Chiropractic San Antonio

How To Find The Right Chiropractor For You

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:39:55 +0000

Finding the right chiropractor to suit your individual needs can be a difficult task, particularly if you have never been to a chiropractor before. There are many different chiropractic treatment techniques as well as different philosophies and approaches to case management. Sadly, some new chiropractic patients are dipleased with their initial chiropractic experience because they chose a chiropractor whose approach was not consistent with the patient’s wants and expectations. For those who have a bad first experience with chiropractic, there is a tendency to assume that all chiropractic treatment is the same and they may decide never to try chiropractic care again. This is a shame, because many people who purposefully avoid chiropractic care could get tremendous health benefits from the right kind of chiropractic – oftentimes far superior to the results that can be achieved with any other type of treatment.

In order to find the right chiropractor, there are some basic things to take into consideration that will greatly enhance your chances of having a positive experience. To begin, it is probably easier to discuss the things you should avoid doing when seeking the right chiropractor for you.

Probably the majority of people intially search for a chiropractor in some sort of directory, either the phone book or the provider list supplied by their insurance company, or they do a search online for local chiropractors. Those unfamiliar with chiropratic often fail to realize that there are tremendous differences in treatment methods and case management styles from one chiropractor to the next, so the choice is usually made based on location, their insurance coverage, and the fees charged per visit. While these factors do need to be considered, they are actually not good factors in determinint whether a chiropractor is going to be a good match for a given patient.

The most important factor to consider when choosing a chiropractor is probably the treatment methods that he or she utilizes. The primary treatment that makes chiropractic different from other types of health care is the “spinal adjustment”, which is also called “spinal manipulation”, and there are many different ways that this treatment can be performed. These ways range from moderately forceful manual thrusts that produce cracking noises from the joints to low-force methods that may be performed using an instrument that gently “taps” on the joints, or uses wedges to reposition the body to allow gravity to correct joint alignment. There are also techniques that are somewhere in-between in terms of the force applied that use special “drop” tables that have sections that drop down when the adjustment thrust is made to help “bump” joints back into aligment and proper mobility.

The forceful manual techniques may produce some brief discomfort, and they are generally not a good approach for patients with fragile bones (such as from osteoporosis), or for those patients who are fearful and have difficulty relaxing for the treatment. Even so, when appropriate, these methods tend to provide faster relief of pain and other symptoms than the low-force methods. A chiropractor who is experienced with manual adusting techniques (such as Diversified or Gonstead technique) is often a good choice for younger, generally healthy patients who are not afraid of feeling and hearing their joints pop. Older patients and those who are anxious about the treatment will typically find that a chiropractor who uses a low-force method (such as Pro-Adjuster, Activator, or Sacro-Occipital Technique) or a medium-force method (such as the Thompson drop-table method) a better choice.

Besides spinal adjustments, chiropractors may provide a variety of other treatments, such as ultrasound, electrical stimulation, massage, hydrotherapy, and rehabilitative exercise instruction. Because of the variation in treatments used, the time and cost per visit will vary considerably among different chiropractors. While not always the case, chiropractors who do more on each visit will not require as many visits to get good results. This can be an important consideration when planning the time and out of pocket expense for your chiropractic care.

Another important thing to consider is the chiropractor’s case management style. Some chiropractors focus on just providing symptomatic relief, while other chiropractors recommend rehabilitative treatment, and others promote long-term corrective and preventive treatment to correct and maintain skeletal alignment as much as possible. These different approaches to case management can translate to considerable differences in the duration and frequency of treatment and the related out of pocket financial cost of care.

So, before you choose a chiropractor, it is strongly suggested that you take the time to consider what your goal of treatment is. You need o decide whether you are dedicated enough to invest the necessary time and money to do long-term corrective and preventive care, or whether you simply want a doctor who is willing to provide “patch” care to allow you to feel better and get on with your life for the time being. Neither approach is wrong or right, it just depends on what your needs and desires are at this particular point in your life.

Once you have a good idea of what you are looking for in terms of treatment methods and your goal for the duration and outcome of your treatment, you are much better prepared to interview and choose a chiropractor who is right for you. At this stage, it is suggested that you phone or visit at least a few chiropractors before you choose to go forward with the initial evaluation. The majority of chiropractors will speak with you be phone or meet with you for a free consultation in person. While it does take some time and work to choose the right chiropractor, the results of making a careful selection can be well worth the effort.

Chiropractic – How Does “Back Popping” Help So Much?

