Q & A with Dr. Grant

Welcome back to this week’s blog post!

This week I wanted to go over some common questions people might have regarding chiropractic care, dispel some misnomers, and yes, I will probably step on some toes of the chiropractic profession, but it needs to be said.

Question: What is Chiropractic?

Chiropractic has actually been around for thousands of years, just under different names. It has only been called chiropractic since 1895 by Daniel David Palmer, who named it from the Latin words “cheir” and “praktos”, meaning done by hand. This was to distinguish chiropractic from western medicine as they were originally accused of performing surgery without a license. Chiropractic’s foundation is a proactive treatment approach to treating the body holistically. DD Palmer’s son, BJ Palmer, once said “The preservation of health is easier than the cure of disease.”  If we think back to high school science class, Newton’s First Law of Motion states - an object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. This means objects resist changes in their state of motion. While Newton probably did not have the body in mind when he said this, it still holds true. Our joints need motion to remain healthy. Inactivity, either through joint restriction, injury, etc, leads to a decline in joint health. Ultimately, prolonged lack of joint motion leads to arthritic or degenerative changes, increased muscular fatigue, improper movement patterns – which often results in injury.

Question: What does a Chiropractor do?

A chiropractor’s main job is to analyze the quality of motion within joints that inhibit range of motion. This is primarily focused on the spine but extends to any movable joints throughout the body. A chiropractor’s main goal is to analyze a person’s biomechanics (how the body moves) and determine which joints are limiting that motion. In other words, make the stuck thing “unstuck”.

Question: What does the Adjustment do?

The goal of any adjustment is to restore motion to a joint that is moving less than optimally. Motion is how a joint receives hydration and nutrition that keeps it healthy (like changing oil in your vehicle, the oil reduces friction just like joint fluid reduces friction within a joint).

Question: What is the “pop/ cracking” sound?

Most people are aware of the “pop” during an adjustment, this is scientifically known as a cavitation. Essentially, this is just the release of tiny air pockets within the joint. This is the same “pop” or “crack” when someone pops their knuckles. This is not always heard during an adjustment, but that does not mean that the joint did not move, the goal is motion. There are even some techniques in which there is no popping sound during an adjustment.

Question: Is Chiropractic Addictive?

Technically there is an endorphin release into the spinal cord during an adjustment that makes you feel good, but the main reason someone may say they love chiropractic is because they feel better overall, and they can once again do the things they love to do. So, if not being in pain and moving better is addictive, then yes, chiropractic is addictive.

Question: I’m not in pain; do I still need Chiropractic care?

You hopefully will not wait until your car’s engine burns up before you change the oil and do maintenance on your car, so why wait until you are in pain? Pain is a symptom of dysfunctional biomechanical patterns in your body. If you hit a nail while you are driving but it does not fully puncture your tire, you will likely be able to drive on it for a while. So the nail has still done damage to your tire, though not enough to disrupt the pressure or cause a flat and you are able to drive on it without complications until you hit a bump that drives the nail through the wall of the tire and now you lose pressure but it is still not flat so you fill the tire intermittently with air to keep the pressure up which works for a while until it loses too much pressure for it to maintain any longer.

The same thing happens with our bodies and pain, the likely dysfunction occurred long ago, but we  “filled the air back up” by stretching it and applying ice/ heat (heat is usually recommended more than ice – see our blog post “Ice, Ice, Maybe Not” for more on that topic) until our bodies get to a point where we hit a “bump” and we feel pain that cannot be ignored any longer. Traumatic injuries that happen due to a single event are luckily relatively rare occurrences as that means we can intervene and reverse the process of dysfunctional movement patterns to restore function and reduce the likelihood of that traumatic injury.

Question: How often do I need to be adjusted?

The answer to that is “It depends.” It depends on your activity level, history of pre-existing injuries/ conditions, what you do for work, what your hobbies are, if you have children, etc. In general, most patients do well with either a weekly or an every-other-week adjustment, again, depending on your personal lifestyle and preferences. We offer packages that can fit either of your treatment frequencies, we also offer a twice-per-week package for those going through some significant issues.

Question: Why do we not accept insurance?

The answer to that question is a little complicated, but we do not accept insurance because it allows us more treatment freedoms (including frequency and ability to treat more holistically).  Most insurance policies are “problem-based” meaning that if your neck hurts, we only treat your neck. This is not our belief at Peace of Health Chiropractic Wellness Clinic. We believe that the body should be treated holistically, usually meaning full spine adjusting and possible extremity adjusting based on your daily needs. This is generally not possible with most insurance policies.

We do have the ability to provide a superbill that you may choose to submit to your insurance provider, where they might reimburse you; this is dependent on your coverage. Most HSA/ FSA policies will cover chiropractic as well.

Yours in Health,

Dr. Grant Shelton, DC

Doctor of Chiropractic at Peace of Health Chiropractic Wellness Clinic