Most of the new patients come to us for all the wrong reasons. It’s not that we can’t help, it’s not even that their reason was illogical – it’s just usually the wrong reason. What do I mean?
They come to us for pain – and only for pain. They’ve had persistent headaches for 10 years or they woke up this morning with a sudden “crick” in their neck.
They may have bent over to pick up something small and couldn’t stand back up again… or they just overdid it over the weekend and are having trouble moving.
They arrive typically only after other things haven’t worked. They tried ice, heat, massage, over-the-counter medications, prescription medications, stretching, buying a new mattress… just to name a few. Some have visited other doctors and have been told that there’s nothing wrong – but they’re still in pain so they continue on.
The awesome part about chiropractic is that it works so well with pain. People often wonder if the adjustments will hurt (they don’t), but they really only take that step to call our office when the pain gets so bad that they no longer care if it’s going to hurt.
The issue with chiropractic helping pain so well is that it’s been labeled as a “pain-relief only” therapy. People completely miss out on why they should really be seeing a chiropractor – and that’s for good health. Period.
“I don’t get it. How does ‘popping’ my back lead to good health?” The simplest answer is that everything in your body is controlled by the nervous system. Signals travel down from your brain, out your nerves to every organ and body part. It’s the system that truly makes everything work and helps our body function the way it should.
When it’s not working correctly, pain is rarely the primary symptom. Only 10% of your nerve fibers carry pain information. That means all kinds of health issues can be occurring without you experiencing pain. Waiting for pain is no way to achieve good health.
When new patients come to our office, we know that they’ve never heard any of this before. Have you? They hurt and they just want to get out of pain – fast. So we get to work on that first, because we understand that it’s your primary concern. Our primary concern, however, is to help you reach your full health potential.
We are on your team and want to see you look and feel your best. For that reason, you’ll hear us encourage healthy lifestyle changes. We know that if you sleep in a position that doesn’t damage your spine, you’ll get better faster. We know that if you drink more water, you’ll decrease inflammation and help your muscles support your spine better.
We know that smokers take longer to heal than non-smokers, that people who exercise get better faster than those who don’t. We know that patients with a good stress outlet seem happier & healthier than those who don’t. We know that the better someone eats (consuming more nutritional foods, including vitamins) have few problems that those that don’t.
Most importantly, we’ve been at this long enough and have been under chiropractic care ourselves long enough that we see the long term benefits of getting adjusted regularly. We see lifetime chiropractic patients with spines that move as they should with less pain and little to no degeneration.
Chiropractors helps people of all ages and with a wide range of symptoms, but the real reason to see a chiropractor is to get (and stay) healthy. Leave a comment below and let us know why you started chiropractic care and why you keep coming (or maybe why you stopped?).