Discover Health Chiropractic PC

A subluxation is an improper motion due to a change in position of the bones of the spine or extremities. This change in position causes the bones to become fixated in position leading to an increase in stress on the nervous system proceeding to disease in the individual. The disease may not appear or show signs or symptoms for years, but left untreated they can and do produce disease. When the spine is out of align and not functioning and moving properly it starts to break down just like a tooth with a cavity. A lack in motion in the spine or extremities is to bone as sugar is to your teeth it causes degeneration or decay. This degeneration, just like in the formation of a cavity, can go unnoticed for years to decades before presenting with symptoms. Subluxations also cause the release of stress hormones such as cortisol and catecholamines.

There is an intricate relationship between the spine and nervous system. Vertebral subluxations cause an interference with the brains ability to send messages to certain muscles, organs, tissues, and cells of the body. The subluxation also causes interference in the brains ability to receive information from the body. This interference leads to a decrease in the health and overall wellness of the individual.

• Physical causes such as trauma to the body and repetitive motions that affect the spine. These could include slips and falls, accidents, poor posture, repetitive motions, improper lifting, and the birthing process.

• Emotional causes can include stress, grief, anger, and fear. Stress has been shown through medical research to have a detrimental effect on the immune system and lead to illness.

• Chemical causes such as that from poor food choices, drugs, alcohol, and medicines. Toxins from pollution from the food we eat to the air we breath and the water we drink can also lead to subluxations. Chemicals that are harmful to the body decrease the body's ability to adapt to the environment leading to spinal subluxations.

The only way to know if you have a Subluxation is through a thorough examination by a chiropractor. You can have subluxations and not even know it. Just like the early stages of tooth decay or cancer, subluxations exist long before symptoms present such as pain or functional loss. This is why we recommend routine spinal checkups to look for the presence of subluxations before the emergence of pain or functional loss.

There are many signs and symptoms commonly associated with the vertebral Subluxation and include:

Head always turned in one direction or refusal to turn in a particular direction

The body has an amazing ability to heal and adapt. Subluxations occur all the time and the body is able to correct a majority of these subluxations. When subluxations do not resolve, is when you need to see a chiropractor. Chiropractors read your spine like a blind person reads braille. They run their hands down the spine sensing small differences from one side of the spine to the other, which could include a rotation in the spine or tone in the musculature.

There are many ways in which a chiropractor can adjust a bone. At our clinic we use gentle hands on care to make the majority of corrections. We also use the activator to supplement the adjustments as reinforcement. The activator is used to help bring the curves back into the spine. The tables at our clinic are also equipped with special drop pieces, which allow for an extremely gentle adjustment with the aid of the force of gravity.

Subluxations require multiple adjustments to achieve long term correction. Like putting braces on teeth, correcting the spine requires time for the tissues and ligaments to accept the new position as normal. The frequency of visits is paramount to the success of care. The frequency can start anywhere from two to three times a week. The frequency is decreased as the spine begins to shift and the muscles and ligaments begin to heal. And as the spine continues to shift the frequency is further reduced until a maintenance level of care can be achieved.

The chiropractic adjustment is the primary source of treatment in a chiropractic care program. The purpose behind the adjustment is to correct motion and position of the bones of the body in order to reduce the amount of stress placed on the nervous system. By taking this stress off of the nervous system the body is able to express the innate genetic health it was meant to. When the innate genetic health is expressed the body is better able to adapt to the stresses of the environment

Chiropractic adjustments usually involve a single quick but gentle corrective impulse into a subluxated spinal vertebra. This adds motion into spinal joints that were in the wrong position and or moving improperly. Adjustments are not painful and people look forward to further adjustments because they have seen the immediate relief that can come from an adjustment.

