Chiropractic Doctors: On Your Team For Your Health
Simply put, Chiropractors are health care professionals who care for the complete human body. The truth of the matter, however, is that they do so much more. Many doctors will prescribe pain medications that simply mask issues or temporarily fix them. Whereas a chiropractic doctor, such as Dr. Marshall Luck or Dr. Todd Lloyd, will provide you with the tools needed to prevent pain in the future. They not only want to stop the current pain, but look at all the functions your body performs in your daily life to pinpoint the root cause of the pain.
Our San Francisco patients are often busy, hardworking people who need to not only take care of the pain now, but make sure it doesn’t happen again so they can stay happy, healthy, and productive. Chiropractors mostly work with the bones, muscles, and nerves. This gives them the ability to see how the motions of your body affect different areas, and trace the pain back to the source.
What Can A Chiropractor Do For Me?
Doctors of chiropractic are independent providers of health care, and are considered specialists in their field. Chiropractors are fully trained to perform medical exams, order special tests, render a diagnosis, differential diagnoses, assemble and oversee a care plan in the office and coordinate with other doctors, provide direct hands-on treatment, and provide a discharge at the conclusion of the healing process. Beyond that, Dr. Luck and Dr. Lloyd have years of experience and spend the time asking thoughtful questions based on your medical history. A good chiropractor will always make you feel comfortable. They make sure you understand the treatments and are comfortable with the procedure before we perform it. Our Chiropractors understand that healthcare is not only about diagnosing and treating, but making sure the patient has an amazing healing experience.
Most of our patients come to see us because of musculoskeletal problems like back pain or neck pain. When you see our chiropractors, you’ll probably have several types of treatments designed to be curative. However, the one that you will probably benefit the most from is the chiropractic adjustment. In the published medical literature, the adjustment is written as spinal manipulative therapy (SMT.) I’ll expand on that below.
Relieving Pain and Preventing Disability
If you are a working adult, especially one who we see all the time in San Francisco who often works in front of a computer, you should know that the largest causes of disability at work in the United States is back pain (#1) and neck pain (#4.) This type of pain interferes with your work and home life. When you are working and the pain distracts you from performing normally, they call this presenteesism. This is such an important, yet often ignored part of working in this day in age, not only by employers, but employees. The most common solution when patients see their primary doctor is to prescribe medications that mask the pain. This is a major cause of the public health crisis you may have heard of: the opioid crisis. Chiropractic care is an excellent pain-management tool without the use of addictive medicines.
Our Hands On Approach
The design of our hands-on approach gets you feeling better without the use of medication. Not only by taking care of the immediate pain but with improving your function to prevent pain in the future. Improving function means being able to bend, twist, pick things up, run, walk, climb, and sleep through the night. Function is moving the joints in your back through pain-free range of motion with full and appropriate muscle activity. Be strong. Move flexibly. Feel stable. Good function is not just simply the short-term back-pain improvement because of a lumbar spine adjustment. It is also looking at the whole picture. We examine the bones and kinematics of your feet, ankles, knees, and hips to provide you with the knowledge and tools to help it all move better again.
For example, an athlete who comes to see us for low back or hip pain from an injury always gets his or her feet and ankles checked. Foot and ankle mechanics are very important for the symmetry of movement while walking or running. If forces are not being absorbed and directed properly through the kinetic chain the athlete will start to experience a repetitive stress injury.
An important part of managing your pain is rehabilitative exercises. Studies show that when you have chiropractic adjustments by itself, you’ll do pretty well. You’ll have an immediate sense of pain relief as well as improved posture, increased movement, and ultimately improved well-being. However, when you start to move better and with less pain it’s important to strengthen the muscles that support your spine (and whole body.) Your Chiropractor will help you plan rehab exercises to facilitate the long-term goals.
The Most Common Injuries We See
Chronic back pain is associated with other health problems, like reduced mobility, quality of life, and longevity. It’s your chiropractor’s goal to help you on the path to living pain free. The primary reasons to see a chiropractor are:
- Back pain (60%)
- Other musculoskeletal pain, like neck pain, shoulder pain, lower extremity pain (20%)
- Headaches (10%)
- The remaining 10% are for a wide variety of conditions. These could be caused by musculoskeletal disorders. The chiropractic doctor can differentiate the condition that the patient presents with, and can make an appropriate plan of action.
A Plan For Living Pain-Free
Your chiropractor will put together a custom, tailor-made plan for the healing process. For many patients, when you start care you experience a fast improvement. What follows is a gradual return to normal as you have a few chiropractic visits and become more conscious of your movements. Coupled with exercise and correct ergonomics in your movements you gain significantly reduced pain. This is your chance to be proactive about caring for the health of your body. Keep it moving well and properly. Keep it strong, and feed your body good foods. Your body will reward you with less pain and more capability.