The Benefits of Chiropractic Maintenance Adjustments
Most people who seek out chiropractic care are in pain, and some part of their life is suffering as a result. Perhaps your back hurts, and you can no longer play with your grandchildren. Maybe you have a big golf tournament this weekend, and you woke up with a pain in your neck. Sometimes, people are involved in car accidents and can no longer work. In any event, chiropractic is a tremendous resource for people seeking a non-surgical, medication-free treatment for pain and dysfunction. For decades, research has supported chiropractic care as the preferred treatment for musculoskeletal injuries.
Our chiropractic office sees patients for anywhere from 8-12 visits before they report an 80% improvement in their symptoms and ability to perform daily activities. This number can vary depending on underlying health, physical activity level, job type, adherence to at-home exercises, and much more.
What if you feel better?
Once a person has reached their treatment goals or there is no reasonable expectation of further improvement, they are released from active care and have two options. They can choose to return for care when their symptoms are severe enough to seek care, or they can continue on a chiropractic maintenance program.
What is Maintenance Chiropractic Care?
Maintenance chiropractic care seeks to prevent disease, promote health, and prolong and enhance the quality of life or therapy to maintain or prevent the deterioration of a chronic condition. When doctors and patients can reasonably expect no clinical improvement from continued ongoing care and the treatment becomes supportive instead of corrective, it is considered maintenance care.
Who Needs Maintenance Chiropractic Care?
Healthcare and how you treat your body is ultimately your decision. As providers, it is our job to provide a treatment plan and options that are most effective for each patient’s particular needs and situation. Like most things in our office, we back them up with science and research—our anecdotal evidence in the office and the scientific research support maintenance care.
The Possible Effects of Not Getting Adjusted
Degenerative changes in the cervical spine. Courtesy of Cleveland Clinic
While it is not necessary to get adjusted to live a healthy and active life, many studies suggest lack of movement in the spinal vertebrae can significantly impact over health. One study fixated the spines in rats and found that after 4 weeks, the vertebral joints were starting to form osteophytes or bony growth from the vertebral bodies similar to arthritis. This leads to to alterd biomechanical loads in different parts of the body as well as degenerative changes. This is why we suggest getting adjusted every 3-5 weeks.
The Science Behind Maintenance Care
One of the most extensive studies of chiropractic maintenance care was performed by Eklund et al., who studied the Nordic Maintenance Care Plan. Their research suggests that patients seeking maintenance care (once per month) report 13% fewer days of lower back pain (over 12 months) while getting only 1.7% more treatments. They also found that those seeking maintenance care reported an average of 9.8 weeks longer between episodes of low back pain.
With healthcare costs increasing and patients paying more, we are looking for ways for people to stay healthy and enjoy life without the burden of pain.
If you just finished your care plan or have not been treated in more than 4 weeks, we highly encourage you to schedule a maintenance adjustment by clicking here. Your body will thank you!
References
Eklund A, Hagberg J, Jensen I, Leboeuf-Yde C, Kongsted A, Lövgren P, Jonsson M, Petersen-Klingberg J, Calvert C, Axén I. The Nordic maintenance care program: maintenance care reduces the number of days with pain in acute episodes and increases the length of pain free periods for dysfunctional patients with recurrent and persistent low back pain - a secondary analysis of a pragmatic randomized controlled trial. Chiropr Man Therap. 2020 Apr 21;28(1):19. doi: 10.1186/s12998-020-00309-6. PMID: 32316995; PMCID: PMC7171853.
Cramer GD, Fournier JT, Henderson CN, Wolcott CC. Degenerative changes following spinal fixation in a small animal model. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2004 Mar-Apr;27(3):141-54. doi: 10.1016/j.jmpt.2003.12.025. PMID: 15129196.