Thursday, June 11, 2009

Oh My Aching Head... (aka 2 Kings 4:19**) ... (aka Migraines, Headaches and Chiropractic)

Kelly asked me recently about headaches and chiropractic care, and if chiropractic care could help with headaches.

I'll start with my "chiropractic testimonial", this was honestly the biggest reason I got into chiropractic in the first place. At one point in my life, I had headaches just about every single day. I got migraines frequently, on average about once per month. I lived with both, mostly because I had no idea it could be different. I rarely took drugs because they really didn't help much, and I really didn't like the listed side effects if I wasn't getting any benefit. That just didn't make much sense to me.

At the peak of these events, I started to work for a Chiropractor. One of the benefits of working there was free care, which was fabulous. (As a side note, I had been curious about chiropractic care for awhile - when I was in High School, I had horrible lower back pain periodically, and I wondered if Chiropractic care could help with that. I never brought it up with my parents, however, and I never went. In College, one of my roommates senior year graduated early and went to chiropractic school. So when I was offered a job in a Chiropractic office, it kind of felt like fate or providence that I should start working there.)

So these adjustments that I started getting - wow, they felt great! My daily headaches dropped down to every other day, and then weekly... and I got migraines less and less as well.

So the short answer to your question, Kelly, is that yes, chiropractic care may* help with headaches.

The longer answer is the part that belongs at the bottom of the page - the "*" part of the above sentence.

* In a way, "Can chiropractic care help with headaches?" is the wrong question. As my testimonial above indicates, it is certainly possible that chiropractic care can help reduce and remove headaches. But chiropractic care can help with headaches mostly because it allows your body to correct itself. When I work on someone in the office, my title is "Doctor", but really, I'm more of a cheerleader and a catalyst, so that their body can kick in and do the healing. I remove the interference, they do the healing.

I know it sounds like I'm being picky, and that it's all semantics, but it's important to realize that the body does the healing. My job as a chiropractor is to remove the interference caused by subluxation, and then the body does the rest of the work. It's not always easy to predict what path the body will take as it heals - sometimes symptoms get worse before they get better, sometimes it feels like nothing is being done for awhile.

The thing is, as a doctor, I don't always know WHY you're getting headaches in the first place. It could be physical, chemical or emotional. Headaches, to me, are a sign that something, somewhere is out of balance in your body. I can adjust you, and help you to heal better with care, but if you keep putting the same crap into your body, you are going to keep getting the same result. Did chiropractic care help you? We might have different answers to that - if I did my job and removed subluxations, then I believe, yes, absolutely chiropractic care helped you. But if you were only coming for relief of headaches, then you're going to say no to that question.


**the first AKA on this title is in honor of Heidi Long, should she ever find this blog. If you don't get it, look it up - yes, it is a bible verse.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Pay cash at the doctor's office - a great link

http://drtim.wordpress.com/2007/02/23/the-case-for-cash-when-health-insurance-isnt/

He makes some great points for paying cash for your care.