Thoughts from the Chiropractor

Getting your spine adjusted is essential to the function of the nervous system and maintaining the structure that our musculature attaches to.  We were given 24 bones that surround and protect that nervous sytem so that we can bend and move.  Our bones move every day with our daily activities, therefore, getting adjusted on a regular schedule should become part of the maintenance of your body.  But what can you do at home to supplement your chiropractic adjustments and help your body function and heal as it should?

I am not going to re-invent the wheel here, the answer is exactly what we have been told for our whole lives; eat right, drink more water, exercise/stretch, and get enough rest.  It sounds simple, but with our busy schedules, it is far too easy to put the basic principles of self-care down the list of priorities.  My goal is to make those things easier for everyone, so here are my simple recommendation.

Eat better-  Better does not mean perfect.  If you are the person that can never eat a carbohydrate again and be happy, then more power to you, but most of us will have an extremely hard time doing that.  Instead, aim to reduce grains (bread, pasta, cereal, etc) and dairy (milk and cheese) which will help to decrease inflammation in the body and will likely have the added benefit of decreasing body weight, easing pressure on your joints.  When grocery shopping, stay on the outer perimeter of the store.  The aisles are primarily processed foods.  Your diet should be mostly meats, vegetables, and fruits.  When you screw up with your diet, make sure that it is the exception, not every other day.

Drink more water-  The old thinking was that we should drink 8 glasses of water per day, which is good for some people and not for others.  The way I want you to think about it is this; drink half of your body weight in ounces of water per day.  I weigh 200 pounds, which means I should be drinking 100 ounces of water per day.  That is a lot more than the 64 ounces of water that I would be getting from just 8 glasses.  This means you will be spending a little bit more time in the bathroom, especially when you first make the switch to drinking more, but your body will adjust.  Water means water, not sweet tea/coffee/tea/gatorade/juices/diet soda or any of the other excuses for water.

Exercise/stretch-  Keep this simple, we are not looking to become power lifters or marathon runners here.  Spend some time doing cardiovascular exercise (fast walking, jogging, running, biking, rowing, elliptical, swimming) 3 times per week for a minimum of 20 minutes.  If your heart rate is not getting elevated, then it is not achieving the desired outcome.  The goal behind cardio is not strength or weight loss, it is heart and lung health.  Do some form of strengthening (weights, bodyweight, resistance bands) 3 times per week, making sure to hit all of the major muscle groups.  Stretch as often as you can.  Several times per day.  If you stretch one side of your body, make sure to stretch the other side as well (left/right, front/back).  To make it easier, in your own living room, go on YouTube and do one of the million yoga videos that you can find and it likely will do a great job of getting you to stretch while also strengthening your stabilizing muscles.

Get enough rest-  This one is not rocket science, get more sleep.  Aim for 8 hours per night.  Go to bed earlier, there is no good reason to stay up until midnight.  Sleep in whatever position you get the best sleep in.  Sleep on whatever pillow/bed you get the best sleep on.  Your body needs rest to build itself back up.

If you can do better at these 4 things, your body will thank you and you can expect less discomfort and better function.

Questions about pain are a daily thing in chiropractic offices, and honestly, are very difficult to answer.  Pain manifests in everyone differently; numbness, tingling, radiating, sharp, dull, debilitating, headaches, hot, cold, cramping, weakness.  There are A LOT of different ways that we can be uncomfortable.  Some people have higher tolerance to pain than others, but no one, absolutely no one, wants to be in pain.  

Almost all people who walk through the door at chiropractic offices are there because they have something that hurts, so the question always gets asked, “how long is this going to last?”  It is a difficult question to answer, and most of the time, the answer is, “I don’t know.”  No one wants to hear that their doctor doesn’t know how long they will be in pain, but it is the truth.  Everybody is different, and everyone’s healing potential is different.  The 18 year old athlete recovers much faster than the 75 year old obese arthritic grandmother.  Disc bulges respond almost always the same while plantar fasciitis and tennis elbow never recover the way the text books would tell you.  You adjust one person expecting that it will take weeks for them to feel better, and they come in on their next visit raving that they feel like a million bucks.  Then the next person that you expect is going to do great takes triple the time to recover.  Then there are the people that you know will never be fully out of pain because of how much permanent damage they have done to their body through injuries, trauma, and arthritic changes.  These people you are trying to maximize whatever percentage of improvement their bodies are still capable of achieving.

Everyone is different, but the goal is always the same behind your adjustment.  If we can open up the communication from your brain to your body and free up nervous system function, your body is going to start to heal.  The amount of time that it takes to heal is often an unknown, but just like you, I want everyone to get better as fast as possible. 

Doing your part as the patient makes a HUGE difference when it comes to recovery.  Follow your visit frequency that your doctor recommends.  Eat a clean, anti-inflammatory diet (decrease or eliminate grains/breads/pasta, dairy, and highly processed foods).  Exercise 4-5 times per week (yoga, cardiovascular exercise, and weight training that is appropriate for your goals).  Avoid sitting for long periods of time.  Heat or ice to the area of complaint depending on what your doctor recommends.  Get enough rest.  All of these things are important for recovery from acute situations as well as keeping our bodies functioning how they were designed to.

If you do not understand what chiropractic really is, it is difficult to know when you should go to a chiropractor.  Do you wait until your back is killing you?  When you can’t get out of bed without excruciating pain in your back?  When you get a diagnosis of degenerative disc disease?  When you are in a car accident, or fall down the stairs?  Although all of these situations are absolutely times that you should go to the chiropractor, you should have gone to the chiropractor before things got this bad. 

Chiropractors love to say, “When is the best time to start chiropractic care?  The day you were born.  When is the next best time to start chiropractic care?  Today!” 

Chiropractic is about optimizing the brains communication with the rest of the body along the nervous system that runs inside the bones of the spine.  Better brain function is something that benefits everyone, all the time.  So despite how cheesy that saying by chiropractors is, it is completely true.  If you are alive, the best time to get your spine checked is as soon as possible so that your brain can start communicating with your body better, and you can start living life to your full potential!