Maintenance Care

Research will often change the course of clinical practice.  However, clinical practice is often way ahead of the research.  The reason is that thousands of clinicians making observations over time can come to some very right conclusions.  Case in point is a recent study in Spine (Jan 2011) on the value of maintained spinal manipulation for chronic low back pain.  The researchers out of a university in Egypt concluded that patients who received maintenance care over a ten month period had better outcomes than those who stopped treatment after one month of care.

This study is a validation of what chiropractors in the field have observed for many years.  Patients who receive maintenance adjustments have better long term results.  The researchers are finally coming to the same conclusion when it comes to chronic low back pain.  We'll have to wait for them to study maintenance care for other common chronic spinal conditions which practicing chiropractors have seen benefit from maintenance care.  In the mean time, consider whether your conditions would benefit from maintenance care.

How often should a person receive maintenance adjustments for their spine?  Tough question.  It depends on many factors including nutrition, stress, occupation, age, exercise, injury history, and other health conditions which may be present.  Once your Doctor of Chiropractic has worked with you for a while, they can give you a good treatment schedule that will be beneficial to you.  Remember you are a unique individual and what is best for me may not be best for you.

How often do I receive maintenance adjustments?  I have been adjusted once per week for the last 25 years.  It's worked very well for me.

The Mind & the Body

When he was still a stand up comedian, Bill Cosby taught me a very valuable lesson.  Although I didn't really grasp the significance of it until I was in my 30's.  The lesson: the mind and the body do not get along.  Mr. Cosby told us that in the dark the mind says, "We don't need to turn on the light, I know my way around this house."  Meanwhile the toes are saying, "Oh no you don't!  Please turn on the light!" (Paraphrased)  

As I started putting on a few years, I realized that my mind still thought I was young and physically invincible.  My body on the other hand knew it wasn't as resilient as it once had been.  The mind said, "That looks like fun!  Let's do it!"  And the body began to reply more frequently, "Oh no let's not.  I don't want to be hurt!"  More often than not the mind won out.  The mind of course always wanting to be in control.  

At this point in my life, although my mind still thinks I'm 25, the mind is paying more attention to the pleas of the body.  The mind is learning that the body is just not as resilient as it once was.  A tough lesson to learn.  As I watched the kids sledding yesterday at my church's toboggan party, my mind said, "Boy that looks like fun."  My body said,  "See how they are wiping out on the bumps.  That has to hurt."  The body won, thank goodness and I went home without a bruise. 

TV vs Computer

We got our first TV when I was a child.  It was a black and white behemoth.  We got one channel with sporadic reception.  But it took a commanding place in our household.  It was front and center in the living room.  It was also front and center in our minds.  It was television!  It demanded our attention.  We had to do things on it's terms.  If we wanted to see a particular show, we arranged our schedule around it.  Skipping commercials was not an option.  (They were often part of the show itself.)  TV hasn't changed much.  It still demands that the viewer do things on it's terms and it's schedule; even as hard as VCRs, DVRs & PVRs have tried to change that.

Computers, as an entertainment source, on the other hand allow the user to come and go as they please.   We decide what we want to view, when we want to view it.  The advertising is there, but again we choose whether to view it.  The user is in control.  (As I say this I also realize that while I technically control my computer, sometimes it seems the computer is doing it's own thing ;) 

There is an important analogy here for health care.  In the past the doctor told the patient what to do and when to do it.  Today the patient has the opportunity to take charge of their own health.  With adequate information patients can effectively evaluate available options and make the best decision for themselves and their families.  For who can make a better decision than the individual themselves.  The doctor becomes an adviser; part of their team, rather than someone who dictates what must be done. 

For many years now, I have tried to educate patients and give them the option to chose the care they feel is best and respect the choice they make.  All I can do is make recommendations.  I know that in my own health decisions I want to be in control, not controlled.  I want to be on the computer, not in front of the TV.  How about you?

Potholes

As I was driving to the office the other day, I realized that pothole season has begun in Medicine Hat.  Given the large crop that has sprung up already, it looks like we will have a bumper crop of potholes this year.  Driving my wife's Smart is like trying to navigate a battlefield.  During the warmer parts of the day, the city is attempting to patch some of the bigger craters.  I fear they are fighting a loosing battle until spring arrives.  A few freeze/thaw cycles and the holes will be back; only bigger than before.  The only way to really fix the road is to resurface it completely.

This reminds me very much of what I see happening in the lives of many of my patients.  They have a health issue and work very hard initially to get rid of the symptoms.  They have their spines adjusted, they exercise, they take nutritional supplements, they get massages and laser therapy.  Behold they feel better!  Just like the patched road, life seams to be smooth.  But like the patched road, their body's are not strong.  A few stresses and their symptoms are back again.  Like the pothole, it's often worse when it returns.

Just like resurfacing the road is a better long term solution, continuing doing things that will heal and strengthen the body is the best thing for us humans.  It means changing one's focus from symptoms to health.  It means taking a long term view.  Although the cost may be higher initially, the long term benefits of an improved life actually reduces future expenditures.  It means focusing on the body, even when it isn't screaming with symptoms.  Everything we do every day affects us positively or negatively.  Become aware of how the body is affected and make choices for long term benefit.  

May your roads be smooth.

Eyes of a Chiropractor

The way we look at the world is a product of our experiences and training.  As I made my way through my chiropractic education, I realized that my view of the world was changing.  That's a good thing.  Education is pointless if all it does is give us knowledge.  Education should enable us to process information in a continually more mature fashion.  As a result we think differently; we see things differently.  This was certainly the case during my education at chiropractic college.

My view of the world became less status quo.  I questioned the conventional theories of health care and embraced the concept of the body being a self healing organism designed by an all knowing Creator.  A healthy body is one that functions as it was designed to.  All its parts work together in harmony.  When the harmony ceases, the body becomes unhealthy or diseased.  Once harmony is lost, it can only be restored by improving the body as a whole, not just individual parts.

The chiropractic concept that health comes from above down and inside out became real to me.  The ability to heal is God given and within us.  That I could heal anything is incomprehensible!  All I or any doctor can do is to turn on the body's healing abilities.  I am just an instrument.  A humbling and freeing realization.