Laying the foundation

Chiropractic care is like building a house – certain things have to happen in a particular order in order for everything to stand strong and work correctly. When building a house, if you tried to put up your walls before you had a solid foundation, your walls would be weak and eventually collapse. If you tried to put on your roof before the walls were ready, you would run into the same problem. The same is true for your body. Your body has to go through a particular plan of care in order to repair itself correctly and fully. There are three general phases of chiropractic care . . .

Phase 1: Relief Care 

Most people are under the assumption that if they don’t feel any pain that there is nothing wrong with them – that they are healthy. Unfortunately, pain is a very poor indicator of health. Symptoms are the last phase of your bodies dysfunction, not the first.  By the time symptoms are manifested, your body has been building this condition for many months or years.    In fact, pain and other symptoms frequently only appear after a disease or other condition has become advanced. For example, consider a cavity in your tooth. Does it hurt when it first develops or only after it has become serious? How about heart disease? Regardless of whether you are talking about cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stress or problems with the spine, pain is usually the last thing to appear.   Symptoms will however be the first things to go away, long before correction.  When you begin chiropractic care, pain is also the first symptom to disappear, even though much of the underlying condition remains.  In this 1st phase of care you will begin to feel better, have increased energy, and function better.  The time frame of this phase will vary depending on how long the problem has been there.  It can take as little as 2-3 weeks or as long as 12-16 months. 

Phase 2: Corrective/Restorative Care

The corrective care phase is a vital phase for allowing your body to express optimal health and wellness. If all we did was to reduce the pain and stop there, the chances of the condition recurring are much greater. In order to prevent a rapid recurrence of symptoms, it is necessary to continue receiving care even though your symptoms are gone.  In this phase your body is rebuilding a healthy foundation of all organs, muscles, and tissues in order for you body to be able to function at 100% and adapt properly to all stresses in life.  If we adapt properly then the body is able to maintain health. The frequency of your adjustments will be less often because your body has been retrained to hold it's adjustments for longer periods of time.  The phase can vary greatly in time depending on the severity and length of time that the body has been building your particular condition. 

Phase 3: Wellness Care

Now that your body has healed and rebuilt a healthy foundation, routine chiropractic care will help to ensure that your body stays healthy and in optimal condition.  Just like continuing an exercise program and eating well in order to sustain the benefits of exercise and proper diet, it is necessary to continue chiropractic care to ensure your body's health and optimal functioning.  With a healthy foundation you will be less likely to injure yourself, and less likely to become ill.  Ronald Pero, M.D.  of New York Preventative Medicine Institute and Environmental Health of NYU performed a research study in 1986 showed that long term chiropractic patients had a 200% greater immune competency than a medically well patient who was not adjusted, and a 400% greater immune competency than patients who had cancer or other serious diseases.  

Making chiropractic care a part of your lifestyle will allow you to maintain better health, perform better, and enjoy the life and activities you love.