Frequently Asked Questions

What is Chiropractic?
Are Chiropractors real doctors?
What is the cracking noise we hear?
Are the adjustments safe?
Does cracking the joints cause arthritis or joint laxity?
Is it normal to get sore after adjustments?
When will I start feeling better?
How come I have to come in so often?
How will I know if I am ready for maintenance care?
Do I have to keep coming forever?
Is it ok to work out at the gym?
Are there any supplements I should be taking?
Is the way I sleep important?
Will you refer me to another doctor if you cannot help me?
Do all chiropractors do the same thing?
How come medical doctors and chiropractors don’t get along?
Do you treat children?
My other chiropractor did not adjust my arms, my hands, and my shoulders...

What is Chiropractic?

This is the most commonly asked question. Chiropractic is the science between the relationship between the nervous system and the bones of the skull and the bones of the spine. The nervous system controls every function in your body. The nervous system consists of the brain, the spinal cord (which is an extension of the brain), and the nerves which are branches off of the spinal cord. The brain generates an electrical impulse, (that we call life force), sends this impulse down the spinal cord out over the nerves to the cells and stirs them into life and controls their function. The bones of the skull and the bones of the spine house and protect the brain and spinal cord. It’s the only organ in the body that has bone all the way around it. This is how important it is and how vital it is to life. So important that nature put bone all the way around it. Now, these bones need to be in a certain position to allow the nervous system to function properly. If they deviate out of their normal position, (this is what we call a subluxation) they will actually offend and irate the same nerves that they would otherwise protect if they were in there proper alignment. Chiropractors locate, identify and correct subluxations. This is what we do. Chiropractors made up the word subluxation. Now are all health problems caused by subluxations? No, but subluxations make it more difficult for the body to deal with any underlining disease process. If you have heart problems you don’t need subluxations complicating things. If you have cancer (chiropractors don’t treat cancer) but subluxations can certainly lower the bodies resistance and make it more difficult for the body to deal with a cancer. So Chiropractors treat subluxations, subluxations interfere with the transmission of nerve impulse which can cause the body to malfunction. It is malfunctioning cells that accumulate from subluxations that end up causing symptoms. Symptoms are only caused by damaged malfunctioning tissue; healthy tissue does not give these symptoms. As the chiropractor corrects the subluxations and this usually takes time depending on how long the subluxation has been there. That is a main criteria for how long it will take to correct which is just an estimate. Typically it requires 20-50 visits to correct a subluxation. (Back to Top)

Are Chiropractors real doctors?

Chiropractors are licensed by the state of California as Primary Health Care Providers. What that means is that you can go to a Chiropractor for any symptom… for a headache, a stomach ache, for a toe ache, for a pain in the chest, a pain in the arm or hand even problems with your eyes. A chiropractor would be able to look at you and refer you to the appropriate health care provider. We are considered a main portal of entry, we can bill an insurance company, and we can refer you to other doctors or a physical therapist. We are trained to be able to identify a problem and make the appropriate referral if it is outside of our scope of practice. (Back to Top)

What is the cracking noise we hear sometimes during an adjustment?

It is simply gas. It is similar to the sound a champagne bottle makes when you pop the cork. Every joint in the body has a capsule surrounding the joint with fluid in the capsule. The fluid is similar to motor oil and is called synovial fluid. It is a lubrication to keep the joint lubricated, reduce friction and help the joint glide. In certain instances when we do an adjustment we take the joint through its normal range of motion which creates an air pocket in the joint capsule and gas escapes from the fluid (there is gas inherent in all fluid) and gas will escape from the air pocket and you hear a little pop. So sometimes we hear it and sometimes we don’t. It is not the bones popping or cracking or anything like that. It’s just gas that we hear sometimes. (Back to Top)

Are the adjustments safe?

The adjustments are very safe. The most common side effect of an adjustment is some soreness. The same type of feeling you would get after exercise. What we do is physical. (Back to Top)

Does cracking the joints cause arthritis or joint laxity?

