“Yet most of the activities that cause subluxation are also a natural part of life.” -Joe Strauss, DC

Most if not all deviations away from normal in life go unnoticed.

For example, you can have high blood pressure for years without any symptoms of it. This deviation away from the body’s inner state of normal blood pressure can go unnoticed too long before damage to physiology is serious enough for recognition.

How about dental cavities? We brush our teeth a couple times every day for our entire life to promote an environment that is free of chemical and physical stress to the oral hygiene so dental cavities don’t have an opportunity to develop and on top of that we visit the dentist several times a year for their professional opinion on whether or not our efforts were sufficient. 

The deviation away from normal integrity within the spine can go unnoticed as well. Small displacements within the spinal joints can produce an alteration to normal physiological relationships between the structure and function of the neurological system well before subjective indications point to the departure from normal.

Chiropractors are trained in analyzing spines for these deviations away from normal and have labeled them vertebral subluxation within the Chiropractic profession.

When structure of the spine is dysfunctional, there can be interference in the function of the neurological system. When there is interference to the neurological system and that affects the body’s inherent recuperative power for coordination, this would define vertebral subluxation.

Spinal bones are designed to protect the nerves, but if spinal integrity is less than optimal, neurological interference can result and create negative stress on the body’s recuperative power to adapt to external stimuli, putting your well-being in a state of disharmony. 

The question at hand is When to See a Chiropractor?

We know that Chiropractors analyze the spine for vertebral subluxation and promote better well-being through a specific chiropractic adjustments, but when do vertebral subluxation develop and how do you know if you have vertebral subluxation so you know when to go to a Chiropractor?

Well, most Chiropractors agree within the profession that the earliest opportunities for vertebral subluxation to develop is in the gestation and delivery period. Not to mention the years of learning to walk, ride a bike and the countless athletic activities that can create an opportunity for trauma and wear and tear on the spine.

Not only is trauma an opportunity to cause you to visit a Chiropractor near you, but so too are other forms of stress. 

D.D. Palmer, the founder of Chiropractic taught his students about a term in the late 1900’s called “irritation.” Irritation in the form of stress that produces a negative response to the physiology.

The Chiropractic Viewpoint on Stress is irritation from physical, chemical or mental forms can be sufficient to overcome the body’s adaptive resistive forces which causes structural distortion and an environment for vertebral subluxation to develop.

Chiropractic identifies three forms of stress that can negatively affect your body if adaptation to these stressors are insufficient:

1. Physical Stress. Physical stress can be defined as external invasive forces that outweigh the internal resistive forces of the body to be in a state of balance.
2. Chemical Stress. Chemical stress can be defined as external or internal chemicals that trigger physical reactions throughout the body, offsetting the chemical equilibrium or body chemistry balance. 
3. Emotional Stress. Emotional stress can be defined as internal emotional tension or mental strain that can produce physical responses throughout the body offsetting the chemical equilibrium or physical state of balance. 

When stress outweighs our body’s inner recuperative power to adapt, it can create an environment for more physical stress to develop within the spine such as vertebral subluxation. 

These stressors or irritants that create the environment for subluxation can be everyday activities that we spend our entire lives adapting to such as sitting, standing, exercising and even sleeping. It’s not the actual activity that causes the subluxation, its the ability to adapt to that activity.

So, when should you see a Chiropractor?  You should see a Chiropractor when there has been too much stress and the lack of adaptation to that irritation. 

This can be asymptomatic as well. Just like high blood pressure or dental cavities, symptoms are not the best yardstick to measure well-being and your adaptation to it. 

I hear people say all the time that they don’t need chiropractic because they don’t have neck or back pain. 

My response to that is waiting for something to break down before you evaluate for deviations away from normal is a reactive model. A reactive model in today’s health care world can cost you more and take you longer to repair the damages.

I professionally like to recommend taking a proactive approach on when to see a Chiropractor.

If you choose Chiropractic for its profound ways to facilitate the correction of vertebral subluxation consistently, you will find that the adaptation to the very stress that causes vertebral subluxation becomes less of an irritation.

That doesn’t mean that the sitting, standing, exercising or sleeping won’t cause subluxation, it just means that the physical, chemical or emotional stress toll on the physiology may take longer or in higher amounts in order to trigger as an irritation.

Regular chiropractic care can be a great way to creating a consistent gameplan on when to next visit the Chiropractor as well. 

After your initial visit to the Chiropractor, recommendations will be made on frequency for care. Listen to the professional recommendations and add them to your calendar and let the benefits from the adjustments and repetition turn this into a healthy lifestyle choice on when your next visit to the Chiropractor will be!