Healthier lifestyle just a Twist and Shout away
by KC Jones, ne news editor

    Most of us enter into this life being yanked by the head out of our place of creation.

    Then, we spend the rest of our lives falling down, lifting, twisting and crashing into things.

    It is no wonder our bodies ache or even lose mobility and range of motion.

    Chiropractic care can help maintain the normal, healthy function of the body’s systems that are inhibited by physical and emotional stress.

    No one is too young or too old to become healthier through chiropractic care.

    Unfortunately for the chiropractic profession, many people are ignorant of the benefits or are even misinformed into thinking chiropractic care is “quackery.”

    Quite the contrary, chiropractic is an important maintenance care just like dentistry is important to oral health.

    Katherine Cohen has been receiving chiropractic care for years because of a motorcycle injury.

    After she gave birth, she made sure the chiropractor was one of the doctors who examined her baby.

    “I hate to admit my baby fell off the bed when she was only a month old. I was terrified that she might have hurt her back or neck, so I took her to my chiropractor. He did find a small spot that needed adjusting. I had heard that SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) might be prevented by the protective maintenance of my baby’s spine,” she said.

    According to the National Safety Council, a disabling injury occurs every 14 seconds.

    If the injury causes a bone in the spine to be moved from its proper place, only the artistic adjustment of a trained chiropractor can fix the problem. Traditional, modern medicine will treat the injury’s symptoms with pills or even dangerous surgery, but will rarely address the actual cause.

    Chiropractic calls on the philosophy that physicians don’t heal anyone; instead, the body heals itself when interference is removed.
Dr. Scott Wallis, a board certified neurologist and chiropractor in Hurst, specializes in pain management. He treats many patients who complain of numbness, tingling or pain in the arms or legs.

    “It only takes the pressure equal to the weight of a dime at the nerve root, where the nerve protrudes from the spinal column, to affect the transmission of information. That information might be headed for muscles or organs and can cause a loss of function and/or atrophy,” he said.

    Chiropractic is founded first in science. It has been proven that the nervous system is the master of the body, controlling every cell, tissue, organ and system of the body.

    Hard, bone vertebrae protect the vital, delicate spinal cord, but they lose their natural position from daily stresses.

    The misalignment of the vertebrae is called a subluxation, and the result is a loss of motion and irritation to the nervous system.

    Chiropractic doctors go through four years of post-graduate college education to master the adjusting “art” of chiropractic. They are experts at using the right amount of force in the right direction to restore the spinal bones to their normal position.

    Many chiropractors also utilize nutrition, acupuncture, acupressure and a variety of rehabilitation techniques such as stretching and exercise.

    Many specialize in sports injuries. About the only thing they are not going to do medically is operate or write prescriptions.

    Chiropractic is also cost effective. According to research conducted by Oakland University, insurance claims averaged $1,000 less when chiropractors were included in the treatment.

    Claims were 30 percent higher if only medical care was used without chiropractic.

    Part of the cost savings was attributed to the lower in-patient/out-patient costs of standard chiropractic care.

    State Industrial Insurance Systems researched chiropractic treatment in relation to worker’s compensation cases.

    They found 24 percent of the claims to be back injuries accounting for 50 percent of all medical costs.

    Modern medicine’s treatment averaged $2,142 per patient, which was 260 percent higher than chiropractic costs of only $892 per patient.

    The patients who received chiropractic care went back to work 33 percent sooner, and many injured workers could keep working under chiropractic treatment.

    The patients under modern medicine lost work time because of the prescription of narcotic pain pills and rest/recovery time.

    More supportive data was gathered from over two million users of chiropractic care and reported in the Journal of American Health Policy.

    “Chiropractic users tend to have substantially lower total health care costs,” the journal reported. The data also indicated that chiropractic care reduces the need for both physician and hospital care.

    Even more important than the financial benefits are patient satisfaction rates.

    The Gallup Organization conducted a demographic poll in 1991 which revealed that 90 percent of chiropractic patients felt their care was effective.

    Wallis participates in continued education and research to keep abreast of improved techniques and findings.

    He agrees with several experts that many traditional medical therapies are of questionable validity or are inadequate.

    To find out more, look up www.chiropracticneurology.net.