Cracking bones for better health…

I have to admit, I figured that I would be the last person in the world to be singing the praises of chiropractic care. In fact I thought all chiropractors were fraudulant snake-oil salesmen, up until I got to witness with my own eyes the removal of many of my wife’s legacy medical problems over the course of a few weeks.

You see, my dear wife has been plagued by chronic allergies, migranes, and sinus problems for most of our relationship. An associate of mine had recommended giving chiropractic a shot and explained to me how his wife had her sinus problems eliminated thanks to the care of Nelson Chiropractic Center in Peoria. So I talked to Tasha about it, and soon we had an appointment scheduled.

After an initial visit, my wife got her first adjustments. The cracking sound is really quite disgusting when you hear it, but the results were almost immediate… after four visits, Tasha had completely stopped taking her battery of loratidine, Sudafed, and Advil for her allergies, sinuses, and headaches respectively. That, and her old problems with her hips were already starting to fix.

It was about this time that they were running a promotion that allowed me (after a referral from Tasha) to get free x-rays and a consultation.

Now, I didn’t have anything majorly wrong with me, however I had a back injury in early January 2004 that laid me up for a few weeks. I also had a nagging neck problem that I’ve had all the way through college. The doctor showed me my x-rays, and confirmed that I didn’t have THAT much wrong with me. He suggested a course of treatment that was reasonable, so I decided to have a shot.

The first adjustment was pretty wild… he said that the majority of my middle back problems were caused due to compensation for the neck trouble. So he cracked my back in two places, both of which felt GREAT. The neck adjustment was very unsettling… he loosened up my neck and then turned it sharply to the right and about 6 vertebrae popped, all the way down to the middle of my back. I’m not going to lie… it hurt. Then, very quickly, he turned it back to the left. About four more pops, and I felt something in my lower left neck release and a small shifting sensation. He then adjusted my back by pulling my leg across one direction and my arm straight up. This was the area I injured before, and I immediately felt things loosen up and feel less fatigued.

My neck was a little sore for the rest of the night (which he told me was expected), however I noticed a few things immediately. When I tried to put my head straight down, I used to get a very uncomfortable pulling sensation in the middle of my back. That was gone even before I got home. Also, when I used to rotate my neck around (like we do as a stretch in karate) I would be limited in some movement and I would hear a gravelly sound. That movement restriction was improved, and the gravel has gone almost completely away.

Another interesting point… because of oxygen shots that were frequently administered when I was a premature baby, I have never had feeling in my heels. I could feel some pressure, but that’s about it. I was sitting on the couch with my feet up on the coffee table on Saturday afternoon. I was chatting or something, and all of a sudden I realized that I was not only feeling pressure in the heel that I was leaning on (my feet were crossed at the ankle), it actually hurt! Now, I know that pain isn’t a good thing, but when you’ve never been able to feel it before it lends something to the case that adjusting the spine can allow your nervous system to flow better and be healthier. It was neat to me because it was something small and inconsequental that I just took for granted that it would never get any better and here it is getting better.

I’ve been doing some reading on the Internet and there are actual medical journals, case studies, and personal accounts that chiropractic has been used to remove blindness, deafness, some symptoms of retardation, and a laundry list of other amazing things. One case study discussed a young girl with severe Down’s Syndrome that had a comprehensive IQ test administered and was scored at a 46: so severely retarded that she couldn’t be admitted to school. The only care she was given for the case study was daily chiropractic adjustments for six months. She took another comprehensive IQ test administered by the same testing facility and she scored an 86. At the time of the case study, the girl continued chiropractic care and got to go to school. It doesn’t seem so unbelievable that it could give me a little feeling back in my heels after knowing information like that.

Needless to say… I’ve been happy with the results so far and I hope that the improvement continues for both Tasha and I.