How many people see chiropractors?
Chiropractic services are in high demand. In 2006, CNN and Money magazine ranked chiropractor at #14 of Top 50 Best Jobs in America, higher than physician/surgeon (#30), dentist (#43), registered nurse (#47), veterinarian (#49), accountant (#44), occupational therapist (#32), or lawyer (#37).
Tens of millions of Americans routinely opt for chiropractic services and this number is rapidly growing. “Number of visits to non-medical practitioners has doubled within the past five years; total number of visits to Doctors of Chiropractic exceeds the number of visits to family physicians. Also, from 1999 to 2002, nationwide chiropractic care increased 91 percent in that three year period." - Top Growth Areas in the Outpatient market, Solucient LLC.Journal of American Medical Association 1998.
How long does it take to achieve results?
This depends on five things:
- Severity of your condition,
- Age
- Level of spinal deterioration / degeneration
- Occupation or daily activities
- Your commitment and compliance to keep your appointments, to do the things we tell you to do and avoid the things we tell you to avoid.
In this area, people who work at TOYOTA, YKK, FLORIDA TILE, GENERAL CABLE, BLUE GRASS ENERGY, WAL-MART, KROGER, industrial plants, distilleries, and places where they stand on concrete for hours, bending, lifting, pulling and twisting, will recover slower than folks who work in the office environment with less spinal stress (except prolonged sitting).
Activities such as slouching, gaming (X-box, Playstation, PC, DS, etc.), trampoline, waterskiing, watertubing, snowskiing, snowboarding, snowtubing, four-wheeling, poor sleeping posture, knitting, reading for hours, computer use for hours, skateboarding, karate, cheerleading, gymnastic, carrying heavy backpacks, (and many more) will reinjure and slow down your healing / recovery.
In most cases, pain relief can be achieved within one to two weeks. Correction and stabilization of the spine, which gives long lasting results, ranges between three to twelve weeks or longer, depending on those four factors above and (#5) whether you REINJURE your spine by not complying to our recommendations (posture, keeping appointments, home exercises, therapies, etc.).
How safe is it?
You are more likely to die from a painkiller than from a chiropractic care (Vioxx killed 27,785 people from 1999-2003). Statistics prove that chiropractic care is one of the safest types of healthcare in the world.
You only need to compare the malpractice insurance premiums paid by chiropractors to those paid by medical doctors. Doctors of Chiropractic pay only a small fraction of the price medical doctors pay in malpractice premiums.
Over 780,000 people will die this year (>15,000 deaths per week) as a result of bad medicine or medical errors. (Journal of American Medical Association, 07/26/2000; Death by Medicine 2003).
At our chiropractic office that serves people from Frankfort, Lawrenceburg, Versailles, Harrodsburg and Lexington Kentucky, we do not use the “twisting or cracking” methods of treatment, instead a gentle percussive Activator instrument, gentle enough for 3-day-old newborns. Read testimonials from people you know.
Arguments about the scientific basis of chiropractic are often from those who have conflicts of interests or paid for by the pharmaceutical companies, or those who are misinformed, ignorant, uneducated or unaware that EVEN the current highly touted medical procedures, "...only 15% of them have ever been scientifically verified, and the other 85% of common medical procedures have no scientific basis." (David Eddy, MD, PhD ~ medical doctor, professor of health policy and management at Duke University, North Carolina; British Medical Journal 10/5/91).
Is it OK to see a chiropractor if I'm pregnant?
If you want to have healthy pregnancy and easy delivery, yes.
“Women who received chiropractic adjustments in their third trimester of pregnancy were able to carry and deliver children with more comfort.” Irvin Hendryson, M.D., American Medical Association 1987 trial record. “There was significantly less likelihood of back labor when spinal chiropractic therapy was administered during pregnancy.” - JMPT 1991.
When you are pregnant and gain 15, 25, 35 or 60 lbs. on top of your normal weight, this creates an excessive stress on the structural / musculoskeletal system. Previous falls, injuries, or misalignments along the spine will cause pain and stiffness to the mother as well as fetal distress in some cases.
