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What to Expect with Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic care is like building a house — certain things have to happen in a particular order in order for everything to stand strong and work correctly. If you were building a house, and you tried to put up your walls before you had a solid foundation, your walls would be weak and eventually collapse. If you tried to put on your roof before the walls were ready, you would run into a similar problem. The same is true for your body. Your body has to go through a process of care in order to repair its nervous system correctly and fully. There are three general phases of chiropractic care you will experience here at Via Family Chiropractic.
Phase 1: Relief Care
Many people go to a chiropractor because they are in pain. In this first phase of care, the main goal is to reduce your symptoms. Sometimes this will require daily visits, or two to three visits per week to move you out of crisis mode.
Many people assume that if they don't have any pain that there is nothing wrong with them — that they are healthy. Unfortunately, pain is a very poor indicator of health. In fact, pain and other symptoms frequently only appear after a disease or other condition has become advanced.
Consider a cavity in your tooth, does it hurt when it first develops or only after it has become serious? The first sign of clogged arteries is a heart attack; did you feel your arteries clogging? Regardless of whether you are talking about cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stress or problems with the spine, pain is usually the last thing to appear. When you begin chiropractic care, pain is also the first symptom to disappear, even though much of the underlying condition remains.
Phase 2: Corrective/Restorative Care
During this phase, muscles and other tissues are allowed to heal more completely, thereby helping to prevent injury, and to stabilize and maintain spinal alignment. It is typical to need care 4-8 times per month for 6-24 months, depending on your overall health.
The elimination of symptoms is often the easiest part of a person's care. If all the chiropractor does is to reduce the pain and stop there, the chances of the condition recurring are much greater. In order to prevent a rapid recurrence of symptoms, it is necessary to continue receiving care even though your symptoms are gone, because having a fully functioning nervous system allows you to do more and be more.
Adjustments will not be needed as often as they were during the first phase of care and, depending on your particular circumstances, you may begin doing exercises and stretches at home to help accelerate your ability to maintain proper alignment and express more life and health.
It is normal to have mild flare-ups in your symptoms at this point. Flare-ups may occur during this phase because your body has not fully healed. Depending on the severity of your injury or condition and how long you have been suffering from it, this phase of your care may last anywhere from a few months to a couple of years.
Phase 3: Wellness Care — Maintenance is Key to Healthy Living
Once your body has stabilized and maintains proper alignment, it is important to come in for checkups and necessary adjustments or as needed adjustments to avoid problems in the future. Usually, this only requires a quick visit to the chiropractor 1-4 times per month, based on your lifestyle, goals and how you handle your stress.
Routine chiropractic care can help ensure that your physical problems do not return, and keep your body in optimal condition with good spinal alignment. Just like continuing a regular exercise program and consisting eating well to sustain the benefits of exercise and proper diet, it is necessary to continue chiropractic care to ensure the health of your nervous system, which controls and coordinates all actions and processes in your body.
When you make routine chiropractic care a part of your lifestyle, you avoid many of the aches and pains that so many people suffer through. Your joints will last longer and you will be able to engage in more of the activities you love.
Better Alignment = Better Health