working properly.
You Should Come for the Rest of Your Life
Should a person visit a chiropractor for the rest of their life? If you want to have healthy teeth, you will go to the dentist for the rest of your life. If you want your car to run properly, you should get routine maintenance on your car. If you want to have a healthy spine and nervous system, I would absolutely recommend you go to the chiropractor regularly. I personally get checked regularly, as does my family. Anecdotally, I have seen it do amazing things for my family. My kids have never had to go to the doctor for health problems since they have been getting adjusted. It is rare that my wife and I get sick. Some of this is due to many of the other things we do for our health, but we attribute a lot of it to the work we do in our chiropractic office.
There is great research that shows the benefit of regular chiropractic care. Probably the best study to date looked at over 70,000 people who saw chiropractors as their primary health doctor. The results speak for themselves:
“Our initial report analyzed clinical and cost utilization data from the years 1999 to 2002 for an integrative medicine independent physician association (IPA) whose primary care physicians (PCPs) were exclusively doctors of chiropractic.”
“Clinical and cost utilization based on 70,274 member-months over a 7-year period demonstrated decreases of 60.2% in-hospital admissions, 59.0% hospital days, 62.0% outpatient surgeries and procedures, and 85% pharmaceutical costs when compared with conventional medicine.” (source)
Just think if everyone in our country took this approach. If we could reduce these costs and the number of people suffering, we could solve our country’s healthcare crisis!