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:43:20 +0000

“Back Popping” Help So Much?

How Does Chiropractic Help So Much?

When I begin treatment on a patient new to chiropractic, they are often surprised at how much better they feel and how quickly the treatment works. In fact, many are feeling much better almost immediately after I perform a chiropractic adjustment on an area that has been painful for weeks, months, or even years.

Many of these patients ask how it is possible to get such dramatic results from just “popping” their joints, especially when other treatments they may have tried have failed to bring much relief.

Even more surprising for some patients is that other health complaints will often resolve after they begin chiropractic treatment. These include things like chronic sinus problems, asthma, infertility, high blood pressure, digestive problems, and many other common health issues. While the results of chiropractic treatment for such conditions are less dependable than for musculoskeletal pain, they do occur for quite a few patients. How is it possible for popping spinal joints to create such effects?

Some chiropractic skeptics insist that any symptomatic benefits from chiropractic adjustments are strictly due to the placebo effect – in other words, because the patient expects the treatment to help, the improvement they notice is “all in their minds”.

Yet many of the patients who report these benefits were themselves skeptics before being treated. They did not have a predisposition to believe that the treatment would help them. On the contrary, many of my skeptical patients tell me before I begin treatment that they know I can’t help them – they only came at the insistence of a family member, a friend, or some other person they just want to leave them alone. These former skeptics often become my most enthusiastic supporters.

While there may be some instances where the placebo effect is in play, there is obviously more going on than the improvements being all in the patients’ minds.

So how can chiropractic adjustments relieve pain so quickly, and how could chiropractic treatment have any effect whatsoever on conditions involving glands and organs?

The answer lies in the connections of the spine to the nervous system. The nervous system monitors and controls the entire body – all the organs, glands, and tissues, as well as the musculoskeletal system. Much of the nervous system is housed within the spine and there are numerous complex interactions between the spine and the functions of the nervous system.

Many chiropractors use a somewhat over-simplified model of the spine’s interaction with the nervous system to explain things to patients and this model is technically inaccurate. Because of the inaccuracy of this model, critics of chiropractic have rightfully dismissed it as being unscientific.

But there is a vast difference between the oversimplified model of a displaced spinal bone “pinching” a nerve (which critics correctly point out as being anatomically impossible), and the current understanding of how the spine interacts with the nervous system.

The complete explanation is complex and beyond the scope of this article, but the simplified model is that the effects of chiropractic have to do with the nerve receptors contained within the spinal joints. When the spinal joints are not functioning properly due to trauma, repetetive stress, poor posture, inflammation, or other causes, the firing pattern of the nerve receptors inside the joints is altered.

In essence, a sort of interference is created in the nerve signals coming from the joints. This interference creates alterations in how the central nervous system interprets conditions in that area of the spine and the parts of the body it relates to neurologically. The central nervous system in turn may alter its control signals based on the interference. The result can include reactions such as excess resting muscle contraction (often a source of pain) and alterations in organ and gland function.

When a chiropractor performs an adjustment on the abnormally functioning joint, there is an immediate change in the firing pattern of the joint nerve receptors. For the patient in pain, the result is often a rapid relaxation of tight, sore muscles, and an almost immediate reduction in pain. For patients with other health issues, if that health problem was due to the abnormal nerve signals from the spinal joints (obviously, any health problem can have a number of other causes not related to the spine), the health problem will often resolve very quickly – within a few days or weeks depending on the condition.

So does this mean that chiropractic can help with just about any health problem? Potentially yes, but it is far more reliable in the treatment of musculokeletal pain than in the treatment of organ dysfunction.

Is Your Life Damaging Your Brain?

admin — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:07:44 +0000

You may be thinking that the title of this blog post is intended to be a humorous exaggeration, but it is far from it. The information I’m about to present is extremely serious and you may find it more than a little disturbing.

There is increasing evidence from research in neurobiology that many things we just accept as normal life in the 21st century are quite literally damaging our brains and predisposing us to a wide variety of health problems as a consequence.

The actual processes that are occurring are somewhat complicated, and for the purposes of clarity, I will be discussing things in extremely simplified terms.

The first thing you need to know is that the front part of the brain (called the prefrontal cortex - or PFC for short) is responsible for reasoning and determining our responses to our environment. As information is processed by the brain, the PFC interprets what’s going on around us and then directs how we respond to it.

Stress, lack of sleep, lack of exercise, poor nutrition, chronic pain, and poor posture/musculoskeletal function all can cause damage to the PFC over time. The amount of damage is small, but accumulates over time and leads to many health problems, both mental and physical.

