Awhile back I posted this about starting chiropractic treatment using a pretty new technology to the world of chiropractic care.
This page isn't from my chiro's website but it has a lot of info on the technology that the office I go to uses if anyone is interested in looking into how it works.
Anyway, on to my point, I used to have pretty severe neck pain 2-3 days per week and thought there was nothing I could do about it after my family doctor didn't have jack sh** to offer in terms of advice, relief, or anything else. I chocked it up to being a desk jockey who sits to many hours and aging and thought I'd just have to deal with it...until I stumbled upon this office who had a booth set up at the half marathon packet pickup I went to in late March.
Well, I took and chance on it and only a month later now I have moderate neck pain maybe once or twice a month which is much more manageable. I'm only 1 month into 12 months of gentle, gradual adjustments made using a calibrated device which can deliver pinpointed low force adjustments to the spine (not the traditional back and neck cracking chiropractors that one might call a stereotype). I feel like its already reversed years of damage that corporate America has wrought on my spine (not the traditional back and neck cracking chiropractors that one might call a stereotype).
So here's the results after just one month, and before anyone asks, today when I had this scan (on the right) done I didn't feel like I had really any significant neck or back pain (and I sat at my computer all day right before the 5:30 pm appointment).
The top images are vertebral misalignment detected and the lower images are muscular pain detected by the devices. I felt a little bit of discomfort where the red, green and blue bars are going in so it wasn't a surprise and I was glad to see the results lined up, but nothing bad. Maybe a pain level of 2 on a scale of 1-10. The spinal imaging was very promising. All white is GOOD! It means the misalignment of my C1 is getting better from the treatment.
They told me they're glad I'm feeling a lot better but I know this is just the beginning. I already paid a modest price for 56 visits over the course of a year and even though I'm pretty happy at this point I'm happy I have more treatment ahead. I like the adjustments and they keep my pain at bay. They did say they expected I'd respond to the treatment quickly but I didn't expect it to be this fast!
The spinal misalignment comparison in the picture speaks for itself. That C1 vertebrae in my neck was the root cause of a lot of pain and it's under control by their metrics now but I am glad to be continuing the treatment.
Misalignment of vertebrae can also cause a lot of neurological problems as the central nervous system pathways go up the spine and into the brain stem. Misalignments can cause all kinds of crazy problems that a doctor would never figure out are being caused by the spine.
I'm lucky I went now and not in 5-10 years from now. I have a lot of colleagues who have serious back and neck issues and it's due to years of poor posture, computer use, driving, and a big factor, according to the Chiropractors, is looking downward at a cell phone so much. The neck wasn't made to tilt at that angle for long periods of time and it's contributing to an epidemic of neck and back pain. It eventually causes the natural curve in the neck to diminish and it can damage discs and cause the vertebrae to get out of alignment faster.
All in all, I just wanted to express my gratitude for a basically pain free life, or as close to it as I could ask for with the exception of the self torture I inflict upon myself (marathons, etc). So goodbye to my 2-3 days of pain per week I've had for the past few years. I thought I had no options left. Thankfully that is not the case!