There is an old wife’s tale that cracking your knuckles would cause arthritis or cause your joints to swell up. In other words that cracking your knuckles was bad something that was bad for you. Well the studies that have come back on the knuckle crackers showed that the knuckle crackers have much less of insistence of arthritis then did the non knuckle crackers. People that have or feel the urge to crack the bones up in their neck or to twist their back to try and crack their back, usually their feeling that urge the body is telling them that there are subluxations in the spine and they end up trying to adjust them yourself by twisting your head or back. When there is subluxations in the spine the body will usually make the bones above and the bones below more freely movable. So what you end up cracking is the ones that are more freely moveable, because the ones that are subluxated those are hard to get on your own. As long as the subluxation is there, and the bones above and below are more freely moveable and your trying to crack them yourself that can create a situation where there is abnormal wear and tear on those joints and now not only to you have the subluxated joints but you have the more freely moveable joints so you end up with an area of hypo-mobility and an area of hyper-mobility. This is typical of the subluxation complex. As we begin to correct the subluxated vertebrae you feel that urge to want to pop your neck or your back less frequently and towards the end of the treatment in 80-90% of all cases there is just no longer an urge to do that. (Back to Top)

Is it normal to get sore after adjustments?

It is completely normal to get sore after adjustments. In fact most people do get sore after adjustments just like most people get sore after exercise, especially if it’s a new exercise. Adjustments move the bones of the spine into a different position that they’ve been used to being in usually for a long time. The muscles that are attached to the bones have to set at a different tension then there used to and the body has to adapt to this process of spinal correction. The soreness is usually worse in the beginning. We start off real gently with the treatment and then we add intensity as we move forward with the treatment. Usually after about 1 or 2 weeks were at full intensity. If it takes longer, it takes longer, if it happens quicker, it happens quicker. I recommend using ice at home to reduce the likely hood of soreness. The soreness will rarely interfere with your daily activities but yes soreness is very common and it is best to use ice when you start with treatment. (Back to Top)

When will I start feeling better?

That is a difficult question. Sometimes you start to feel better 10 minutes after your first adjustment, sometimes you start to feel better 10 days after your first adjustment and some people it takes a couple of months before they start feeling better. 80-90% of the time when we are done with your treatment plan there will be a significant reduction of symptoms, significant increase in your functional capacity, we have an 85-95% satisfaction rate. Meaning that over 85% of the people who start treatment are satisfied with the outcome. Sometimes getting to that point there is peaks and valleys and you don’t want to get discouraged if it’s taking a little bit longer then we hoped for. Sometimes lifestyle changes are required along with the treatment to get the results you desire. Some people come in not having taking very good care of themselves and expect the treatment to resolve the pain over night so they can get back to work. That is a tall order. Chronic cases usually respond very well to treatment. In other words you’ve just been living with these problems every once in a while they really flare up the point where it’s say a 9 out of 10 on the pain scale. But, you have just been living with it at say a 5 and you have decided you finally want to do something about it. You are probably going to start feeling better immediately unless you come in when it’s the 9 out of 10. When it’s flared up it usually takes a few days for it to start to settle down and you start to feel better. Just don’t get discouraged, make your appointments, follow your home recommendations or any activities we may ask you to hold back on such as exercise and working overtime and so forth. So we can chip into the problem a little bit and then you can get back into your workouts after the symptoms settle down. Exercise is great there is just a tendency to want to do too much too soon. Try hard to follow our recommendations and you will land in that 85-95% satisfaction range. (Back to Top)

How come I have to come in so often?

It’s just the way chiropractic works. We do a little bit a time. It’s kind of like putting braces on teeth. Because we are talking about repositioning bones. Ligaments is what holds bones together like your gums are ligaments and they hold the teeth in place. Your Orthodontist puts the braces on the teeth and then he or she tightens or puts forces into the braces in the direction they want the tooth to move so the ligaments (gums) adapt to the force and the tooth moves a little bit in that direction and then the next time you see him or her they make another adjustment and that is very similar to the way that the process works with Chiropractic. Each time you come in we put a force into the spine and the ligaments adapt to it and then the next time you come in we put another force into the spine and the ligaments adapt to do and it’s that little bit multiplied times time that gives us the changes that were after and that is just the way it works. If you can do exactly what we recommend that’s great but if you can’t we work with what we can do. Some people come in three days in a row, some people come in every week, we just do the best we can. Its best to start the process and work with the schedule you have and once you start doing the treatment it becomes more of a priority I think you will make more time for it. But it’s always best to start when you can. (Back to Top)

How will I know if I am ready for maintenance care?

Well we estimate how long it will take to reach the point when you are ready for maintenance care based on your age, level of degeneration, any complications, and your posture, and we come up with a game plan. During your initial plan we will do evaluations and if we feel you are not ready we will let you know and sometimes we find you are ahead of schedule we let you know. It’s our job to monitor your progress something we are real good at. (Back to Top)

Do I have to keep coming forever?

