10 Things You Might Not Know About Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic is still very misunderstood, and misconception perpetuates misinformation and downplays the positive impact of chiropractic care.
It’s commonly known that people consider visiting a chiropractor when they have some serious back or neck pain, but chiropractors do much more than just fix pain in your neck or back.
Sure, they do that as well, but there is a lot more to their practice than fixing a simple (albeit bad) pain. In addition to treating that, they treat a variety of muscle and joint problems as well as referred pain, which is when a problem with one area of your body is creating pain in another area.
So, what are the things you might not be aware of about chiropractic practice and care?
1. It Doesn’t (Shouldn’t) Hurt
Thinking about going to a chiropractor for an adjustment can be a bit of a nervous experience, it’s unknown territory, after all. One of the most common concerns most patients have is whether it hurts? If done right, chiropractic adjustments don’t hurt.
Another question is, what are the popping sounds you hear during the adjustments? Is it the sound of bones cracking? Ouch, that sure sounds painful. However, you will be relieved to know that no one is cracking your bones and the popping sounds you hear are created by the gas being released.
The release of the said gas creates this popping sound and it is perfectly normal and completely painless. It’s similar to cracking your knuckles and that, we all know, is painless and sometimes even enjoyable.
During a proper chiropractic adjustment, keep your muscles loose and relaxed and you won’t feel anything but good. Now, there are exceptions to the rule. If you’re in a lot of pain there is a chance that you have strained muscles or perhaps it’s the first time you’ve been adjusted in a long time. For some reason, it can hurt, but nothing to fear or feel anxious about. Once your body gets adjusted, it should not hurt.
2. Consistency Is Key
Usually, patients seek chiropractic care when they are in a lot of pain and it means that there is a lot of healing to be done and naturally it will take time. Like almost every kind of treatment, chiropractic treatments won’t cure your body in just one or two sessions and you shouldn’t expect to see the result right away or worse, write the practice off after one session. Getting better takes times and it may take a few sessions to start seeing results. Each session brings you a step closer to your well-being.
The amount of time it takes depends on your body’s healing capacity, your chiropractor’s skill and experience, and the nature of the problem. Keeping this in mind will help you stay consistent and allow your body and the chiropractor to do their respective jobs.
Some start seeing results right away and some notice improvements after a few sessions. Another thing to remember is that chiropractic care alone is not going to bring positive change alone and you’d need to bring some changes in your lifestyle to undo the damage as well as heal. With that said, it’s important to mention that, while it may take more than a few sessions to see improvement, with time the frequency of the sessions decreases as your body heals. With time and care, you can rid yourself of the problem and eventually won’t need chiropractic care at all.
3. Bones Only Move Width of a Piece of Paper
During an adjustment, you might feel like someone has moved your bone inches away from its original position, but it doesn’t work like that. A typical adjustment looks like this: a single high-velocity arm thrust followed by the audible release of gas, which we now know is just gas trapped between joints being released.
The reaction and the results of chiropractic adjustment vary from person to person. Some can walk out of the session with a great feeling of instant relief, while others may experience a bit of soreness and aching. Both the reactions are completely normal and you can expect some soreness after the adjustment lasting until 24 hours or so post-treatment. You can relieve the soreness by placing an ice pack over the sore area, however, it shouldn’t last more than one day.
4. Chiropractors Go to School as Long as Medical Doctors
There is a common misconception that chiropractors are just celebrated ‘masseuse’ and I get where this misconception may come from. Since chiropractors and masseuse both work with their hands, how different can their practice be? Right? Wrong. Many people are surprised to hear that chiropractors are, in fact, licensed doctors and they have gone to school as long as medical doctors.
A Chiropractic doctor (DC) receives almost a similar amount of training as their MD counterparts and the only significant difference between a chiropractor and a medical doctor is the kind of training each receives. Doctors are trained in the surgical and pharmaceutical areas of the field, while chiropractors receive hands-on training in nutrition, anatomy, pediatrics, and so on. While both the doctors have their differences, few things among them are similar including clinical residency, passing a board exam to obtain a license, and their ability to make feel better!
5. Chiropractic Care Isn’t New
Chiropractic care, in recent years, has gain popularity, but does it mean it’s a new science, with little research in the area? Not at all. Chiropractors have been around since ages, in fact, the practice dates back to hundreds of years ago. There have been carvings and images in ancient Egypt which look similar to chiropractic care. That’s really old!
The use of essential oils and massages was common among Egyptians. As a matter of fact, in the Bible, Luke the physician had a better chance of being a chiropractor than a medical doctor because chiropractic has been around for a long time. Though, of course, the practice as we know it is radically different than it was 300 years ago.
6. Chiropractors Are Human Anatomy Experts
We have already discussed how the major difference between physicians and chiropractors is their areas of expertise. While physicians treat with medicine, chiropractors are an expert in nutrition, lifestyle improvement via exercise therapy, physical anatomy and manipulations, bone disorders, and nervous system disorders.
