Healthy Body... Healthy Life... Healthy Mind
Chiropractic Care
Why are you going to the chiropractor... is there something wrong with you? Chiropractic care is not just for when you need it, but it can also be a powerful preventative maintenance tool.
Of the millions of people who visit doctors of chiropractic each year, a large number have had whiplash injuries. Whiplash injuries occur when a person’s spine, usually the neck, was hurt by being unexpectedly or suddenly thrown very quickly in one direction and then in the opposite direction. You might say the head is “whipped” around the neck.
Whiplash is one of the most common consequences of auto accidents; it is estimated that 15-30% of car occupants will suffer neck pain.
In almost all whiplash-type injuries the spine is thrown first in one direction and then is pulled in the opposite direction because the muscles react to the initial injury by pulling or rebounding in the opposite direction. The rebound can and often does cause injury to your soft tissues-muscles, ligaments, tendons, and other soft tissues. Occasionally a whiplash injury can result from side to side motion of the neck, also called left and right lateral hyperflexion.
There is more to whiplash than being thrown forward and backward. Usually the head is turned to the right or left a little when an accident occurs and this can complicate the effects of the injury.
Whiplash can be mild to severe and can range from rapid healing to slow healing to long term chronic pain and impairment. It can cause serious problems because it can cause long-term damage. Studies show that a large percentage of whiplash sufferers, from 50 to as much as 88% may continue to suffer pain and some amount of disability for years after the accident.
Depending on the severity of the accident, whiplash damage can range from barely noticeable stiffness to death. A worst case scenario occurs in a small minority of cases where there is actual bone fracture and spinal cord damage causing paralysis of death.
An individual who has been in an accident should first make sure that there are no life-threatening emergency – broken bones, bleeding or hemorrhage, internal organ damage, serious contusions or abrasions, shock and other damage. This is the specialty of emergency medicine, which does its best work when dealing with trauma or accidental injury. After the patient is out of immediate danger, and when it is safe to do so, their spine desperately needs to be checked by a doctor of chiropractic for life-threatening spinal damage, called the vertebral subluxation complex.
That is essential because many whiplash sufferers live in pain for years after the injury, forced to survive on painkillers, muscle relaxants and various therapies including surgery because the spinal damage a doctor of chiropractic can correct has not been eliminated. In many cases, a visit to the chiropractor may give great relief safely, quickly and without surgery or drugs.
Chiropractic Care
Not only whiplash but any kind of accident may cause the vertebral subluxation complex where the vertebrae (spinal bones) are out of alignment and ‘impinging’ or irritating spinal nerves. Painkillers, muscle relaxers, sedatives or physical therapy cannot re-align the vertebrae and relieve the nervous system from pressure. What is needed is chiropractic care (spinal adjustment) to re-align the spinal column.
A whiplash injury is a dramatic example of subluxations produced by sudden accident or trauma. Other subluxations may be caused by poor posture, repeated stressful movements, poor sleeping positions, bad diet, fatigue, constant emotional stress or even extensive dental work.
Postscript
You can always benefit from a healthy spine no matter what disease or condition you have. It is as important for healing as good nutrition, water and sleep.
A doctor of chiropractic will remove your vertebral subluxation complex to help you better tune in to your natural innate healing ability for better physical, mental and emotional healing. That is the goal of your doctor of chiropractic to strengthen your inner healing ability.
Are you, your family and your friends carrying the vertebral subluxation complex in your spine? Only a chiropractic spinal checkup can tell.
Chiropractic if you are pregnant? Absolutely!! Keeping your spine free from the vertebral subluxation complex is one of the best things you can do if you are pregnant. If there is one group of people who need chiropractic spinal checkups more than any other, It is pregnant women.
Chiropractic for Your Body and Your Baby
Your doctor of chiropractic will examine your spinal column for misalignments (called vertebral subluxations) causing spine and nerve stress. Vertebral subluxations damage the nervous system and affect the workings of the entire body. If subluxations are present, the chiropractor will correct them with a chiropractic spinal adjustment in order to release the spinal stress. Without subluxations the body will function better, have higher resistance to disease and express more wholeness (health) than a body with uncorrected subluxations. That is the essential message of chiropractic.
