Consistentcy: The Key to Success

Blog: Consistency and Care Regime

February 17, 2009

People come and go in and out of my office all day long; some are in acute pain and some are no in no pain whatsoever. Let me give you some insight to why that is. Of course some are new patients and it takes about a week to allow acute phase symptoms to subside, but besides that there are two groups of people. One group that followed instruction and one group that did not.  One group of people followed recommendations on care, which includes water intake (3.1L), stretches, exercise, supplementation and of course, chiropractic care (at a maintenance level, ~1x/month). The group that followed this protocol of nurturing their bodies are no in no pain.

The other group are the patients that come in for what we call “Band-aid” care. This type of care gets the patient out of acute pain and then we only see them after another exacerbation occurs. However, what they fail to realize is that they will suffer these bouts of pain indefinitely if they do not fix the cause, which unfortunately can not be fixed in a handful of visits.

By training the spine through a series of adjustments and exercise rehabilitation (core stabilization), people can prevent further degeneration of the spine as well as prevent further exacerbations of neck and back pain. As chiropractors train the spine and the core muscles, we train the muscles to hold the spine in place. This is imperative for proper healing and can not be established over night.

Once patients get out of pain they feel their journey has ended. In reality, once acute pain stops that is when rehabilitation begins. We can actually start doing exercises and work toward a stable spine. If patients pre-maturely leave care, they will never understand or reach the level of optimum health and wellness.

You brush your teeth everyday, get an oil change every 3,000 miles, you pay taxes, these are things you that need to be maintained. Your body is the mechanical and needs to be maintained. For the ones that don’t maintain their health, they are destined to have pain and dysfunction repeatedly throughout the years. For the ones that properly maintain their health, they will be mobile, able to enjoy friends and family, have less visits to the doctor and pay less money to the insurance companies. The choice is up to you.