When your hips are twisted and out of alignment, it creates less space for the baby (fetus) to move, which promotes breech pregnancy and eventually lack of progress in labor because the baby will have difficulty passing through the (now narrowed) birth canal. Call us today and schedule a free consultation with the doctors. 502.839.7171. You have the right to rescind within 72 hours any obligation to pay for services performed on the same day, in addition to discounted services.
How much does it cost?
It depends on several things such as: the severity of your case and how many problems you have. Just like going to a dentist, while some people need to have a root canal or extraction of one or five teeth, some other people only need one filling or one dental cleaning session. So it depends.
Call our office now (502-839-7171) to schedule the initial consultation with the doctors at no charge, so we can evaluate your condition and determine if you are a candidate for chiropractic care. If the doctor accepts your case, our staff will inform you of the charges for the exam and x-rays, if necessary, before any services are performed.
We help patients with or without insurances. Many people these days also use their FLEX health spending account, or Health Savings Account (HSA) to pay for their care. In some cases, not having an insurance may be a good thing since you are not bound to any restrictions of choosing providers. If you have a health insurance, we'll be happy to verify your insurance coverage as a courtesy. Call us 839-7171.
What kind of education do chiropractors receive?
A recent report by the Center for Studies in Health Policy in Washington, DC says that chiropractic and medical curricula are “more similar than dissimilar” as indicated in the table above.
After completion of Bachelor degree, a doctor of chiropractic’s training generally requires a minimum of five years of college study. Obviously, medical doctors receive additional training in pharmacology, surgery, and lots of hours in clinical rotations, whereas doctors of chiropractic focus more on physiology, pathology and spinal adjusting techniques. After passing four national board examinations and state licensing requirements, today’s chiropractor, like all types of doctors, must attend continuing education classes every year for relicensure and to stay current on the latest scientific research.
Does it hurt?
Our doctors use a small spring-loaded "clicky" tool to adjust their patients, which ranged from 2-days old newborn to 90+ years old adult with osteoporosis. It is a much gentler treatment compared to the forceful methods.
Although different person may react differently depending on severity of injury or level of sensitivity, many patients report that they feel a sense of relief and relaxation following an adjustment. It can cause a variety of reactions from temporary soreness to a sense of euphoria and well-being.
My spouse is a skeptic, he needs FACTS.
Why do KIDS need chiropractic?
Can you help my kid with ADD / ADHD?
Can Asthma be helped by chiropractic care?
How does chiropractic help Ear Infections?
Does chiropractic help Carpal Tunnel?
What is Chiropractic?
Is it scientifically based?
It is a scientific fact that the brain, spinal cord inside the spine, and spinal nerves, all make up the nervous system and that the nervous system controls and regulates every cell, tissue, organ, system, and function of the body.
The practice of chiropractic focuses on the relationship between structure (primarily the spine) and function (as coordinated by the nervous system) and how that relationship affects the preservation and restoration of health.
Health is when every organ, tissue, and system of the body functions at 100%. The spinal cord inside the spine and spinal nerves are the communication highway between the brain and the body.
Misalignments of the vertebrae along the spine from falls, poor posture, injuries, or birth, irritate, choke, interfere with spinal nerves, reducing your body’s ability to express health.
Doctors of Chiropractic are the only doctors trained in detection and removal of nerve interference. Chiropractic is not a treatment for a particular disease. However, hundreds of research studies documented the results of chiropractic care on asthma, infantile colic, ear infections, bedwetting, headaches, migraines, dysmenorrhea (menstrual cramps), improved vision, hearing, low back pain, overall health status and many others. The best part of it all is the fact that chiropractic restores health without drugs or surgery.
