You go into a chiropractor’s office with some sort of health problem, most often pain, most often a back related pain. He may or may not do an exam. He may or may not do x-rays. He may or may not explain anything. He may or may not adjust you. He may or may not use various forms of therapy. He may or may not re-exam you. He may or may not really seem to care much either way. I have seen and heard it all in 25 years. Just like all professions, mine is represented by the good, the bad, and the ugly. But it must be confusing for the lay-person, kind of like going to the auto mechanic. “Who do I trust?” “Do I really need that?”
To address this I am going to boil down chiropractic into this paragraph. Time, life, and gravity (TLG) will cause damage to your spine, what we call subluxation. This damage will eventually, sooner or later, result in a mixture of three things; pain, spinal joint degeneration, and loss of overall health. We will not go into why subluxation causes loss of health in this article. You will trust me for now, which is ironic considering the last line of the first paragraph. Anyway, the chiropractor’s job is to take your history, examine you for subluxation, quantify the subluxation, explain to you what is wrong, get your consent, fix it as best as he can, re-measure the subluxation, and continue the process of fixing until either it’s as fixed as it can get, or you just don’t want chiropractic care anymore. Lots of chiropractors in their practices do a bunch more stuff, but the above is what chiropractic is. Anything else that they do may be fine and good and within their license, but it is not chiropractic.
With that as the working definition of chiropractic how does my practice fit into that definition? Why do we do what we do? And do you really need that?
1) I take your history
2) I measure your subluxation. This gives us numbers that can be re-measured; range of motion, TSV (total subluxation value), and phase of degeneration on x-ray (or MRI).
3) I decide if the reason why you are here is due to subluxation.
4) If not, I point you to someone who can help. If so, I use my computer system and a short verbal report supported by a written report to teach you what is wrong and what we can do about it. After all, the word doctor comes from a Latin word meaning “to teach.”
5) I get your consent to treat.
6) I treat you using these 3 tools and only these 3 tools:
a. Range of motion exercises for you to do at home to keep your spine moving.
b. Adjust the joints of your spine that won’t move no matter how many times you stretch them.
c. Use deep tissue massage to reduce muscle spasm and scar tissue in the muscles.
7) After an appropriate number of adjustments or amount of time, I re-measure the subluxation using the exact same procedure as in #2.
8) The first 50% reduction in your TSV is Initial Intensive Care.
9) The next 50% reduction in your TSV is Reconstructive Care.
10) Keeping your TSV from going back up due to the continual action of TLG is Wellness Care.
In this system you don’t get adjustments you don’t need, or therapy you don’t need, or vitamins you don’t need, or exercises you don’t need, or anything else you don’t need. I only give you what you need. So, yes, you do really need that. Of course whether you do it or not, well that’s up to you.
To address this I am going to boil down chiropractic into this paragraph. Time, life, and gravity (TLG) will cause damage to your spine, what we call subluxation. This damage will eventually, sooner or later, result in a mixture of three things; pain, spinal joint degeneration, and loss of overall health. We will not go into why subluxation causes loss of health in this article. You will trust me for now, which is ironic considering the last line of the first paragraph. Anyway, the chiropractor’s job is to take your history, examine you for subluxation, quantify the subluxation, explain to you what is wrong, get your consent, fix it as best as he can, re-measure the subluxation, and continue the process of fixing until either it’s as fixed as it can get, or you just don’t want chiropractic care anymore. Lots of chiropractors in their practices do a bunch more stuff, but the above is what chiropractic is. Anything else that they do may be fine and good and within their license, but it is not chiropractic.
With that as the working definition of chiropractic how does my practice fit into that definition? Why do we do what we do? And do you really need that?
1) I take your history
2) I measure your subluxation. This gives us numbers that can be re-measured; range of motion, TSV (total subluxation value), and phase of degeneration on x-ray (or MRI).
3) I decide if the reason why you are here is due to subluxation.
4) If not, I point you to someone who can help. If so, I use my computer system and a short verbal report supported by a written report to teach you what is wrong and what we can do about it. After all, the word doctor comes from a Latin word meaning “to teach.”
5) I get your consent to treat.
6) I treat you using these 3 tools and only these 3 tools:
a. Range of motion exercises for you to do at home to keep your spine moving.
b. Adjust the joints of your spine that won’t move no matter how many times you stretch them.
c. Use deep tissue massage to reduce muscle spasm and scar tissue in the muscles.
7) After an appropriate number of adjustments or amount of time, I re-measure the subluxation using the exact same procedure as in #2.
8) The first 50% reduction in your TSV is Initial Intensive Care.
9) The next 50% reduction in your TSV is Reconstructive Care.
10) Keeping your TSV from going back up due to the continual action of TLG is Wellness Care.
In this system you don’t get adjustments you don’t need, or therapy you don’t need, or vitamins you don’t need, or exercises you don’t need, or anything else you don’t need. I only give you what you need. So, yes, you do really need that. Of course whether you do it or not, well that’s up to you.