Since chiropractors work with bodies, most chiropractic colleges spend more time on human anatomy than medical schools do. This makes sense because a chiropractor needs to know not only where the bones are but also be able to physically feel the muscles to identify the different structures and identify the abnormality.
7. Chiropractors Have Some of the Most Sensitive Fingers of Any Profession
When someone’s entire practice revolves around their ability to heal with hands, it goes without saying that they ought to have magic in their hands – literally and figuratively. Chiropractors have some of the most sensitive fingers in the world and one of my final exams in Chiropractic College was to feel human hair through a hundred pages of a phone book. That’s right, we trained our hands so much that we can feel a human hair through a hundred pages of a phone book!
8. Spinal Discs Are Actually Stronger Than Bones
Back pain and spinal disc dislocation are some of the main problems bringing people to chiropractor’s doorstep. Since the spinal disc poses so many problems, it is a common perception that discs are really fragile and weak. This is wrong. Discs are actually way stronger than the bones surrounding the discs, however, once they move from their initial place, they tend to become weak since the surrounding support (the bone) is no longer there to strengthen and support it.
There’s actually a research study where they found that you can compress a spine so hard that you will explode the bone before we explode the discs. That’s how tough and resilient they are, but that’s only when the bones are in the correct position. Most problems arise when the vertebra shifts out of position and now even a simple act of bending will put abnormal load and pressure on the discs.
9. Chiropractic Care Is One of the Safest of All the Healthcare Professions
There are no downsides to chiropractic care unless you count getting rid of the pain as a downside (I am sure you don’t). Chiropractic methods are safe and while you may experience some soreness after a session, there are literally no long-term (bad) effects. Most of the patients walk out of the clinic pain-free and a feeling of instant rejuvenation.
Another interesting way I can prove this to you is by sharing some statistics about malpractice insurance. So, a typical medical doctor pays somewhere between $50,000 – $150,000 per year as their malpractice insurance and guess how much my malpractice was last year? Only $1500! This alone is an indicator of how safe the practice is and there are no downsides to trying it if it helps you relieve your pain and help your body heal.
10. The First Chiropractic Adjustment Made a Deaf Man Able to Hear Again
The story of how chiropractic care got its start is really fascinating and very interesting. The incident that started the whole profession was when a deaf man named Harvey Lillard regained his ability to hear after some adjustments in his spine by a magnetic healer named DD Palmer in 1895. He had mastery in human anatomy and he just physically felt the man’s spine and instantly knew that something doesn’t feel right. He did some version of a crude chiropractic adjustment and the man was able to regain his ability to hear.
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10 Things You Might Not Know About Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic is still very misunderstood, and misconception perpetuates misinformation and downplays the positive impact of chiropractic care.
It’s commonly known that people consider visiting a chiropractor when they have some serious back or neck pain, but chiropractors do much more than just fix pain in your neck or back.
Sure, they do that as well, but there is a lot more to their practice than fixing a simple (albeit bad) pain. In addition to treating that, they treat a variety of muscle and joint problems as well as referred pain, which is when a problem with one area of your body is creating pain in another area.
So, what are the things you might not be aware of about chiropractic practice and care?
1. It Doesn’t (Shouldn’t) Hurt
Thinking about going to a chiropractor for an adjustment can be a bit of a nervous experience, it’s unknown territory, after all. One of the most common concerns most patients have is whether it hurts? If done right, chiropractic adjustments don’t hurt.
Another question is, what are the popping sounds you hear during the adjustments? Is it the sound of bones cracking? Ouch, that sure sounds painful. However, you will be relieved to know that no one is cracking your bones and the popping sounds you hear are created by the gas being released.
The release of the said gas creates this popping sound and it is perfectly normal and completely painless. It’s similar to cracking your knuckles and that, we all know, is painless and sometimes even enjoyable.
During a proper chiropractic adjustment, keep your muscles loose and relaxed and you won’t feel anything but good. Now, there are exceptions to the rule. If you’re in a lot of pain there is a chance that you have strained muscles or perhaps it’s the first time you’ve been adjusted in a long time. For some reason, it can hurt, but nothing to fear or feel anxious about. Once your body gets adjusted, it should not hurt.
2. Consistency Is Key
Usually, patients seek chiropractic care when they are in a lot of pain and it means that there is a lot of healing to be done and naturally it will take time. Like almost every kind of treatment, chiropractic treatments won’t cure your body in just one or two sessions and you shouldn’t expect to see the result right away or worse, write the practice off after one session. Getting better takes times and it may take a few sessions to start seeing results. Each session brings you a step closer to your well-being.
The amount of time it takes depends on your body’s healing capacity, your chiropractor’s skill and experience, and the nature of the problem. Keeping this in mind will help you stay consistent and allow your body and the chiropractor to do their respective jobs.
Some start seeing results right away and some notice improvements after a few sessions. Another thing to remember is that chiropractic care alone is not going to bring positive change alone and you’d need to bring some changes in your lifestyle to undo the damage as well as heal. With that said, it’s important to mention that, while it may take more than a few sessions to see improvement, with time the frequency of the sessions decreases as your body heals. With time and care, you can rid yourself of the problem and eventually won’t need chiropractic care at all.