No, you didn’t even have to start we don’t force anybody to come forever people come because they like what it does for them. To get the benefits of a chiropractic adjustment you have to come in for the adjustment. No whether you want to realize those benefits forever that’s a choice that you have to make. We will make it affordable for you. Maintenance care the fee drops down. How often will you have to come that just depends on where you end up after your treatment plan? I will then be able to give a maintenance recommendation. Typically twice a month is good. Maintenance care reduces the likely hood of subluxations that would happen just from the body trying to adapt to modern day living. Remember it’s subluxations that cause malfunctioned….damaged tissue and symptoms. Most people that come in for maintenance they are symptom free and the maintenance care helps them maintain the correction they achieved from their corrective treatment plan. No you don’t have to do it. Typically people do it because they want to do. Just like exercise to get the benefit of exercise you have to do. (Back to Top)

Is it ok to work out at the gym?

It’s ok to work out at the gym. No, it’s great to work out at the gym. In the beginning of treatment depending on what were dealing with it might me be a good idea to hold back a little bit. It is possible for your exercise to do more harm then good in certain circumstances. Depending on the individual I may say lets hold off for 2 to 4 weeks and then let’s get back into to but let’s get back in at say 20% of maximum and scale back in at 10% per week. So over the course of 8-10 weeks we can get back to 100%. You see you want to do exercise for life, you want to be exercising into your 80’s. The problem is people always want to try and do to much, too soon and they hurt themselves and then they can’t exercise for awhile and then there all eager to get back into it. “doing too much, too fast” so we try to slow you down a little bit, while were making your body stronger. There might be some things we don’t want you to do. For example if your doing yoga and head stands I would like you to bring in books or charts to diagram some of the things your doing and then we may be able to help you modify these exercises so that there is less stress on your spine. Especially when we are involved in the initial stage of your treatment . I highly recommend you take one of our stretching classes. (Back to Top)

Are there any supplements I should be taking?

Our philosophy is that you should be getting most of the nutrition that you need from your diet, and that a balanced plant/protein based diet is the diet that the body functions on the best. We can teach the principles of a plant/protein diet to you. Most people just don’t eat right, I think supplements are a good idea but there not a replacement for eating right. It would be impossible to eat garbage and take supplements and still be healthy. If you are not eating right you should be taking supplements. If you are interested in supplements we can have you feel out a survey which will allow us to develop a customized nutritional profile to see what your deficiency and show you what you should be taking and what that would cost. (Back to Top)

Is the way I sleep important?

The way you sleep is very important. You should be on your side or on your back. The best way to sleep is with a cervical pillow under your neck. Cervical pillows are designed to keep you off your stomach and support the neck while restoring and remodeling the curve in the neck. The proper pillow will help you maintain the curve in your neck along with helping keep your spine straight. You should not be sleeping on your stomach. (Back to Top)

Will you refer you to another doctor if you cannot help me?

Yes I will. I have a team of medical doctors, neurologists, hand doctors, acupuncturist, and other specialist that I can and will refer to. Depending on the case we will refer for help most of the time we don’t need to but we will. (Back to Top)

Do all chiropractors do the same thing?

Absolutely not! There is 100’s of 100’s variations of chiropractic. We practice a combination of diversified, gonstead, biophysics, and activator technique’s however we are also concerned with the bodies physical, chemical, and mental stress. We feel that we want to teach our patients about the causes of subluxations. I try to teach you how to take better care of yourself which leads to better results. I believe that the more you know about how the body works the better it will work. (Back to Top)

How come medical doctors and chiropractors don’t get along.

That is changing. They actually have chiropractors in hospitals now. In the delivery rooms they have chiropractors that give the first adjustment to the baby right in the delivery room. I work with lots of medical doctors and you need both. There is certain things that a chiropractor can’t do and vise versa. (Back to Top)

Do you treat children?

Yes we do. I have family’s coming in 3,4,5 even 6 at a time. It’s a lot of fun to treat the children. That’s when the subluxations first start is in childhood when they are falling off bikes, and swings and all that fun stuff.
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My other chiropractor did not adjust my arms, my hands, and my shoulders. Is this some sort of specialty?

Absolutely! There are only a few doctors in the whole world that do the extremity adjusting that we do here. It is highly specialized and we do it. (Back to Top)