WHAT IS CHIROPRACTIC MEDICINE?

 

 

Chiropractic medicine is the non-invasive, natural, very effective way of relieving issues, most of which are mechanical issues relating to your nervous system, relating to the digestive system, chronic muscle tightness, headaches.

As physicians, our first question is not how to help, our first priority should be how to not hurt, and chiropractic is the perfect answer to traditional medicine because, as you see, there’s people hooked on drugs, they’re addicted. They mask the pain. Our foundation is to address the root cause of the issues that are going on and the related compensatory issues and fix them all.

 

 

WHAT DOES A CHIROPRACTOR DO?

 

 

A chiropractor is a very highly specialized physician pertaining to certain realms of the human. What we do is, basically, we look at, overall, the neuromusculoskeletal components of human beings—movement, ranges of motion, biomechanics. These are all real life, real relevant issues that are massively affecting our society. And they’re not really being addressed.

What a chiropractor does is address these issues. We address them at the root, and we try to correct them from the root up, meaning that we don’t think of the problem as an isolated issue, we look at what the problem is causing and what may be causing that problem. We address the entire person in a very non-invasive, safe way.

 

 

DOES A CHIROPRACTOR ONLY WORK WITH THE BACK?

 

 

A chiropractor does not only deal with the back. I do get asked this question often. And patients are often very surprised at how well we do with non-spinal issues such as joints, the shoulder, the knee, ankle, gait (which is the six phases of walking), ergonomics.

So no, we don’t only deal with the back. We do specialize in the back and spine-related disorders—for example, disc degeneration, sciatica (which is called compressive neuropathy), scoliosis, hyperlordosis, postural elements, muscle tightness.

Most mechanical issues pertain to the spine—if not caused by the spine, they are affecting some sort of movement or mechanics of the spine and the pelvis.

So no, we don’t only deal with the spine. Again, everything is actually related. Biomechanics is the study of movement, human movement. So when you consider human movement, you realize that the spine is only a piece of this movement. All the rest of the joints in our body and the trajectory of movement, all these things matter, and all of these things are things that a chiropractor contemplates when they’re examining and diagnosing.

 

 

WHAT ARE COMMON REASONS PEOPLE SEE A CHIROPRACTOR?

 

 

Many of my patients approach me for things like compressive neuropathies, things that the public knows as, for example, sciatica, carpal tunnel, tarsal tunnel. These all fall under the umbrella of compressive neuropathies which means a mechanical agent that is physically blocking the signal of a nerve. In general, that’s what that means.

Other than people seeking treatment for back issues,a lot of people visit for knee pain, hip pain, cervical pain, people who feel tightness between the scapulas, between the shoulder blades. And what I think many patients don’t realize is that a chiropractor with a good understanding of biomechanics may be the most suitable chiropractor for a wide variety of issues.

For example, knee pain. They come to me with knee pain. It’s of an unknown origin. There’s no trauma. And suddenly, a 30- or 40- or 50-year old female/male is having knee pain. The value of a chiropractor who understands biomechanics is that, many times, that knee pain can be traced to the positioning of the feet—hyper-pronation or external rotation, meaning when the feet externally rotate, you have to think that this has to affect the joints above. You can’t externally rotate the foot without the tibia and the fibula rotation and affecting the knee joint which no longer then becomes this, it becomes this.

The medial meniscus of the knee is the most commonly worn down area or region of the knee. And that’s because of that specific reason that I just stated, which also has an effect on the pelvis, which then has an effect on the shoulder, which then can possibly affect the cervical spine.

So, it’s the entire kinetic chain of the human being that needs to be examined. What you may think is irrelevant may be very relevant. But again, starting from the foundation, and working your way up, usually, you can find the root origin of the problem every single time.

 

 

IS CHIROPRACTIC TREATMENT SAFE?

 

 

Chiropractic treatment is absolutely safe. There’s a few ways to be able to look at this as an outsider as well. One, you could look at the cost of malpractice insurance for all physicians. We are amongst the lowest, if not the lowest, of any physician. That’s one way you have evidence to show that what we do is safe.

When people think chiropractic, they only think of spinal manipulation—which is part of what we do, but it’s not all what we do. There are many, many tools at our disposal that we can use. And it’s been my experience and my colleagues’ experience (who have been practicing, some of them, for 15 or 20 years), no one has been hurt, no one has been injured. And generally, if not all, patients have benefited from chiropractic care.

I can tell you with certainty, every single one of my patients has benefited from chiropractic care. None of them have ever been injured. But I believe that’s because of the philosophy I use, to make a very specific, specific treatment plan for that particular patient. And many chiropractors now share that same philosophy. Chiropractic treatment is absolutely safe.

 

 

HOW DO I FIND THE RIGHT CHIROPRACTOR FOR ME?

 

 

It’s very important that you do find the right chiropractor, or any physician for that matter, for yourself.

I believe people have philosophies. Everybody has a philosophy, whether you recognize it or not. My philosophy is to not only help to diagnose correctly and to treat the patient in a way where it lasts and they can go on back to their normal, healthy lives. But it’s important that they have the education they need to be able to know what to do and what not to do in their own daily lives when they’re not in my office.

My philosophy is to see these patients as least as possible, to get them back to their lives. I pride myself on this.

And so, it’s important that when you go into a physician’s office, what you feel from the physician, how well is he listening, how well is the understanding of what the problem you’re telling him, is he an expert in that field.

And do you feel comfortable? I think we, as human beings, we have a certain aura about us just like when we meet people outside of a doctor’s office. And sometimes, we have a great feeling about people. And sometimes, we don’t have a great feeling. And I think it’s very important that the patient and the physician feel comfortable with one another; to be as transparent as possible because we both have the same goal which is to make you better and get you back to your life.

 

 

IS CHIROPRACTIC TREATMENT ONGOING?

Chiropractic treatment is usually not ongoing, nor should it be ongoing. Of course, it depends on the particular issue or the diagnosis that a patient has. But generally speaking, in the majority of the mechanical issues that we see, it should be/can be resolved within 9 or 10 visits, if not significantly affected (meaning significant reduction of symptoms).

I do have a couple of patients who need to have ongoing care. But that’s because they have pretty serious pathologies that have existed for 16 to 17 years—some of them are of mechanical origin that have caused other issues.

So no, generally, chiropractic treatment should not be ongoing. And ideally, what you want is you want to achieve maintenance care. You want to feel good. You want to have correct ranges of motion, correct ergonomic sleeping position. And then, you want to see a chiropractor once every month, once every three weeks just to maintain that ideal function and prevent future damage or future issues that it could cause.