Arguments about the scientific basis of chiropractic are often from those who have conflicts of interests or paid for by the pharmaceutical companies, or those who are misinformed, ignorant, uneducated or unaware that EVEN the current highly touted medical procedures, "...only 15% of them have ever been scientifically verified, and the other 85% of common medical procedures have no scientific basis." (David Eddy, MD, PhD ~ medical doctor, professor of health policy and management at Duke University, North Carolina; British Medical Journal 10/5/91).
Do you realize that almost every medicine given to children under the age of 12 today have never been tested before and that the children themselves are the "guinea pigs"? No wonder one out of every 15 children in hospitals today are injured from drug errors or bad drug reactions (American Academy of Pediatrics, Pediatrics 4/1/08). To make matters worse, majority of the "scientific studies" to confirm whether a certain drug is effective or not, are sponsored and paid for by pharmaceutical companies who made over $400 billion in profits per year. Keywords: conflict of interest (M. Angell, The Truth About Drug Companies, The New York Review of Books, vol.51, no.12, 7/15/04).
Chiropractic restores health and wellness without drugs or surgery.
My husband won't start chiropractic care because he "doesn't want to get hooked."
Ha! That's just silly. Do you shower or bathe regularly? Would you consider yourself an "addict"? "Hooked"? What about brushing your teeth? Who said you have to shower every day? Why do we do these things? BECAUSE WE LIKE THE BENEFITS!
Interesting about anything positive to health: exercise, good nutrition, daily intake of vitamins, minerals and herbs, proper rest, showering, etc.; the more you keep regular with it, the better you feel, the better they are for you and the less sick you become. We term these habits health "maintenance". You can stop anytime you choose!!
What tends to happen, though, is that most folks like the benefits of regular chiropractic care so they choose not to quit. They no longer wake up with stiffness and pain, they can travel long distances without problems, they can stand, walk, play sports and do their favorite hobbies without being limited by pain or stiffness or headaches. Their relationships also improve!
When you are in pain, you are crabby, "short-fused", explosive, and not a fun person to be around. Our wellness patients notice that their relationships with others improve. “Chiropractic patients not only reported less pain than hospital patients at six weeks, but three years later chiropractic patients reported a 29% greater improvement with chiropractic compared to hospital treatment. The most dramatic improvements were associated with pain reduction, but many of the factors that contribute to the quality of life were greatly improved by chiropractic care. Sitting for more than a short period of time and sleeping showed the most significant improvement, but scores such as personal care, lifting, walking, standing, sex life, social life, and ability to travel also improved.” ~ British Medical Journal 1995.
Spinal maintenance, a.k.a. preventive chiropractic care, helps keep a body to stay well so it stands less of a chance of getting sick or being injured. Does that sound like an addiction?
People maintain only things that they value: brush teeth daily, oil change, daily shower, healthy spine and nervous system. Just try not brushing your teeth for a year, or skip oil change for a year and see what happens. It is also ironic that people pay lots of money to maintain their cars but they neglect their own bodies, waiting until pain comes or things break apart to go see doctors. Some people, sadly, prefer to ignore the problems and play “tough” and gobble up drugs and painkillers to numb / mask the problems until they get into severe crisis, several times a year, costing more money, more stress, and the problem just get worse.
Thankfully those who value and prioritize their health and wellness, over two-thirds of practice members at our clinic come regularly not for crisis care, but for preventative wellness care…to STAY well, because it is easier and cheaper to stay well than to fix the damage after being neglected. Remember, when you STAY well, you function better, feel better, and people around you appreciate this version of you compared to the cranky and irritable version of you.
“The largest study on how chiropractic care affects the cost of health care was conducted by American Specialty Health Plans Inc. of San Diego who compared four (4) years of medical claims from two groups: 1 million members with and without chiropractic care. The findings were published in Archives of Internal Medicine (Oct. 2004) and WebMD, which confirmed that chiropractic care:
• Cut the cost of treating pain by 28%.
• Chiropractic care reduced 41% hospitalizations.
• Reduced back surgeries by 32%.
• Chiropractic care reduced the cost of medical imaging, such as X-rays or MRIs, by 37%."