How Does Chiropractic Work?
Misalignments in the spine can be caused by a multitude of different factors including, but not limited to: physical, emotional, and chemical stressors. As the body proceeds through daily life, it must adapt to the effects of those misalignments. Commonly, pain is the first side-effect of vertebral subluxation that patients consciously notice but frequently, the misalignment has been present for a much longer period of time. Quite often, the period of time between the moment of misalignment and the onset of noticeable symptoms spans many years. The body is a master of adaptation and will compensate for changes to provide the best function possible. Overtime, the compensations that result from a vertebral misalignment lead to a cumulative negative impact on the health of the individual. The long-term effects of vertebral subluxations include but are not limited to: Degeneration of intervertebral discs, leg pain, poor posture, back pain, headaches, poor concentration, neck pain, arm/hand pain, and a host of other ailments. To see more conditions that may be helped with chiropractic see our What Can It Help section.
Patients that visit a chiropractor regularly understand the importance of correcting vertebral subluxations as soon as they are detectable, before they have the chance to do any permanent damage. Frequently, patients will ask why it takes multiple visits to correct a chronic subluxation. The simple explanation is that all processes involving the human body require time. Just as the body did not degrade overnight, the healing process requires time to restore the body to its correct state and the vertebra must be kept in proper alignment during the healing process. It is the goal of a chiropractor to align the vertebral segments and to keep them in alignment, giving the body an opportunity to stabilize the problem segments. Once stability has been achieved, the frequency of chiropractic adjustments decreases.
Through careful and comprehensive analysis of the body, chiropractors are able to determine if there are misalignments within the spine that may be contributing to interference in the nervous system. If it is determined that there is a misalignment, chiropractors use specific and gentle adjustments to restore the proper position and motion of the misaligned vertebra.
The doctors at Wolfe Family Chiropractic in Metamora use a number of different forms of analysis to evaluate the body including: Palpation (trained analysis by hand), Digital Thermography, X-Ray, Posture Analysis, and Neurological Testing, to name a few. We are happy to be providing this care to individuals in the Lapeer, Oxford, Metamora, Dryden, Lake Orion and surrounding areas.