Why do I have to go to the Chiropractor so many times?

If you’ve ever been to a chiropractor, then you know you will have to go back multiple times to get the best result. But why is that? The short answer is time. It took time to get into the mess that we sometimes find ourselves and it will take time to get out of it.

Do you think the guy that sneezes and his back goes out really injured himself by sneezing? Or did the lady that stepped off a curb and threw her back out just hurt herself with one small step? Absolutely not! People sneeze and step off curbs all day with no problems. The fact of the matter is, these people were injured long before the sneeze or curb.

The things we do every day affect our spines. There are a lot of things that can make your spine misalign, but unless you have some sort of accident they mostly occur over time. Accidents are instantaneous injuries, but continue to give problems over time. Pain is one of the last symptoms and then we actually seek help for our problem. One can lose sleep, walk with a limp, have visual problems, or even have a little numbness in his/her face, but won’t seek help until there is actual pain.

Some people get all bent out of shape about having to go back to the chiropractor multiple times. But here’s the thing… if you only went once and didn’t get better after one adjustment you didn’t really try chiropractic. Chiropractic didn’t fail you if you only went the one time. You have to give it time to work.

So here’s how it works. You go the chiropractor and get adjusted. They will ask you to come back in close proximity to the first adjustment. The reason being, you must give your body time to heal. If you cut your finger, do you expect it to be completely healed up in a day? No! You know that it takes time for your body to heal. The same is true internally. If you have old injuries that keep cropping up over and over, it is not prudent to believe that one adjustment will help you. You must continue the care plan and see where that gets you over time.

The following is what I tell my patients. When you get adjusted, you are letting muscles calm down and letting the tissues heal. Your body has tendency to want to go back to the state it was in before getting adjusted. However, between each adjustment you should see more improvement and the adjustment should be holding longer each time. A plan of care may look different for some people after it is all said and done, but you will need more than one visit to get better.

Personally, I am not big on selling people on a bunch of visits for an extended amount of time because everyone heals at different rates. You may only need 3 or 4 visits before I push you out to a monthly maintenance suggestion. Sometimes people’s finances are what keep them from coming the amount of times suggested, but I will say that it is worth the money to get yourself right.

I think one of the biggest myths that I have heard is that once you go to the chiropractor you can never stop. It is just that, a myth! I would say to you, that the people who generally spread that lie to me, were people who had never seen a chiropractor before in their life. Ironic, huh? I remember the first time I went to the chiropractor. I was having tremendous problems with headaches and was nervous about going, but I had nothing to lose because the medicine made me feel like garbage and did nothing to prevent headaches. Not only did my migraines go away through chiropractic, but a host of other things I didn’t realize were problems until they felt better, felt better! I chose to go once a month simply because no matter how hard we try, we will not keep our spines perfectly aligned. Life happens! Life happens to you too. Stress is a big part of most people’s daily lifestyle, and with that comes spinal misalignment.

I challenge you to go see a chiropractor. Think of the myths you have heard and ask yourself, where did you hear it? If you don’t know or it was someone that has never been to a chiropractor, then the source is not credible. Be open-minded and do your research on with which chiropractor you might feel most comfortable. Even if you have to go multiple times before the year is out, I can tell you with some certainty that you will pay less in the long run for chiropractic care than for other medical interventions for your pains. And usually they don’t even treat the problem, just the symptom. I believe you will be very pleasantly surprised, but you need more than one adjustment to find out for sure. In summary, I just want to reiterate that it took time for you to feel bad, it will take time to feel better. See that plan through and consider trying chiropractic. There are always outliers as far as some horror story of chiropractic, but most people are very glad and pleasantly surprised after going to a chiropractor. Those horror stories are truly few and far between and almost always have some missing piece of information. Go ahead and plan on a few visits. A good chiropractor should be re-evaluating your plan of care at least every couple of weeks to see if you are progressing and whether other measures need to be taken. If not, find one that does. Take care of yourself, and be well!