3. Bones Only Move Width of a Piece of Paper
During an adjustment, you might feel like someone has moved your bone inches away from its original position, but it doesn’t work like that. A typical adjustment looks like this: a single high-velocity arm thrust followed by the audible release of gas, which we now know is just gas trapped between joints being released.
The reaction and the results of chiropractic adjustment vary from person to person. Some can walk out of the session with a great feeling of instant relief, while others may experience a bit of soreness and aching. Both the reactions are completely normal and you can expect some soreness after the adjustment lasting until 24 hours or so post-treatment. You can relieve the soreness by placing an ice pack over the sore area, however, it shouldn’t last more than one day.
4. Chiropractors Go to School as Long as Medical Doctors
There is a common misconception that chiropractors are just celebrated ‘masseuse’ and I get where this misconception may come from. Since chiropractors and masseuse both work with their hands, how different can their practice be? Right? Wrong. Many people are surprised to hear that chiropractors are, in fact, licensed doctors and they have gone to school as long as medical doctors.
A Chiropractic doctor (DC) receives almost a similar amount of training as their MD counterparts and the only significant difference between a chiropractor and a medical doctor is the kind of training each receives. Doctors are trained in the surgical and pharmaceutical areas of the field, while chiropractors receive hands-on training in nutrition, anatomy, pediatrics, and so on. While both the doctors have their differences, few things among them are similar including clinical residency, passing a board exam to obtain a license, and their ability to make feel better!
5. Chiropractic Care Isn’t New
Chiropractic care, in recent years, has gain popularity, but does it mean it’s a new science, with little research in the area? Not at all. Chiropractors have been around since ages, in fact, the practice dates back to hundreds of years ago. There have been carvings and images in ancient Egypt which look similar to chiropractic care. That’s really old!
The use of essential oils and massages was common among Egyptians. As a matter of fact, in the Bible, Luke the physician had a better chance of being a chiropractor than a medical doctor because chiropractic has been around for a long time. Though, of course, the practice as we know it is radically different than it was 300 years ago.
6. Chiropractors Are Human Anatomy Experts
We have already discussed how the major difference between physicians and chiropractors is their areas of expertise. While physicians treat with medicine, chiropractors are an expert in nutrition, lifestyle improvement via exercise therapy, physical anatomy and manipulations, bone disorders, and nervous system disorders.
Since chiropractors work with bodies, most chiropractic colleges spend more time on human anatomy than medical schools do. This makes sense because a chiropractor needs to know not only where the bones are but also be able to physically feel the muscles to identify the different structures and identify the abnormality.
7. Chiropractors Have Some of the Most Sensitive Fingers of Any Profession
When someone’s entire practice revolves around their ability to heal with hands, it goes without saying that they ought to have magic in their hands – literally and figuratively. Chiropractors have some of the most sensitive fingers in the world and one of my final exams in Chiropractic College was to feel human hair through a hundred pages of a phone book. That’s right, we trained our hands so much that we can feel a human hair through a hundred pages of a phone book!
8. Spinal Discs Are Actually Stronger Than Bones
Back pain and spinal disc dislocation are some of the main problems bringing people to chiropractor’s doorstep. Since the spinal disc poses so many problems, it is a common perception that discs are really fragile and weak. This is wrong. Discs are actually way stronger than the bones surrounding the discs, however, once they move from their initial place, they tend to become weak since the surrounding support (the bone) is no longer there to strengthen and support it.
There’s actually a research study where they found that you can compress a spine so hard that you will explode the bone before we explode the discs. That’s how tough and resilient they are, but that’s only when the bones are in the correct position. Most problems arise when the vertebra shifts out of position and now even a simple act of bending will put abnormal load and pressure on the discs.
9. Chiropractic Care Is One of the Safest of All the Healthcare Professions
There are no downsides to chiropractic care unless you count getting rid of the pain as a downside (I am sure you don’t). Chiropractic methods are safe and while you may experience some soreness after a session, there are literally no long-term (bad) effects. Most of the patients walk out of the clinic pain-free and a feeling of instant rejuvenation.
Another interesting way I can prove this to you is by sharing some statistics about malpractice insurance. So, a typical medical doctor pays somewhere between $50,000 – $150,000 per year as their malpractice insurance and guess how much my malpractice was last year? Only $1500! This alone is an indicator of how safe the practice is and there are no downsides to trying it if it helps you relieve your pain and help your body heal.
10. The First Chiropractic Adjustment Made a Deaf Man Able to Hear Again
The story of how chiropractic care got its start is really fascinating and very interesting. The incident that started the whole profession was when a deaf man named Harvey Lillard regained his ability to hear after some adjustments in his spine by a magnetic healer named DD Palmer in 1895. He had mastery in human anatomy and he just physically felt the man’s spine and instantly knew that something doesn’t feel right. He did some version of a crude chiropractic adjustment and the man was able to regain his ability to hear.