"How often should I see a chiropractor?" I hear this all the time, and the answer is that it depends. It depends on how healthy you are in general. It depends on how severe any of your injuries are. It depends on what you are looking for in your health goals. When I am asked this question, I start a discussion with my practice members about all those topics and we decide together what works best for them. One of the topics that I always bring up is Maintenance care, which is what we are going to talk about today.
This is what I thought when I heard about maintenance care the first time.
Maintenance care. The first time I heard about it as a new chiropractic patient I thought it was a scam. I thought, "This is how the chiropractor gets me to pay his bills forever." So, as a new patient, I didn't do it. My first chiropractic adjustment was followed by months of manual labor with no follow-up visits or focused exercises for my concern. Since my first adjustment back in 2014, I have changed my mind concerning maintenance care due to what I have learned about how the body functions. Now my personal chiropractic regimen consists of getting adjusted 2-3x per month and prescribing myself focused exercises. Let's talk about the things I learned that changed my mind.
My old mindset
I am a tough farm kid, whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger, rub some dirt in it, walk it off no pain no gain. These were all very familiar phrases growing up, especially with two little brothers. We were always in competitions with each other trying to see who was the toughest. Then I started working for the forest service as a firefighter as well as construction jobs. I used my body very hard and always thought it would be able to cope with whatever challenge I threw at it. Until one day my body said no and for months I couldn't function normally at work or home. So I went to a chiropractor (eventually) and after I was adjusted and feeling better that was it, I didn't see a chiro anymore.
My new mindset
I don't care how long I live, I do care about how well I live. I recognize now that my actions affect how well I live each day. If I eat healthily then I function better. If I eat junk, I feel like junk. If I exercise then I adapt better. If I get a good night's sleep I feel more connected and focused in my world. When I get checked by my chiropractor I feel my body's ability to adapt improve. The choices I make every day affect how I feel and how well I respond to my environment.
What does maintenance care look like?
When a practice member is considering getting onto a maintenance care plan this question is inevitable. How many times should I get adjusted? The answer is that it depends. It depends on how healthy an individual is, how much exercise and movement they get, how their diet is, how well they can keep up with the recommendations they get from their chiropractor, how much stress they're in, what their work situation is like and the list goes on. I get checked 3-4 times a month.
What does the research say?
In 2018 there was a study done among 328 individuals with a low back pain concern. Half the group was put on a maintenance care plan and the other half was put on a symptom-based plan. At the end of 1 year the symptom-based individuals who called their chiropractors when symptoms returned reported 13 more days of low back pain on average when compared to the maintenance group. The interesting thing about this study is that on average the maintenance care group only had 1.7 more office visits than the symptom-based group over the course of the year. This means, in order to have 2 weeks less of low back pain this group only had to be adjusted about 2 times more over the course of the entire year when compared to the symptom-based group. This is the beginning of the research around maintenance care but it looks promising. We look forward to meeting you! Come down to Happy Family Chiropractic and meet your Chiropractor in Juneau! It will be our pleasure in serving you high quality chiropractic care.
