Typical patients in and out of chiropractic offices are those who have acute/chronic injury, trauma, or developmental deformities. They rely on chiropractic care to help facilitate their healing by increasing healing times, improving their range of motion, and reducing the amount of pain they may have. Some cases resolve quickly; others take time, but if you’re fortunate enough to return to proper function without residual complications, why should you continue with monthly care? Great question! Maintenance care, or wellness care, is a once a once-a-month visit recommendation the same way you’d see your massage therapist, psychologist, esthetician, and so on.
Monthly spinal hygiene is recommended to help reinforce a full range of motion in your joints and help stimulate the “rest and digest” part of your nervous system, otherwise known as the parasympathetic nervous system. Daily stressors such as leaning over a desk all day, driving for your sales job, or holding a baby in your arm all add stress to your joints and muscles, causing them to contract and pull on your joints in different directions with varying amounts of force.
As a protection mechanism, the muscles surrounding the loaded joint will contract to
help the joint from operating outside of its normal range of motion. If a joint exceeds the tolerable threshold, a dislocation or other injury could occur. The supporting soft tissues surrounding a joint become fatigued and weakened from the constant demands of aberrant movement and begin to break down or cause dysfunction either in the joint or in surrounding structures.
Post-Adjustment Relief
Once a chiropractic adjustment is administered to a restricted joint, the joint will be temporarily relieved of restriction, allowing a pain-free, increased range of motion. The stimulation of the joint causes a rapid series of communication between that joint, the brain, and the nerves that exit that joint. With spinal manipulation, the parasympathetic nervous system, the rest and digest response, innervates structures from the cervical and lumbar spine.
After an adjustment is administered to the neck or lower back, that feedback loop causes an influx of parasympathetic communication to all the organs supplied by those nerves and allows our body and mind to switch from fight or flight to rest and digest. When operating in a rest and digest state, your blood pressure decreases, digestion improves, adrenaline hormones cease fire, and your autonomic nervous system can sit back and perform its duties without obstruction.
Pain-Free Pain Relief
The pain-free patient who finished a trial of care might wonder why it’s important to return on a monthly basis if “I’m feeling great.” The “I feel great” claim before an adjustment turns into “I didn’t realize how tight my back was” or “Wow, I feel like I can take a deep breath again.” People who assume repetitive postures or motions for work or hobbies tend to hold that stress as a new baseline. They are constantly putting their body through the same demands; it is hard for them to recognize the subtle tensions they are now holding because of habitual patterns.
Monthly adjustments can help train the body not to restrict itself to the used motion but rather operate to the full potential the joint can offer. With the feedback loop occurring after an adjustment, the muscle tissues supplied by that nerve root will also receive an increase in communication, typically causing the muscle to feel less tense. The more time you spend void of tension, you’ll learn when your body is starting to become tense and restricted again.
The accessibility to chiropractic care and the amount of time spent inside a chiropractor’s office is an efficient and cost-effective way to ensure your body is functioning at its highest potential with as little interference as possible. If you treat yourself to a massage once a month, it takes anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes to achieve the same parasympathetic response that a 15-minute appointment will deliver at a fraction of the cost. If you truly have a joint restriction or a nerve entrapment, as great as massage is, you cannot massage away joint dysfunction. Having over a decade in massage therapy, I believe it is a great modality to help alleviate stress and promote relaxation, but you’re missing the “spa day” your skeleton and brain deserve. If the foundation and framework of your home need repair, no matter how many times you paint the walls, your dysfunction will remain within the most important structures of your home.
Monthly chiropractic visits could also be used as a wellness check-in. Your doctor will ask about your workout routine, nutritional intake, hydration, sleep quality, and overall stressors. If you notice anything different with your body, your chiropractor is qualified to assess your symptoms and refer out as necessary. A monthly visit to assess musculoskeletal function, nutrition, exercise, and sleep is a great reinforcement to prioritize habits that promote health. A pain-free visit to the chiropractor is not a bad thing, considering it would be a mini-monthly physical that usually occurs once a year with a primary care doctor. Starting your pain-free journey with a chiropractor could just be the eye-opening visit you didn’t know you needed.
Phil Ruggiero, owner of PR Chiropractic, focuses on the whole body in addition to the specific needs of the patient. Having over a decade of experience in massage therapy and strength and conditioning, he will use soft tissue techniques as well as exercise prescription to help you achieve your goals. He believes in assessing muscle tissue as well as joint function to optimize each visit leaving you feeling and performing your best!
Visit prchiroct.com to learn more.