Patients may assume that one or two visits to their chiropractor will resolve their problems. While this is sometimes true, often a problem that has developed over many years may take longer than they realize. Older adults, for instance, can have problems that have developed over many years, resulting in neck and back pain. They may not realize their knee problems or foot problems are part of why they have neck and back pain. Getting adjusted, or dare I say what so many patients say, “getting cracked,” Is not actually what we chiropractors do, although there are some old-time practitioners and factory-like practices who still practice like it is 1895 all over again. Chiropractors have evolved for the better over the years. Combined with holistic thinking behind how you move and function, chiropractic physicians are the primary care doctors for the musculoskeletal system. Chiropractors know much more about exercise, firing patterns, and body mechanics than they did many years ago. Combining this knowledge with myofascial work and spinal adjustments, chiropractors have the best reputation and highest level of satisfaction for solving many of the musculoskeletal issues patients live with today. A great chiropractor will evaluate you every visit, see how you move and how it relates to your symptoms, and be thorough with your care. We strive every visit to be that great chiropractic physician. Just as you want great results, we do as well and as so many patients over the years have realized, it is the chiropractor that solves many of those painful problems that require we understand you. The problem with movement is how we adapt over time. We are built to move. Go to the park and watch people walk, and you will see different types of motion patterns and adaptations. Chiropractic physicians are doctors of movement. Spinal and extremity manipulations, combined with the myofascial release treatment we perform, improve how you move. The exercises we teach strengthen body areas and help improve movement patterns. We understand how the brain learns patterns using neuroplasticity and this often takes time and instruction on what to do at home. The same can be said for the recommendations for foot orthotics and treadmill evaluations, which show us what we cannot see in our treatment rooms on a table. Younger patients often think that their problems now will not affect them in the future. Our older patients with chronic pain were once those younger patients with less chronic problems that were ignored with medications and a poor understanding behind why they had problems years prior. Taking care of your body when you are younger will help you feel and function better when you are older. So many patients get caught in the web of a specialist for this, an injection for that, and years later have avoidable irreparable joint damage. This is why joint replacement surgery is so common today. If you take care of the smaller problems when you are young, your body will feel and work better when you are older. Movement also powers the other systems in the body, including the heart and lungs. More movement and less pain lead to better physical fitness and its benefits too. For those with small dental problems today, ignoring them leads to costly ones tomorrow. For chiropractic care, it is much more affordable to make chiropractic care part of your lifestyle. Taking care of small problems helps prevent riskier and costlier problems years later. For most people, you do not need a specialist in this and that. You need a generalist in musculoskeletal care, which describes the role of the family chiropractor. Our speciality in sports medicine offers even more skills that allow us to perform primary care of the musculoskeletal system. In our offices, it still means what primary care used to mean: keeping you out of the system that increases risks, drugs, and interventions that are often avoidable. Avoiding the “it doesn’t hurt yet” mentality is essential to your well-being. Over 40 years, I have preached the idea of “take care of the machine, and it will take care of you.” If you care for yourself over the years, like dental care, you will have fewer problems and have teeth in your mouth when you get older. Also, gingivitis, a common cause of gum disease caused by bacteria that degrade the gums over time, is now being linked to cardiovascular illness too. Poor dental hygiene leads to physical and systemic problems, and many patients avoid large dental bills by flossing regularly. Brushing afterward in the morning and the evening keeps the gums healthier. I know this from my own dental history. Not doing these simple tasks is costly not only to your mouth but to your entire system. If you wait until you are having mouth pain, you can likely lose a tooth, need a root canal, or experience some other costly procedure. Dentists know how to charge; believe me, I know. From the chiropractic perspective, not taking care of the body the human frame and going to the right people first for problems beginning in childhood will be costly later on. Joint pain, lost sleep, and reduced activity due to pain affect our cardiovascular fitness and health. Ignorance is not bliss; it is a major health epidemic. If your parents have back problems and now you have those same inherited traits beginning from the feet up, you are likely to have those problems too. Perhaps this is why so many families rely on us to keep their musculoskeletal system healthy. You don’t need a team of specialists. You do need primary care from a great chiropractor to keep your musculoskeletal system functioning as it should. When your chiropractor suggests you need a short series of visits to correct a chronic problem that is now causing acute pain and shows you why, believe them. They understand movement, pain, and the mechanisms that we rely on for good health holistically. You can see the similarities here between dentistry and chiropractic, but in the chiropractic field, we work with medical doctors and other professionals, as any primary care doctor should. Unlike today’s primary care world, which is a revolving door to going from doctor to doctor on a conveyor belt of care, chiropractors often keep you out of the medical system because they often solve the problem and the multiple symptoms that result. Primary care used to perform this necessary function in the medical field. Today, chiropractors do so with a speciality in the musculoskeletal system, and rather than managing pain with drugs for mechanical problems, which does not work, they improve how you move so you feel and function better naturally. Solve the mechanism, and the symptoms improve naturally. Solve the symptom, and another will appear somewhere else. Going to a knee specialist who only looks at the knee when the actual problem is the foot sounds ridiculous, but patients do this constantly because the system they trust tells them to. There is a specialist for everything, yet podiatrists will treat a toe and never look at shoe size, which will cause toe pain. Going to a chiropractor with knee pain who looks at how you walk, how your ankle works, and how your hips and back feel and function is most likely going to solve your knee pain, back pain, and more. During our initial evaluation, we ask the right questions and look at even your shoe size. There is no substitute for generalists who look at you and how you function. You don’t need a committee of people with white coats and tests while your acute condition becomes chronic. You don’t need drugs as a dietary supplement for temporary relief. You need a chiropractor to keep it simple and resolve the mechanism causing the pain. Do it right, and multiple things improve. Do it wrong, and it’s a procedure for this, a test for that, a pill for this, etc throughout the years. You may spend months going to therapy, which does little to improve the problem long term. The risks of the specialist model have been shown over and over, while the cost of overtesting and using one-size-fits-all protocols rarely helps long-term and is bringing our costly healthcare system to fail us spectacularly. Nobody can afford this current system anymore. A few visits with the chiropractor who helps you move and function better naturally. Years later, your body will thank you as you lead a healthier and more active lifestyle into your older ages. What patients get right about chiropractic medicine. We have many patients who have been in our practice for close to 40 years and rely on our expertise. While chiropractic is not full of miracle workers, for those who have gone through the system, had the surgeries, and then improved with a session of chiropractic visits, they understand that pain does not need to be managed. It needs to be evaluated and diagnosed properly. When we move better, everything works and feels better. Yes, it’s that simple. Keep it simple. Think chiropractic first. Need help today? Book online or call either of our offices at 732-846-6400 for North Brunswick or 732-829-0009 for Scotch Plains. Feel better in as little as one visit.