Thoughts from the Chiropractor

People who have never been adjusted are usually nervous about letting someone work on their spine due to their fear that the adjustment might hurt.  That fear is understandable because they have never been adjusted, and most people have a healthy fear of the unknown. 

Moving the vertebrae of the spine through chiropractic adjustments looks barbaric in videos on YouTube, but in reality is done with light force and high speed.  That means that the push on the bone is not hard at all, it is just done quickly, so as to move the segment that the doctor is touching, instead of everything else around it.   The light force means that for almost everyone, getting adjusted is easy and comfortable. 

All that being said, there are times that patients come in the office in terrible discomfort BEFORE they get adjusted.  For those people, getting adjusted is not always a walk in the park.  As their condition improves, the adjustments should get more comfortable.

Along the lines of comfort with adjusting, patients should expect that they will experience soreness following their first few adjustments.  This soreness is due to the inflammation that is a result of moving vertebrae.  The new position of the bones results in different stresses on the musculature and ligaments, causing inflammation.  That inflammatory response becomes less as the body gets familiar with the new position of the bones and the new mobility that results from proper joint alignment.  A great analogy for this experience of soreness is working out at the gym for the first time.  If you haven’t been working out, the first few times you exercise, you will be sore, but if you continue, that soreness will decrease each workout until it is not a problem anymore.  It is the same with getting adjusted.

In closing, chiropractic adjustments are low force and should be comfortable for most people, and are only uncomfortable for those who are already in a lot of pain.

I have the pleasure of adjusting a lot of people in my office, but by far the most fulfilling and fun to work with are the children.  When I talk about this with people outside of the chiropractic world, it often surprises them that children would need to get adjusted.

First we have to remember that the main reason for adjusting anyone is to open up the pathway from the brain to the body so that the nervous system functions properly.  That is not just limited to people who are hurting, it is important for everyone.

Secondly, children’s bodies are growing rapidly and their brains are learning and building neural pathways much faster than when we are adults.  It makes sense that removing pressure from the nervous system helps their bodies to grow during the most important years of brain development.

Lastly, and maybe most obviously, kids put themselves through a lot of trauma.  I have a one and a half year old daughter who has just recently learned to walk, and that process had her falling down hundreds of times per day.  My four year old son is trying to keep up with his eight year old brother and falls off the monkey bars, trips over his soccer ball, wrestles with his brother, bumps his head against everything, and generally is just a crazy kid.  My eight year old is busy playing soccer, flag football, falling off his scooter or bike, and somehow managing to twist himself into a pretzel while laying on the couch watching television.  If you have been around kids for any amount of time, you know what I'm talking about.  Kids are hard on their bodies!  All of these traumas are part of kids having fun and learning how to use their bodies and are absolutely necessary for their development, but because of all this trauma, they should be getting their spines checked on a regular basis.

After reading this, hopefully you understand why it is even more important for kids to get checked and adjusted than adults.  Go get your kids checked!