How do I know if I need a Chiropractor?

In my experience, most people come to the Chiropractor not first but last.  They have tried other treatments with no success.  So basically, the patient still has pain or symptoms of some sort.  Just like Dentists, we don’t treat the symptoms directly but look for underlying causes that create the symptom in the first place.  Just like a cavity can cause mouth pain, subluxations or misalignment of the vertebra can cause pain as well.  Chiropractic actually gets more complicated than that.  Subluxations affect nerves, and the nerves do more than send pain to the brain, the nerves send ALL the messages to the brain.  The nerves also carry ALL the messages from the brain.  So I always tell my patients there are an input and output to the nervous system.  If you subluxate a vertebra and hit the input, you will probably have pain.  If you subluxate a vertebra and it hits the output of the nerve, then you won’t feel anything but you may notice muscle weakness.

So what causes these Subluxations? In one word the answer would be stress.  Stress in all its forms can cause a subluxation but I would like to focus on physical stress.   For children think how many falls, slips, twists a child does before that child is 10 years old.  For older kids and adults I want you to think about or better yet look at posture, especially while on the computer or playing video games.  Sports, exercising and weight lifting also play a factor as well.  Basically “living” can cause these Subluxations.  Just like “eating” is the cause of cavities, posture or “living” is the cause of Subluxations.   Once a poor postural habit is developed, these subluxations begin to take a toll on your health. So when is the best time to see a Chiropractor?   Right now if you have never seen one before.  I see mine weekly, for 20 years running.

Your Grand Rapids Chiropractor, Dr. S