….just one, but it takes a hundred visits!
That might just be my favorite chiropractic joke! Most people laugh when they hear it because it hints at something they have wondered about but rarely ask their chiropractor: Why do I have to keep coming back to the chiropractor, especially when my back doesn’t hurt any more?
It is a fair question if pain is the reason they sought care in the first place. And for about 90% of chiropractic patients, pain IS the reason they first sought care.
But did you know that the very first chiropractic adjustment had nothing to do with pain at all?
That’s right! DD Palmer, the founder of chiropractic, performed the first chiropractic adjustment on a man named Harvey Lillard to see if he could help with hearing loss!
Chiropractic, from the very beginning, was never about fixing a pain problem. Don’t get me wrong, it’s amazing at relieving all sorts of pain issues. But that is not what chiropractic is ultimately about.
The Real Goal Your Chiropractor Has in Mind
In over 25 years of caring for patients of every age, I have found that chiropractic boils down to one simple goal: getting the mechanics of the spine (or any joint for that matter) out of the way of the electrical function of the nerves. That’s it.
[Read more: Re-Train a Spine with One Chiropractic Visit?]
When that happens, your body is able to take over the job of healing all sorts of things from pain and inflammation to respiratory issues to colic!
Getting the mechanics of the spine out of the way of the nerves is hard work and often requires a complete retraining of how you use your spine and how the joints and muscles work together.
A series of chiropractic adjustments is needed to accomplish this. Joints and muscles need to be retrained to function properly, much like an athlete learns a sport over time with repetitive practice, and not all at once.
[Read more: Once You Start Going to a Chiropractor You Can’t Ever Stop Going…Can You?]
I jokingly tell my patients that I can get them to do a full side split in one of two ways–all at once right away which would require tearing some things, or over a few months by stretching things out slowly. The point is that changing a spine (and therefore the function of the nerves) is a process and not an event.
Give your care the time and frequency it needs to work for you and the result will be better health over time.
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