How Much is Enough? Article of the week June 11 to 15, 2018
Do you ever wonder how I come up with my recommendations for your care? Another way of framing this question is “what evidence is there to support the number of adjustments that Dr. Tim recommends?”.
As many of you are aware, the number of adjustments that you receive in your first 12 months of care in our office is usually more than you receive in subsequent years. When someone is new to chiropractic or hasn't been adjusted regularly for a number of years, it takes consecutive adjustments in close succession to break up the scar tissue and adhesions and get the spine moving freely, and lined up properly again.
Once we have achieved optimal movement and alignment in your spine, I always make “wellness care” recommendations to make sure your spine and nervous system are functioning optimally for a lifetime. In this week's article of the week I want to share some information with you that will make it crystal clear why many patients continue with chiropractic care even after the pain is gone and they are feeling great.
As many of you will remember from your group report, we talked about how subluxations (misalignments or areas of the spine that are stuck), will cause your spine to degenerate faster than normal. There are 4 stages of degeneration from stage 1 which is slight damage to stage 4 which is late stage, extensive damage. This degeneration is more commonly known as osteoarthritis.
A number of research studies have been done that show that a joint that is stiff or stuck will degenerate faster. The first study was done by a Finnish researcher named Videman who splinted and immobilized the knee joints of rabbits. He reported irreversible joint degeneration and osteoarthritic changes after only 2 weeks of complete immobilization! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23915759
Another study by Henderson and Cramer immobilized the lumbar (low back) vertebrae of white rats and found degenerative changes and osteoarthritis after the first 7 days! They continued to monitor the rats and further imaging showed the degeneration worsened over the course of the next 16 weeks. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20937429
The key point here is to understand that you can have subluxations that are asymptomatic where you are not feeling any pain yet, that are causing your spine to degenerate! In the same way you can have a cavity that is there for years and causing your tooth to rot before the pain starts, subluxations will cause your spine to decay long before you feel any pain.
If degeneration occurs in the first 7-14 days of subluxation, the research confirms that it is wise to get checked for subluxation every 1-2 weeks. This is the reason why most of our people come to the office to get checked and adjusted every week, or every other week.
Your continued investment now will pay dividends immediately and into the future.
Yours in Health,
Dr. Tim
Grace Chiropractic – 1-3230 Monarch Drive – 705-323-9100 – http://gracechiropractic.ca
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