All this is extremely important for the pregnant woman who needs to have her body as healthy and strong as possible in order to handle the rigors of pregnancy and childbirth. Chiropractic care will help ensure that the reproductive and other systems so essential for a healthy pregnancy receive a nerve supply from the spinal column without interference. The slightest interference to the nerve supply could adversely affect the mother and the developing fetus.
Another excellent reason for seeing a chiropractor during pregnancy is that it is a drugless health care system. Drugs, whether prescription or over-the-counter, can harm the growing fetus. There is no such thing as a safe drug. The safest thing for a pregnant woman to do is avoid all drugs and seek natural non-drug alternatives for health care if at all possible. Almost all types of drugs and medications have been linked to fetal damage or malformations.
It is virtually impossible to specify any drug that will not result in an increased frequency of congenital malformations when administered in a certain dos to a sufficiently large panel of different laboratory animals. No drugs should be prescribed during pregnancy without weighing the maternal need against the risk of fetal damage. Some common substances which can damage the mother and fetus are antibiotics (including tetracycline), aspirin, alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana and cocaine.
Pregnant Women Have Special Concerns
There are so many things pregnant women worry about: staying pregnant, carrying the baby to full term, morning sickness, the baby developing normally, backaches, leg pain and if their labor will be safe and (hopefully) easy.
Can chiropractic care help ease their minds? Chiropractic care has been observed to help pregnant and birthing women a number of ways. Chiropractors have been performing spinal adjustments on pregnant women for over a hundred years and have noted that chiropractic spinal corrective care may help maintain pregnancy, control vomiting during pregnancy, deliver full-term infants with ease and produce healthier infants.
Common Questions & Answers Regarding Chiropractic & Pregnancy
Is chiropractic care safe in pregnancy? Very safe and very sensible for both mother and baby.
Is it difficult to receive a chiropractic adjustment when pregnant? Not at all. Chiropractors are trained in adjusting the spines of pregnant women and many chiropractic adjusting tables have special modifications for the pregnant figure.
How late in pregnancy is it possible to get an adjustment? Patients have received adjustments even during labor.
Can my baby receive chiropractic care? Infants a few hours old have been given spinal checkups and adjustments (if needed).
You do everything to ensure your baby’s health; during pregnancy you eat right, you avoid drugs, cigarettes and alcohol (even aspirin has been shown to cause problems in pregnancy); and you take childbirth classes so you may have a natural, drug-free birth. After the baby arrives, you breastfeed knowing that is the superior form of nutrition; you do everything you can to make sure your baby is healthy – have you had their spine checked?
Birth Trauma – The First Subluxation
Sadly, some newborns have unhealthy spines:
The birth process…is potentially a traumatic, crippling event…mechanical stress imposed by obstetrical manipulation – even the application of standard orthodox procedures may prove intolerable to the fetus. The view has been expressed clinically that most signs of neonatal injury observed in the delivery room are neurological…
“With the birth process becoming more and more an intervening procedure…the chiropractic adjustment becomes even more important to the child’s future, “said the late Larry Webster, D.C., of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association.
Of a random group of 1,250 babies examined 5 days after birth, 211 suffered from vomiting, hyperactivity and sleeplessness – spinal abnormalities were found in 95% of this group. Spinal adjustment “frequently resulted in immediate quieting, cessation of crying, muscular relaxation and sleepiness.” The authors noted that an unhealthy spine causes “many clinical features from central motor impairment to lower resistance to infections – especially ear, nose and throat infections.”
In another study, of 1093 newborns checked, 298 had upper neck stress and early signs of scoliosis.
For over a hundred years, doctors of chiropractic have observed often dramatic responses from some infants after a chiropractic spinal adjustment with conditions as varied as Erb’s palsy, in which an arm is limp and undeveloped, unbalanced facial and skull symmetry, foot inversion, colic, torticollis (twisted neck), “nervousness,” and ear, nose and throat infections.
When Does a Baby Need a Spinal Checkup?
