Results are largely dependent on how long your spine has been functioning incorrectly, which structures have been damaged and your desire to help your body heal. Results vary between individuals as healing ability varies. Some detect changes in a few short hours or days while some results take weeks or months. As a general rule, the longer your condition has been present, the longer it will take to correct.

A degree of relief, an increase in your range of motion, even stiffness or soreness for a day or so is not uncommon. Similar to that experienced after an unaccustomed workout. This is simply a natural healing reaction due to irritation of tissues that may have been functioning abnormally for some time. Be sure to mention any changes experienced on your next visit.

Your progress toward improvement will vary depending upon your age, your general health and fitness, the severity and duration of your problem, the activities you engage in between treatments and your adherence to your treatment schedule.

Early spinal problems are not commonly painful. Only after a certain amount of improper function do tissues become irritated and painful causing symptoms. Your spine and body has a great ability to compensate for these imbalances. By detecting problems when they are small, they are prevented from becoming larger issues later in life.

Everyone can be helped from improved communication of the nerves between the brain and the body. Modified adjusting procedures can help children, the elderly or those with special needs.

NO!!

Regardless of the adjusting technique, chiropractic care is tailored to each individual’s age, condition and spinal problem. An example of this is with children under care. Children generally have more mobile joints, and therefore, require less force in order to attain the desired effect of the adjustment.

In addition to varying the amount of force used, adjustment frequency will also be customised to the individual. Different conditions require different intensities in visit schedules. These factors include (but are not limited to), the results of nerve function scans or x-rays, physical examination findings, what tissue is involved (eg. ligament, tendon, muscle, disc, organ), how long you have had the condition, the amount of inflammation and intensity of pain being experienced, and the presence of any unavoidable aggravating factors to your condition (eg. your occupation or degeneration).

The chiropractor evaluates each patient’s unique spinal problem and develops an individual course of care. Each visit builds on the one before. While visits may seem similar, each patient’s care is uniquely different from every other patient’s.

Chiropractors perform their adjustments or re-alignments on millions of people around the world every working day with the resulting relief and easing of pain provided for countless sufferers.

The very rare risk of infrequent strain/injury to a ligament or disc in the neck (less than 1 in 139,000) or the lower back (1 in 62,000) is really too low to be too concerned over.

The comparison of chiropractic care and a course of anti-inflammatory drugs to alleviate the pain of a mis-alignment have demonstrated conclusively that chiropractic is 250 times safer (1).

Many women experience back pain during pregnancy due to the extra and unusual weight placed on the spine. Provided that the chiropractic procedure is carried out gently and with the extra care required in order not to create any detrimental effect on the expectant mum or baby, there is no good reason why chiropractic wouldn’t provide relief from discomfort.

Several factors have a bearing on the ‘healing time’ once you’ve had your adjustment. These can include, but aren’t restricted to: your age, the severity and length of time you’ve had the condition; nutrition – what you eat can make a difference to your recovery; occupation, posture and stress.

All things considered it is probably wise to speak with your chiropractor to determine the after-care your individual condition will require and if it is best served by continued visits.

A subluxation in chiropractic terms is another word for a slight dislocation or misalignment of one or more of the spinal joints.

Subluxated joints can cause irritation of the surrounding structures, including the spinal cord.

The results of a subluxation may by pain, muscle changes or organ dysfunction – depending on which nerves are being affected.

A Chiropractic adjustment is the application of a specific force in accurate direction on a specific joint that is out of alignment or not moving properly. A restricted spine can be a major cause of stiffness, pain and swelling. Adjustments help to unload the excessive stresses on the body caused either by an injury, or just the stresses of day to day living. Correct alignment of your spine is vital in helping Joints, muscles, ligaments and nerves to regain their normal function and therefore relieve pain and irritation.

REMEMBER – “It can’t function as it should, if it is not as it should be”.

It’s all a matter of gases – more accurately the sudden release of gases around the joint being adjusted – as simple as that. As to what causes the gases to make this sound is also simple: each joint, especially in the spinal joints, is lubricated by a fluid . This fluid ensures smoothness of movement and cushioning of the joint from shock and stresses. It essentially permits a silky action for the joint, reducing friction on the bone through all its planes of movement.

As with most fluids there is air bubbles (carbon dioxide and nitrogen) contained within its flowing substance. As your chiropractor carries out the adjustment the joint opens and releases the gases with a ‘pop’.

The fluid then returns to its proper location around the joint and continues to carry out its function of lubrication and carrying waste products away from the area.