It’s a pretty safe bet that most people want to live a healthy, happy, long life. Most people probably want to take very few drugs and only have to experience a few surgeries – things like that. Some people out there using chiropractic care would achieve that.
But a lot of people aren’t, and some of those that aren’t using chiropractic care aren’t even considering chiropractic care because of a few of the things they’ve heard about it.
Today I want to address some of the more common myths about chiropractic and just put them to rest so that you can make an informed decision when it comes to your health and wellness, not just make your decisions based on stereotypes that you may have heard.
Myth #1: You have to go for life.
You don’t have to go to the chiropractor for life – it’s just like with your dentist. You go there and they find a cavity or two. Maybe they tell you everything’s fine. But regardless of whatever they find on that visit, what do they recommend? They recommend that you come back in six months for a well checkup.
The same thing is true for chiropractic here. The goal of chiropractic care is to find that problem and address it and resolve it. Other things in your life may happen to cause more issues down the road, so it’s a good to get checked every now and again just to make sure there isn’t anything brewing that might cause a health problem. Once you begin to feel better, you don’t have to go forever. You can stop anytime you want. But if something happens, you might want to go back and get that addressed.
Myth #2: Chiropractors only help with neck and back pain.
Absolutely, chiropractors are more known for helping people with neck and back pain than anything else. But the truth is, that the neck and back pain that goes away from chiropractic care is a side effect. The goal of chiropractic care is to improve your nervous system function. It’s the nerves that control the muscles, influence the joints and the organs and other parts of your body that may cause the symptoms that bring you in.
The goal of the adjustment is to make your body work better. When your body works better, guess what goes away? Neck and back pain, a bunch of other stuff goes away as well. The patients that we see come to us for migraines, vertigo, digestive issues, all of them have to do with how the body’s functioning, not just neck and back pain.
There’s other ways to treat neck and back pain besides chiropractic care. Physical therapy, yoga, staying fit, and exercising on a regular basis. Those are great ways to address neck and back pain as well – in fact, probably even more effective in some cases than chiropractic care. It was never designed just for neck and back pain.
Myth #3: Chiropractic care is dangerous.
Is chiropractic care dangerous? Maybe you’ve heard of a case or two where someone got injured through chiropractic care.
I’m not going to say it’s not possible – obviously it’s possible for someone to be injured during care, but it’s very unlikely that anything that we do is going to be dangerous, especially if you’re in an office that does the proper initial exams. A good chiropractor or a good doctor of any kind is going to be looking for clues and possible indications that something might be wrong, when it might not be safe to adjust or might have to refer them out to a different type of doctors.
If you’re in the office that does a proper exam like we do, it’s really not dangerous at all. It’s a very safe approach to your health and wellness. If we find anything that’s wrong, of course we refer that person out to the appropriate doctor if it’s something that we can’t help.
Myth #4: Chiropractic care is for everyone, all the time.
Is chiropractic care for everyone? Yes and no. Everyone has a spine that might get in trouble, but not everyone needs chiropractic care all the time.
A good way to figure that out is to get checked. Find an office that has a way of assessing objectively whether or not somebody actually might need chiropractic care, because not everyone out there right now needs chiropractic care, just like not everyone out there right now needs a dentist or needs a cardiologist. Maybe at some point they might, but not right now. Chiropractic care isn’t the best solution for everybody. It’s the best solution for those that have a problem with the spine, that’s affecting their health.
Myth #5: Chiropractic is expensive.
Is chiropractic care expensive? Depends on who you ask the question.
If you ask Bill Gates, nothing is expensive for him, but let’s flip that question on its ear. Living a life full of sickness, symptoms and disease is expensive. How much does it cost you to continually manage symptoms, disease, sickness and issues versus invest a little bit more time or money up front to have a life of feeling well and being healthy?
It’s far less expensive to stay well and get well than it is to continually manage a symptom. In terms of cost, maybe a chiropractic visit costs more than an aspirin or some over the counter medication for that day – but over the course of your life, it’s way less expensive to keep your body functioning well, and chiropractic care is a great way to do that.
Myth #6: Chiropractors aren’t real doctors.
I hear this frequently. “Where did you guys learn how to do this?”
Believe it or not, chiropractic college is very similar to medical school in terms of how many hours we have to spend getting trained. In terms of the subjects that we focus on as compared to medical doctors, we focus our attention in different areas, but in terms of how many hours we have in school, it’s right on pace with medical doctors.
Chiropractors are actual doctors. They are trained physicians. They are primary care providers. They have the ability to take in pretty much any case and either figure out if it’s an appropriate case for them or refer them to a different type of doctor, just like a medical doctor would.
Fear not: chiropractors are in fact real doctors. They went through a heck of a lot of training – in some cases, even more so than medical doctors to be able to do what we do.
Those are the six most common myths with chiropractic care. If you want to go learn more about any of these things, you can always find us on Facebook or read more on our website.