What To Expect
How chiropractic treatment can help you
If you’re in pain, there’s a good chance that it’s related to your spine. Spine-related pain can be felt anywhere in your body — not just in your neck or back. Your spinal problems could present as a burning, tingling pain in your wrist, as a weakness in your shoulder or something else.
Painkillers might provide relief for a while, but they don’t actually “kill” pain. The best they might do is to mask your pain for a while, but you can’t take painkillers forever without risking additional health problems.
Massage is excellent for muscles, and may also offer temporary relief. However, muscle pain is usually a symptom, not a cause. So, if your pain is rooted in your nerves then it’s going to come back after a massage, whether that’s in an hour or a day.
The only path to deep and lasting relief is to locate the cause then treat it to stop it from happening again.
What do chiropractors do?
Chiropractors are trained to treat the spine and nervous system. The spine is a source of pain — neck pain, back pain, headaches and sciatica are classic examples. And your spine is vital to your health because it is the central circuit around which information flows between your body and your brain.
Also, your central nervous system is the master control system of your body. The central nervous system helps your body self-heal and self-regulate. To do that, your nervous systems relies on quality information via your spine.
A disruption or abnormal function in your spine is like a traffic jam in one part of the city. The knock-on effects can be felt all over the city.
Chiropractors have the training to make gentle adjustments to your spine to get the information flowing properly again from your body to your brain. We can help your body to heal naturally by reducing pain and restoring movement and flexibility.
Patients who come to see me for neck pain are often surprised to discover the problem isn’t with their neck at all. Their pain may be caused by their neck compensating for instability in their lower back or somewhere else in their spine.
They could keep spending money on massages and medication or they could treat the instability in their back and rid themselves of their neck pain.
As a chiropractor, I gently treat spine-related pain by making sure the stabilising and controlling mechanisms of your spine are restored to the best possible function available to you.
That’s why when I first meet you, I’ll do a thorough neurological assessment. We can then see what is happening with the whole of your spine and work out the underlying cause of your pain.
How I’ll uncover the cause of your pain
1. Careful listening
It’s important to take the time before doing any treatment to talk thoroughly about the pain you’re in. I’ll ask you some questions to understand where the pain is coming from and how long it has been bothering you.
2. Assessment
During our consultation, I’ll do some tests to show us what tissues are responsible for the pain you are feeling. Tests will also identify what is responsible for the underlying instability and imbalance that’s at the cause of your problem.
The tests we do are non-invasive and gentle. They include:
- the standard range of motion testing
- neurological testing, including motor, sensory and reflexes testing
- postural analysis
- a range of balance testing to ascertain how efficiently you are negotiating gravity
Depending on the type of problem you’re having, I may need to refer you for an X-ray.
3. Treatment
Chiropractors have a reputation for neck and back cracking. But chiropractic is a discipline that encompasses a wide range of subtle and effective tools available to experienced practitioners.
My own treatment approach favours gentle low force and specific adjusting techniques. And we’ll always talk through the options available to you so you can make an informed choice before any treatment, however gentle.
4. Monitoring
Regularly monitoring your progress will show you how far you have come. We’ll re-do tests and review what has been done to continue to make the best progress.
5. Prevention
The more your pain improves, the less you’ll need to see me. I’ll give you the advice, information and strategies from the latest research to continue to look after yourself.
Live life pain free
For 32 years, I’ve been helping patients to walk out of my clinic free from: