Question: How does chiropractic work?
Answer: Chiropractic works because you are a self-healing, self-regulating organism controlled by your nervous system. Millions of instructions flow from your brain, down the spinal cord, and out to every organ and tissue. Signals sent back to the brain confirm if your body is working right. Improper motion or position of the moving bones of the spine called a “subluxation” can interfere with this vital exchange by irritating nerves and compromising the function of affected organs and tissues. Specific spinal adjustments can help improve mind/body communications. Health often returns with improved nervous system control of the body.
Question: Are Chiropractors “Real” Doctors?
Answer: The term doctor actually means “teacher” (from the Latin docere-to teach). In Ontario, under the Regulated Health Professions Act (RHPA) there are a small number of professions that are entitled to use the title “Doctor”. MD (Medical Doctor) is only one of these. DVM (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine), DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery), DO (Doctor of Optometry), are other examples. Chiropractors earn the title D.C. (Doctor of Chiropractic). Chiropractors are licensed under the RHPA as “primary contact” health care providers, and have the right and responsibility to diagnose, same as a family doctor. Doctors of Chiropractic receive an extensive educational background beginning with 3-4 years of pre-chiropractic study at university. From there they advance into a 4-year course of study at ChiropracticSchool. A student of chiropractic spends as many hours in the study of medical sciences as that of a medical doctor. Chiropractic programs require a minimum of 4,200 hours of combined classroom, laboratory, and clinical experience. Chiropractors are exceptionally well educated, trained, and yes “real” doctors.
Question: HOW SHOULD I FEEL AFTER AN ADJUSTMENT?
Answer: Great! Most people experience more energy, less discomfort, more flexibility, and an overall feeling of enhanced well-being. Sometimes, significant changes may occur too quickly leading to slight, short -term discomforts such as headaches, sniffles, a slight fever, drowsiness, lethargy or similar reactions. The Doctors will monitor your progress very closely to ensure maximal comfort during this time of change.
In some patients with long-term chronic conditions, realigning the spine may also cause the muscles around the spine to be sore. This is only temporary, until the weakened muscles are strengthened. This is comparable to the discomfort felt after a good work out at the gym.
Question: I went to a chiropractor once and it didn’t help me, so Chiropractic didn’t work for me right?.
Answer: Chiropractic is not a quick fix. Chiropractic aims to correct the cause of the problem by re-aligning the spine with a program of regular specific adjustments. Just like exercising once, or dieting for one day, you cannot expect your body to respond quickly. It takes time to develop a problem and therefore time to fix it. The symptom may go away in 1 or 2 visits but structural correction takes longer, beyond the resolution of pain. Different chiropractors use different approaches. Don’t discount chiropractic because you only tried it once. That would be like never getting your hair cut again because you once got a haircut you didn’t like.
Question: Do Chiropractors just adjust spinal joints?
Answer: Our main focus is on the joints of the spine but Chiropractors are expertly trained in adjusting all joints. Everything from shoulders problems to ankles injuries to knee problems can be adjusted to facilitate healing and improve function. Often problems of the spine can be traced back to a foot/knee/hip problem that can be corrected by adjusting these extremities.
One particular set of joints that can be adjusted with remarkable results are the suture joints of the skull. It was previously thought that these joints fuse once the plates come together as a child, but research has proven that they remain mobile to accommodate for subtle changes in intracranial pressure. Trauma can cause these plates to misalign. Although this movement is small (less than 1mm) it can have a significant effect on the underlying brain function. If these plates can misalign they can be realigned with specific low-force adjustments. Positive results have been seen with migraine, memory problems, learning difficulty, concentration, sinus problems, and a plethora of other conditions.
We are not treating any medical condition, but people express better health by correcting the misalignments in the skull and subluxations in the spine. If these misalignments are interfering with how the body functions, then when corrected, amazing things can happen.
Question: I understand you see a lot of kids in your practice. Why would a kid need a Chiropractor, they don’t get back pain do they?
Answer: First of all, kids do get back pain. It is not hard to figure out why. Just watch the average kid haul their back pack to school, sit in a desk all day and then go home, do a few flips on the trampoline and then hunch over a computer or game console for a few hours. The incidence of pediatric back and neck pain is actually surprisingly high. However, having said that, Chiropractic is not about treating back pain. It is about ensuring the health of your spine and nervous system. If there is misalignment in the spinal joints, interfering with nerve messages between the brain and the body, a lot of things can malfunction. We see kids get tremendous success with their asthma, ear infections, digestive problems, bedwetting, sleeping problems, etc when the spine is aligned properly. Other kids come when they are well to stay that way. It is easier to keep kids healthy than fix broken adults.