What types of problems are we talking about? Well, in chidren and younger adults, some of the most common effects are depression, ADD/ADHD, high blood pressure, hormone imbalances, digestive problems, and fibromyalgia, just to name the “biggies”.

If you think that’s bad, that was the problems in younger people, in older people, this cummulative damage to the PFC is thought to be involved in the development of Parkinsons, Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Now, most of the things that damage the PFC are preventable, and to a large extent, the damage they cause is reversible. The key is to start now to reduce the number of PFC-damaging lifestyle issues in your life.

If you’ve been putting up with a lot of stress, consider ways to reduce your stress through exercise, meditation, simplifying your life, etc..

If you know your diet could use improvement, improve it.

If you aren’t getting enough sleep, think about ways to re-arrange your schedule so you get more sleep.

If you have chronic pain, investigate the alternatives for controlling pain. Often, chiropractic, acupunture, and/or massage will do far more for pain than any medication or shot. By the way, a year of chronic back pain has been shown to reduce the size of the prefrontal cortex by an amount equivalent to 10 to 20 years of normal aging! If you have chronic pain, this is a very important thing to get handled as well as possible ASAP.

Choosing A Chiropractor

admin — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:00:03 +0000

If you’ve been considering seeing a chiropractor, there are some things you need to know to be able to find the right doctor for you. There are many different philosophies, styles of practice, and techniques in chiropractic, and it helps to have a basic understanding of what these are so you’ll know what to look for.

While there are as many philosophies in chiropractic as there are chiropractors, there are two basic types. The first philosophical type is the “straight”, which is the basic philosophy that the practice of chiropractic is simply to detect and correct “subluxations” of the spine only. This type of chiropractor typically only does spinal adjustments (sometimes called spinal manipulation) as his or her sole treatment modality. This may be an excellent approach to many cases, but patients with problems outside the spine and/or who are looking for more direct attention to symptomatic areas may find the straight chiropractic philosophy to be off-putting.

The second major philosophical type of chiropractor is the “mixer”. Mixers view chiropractic as a broader type of practice and will usually include other types of treatment beyond spinal adjustments, such as electrical therapy, ultrasound, massage, exercise, nutrition, acupuncture, etc..

Styles of practice vary greatly as well, and it is usually helpful to choose a chiropractor whose style of practice matches your particular needs at the time. For example, some chiropractors primarily see personal injury and/or worker’s compensation cases. Others may specialize in sports injuries. Still others may run family practices and possibly even pediatric practices.

The majority of chiropractors still take assignment on health insurance claims, but a growing number do not. It is a good idea to find out about a doctor’s payment policies and approximate costs of care before your first visit.

Regardless of the philosophy and practice style of the chiropractor, the vast majority employ some type of spinal manipulation on most visits. Spinal manipulation can be performed via many different methods, ranging from very light instrument-assisted adjustments and soft-tissue release methods to more traditional manual methods that typically produce the joint “cracking” noise that many people associate with chiropractic. For overall healthy individuals, in my opinion, the manual adjusting techniques are usually more effective and efficient, but low-force techniques or soft-tissue release may be more appropriate for those patients who are too fragile or too fearful for manual adjustments.

Many chiropractors also offer massage therapy in their practices, and massage can be an excellent adjunct to chiropractic treatment. If you are interested in massage therapy, you may wish to try to find a chiropractor who offers this service. Likewise, a small but growing number of chiropractors utilize acupuncture, nutrition, herbal remedies, etc., and all of these additional services have value for certain patients. It is a good idea to ask around to find a chiropractor who offers a wide variety of services if you are looking for a more comprehensive healthcare provider rather than simply a doctor for treatment of an acute musculoskeletal injury.

I think the best way to find the right chiropractor for you is through word of mouth. Ask your friends, family, coworkers, and other healthcare providers for recommendations. This is far more reliable than choosing at random from the yellow pages or from your insurance provider manual.

One final tip… If you can’t get a recommendation from a friend, and you have to resort to using the yellow pages or your insurance provider list, check out the yellow pages and look for a doctor who has a listing only – no display ad. Why? Because if the doctor is not advertising, there’s a good chance that he or she gets most of his or her new business from referrals – which is a good sign. Ultimately you may need to try a few (or perhaps even several) doctors before you find one who is the right fit for you and what you’re looking for. But finding the right doctor is usually well-worth the effort.