One of the questions I hear a lot as a Chiropractor is “When will my spine be perfect? When will it be good enough that I don’t ever have to get adjusted again?”. When I hear this question, so many thoughts and emotions run through my head at once before I can even begin articulating an answer. At first, for a fleeting moment, some frustration rears it’s ugly head because I wonder if anyone ever listens to us as we try to educate about the importance of being adjusted on a regular basis. That fleeting moment of frustraction is quickly followed by a feeling of letting that person down, a feeling that I obviously haven’t done what I should be and need to be doing to help people understand why regular chiropractic care is important through-out life. So let me do my best in this moment to help you understand why everyone needs to be adjusted on a regular basis.
Our spines are made up of 24 moveable bones, which are our vertebra. These bones are protecting our life-line–which is our central nerve system. Our central nerve system is our brain, spinal cord and all the nerves that branch off of our spinal cord exiting between those vertebra and going to all our organs, muscles and various parts of our body; this is how our brain and our body communicate. Now, these vertebra which are innately designed to protect our central nerve system, can sometimes actually harm it by something we chiropractors call a subluxation. A subluxation is when these vertebra mis-align which causes interference or distortion within the nerve system, and this can cause mis-communication between our brain and body. Now I’m not sure about you, but I want my brain-body communicating clearly at all times, I don’t want any messed up signals going on there! People wonder how these subluxations/mis-alignments can happen. It’s pretty simple really; the bones of our spine are put through a lot on any given day if you think about it. The major ways they subluxate are physical stress (think playing sports, cleaning, lifting heavy things, gardening, falls, lifting your kids, toddlers learning to walk, etc), emotional stress (work stress, financial, family stress, death in family, pregnancy, new baby, etc), and toxins/environmental stress (processed foods, breathing toxins in air, smoking, drinking caffeine, alcohol, sodas, eating sugar, etc). All these things put extra stress on our bodies including our spines and can cause them to mis-align. Most people can understand this and see why chiropractic care is an important part of overall health care.
Here’s where a lot of people (even those who fully understand everything I’ve written so far) seem to fall apart in their understanding; at some point people think there is an end point to chiropractic care. Some people seem to think their spines will one day be perfect and they won’t ever need to be adjusted again unless a major trauma happens to them. If you re-read the ways in which our spines subluxate, then you will come to an understanding that just living life can cause subluxations! So it’s good to be checked regularly so you don’t get to a point where your back is hurting and you can’t work, or you can’t walk well and play the sport you love so much. If you are alive, then you should be checked regularly for subluxation and adjusted to make sure you’re brain-body communication is crystal clear.
I have a simple analogy that may put it all in perspective. We all know that we need to take care of our teeth and brush them regularly. I highly doubt anyone out there wakes up in the morning thinking ‘Hmmm, my teeth don’t hurt today, I don’t need to brush’! No, that’s just plain silly to even think about; we all brush them on a regular basis because we know if we don’t, our teeth will become full of cavities and rot out of our heads. We understand that we eat on a regular basis, and that food can cause plaque which can cause cavities, so we need to regularly maintain them by brushing. IT’S THE SAME CONCEPT WITH OUR SPINES!! We wake up each day and go about our days–whether we have a desk job for 8 hours or we are laboring in yards or farms all day– we deal with all sorts of stresses (because that’s part of being alive!), we play with our kids, take care of our yards, etc, etc. You see where I’m going with this? Chiropractic care needs to be a regular part of your life, just like brushing your teeth. Which, by the way, do you ever get to a point that your teeth are clean enough and you never have to brush again? No! I’m not saying you need to be adjusted twice a day, but once you get to a maintenance point, weekly adjustments are the best to maintain distortion-free brain-body communication.
I hope that I helped some people come to a better understanding of why there is no ‘perfect spine’ and why regular chiropractic care is important and needed in life. I also hope that you will share this information with your friends and loved ones, because don’t we want those closest to us in life to be as healthy as possible?
In Health,
Dr. Jen