English
Your Chiropractic phases of care consist of THREE stages of healing also known as ‘The Road to Recovery’. How long each phase takes varies from individual to individual. The more chronic the condition at hand, the more complicated, the more organ function is affected and not just joints and surrounding structures. This usually results in the healing phases being longer. The converse is also true, if what is troubling you is relatively fresh and uncomplicated.
The adjustments aim to retrain your nervous system to respond better to the environment, and therefore heal more naturally.
We aim to provide you with an overview of what your body likely needs during your New Patient Examination.
Regular progress reviews are scheduled to provide you with useful updates as to your progress, and to assess the frequency of care. We do these at every 12th visit.
It is worth mentioning that healing is an organic process and that it takes time.
Your body is in a state of change, and although recognises the adjustment and responds to it, is not yet able to maintain the improvements alone. Regular adjustments with short breaks between improves the likelihood of gaining stability faster. It's important to remember that the goal is to change neurological patterns, not structure, and like anything that needs to be learnt, your body (specifically your brain) needs regular reminders on how to do things correctly.
You may find yourself in the intensive phase of chiropractic care because years or decades of chronic stress gets saved in your nervous system as bad habits. This stresses your brain's ability to adapt and stay alive and healthy, and also leads to wear and tear of the structures in and around your spine. The key forms of these stressors are Physical trauma, Environmental toxins and Emotional stress. Common examples include accidents and injuries, poor nutrition, not drinking enough water, work-, family- or financial related stress, the list is endless as these three categories overarch most of our daily stressors we undergo.
Within this phase your spine is weaker than it should be, posture is typically less than ideal. Parts of your spine are likely stiff, and the muscles surrounding tight and inflexible. Many people complain of a wide range of symptoms like chronic tiredness, headaches, decreased concentration span, the inability to deal with daily stress, negative impact on digestion, poor quality of sleep, and even the inability to fall pregnant.
It takes time to restore healthy posture to the human body. The healing process is natural and therefore takes time.
Your body begins to recognise the intent of the adjustments, and begins to hold a stable pattern. Despite this, your body falls back into old habits easily so the adjustments continue frequently but with a longer break between. This important phase aids your spine, nerves, discs, muscles, tendons and ligaments to strengthen and regenerate.
Your body reacts to the chiropractic care / adjustments and begins to self-stabilise. This reduces the risk for further damage, and your body begins to let go of long-held stress.
Symptoms may come and go during this phase. Your posture and flexibility should continue to improve. Along side of this you may simply feel more at home in your body and at more at ease. Your body will be reacting to the adjustment by dealing with long-held stress and letting it go. As your nervous system gets better at responding to lifestyle stressors, healing of all the structures in and around the spine will improve: bone, dura, ligaments, tendons, muscles, discs.
What may happen is a process called retracing, where your body works backwards through previous injuries, problems and compensatory patterns. These symptoms may therefore reappear as part of the healing process. It may seem odd to see these new / old symptoms again, however we observe them as part of your body returning to a far more healthy and stable state of 'ease' than before.
Prevention is better than cure.
A common development from the treatment plan is the realisation that chiropractic care becomes a way to stay healthy, to better react to stress and to reduce the chances of future health problems developing. So in much the same way as teeth cleaning is a daily habit we all developed, so too should Chiropractic be a regular part of your spinal health routine.
The frequency of care is going to vary, dependant on logical factors like your age, the degree to which previous problems have affected your body (e.g. poor health, arthritis, operations etc.) and how your physical, chemical and emotional stressors will continue to affect you.
Most of our customers come in for a check up every 2 to maximal 4 weeks. Obviously, if something happens and they feel the need to be more healthy, they come in immediately for an acute assessment.
