People undergo chiropractic care for three different reasons: pain relief, spinal correction orpreventive care.
Which group do you fit into?
There are chiropractors that specialize in pediatrics, others in geriatrics, and many in other patient specialty care like sports, nutrition, accident care, radiology, neurology and orthopedics, just to name the more common.
These specializations reflect the broad areas of service placed on the chiropractic profession by its patients. People of all ages see chiropractors, as deduced from the many specializations within the profession. So one starts to ask the question:
“Who is a chiropractic patient or who goes to the chiropractor anyway?”
1. Pain focused patients represent about 50% of the people who visit a chiropractor.
With the drug companies’ constant barrage of “relief” advertising, this comes as no surprise.
Society teaches us that symptoms like pain are bad and that relief of symptoms is how to restore your health.
Alternatively, those who seek out a chiropractor for pain relief have realized the limitations of a drug-only approach and/or of their reasonable concerns over the side-effects of taking drugs.
2. Spinal corrective care focus is the second group of chiropractic patients. Seeing the benefits of solving a problem that tends to repeat itself or can get worse over time, they opt for spinal rehabilitation; representing another 40% of chiropractic patients.
For about half of these patients they conclude their rehabilitative care, having reached 85% to 95% improvement, are released from care with no specific maintenance schedule. They are advised to return only if or when signs and symptoms return of change.
The other half experience only 65% to 80% of needed repair in that 2-3 month period due mainly to the extensive physical damages from decades of structural wear and tear or due to the severe nature of the injuries originally sustained. They are placed on a particular maintenance schedule for anywhere from 6 to 18 months, allowing for the slow micro tissue improvements that require more time for recovery.
There are also many lifestyle changes incorporated into this level of care because what a person does 24/7 will impact their chronic health issues. Near the end of this program of care people are then looking at how to best look forward to the future and where chiropractic fits into their healthcare decisions. The greater majority opt to return as needed, if at all.
3. Wellness Care. This group of chiropractic patients are the remaining 10% – 20% that have made enough observations about life and health.
They have sought to advance their personal philosophy on health, where seeing their chiropractor on a regular but infrequent program of care elect to enter into a personal relationship with their chiropractor, in a type of partnership where they are in charge of their health, but they value the input and the benefits of their chiropractor in their ongoing health care decisions.
Interestingly enough, these are the minority who experience less medical doctor visits over time and are not likely to end up in a hospital, short of being hit by a bus. They also, when they relocate to another city, seek out a similarly aligned chiropractor to continue this level of personal care.
If you are fortunate indeed to find a chiropractor nearby you should at least have your spine checked. Come with an open mind to the special focus that comes from a non-drug, non-surgical, holistic, naturalistic and vitalistic practitioner. It is to your advantage that this profession exists.
