When it comes to health I have two rules:
Rule number 1) First it’s not enough to simply relieve the symptoms, i.e. pain, inflammation, numbness, tingling; it’s important to find the source of the problem which causes or leads to the actual symptom(s.) Relieving the symptoms is only a temporary fix. Eventually, whatever method you’re using probably won’t work and you’ll have to move on to something stronger, more aggressive, and more invasive which leads us to rule number 2) least invasive to most invasive.
This means first you want to try treatments or methods with minimal side effects or adverse reactions such as exercise, supplementation, massage, and chiropractic. If this doesn’t have the desired effect, then move on to the next stage diet modification, medical imaging, acupuncture, pharmaceutical intervention or injections. The last resort is surgical intervention.
I preach this to my patients, family and friends and I use it myself. I’m a human being and just like you, I get sports injuries, I’ve been involved in motor vehicle accidents, and I have repetitive traumas (bent over patients all day.) I take my own advice. I get adjusted. I get massages. I exercise. I do cold laser. I apply electric and muscle stimulation. I take supplements. I stretch. Those are my first lines of defense. If they don’t work I go to my second. I look at my diet. I get imaging (x-rays, MRI’s,) I go to an acupuncturist.
There is a statistic that 95% of pain can be managed non-incisively. That means that the person is treated without surgery. Chiropractic is a major component of pain management. The results are often fairly quick, especially if what you’re looking for is pain relief. When you consider cost, time commitment, side effects, and long term results, chiropractic makes more and more sense.
In fact in a study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine in 2008 entitled: Chiropractic Management of Chronic Low-Back Pain, Chiropractic showed to produce a greater decrease in pain as well as disability when compared to treatment in a pain clinic.
A Chiropractors primary focus is the spine and its function. People often seek chiropractic care for the treatment of conditions such as neck and back pain, headaches, radicular problems such as sciatica and carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis, sports injuries, whiplash, and repetitive traumas.
If you are looking for results, you should consider a visit to a chiropractor to be your first stop.
Dr. Michone Ouellette is a licensed Mesa chiropractor practicing in the Mesa, AZ area for nine years. She specializes in the treatment of whiplash injuries, as well and neck and back pain relief care. Dr. Michone is a female chiropractor well versed in traditional chiropractic care as well as the use of instruments such as activator method and arthrastim. Chiropractic manipulation is also augmented with the use of exercise and massage.