PHASE 1: Relief Care
Thumbs Up to Relief
Many people go to a chiropractor because they are in pain. In this first phase of care, the main goal is to reduce your symptoms. Sometimes this will require daily visits, or two to three visits per week for a time.
Most people are under the assumption that if they don’t feel any pain that there is nothing wrong with them – that they are healthy. Unfortunately, pain is a very poor indicator of health. In fact, pain and other symptoms frequently only appear after a disease or other condition has become advanced.
For example, consider a cavity in your tooth. Does it hurt when it first develops or only after it has become serious? How about heart disease? Regardless of whether you are talking about cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stress or problems with the spine, pain is usually the last thing to appear. When you begin chiropractic care, pain is also the first symptom to disappear, even though much of the underlying condition remains.
Patient early thirties with chronic middle back pain since 13 years old and numbness down right leg. Fully functional, numbness and pain relieved with corrective chiropractic care.
PHASE 2: Strength and Stabilization Care
Teaming Up for Optimal Health
Most chiropractors regard the elimination of symptoms as the easiest part of a persons care. If all that the chiropractor does is to reduce the pain and stop there, the chances of the condition recurring are much greater. In order to prevent a rapid recurrence of symptoms, it is necessary to continue receiving care even though your symptoms are gone.
During the Strength and Stabilization phase of your care, you will not have to receive adjustments as often as you did during the first phase of care and, depending on your particular circumstances, you may begin doing exercises and stretches either at the centre or at home to help accelerate your healing.
Do not be discouraged if you have mild flare-ups in your symptoms on occasion. This is normal. Flare-ups are bound to occur during this phase because your body has not fully healed. Depending on the severity of your injury or condition and how long you have been suffering from it, this phase of your care may last anywhere from a few months to a couple of years.
PHASE 3: Chiropractic Wellness Care
The third phase is wellness care – maintaining the spine in a healthy state.
The daily stresses of life, sitting, standing, sleeping and work postures, slips and falls, and emotional and chemical stresses, continue to affect your spine and body throughout life. Finding and correcting any new mis-alignments in the spine, and keeping the spine from returning to the previously damaged state, is the key to maintaining a healthy spine for a lifetime!
This allows you to continue healing and living an active healthy lifestyle, naturally, keeping your nervous system free of interference over time.
