Chiropractic Way How Chiropractic Care Can Stop Your Pain and Help You Regain Your Health Without Drugs or Surgery

Part I The Principles How Chiropractic Care Can Stop Pain and Help You Regain Your Health Winifred is a feisty seventy-six-year-old lady with a mischievous smile. She came to my office because she was experiencing chronic back pain and a lack of energy. In the course of my examination, she revealed that she suffered from emphysema, which caused extreme shortness of breath and limited her physical activities. Sleep apnea also caused her to wake up three to five times a night. She was very direct and told me up front that she considered chiropractors "quacks" and the people who swore by them "fruitcakes." (Winifred has never been afraid of speaking her mind.) But she felt conventional medicine offered her only medication, which she had already found unhelpful, and she was afraid of its possible side effects. I measured Winifred's range of motion, X-rayed her spine and neck, and determined that a course of chiropractic adjustments would help correct certain misalignments in her spine. I recommended a course of treatment consisting of three visits a week the first two weeks and two visits a week the next four weeks, and then we'd see how things were going. Winifred was skeptical-she's a real "show me" lady-but she agreed to give chiropractic a try. After she noticed significant improvement within a few visits, she told me, "Dr. Lenarz, if I could find some reason other than the chiropractic treatment, I would gladly put the credit elsewhere." But she couldn't ignore the fact that her back pain was gone, her sleep was much improved, and even her emphysema eased significantly. She found she had more energy and stamina. At one visit she bragged that she had taken a ten-hour car trip with no pain or stiffness-and at her age, she said, that was remarkable. Winifred is typical of many chiropractic patients: They come to the chiropractor as a second, third, or even last resort. Many have tried to handle their conditions with conventional medicine, only to be disappointed with the results. They walk into the chiropractor's office dubiously, not sure whether this new kind of treatment will help, but often desperate for any relief. Like Winifred, they've heard all kinds of bad things about chiropractors: that they're not "real" doctors; that they twist, push, and pull you and cause lots of pain; that the results are temporary at best; and that patients have to keep coming for the rest of their lives to get any real benefit. With all that bad press, why on earth do people continue to go to chiropractors? And with the forces of conventional medicine arrayed against the practice of chiropractic for most of its hundred-year history, why is chiropractic still the second-largest health care system in America and the largest drug-free healing profession in the world? For one very simple and obvious reason: Chiropractic works. Every year millions of people use chiropractic to eliminate their pain, and in the process they discover a new approach to health and well-being. In numerous studies chiropractic has proven to be one of the most effective treatments for back pain, neck pain, headaches, and other musculoskeletal ailments. But at its foundation chiropractic is not really about treatment of pain (although it is very effective at doing so). In chiropractic philosophy, pain relief is really just the side effect of a properly functioning spinal system. Other side effects of chiropractic care include relief from many other conditions and diseases-everything from chronic tonsillitis to high blood pressure to ear problems to digestive ailments and more. Chiropractic treatments help millions of people to live healthier, happier lives, because they restore the body to its proper and natural state. If you, like Winifred, are skeptical, or if you simply want to know more about chiropractic, I hope this book will show you how you can beneLenarz, D. C. Michael is the author of 'Chiropractic Way How Chiropractic Care Can Stop Your Pain and Help You Regain Your Health Without Drugs or Surgery' with ISBN 9780553381597 and ISBN 0553381598.