Chiropractic: Why Going Back Is Important.

I am a chiropractor and I work at Bellevue Center for Health (Mybcfh.com). I help people everyday get through pain, feel better, and stay well. Some people call chiropractors "quacks." Usually because they heard it from someone but have never experienced chiropractic themselves. Chiropractic is typically misunderstood by the public and I will get negative comments like "I don't believe in chiropractic," "Once you go to a chiropractor you have to keep going," etc. It's funny because I get the same exact cliche sayings said to me verbatim each time. This tells me that this person is passing on what someone else told them and they rarely have actually experienced chiropractic.Long ago the medical community saw chiropractic as a threat and did everything they could to blast the profession and even got sued over it. Chiropractors won that lawsuit. The negative impressions have lingered through time and are still around some. Let's address a couple sayings. First, "I don't believe in chiropractic." When I hear this the first thing I think is "You don't believe it exists, like magic or ghosts? I usually ask a simple question such as, " What don't you believe?," or, "What has been your experience with chiropractic?" I usually don't get a real answer because as I said before, most people that say this to me are passing on something someone said to them and they feel they need to have an opinion and that is the only one they ever heard. They most commonly answer the experience question with, " I have never been to a chiropractor." That is so funny to me because that is why I asked the question, seriously 90% of people that say they don't believe in chiropractic have never ever ever seen a chiropractor.Let's talk about what chiropractors do. Sure, chiropractors make those popping sounds and "crack" backs, but chiropractors are mainly nerve doctors. This is something most people don't know. The popping sounds chiropractors make are actually from adjusting the vertebral bones and joints. The actual sound comes from gas trapped within the joint being released (kind of a joint fart :-) by the doctor moving the bones and joints back into their proper position. It is not a bad thing, just typically misunderstood. The chiropractic doctor has had much training in detection and adjustment of what is called a subluxation. A subluxation is to chiropractors what cavities are to dentists. A subluxation is a dysfunction in a joint causing nerve interference. This nerve interference is the largest thing chiropractors work with and consider in treatment. The nerves that come out of the spine have very little space between the vertebral bones and can become easily irritated. These nerves are also very delicate and is another reason they can become irritated so easily. What many people don't think about is that nerves go to and control more then muscles and bones, they also go to organs. This is another large reason why chiropractors focus on nerve interference more then actual joint misalignment. Chiropractors are the only doctors trained to detect and treat "subluxations." These subluxations can be a large factor in many organ disorders such as indigestion and other intestinal issues, breathing difficulties, even heart disorders. By the way, if your in a car accident or have a work injury get checked immediatley!It is important to realize that the brain operates and controls everything in the body, EVERYTHING! The brain use the spinal cord and nerves to communicate to the rest of the body, and if there is interference (subluxation) in this communication pathway real problems happen. These problems range from neck and back pain to indigestion and heart disorders. Without the brain being able to fully and perfectly communicate with muscles and organs, they can not work properly and issues begin to develop that may or may not have symptoms. Which leads me to my next point.Chiropractors are focused on health instead of sickness. Most people view health as the absence of symptoms, but the actual World Health Organization (WHO) definition clearly says "Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity." Chiropractors look at symptoms but also focus largely on what they themselves find as doctors instead of just what the patient finds. This is a contributing factor to why people say," Once you go to a chiropractor you have to keep going." There has typically been many years of damage through everything people do in their lives and this damage can not be corrected in a couple visits. That is very unreasonable. It took years to get to at certain level of damage and it takes time to heal and get better. Chiropractors are helping, but it takes times and much care whether the symptoms(typically pain) is there or not. Symptoms are a very poor way to measure health. Most people have heard about when symptoms show up it is too late in diseases such as cancer and heart attacks. This is true. Symptoms show up very late in most disease and the actual problem has been there a long time(way before symptoms show up). Chiropractors detect these problems before symptoms show up and can start treating them immediately so symptoms don't show up. It is very important to get checked for subluxations. Most people that don't get checked have subluxations, so if your reading this and have never been to a chiropractor or haven't in a while, Go Get Checked!A point I want to make is that chiropractic is very safe. I only pay about $300 a year for malpractice insurance (some of you pay more in car insurance a month) as compared to an MD who can pay up to $100,000/ year. Chiropractic is very safe.