Adjustments are often accompanied by an audible release of gas from the joint that sounds like a “crack”. Many mistake this sound for crunching or cracking bones, which is not the case. The sound comes from gas releasing from the joint similar to that when you open a pop bottle. Very important to note is that the sound is not always heard when an adjustment is made. Another common misunderstanding is that without the sound no adjustment has been made. Many times the gas release does not cause an audible “cavitation” sound yet the adjustment corrects the spine perfectly.

Adjustments help correct subluxations in the spine and extremities. They can reduce inflammation, tenderness, muscle spasm, tension, and prevent spinal decay and breakdown. Most importantly adjustments remove nerve interference that can lead to increase stress hormones.

• Protection – Adjustments improve adaptability; can make people more alert, aware, awake, alive, and able to express vitality.

• Prevention – Adjustments prevent reoccurrences; prevent illnesses, and unnatural postures.

• Performance – Adjustments arouse innate intelligence and can increase the potential of an individual athletically and academically.

*Adjustments decrease fatigue, increase immunity, balance your metabolism, and increase clarity of thought.

Chiropractic care is one of the safest forms of health care available. By avoiding drugs and risky surgery, chiropractic has an amazing track record. Adjustments are hundreds of times safer than taking an over-the-counter pain reliever like aspirin.

A new patient form will need to be filled out before an actual exam takes place. The doctor will read through the form and then do a thorough history as well as an exam.

We have incorporated the latest technologies into our office. We offer our practice members X-rays on site as well as state-of-the-art nerve scan technology. The Insight Subluxation Station TM is revolutionizing chiropractic care by providing patients a picture into their nervous system, allowing them to see the affects of interference along their spine, by way of computer imaging. The Chiropractic Leadership Alliance (CLA) continued to develop the system, making the first model available to chiropractors in 1999. Since then, the Insight Subluxation Station TM has been further enhanced and was awarded exclusive certification as a Certified Space Technology by the Space Foundation.

After the first exam and all the patients have gone the doctor will sit down and go over all the information gathered from the first visit and come up with an individualized treatment plan.

A subsequent visit will be set up to allow the doctor to do a report of findings. During the report, the doctor will explain what the patient has going on, how long it will take to treat the problem, whether or not the issue can be treated by a chiropractic methods, and how much it will cost.

The main service provided is the chiropractic adjustment. 95% of the results of care are dependent upon the quality and frequency of the adjustments. The other 5% comes from the other services offered. At Discover Health Chiropractic we offer traction tables, massage chairs, and ice.

Traction is a gentle way of assuring the joints move properly. It works to slowly and gently gap each joint in the spine increasing blood flow and nutrients to the disks in the spine. Ice is used in conjunction with the traction to decrease inflammation and alleviate any pain the patient may be experiencing.

Supplements are also available at the clinic. Fish oils are an essential nutrient for the patient and can increase the response the patient gets from adjustments. Fish oils are the nutrient for the brain, spinal cord, and every cell membrane in the body. Probiotics, vitamin D, and a multivitamin are the other three essential supplements available at our clinic. In order for an individual to reach true homeostasis and health, these supplements are the ones required regardless to how good ones diet is.

Progress exams are given monthly to evaluate the progress made and determine any changes needed to be made in care to reach the best results.

*Corrective care that fixes the problem the first time so your symptoms do not return

*Care that focuses on more than just pain such as asthma, ear infections, allergies, ADD, migraines, bedwetting, colic and frequent colds

*Insight Millennium—State of the art Technology available to truly assess patient progress and health

*Friendly, homey, energetic, family atmosphere—a place you will want to come to

*Convenience—visits can last as little as 5 minutes or stay and relax on a massage chair or traction table

*Wellness and health education available (Dr. Travis Livesay is working on a certification in wellness)

*Progress evaluations to ensure the treatments are effectively addressing nervous interference from subluxations

It is much easier to maintain a child's spine than correct a young adult or adult after years of neglect. When used preventatively, chiropractic care for children allows them to express their full potential due to a nervous system free of interference. Children under chiropractic care are much healthier than those not under care. Adjustments for children are much different than those for adults. Pressure more than and impulse is used to make the adjustment. The activator may also be used to supplement the care. The activator is able to make very light precise adjustments to the spine of infants by placing a vibration into the subluxation.