According to chiropractic pediatric specialist, Larry Webster, D.C., there are six times in a baby’s first year of life when spinal examinations are especially important:
1.) After the birth process
2.) When the baby starts to hold his/her head up
3.) When the baby sits up
4.) When the baby starts to crawl
5.) When the baby starts to stand
6.) When the baby starts to walk
Conclusion
“Our children deserve to be treated naturally, not with dangerous chemical drugs and unproven surgeries, “says Bobby Doscher, D.C., director of Oklahaven Children’s Center, which is beginning its fourth decade helping indigent children with physical neurological and emotional disabilities through drug-free chiropractic care.
Do all you can to give your baby the best possible chance to have a healthy life. That includes childbirth without violence, avoidance of drugs and medical procedures (except in emergencies) and breastfeeding. You have your baby’s eyes checked, heart checked, ears checked … why not their spine?
“Chiropractic cares for my child?” Why? His back doesn’t bother him.” How often chiropractors have encountered parents who appreciate the importance of regular checkups for their child’s teeth, hearing, eyes, and ears but draw a blank when it comes to a spinal checkup. In fact, a spinal checkup could be one of the most important checkups your child will ever have.
Your child’s spine is his/her lifeline because running through it is the spinal cord, containing billions of nerve fibers that send messages and energy from the brain to every part of their body.
Childhood is a very “physical” time. Jumping and running, falls and accidents are all part of a normal childhood and yet they can cause spinal misalignments and nerve damage – with serious consequences. It would be wise for all parents to have their children’s spines checked periodically.
The most gratifying thing that a doctor of chiropractic sees is the whole family coming in for spinal checkups. It’s not unusual for chiropractors to hear stories from patients who say that father has newfound energy; mother’s headaches and/or menstrual cramps are things of the past; the children get sick less frequently and severely; and rarely miss days from school.
If your child is suffering from any of these common conditions, it is essential to get his/her spine checked for vertebral subluxations; not because the doctor of chiropractic is treating your child for these conditions, but because all children, especially if they are ill, need healthy spines.
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Fever Colic Croup Hypertension Poor Posture Nervousness Constipation Bed-wetting Weakness/Fatigue Stomachaches Sinus Problems |
Loss of Hearing Ear Infections Arthritis Numbness Irritability Headaches Neckaches Backaches Sore Throat Eye Problems Cough |
Skin Disorders Asthma/Wheezing Bronchitis Frequent Colds Poor Coordination Poor Concentration Arm, Hand, Shoulder Pain Painful Joints Hip, Leg, Foot Pain Scoliosis |
Conclusion
More and more families are finding that a periodic chiropractic spinal checkup for their children makes a big difference in their health. Why not include periodic chiropractic checkups for you and your family?
Reference: Towbin,Develop. Med. Child Neurol, Webster, International Chiropratic Pediatric Association Newsletter May 1999, Gutman, Manuelle Medizin 1987, Seifert, Tehabilitacia 1975, Harris & Wood, JMPT, 1993, Ellis & Ebrall, Chiropractic Technique, 1991, Klougart & Jacobsen, JMPT 1989, Nilsson, Eur J. Chiro 1985, Pluhar & Schobert, J of Chiropractic Research and Clinical Investigation, 1991, Biedermann, J Manual Medicine, 1992, Toto, JMPT, 1993 Webster, speech 1995, International Chiropractic Pediatric Association Newsletter 1994.
Beeson & McDermott, Textbook of medicine 1971, Mendelsohn, Medical Newsletter for consumers, Stein, ACA Journal of Chiropractic, 1964, Reynolds, Journal of the AOA, 1974, Guthrie & Martin, Journal of the AOA, 1982, Howe, ICA Ma Networker Journal, 1994, Peterson, Journal of the AOA, 1975
Mckinney, Orthopade, 1994, Cailliet, Neck and Arm Pain, 1979, Smith, Center for Nutritional Research, 1986, Chrisman & Gervais, Clin. Orthop, 1962, Nunn, Whiplash Syndrome, 1990, Gargan, I of Bone and Joint Surgery, 1990, Stewart, Clin. Orthop, 1962, Bohnen, Brian Injury, 1994, Evans, Neurology, 1994, Seletz, Journal of the American Medical Association, Smith, Int’l Center for Nutritional Research, 1986
Copyrights: 1997 Tedd Koren, D.C. International Academy of Clinical Acupuncture/Dr. John Amaro, 1988