Stampede Time

The annual Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede is now going on.  It's the time of year when all things western are celebrated.  Living in Medicine Hat, it's hard not to be involved at least to some extent because ranching has historically and remains a big part of the economy of the area.  We have a large number of ranchers as patients in the office.  Although it's dangerous to generalize, but I'm going to state with confidence that as a group ranchers are wonderful people.  Their connection to the land, to their community, and to their roots helps them to develop great character traits.  

Work on the ranch can be physically demanding, involving heavy lifting as well as riding and wrangling.  I'd like to share a case of a rancher patient.  Todd (not his real name) came to our office with a complaint of low back and pain in both hips that had been persistent for the previous year.  The pain was constant and interfered with his sleep as well as making his work nearly impossible to do.  Riding his horse had become shear agony.  This was a serious situation for this 32 year old man!  No work, no pay when you are a self employed rancher.  Todd also had been experiencing headaches daily for the previous 5 years.  He discounted the severity of the headaches, but his wife insisted they were also interfering significantly with his life.

The exam we performed  showed several vertebral subluxations in Todd's spine.  We adjusted him using Activator Methods protocols.  After his first adjustment he experienced significant relief and was able to ride again. Even though he lives 2 1/2 hours from our office, he was desperate to get better and took the time necessary to come for treatment.   After the second adjustment he was able to lift light weight again and the headaches were very intermittent and mild.  After the fourth visit to our office Todd was pain free; no headaches, no back or hip pain.  He was pleased with the way his back now felt, but was ecstatic about how great it was to have no headaches.  Once the headaches had gone he realized how much they had been affecting him.


I don't necessarily like to relate cases where the results are nearly miraculous, but there is something very significant about Todd's case that can be a lesson for all of us.

One of the advantages of working on someone who rides horses regularly is that they usually have great core strength.  This is a real asset when rehabilitating the spine.  Strong core muscles are essential to support the spine.  Ranchers tend to respond very well to chiropractic care for this reason.  Many of the work activities, not to mention rodeoing,  can be hard on their backs, their strong core muscles help them recover quickly when they do injure themselves.
 
From my observations working with ranchers for many years now, their strong core muscles really protect their spines.  For those of us who do not have the opportunity to ride horses regularly, we have to find other forms of exercise to help us.  Our office can certainly provide you with some good core exercises.  Sorry, they won't be as much fun as riding a horse.