Increasing mobility, function, and decreasing signs and symptoms from subluxations are our first goals when it comes to adults. After the signs and symptoms have decreased our next goal is to correct your spine to the best of your body's ability, so you don't just feel better you actually are better because the structure of your spine is better. Our next goal is to increase the strength of the deep intrinsic muscles of the spine through core exercises. These exercises work to stabilize the spine in the corrected position so it stays there. Our last goal is to have each member in our practice stay for life on wellness care and bring in their friends, family, and co-workers so that they may also benefit from our chiropractic care.

A chiropractor's education is extremely demanding and thorough. A student of chiropractic studies the structure and functioning of the human body, the disease process and how health is restored and maintained. Chiropractors do not work to mask signs and symptoms. Chiropractors must be experts in physiology and how the body functions so they can determine and affect the cause of symptoms.

A chiropractic student goes through three to four years of undergraduate education depending upon the state in which he or she wishes to practice. Undergraduate emphasis is on science, organic chemistry, biology, anatomy, physiology, physics, and psychology.

After undergraduate school, students who are accepted into a chiropractic school go through a rigorous 3 and a half solid year program similar too medical school. Here students study, anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, neurology, radiology, biomechanics, physical therapy, and adjustment techniques. During the time while chiropractic students are in school they are required to take and pass four national board examinations one including a practical examination where the chiropractor is required to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in front of board examiners. In addition the students must spend hundreds of hours of internship.

Once licensed, chiropractors are required to obtain yearly continuing education credits by attending seminars. This allows them to maintain a high level of competency.

The main difference between wellness care and standard medical care is the paradigm for the care. Medical care focuses on masking signs or symptoms by adding things to the system or cutting things out of the system. They address symptoms not the cause leading the individual to believe they are healthy yet the underlying cause still exists. Wellness chiropractic care focuses on removing anything that might interfere with the normal functioning of the system and addressing the cause. Think of a plant. If you have a plant that is wilting, what is the first thing you think of intuitively? You think of adding water not adding drugs or cutting off leaves. Yet in the medical paradigm the first thing we think of is what drugs what surgery.

The medical field looks to treat disease by adding drugs or surgery. They are the tools the medical field has at their exposure. If a patient has a high blood pressure the medical approach would be to add a drug to lower the blood pressure to quote unquote normal levels. This may lower the blood pressure, but the underlying cause for the high blood pressure remains. If the physiological environmental demands for a high blood pressure and you falsely lower it without addressing the cause the body will release stress hormones to get the blood pressure back to the higher level. This leads to more drugs and more problems. Main thing to understand is that your body does not make mistakes. If you have a high blood pressure it is due to mistakes that you have made. If you go for a run does your blood pressure go up? Is it a mistake? Should you take a drug?

You do not catch cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or cancer you develop them. You must work hard at it; literally dedicate your life to making poor lifestyle choices. Chiropractic works to address the cause whether it is due to not eating, moving, or thinking right. Eating, moving, and thinking right are the three requirements for health. If you are not eating healthy, if your spine is not moving properly, if you are not exercising enough, and if you spend too much time thinking negatively about yourself, you are heading toward illness and disease.

Most people do not even know what it is like to be well. It's like trying to explain a sunset to a blind person. In order to be well you must eat, move, and think well all at the same time for a period of time. Wellness is all cells in your body functioning in a state of homeostasis thereby increasing the body's ability to adapt to the environment stressors. A nervous system free of interference and stress allows the body to express the genetic innate health you were born to have. The body has an incredible ability to heal itself called innate intelligence. Nothing from outside the system can create health. Adjustments work to correct spinal interference in the nervous system allowing the body's innate intelligence to be expressed.