FOR WHO

Different reasons to go to a chiropractor:

Many people visit a chiropractor for different reasons. Woken up with a stiff neck and it doesn’t turn left, or right? Or just picked up a pair of socks from the floor and you’re stuck bending forward? These are often reasons why people see a chiropractor. For most people, this wasn’t the first episode of their overall problem, and they started looking for a more permanent solution. Even for conditions affecting other parts of the body than the musculoskeletal system people see a chiropractor, such as headaches, dizziness, irritable bowel syndrome, sleeping difficulties, etc. Chiropractic care has been shown to be able to help people with many different types of pains and symptoms which all have their roots to some degree in the loss of normal function in the spine and nervous system. The list of conditions is long and includes a large variety of seemingly unrelated health problems. The degree to which chiropractic care may help with any of these health conditions varies based on many different variables, hence in order to find out how chiropractic care may help you with your specific health problems, the first assessment we do at the Chiropractic Institute is designed to help us find out if and how exactly we can help you.

You don’t have to be sick to take care of your health

01

Doing a general check-up

Just as we do a regular MOT of our car and as we see our dentists to make sure everything is OK; you may come in to do a general check-up of your spine and nervous system. The assessment we do at the Chiropractic Institute is very thorough and unique in what it examines. You will learn a lot about the state your body is in and how it adapts to the different types of stress that we all encounter daily. By doing this assessment only will you gain a wider insight on what you might focus on to create a more robust state of health.

02

Trying to avoid future health problems

Another word for this approach is prevention. By now you will have done the assessment and we have shown you which areas of the spine are not functioning exactly as they should and how they are affecting your nervous system negatively. This is all happening on a level not severe enough to cause you major health problems, yet if left alone it may do so in the future. Luckily, you decided to work on it NOW! Now that your body is still in a state in which it can —-auto correct— itself relatively easy. As time flies by and these minor disturbances turn into major malfunctions, correcting these often turns out much more difficult.

Maintenance

Oftentimes people that have overcome serious health challenges will consequently notice a shift in their approach to health. Not wanting to regress to that state of illness, they will focus on maintaining their current state of health. Many people’s approaches will remain like this to maintaining a certain level of health, yet some continue to search for more…

03

Going for the absolute best

The last approach we’re discussing here is perhaps our favourite: optimal performance. So far, we’ve only focussed on what’s not going so well and correcting this either in an early stage or later. This approach holds the view that there is no limit to being healthy. We live on a spectrum of health ranging from very sick to having no (noticeable) symptoms but also to reaching a state of optimal performance. On this part of the spectrum a conscious lifestyle and healthy habits are of the essence and what better habit than to regularly have your spine and nervous system checked?

Different phases in life with different physical needs supported by chiropractic care.

The principle of chiropractic care is the same for everybody (i.e., the adjustment of the spine leads to restored neurological function allowing the body the heal itself and maintain itself naturally), yet the application may differ slightly to accommodate the differences in body types, size, weight, neurological state, and many more variables that exist between all of us. These specifics are determined in the first assessment. For certain groups of people, however, the adjustment may look quite different as the same forces are not applied to a baby or people with brittle bones as are applied to athletes with big and strong muscles.

Pregnancy

Women undergo ‘massive’ physical changes throughout pregnancy and after childbirth. Hormonal changes that prepare the body to bear a child together with the loosening of spinal structures to be able to give birth affect the stability and flexibility of the spine, especially the low back and pelvis. Chiropractic care in the form of a specific method called the Webster Technique focuses on restoring the proper function of the pelvis which may have a positive effect on the positioning of the baby, proper pelvic muscle contractions, and adequate uterine function.

Pediatrics

The development of children is often measured by the achievement of milestones, such as the absence or presence of primitive reflexes, the timeline in which the child is able to crawl, stand up, or walk, when they speak their first words, and many more. The natural development of these milestones are indications that the child’s nervous system is evolving appropriately. Chiropractic care can support children that haven’t achieved these milestones yet as the adjustment helps integrate different parts of the nervous system. Otherwise, in a child’s spine that is still growing, a distorted pelvis or tension in the upper neck area can lead to a twisting of the spine that is called scoliosis. Chiropractic care can help keep this twisting from getting worse and sometimes a full recovery may be possible. Most parents who take their children to a chiropractor, however, do this as they know that chiropractic aids them to grow up as best as possible.

Geriatrics

The older we get, the more difficult it may be to recover from certain injuries. A fall leading to a broken hip, for example, may severely impact the quality of life of somebody who is a little bit older. Unsteadiness and dizziness are very common conditions in the elderly and chiropractic care can help with these conditions as by removing the blockages in the spine, the brain perceives more accurately what goes on in the body, including its positions, and it can adapt quicker when it needs to. Fear of falling can lead to immobility which can lead to deterioration of the muscles directing into a vicious cycle of losing independence. The adjustment often is a lot gentler with the elderly compared to the average adult. We have a tool called the Activator that allows us to apply the necessary impulses without stressing any weak areas of the spine.

Athletes

Most athletes are very invested in their physical health and the state of their bodies as their performances are dependent upon it. The brain’s perception of the body is called proprioception. In other words, this is our sense of our physical self, our body. This sense is extremely important in highly demanding situations in which athletes put their bodies through for their bodies to adapt rapidly and correctly. If this is not occurring due to spinal blockages and neurological dysfunction, the athlete is more prone to injuries. Chiropractic care does not only help the athlete to have fewer injuries, but it also helps with a quicker recovery time in case an injury was inevitable. Overall, an optimally moving and functioning spine leads to a more consistent performance.