Thursday, April 23, 2009

Chiropractic Adjustments

I've been wanting to take a picture of Steven getting a chiropractic adjustment for awhile - he's always so relaxed, as if to say, "Aww, now that feels good."
Steven's first adjustment was when he was a couple days old. Our family is blessed to be adjusted every week. Personally, without regular adjustments, I'm in chronic back pain and plagued with one, big, constant headache. Thankfully, chiropractic care has alleviated that.
There's many stresses put on our bodies today, which interprets to much stress put on our spine. Physical stress is an obvious one, but even emotional or chemical stress can put strain on our spine. Think about it, when you're emotionally "stressed out", your whole body tenses, this affects your spine, which affects your nerves, which affects every area of your body. Our nerves run everything we do from breathing to thinking to walking - everything! When pressure is put on one of our nerves, then the message being sent through that nerve is distorted. Did you know that the weight of a dime placed on your nerve can reduce that nerve's function by 60%!
Chiropractors are trained to find which vertebrae are stuck or misaligned, which puts pressure on the nerves they are they to protect, and gently adjust those vertebrae so they are in the correct position and are no longer putting pressure on the nerves. They only adjust the vertebrae that are "out".
Why have Steven adjusted at such a young age? He has vertebrae that get "out", too. The birthing process itself is very hard on the little ones! Not to mention babies fall and bump into things a lot! Hopefully with regular chiropractic care he can avoid having chronic back issues in the future.
If you're in the area and looking for a good chiropractor, I highly recommend ours: http://www.naturalchoicechiro.com/.

8 comments:

steveandjanna said...

Sounds expensive. I took a dep of a chiropractor once. I got him to admit that he's never cured anyone and that all of his clients will 'need' his services for the rest of their lives. It's a bit of a racket, I'm convinced these guys will never make anyone truly better, rather they make everyone slightly better and dependent on them for relief. In other words, it's a racket.

Crystal Carr said...

Thanks for your comments :)

If you understand chiropractic, you'd understand why they don't claim to cure anyone or anything: they remove interference so our bodies can function how they were made to. As far as cost, it depends where you go. We're on a very affordable family plan, a lot less per month than the cost of constant headaches and backpain. :) And like anything else, you can find chiropractors that do their job better than others.

The reason why a good chiropractor would admit that their clients will need their services for life is because in our high pace lives we're constantly providing our spines with opportunities to misalign.

I understand not everyone is convinced of the value of chiropractic - which is fine :) We love a good adjustment :)

steveandjanna said...

The honest one might admit that they can never cure anyone. Most of them aren't honest.

I dare say that the 'our lives are so busy' line is tired, old and untrue. A hundred years ago, men would have been performing back breaking work on the farm or in factories. I dare say most didn't visit a chiropractor. Today, many of us (myself included) work office jobs and/or sit on the couch doing nothing, watching tv or perusing the internet. I don't think the 'fast pace' of modern society has anything to do with back problems. If back problems are an issue these days it's because we live more sedentary lives and we have more time to think about aches and pains than folks did 100 years ago.

Of course, the jaded defense lawyer in me will tell you that people will complain of back pain louder when there is the prospect of money for their troubles. That doesn't apply here though.

Crystal Carr said...

That's quite the blanket statement there. My experience with chiropractors has shown them to be honest people. I've been adjusted by nine different chiropractors, only one of which I suspect of being dishonest, and it could have just been a misunderstanding on my part. It sounds like you've been to one chiropractor, which doesn't give you much experience in the matter. Perhaps your opinion of them being dishonest at large is based on your own biased opinion instead of unbiased experience. No matter, though, we're all entitled to our opinions - I mean, hey, some people think all lawyers are liars. (I say that in friendly jest.)

Oh, yes, I would agree that our sedentary lifestyles contribute to back problems. I've heard said that sitting is one of the positions most hard on the spine. Perhaps if we did a little more outdoor labor we'd all do our spines a little good. :)

steveandjanna said...

I have never been to a chiropractor and have no plans on going to one. I don't have serious back problems and I exercise. That ought to be enough for most people.

I've had dealings with chiropractors on numerous occasions and I find most of them to be frauds. They're looking to diagnose a lifetime problem that of course requires their services forever. I deal with them in the world of personal injury, I've yet to find one who isn't a whore for hire for plaintiff firms. Quite frankly, if a doctor or chiropractor a whore for hire I find their opinion to be shady and questionable.

You have to look at the motives behind these guys, especially chiropractors. They want you to come in all the time, so of course they're going to tell you that in order for your back to really feel good you have to see them all the time. They may even make you feel better for a period of time, which of course will lapse and you'll just have to visit them again to feel better. It's basically an addicting drug. Chiropractors have their financial best interests in mind and their financial interest is to keep you permanently in need of their care. So while your chiropractor may be very nice and seem very concerned about you, at the end of the day his interest is in keeping you addicted to his service.

Crystal Carr said...

And that's where we differ in opinion, which is fine :)

Jenny Proehl said...

I have been to several chiropractors and I agree with you Crystal :) I suffer from migraines, severe enough to warrant preventative medicine and prescription pills. Which usually doesn't work very well. But going to a chiropractor once a week to be adjusted and have a massage almost stopped the migraines completely. Now I don't have health insurance so I don't go. I have a sedentary lifestyle as well, but I work out 5 days a week for at least an hour, so exercise doesn't fix a back that needs to be realligned.

Defense attorney's are arguementative and you all never believe that a person has really been injured. In my experience your medical whores are just as bad. Of course it is a "objective opinion" with one hefty price tag.

steveandjanna said...

I've never seen a case where an injury hasn't been overstated. Anytime money is involved, it pays to appear injured. Unfortunately for some people, they actually begin to believe their ailments are worse than they really are. At least until they get a check. Then it's off to the Casino.

No doubt there are defense medical whores out there. That said, usually the defense sends a plaintiff to an IME rather than a defense whore for hire.