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.

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.