Complete Care Chiropractic, Owasso, OK

Myth #1 – Chiropractors are not real doctors.

A chiropractic college grants a D.C. or Doctorate of Chiropractic degree. Chiropractors are licensed as health care providers in every U.S. state and dozens of countries around the world. While the competition for acceptance in chiropractic school is not as fierce as medical school, the chiropractic and medical school curricula are extremely rigorous and virtually identical.

In fact, chiropractors have more hours of classroom education than their medical counterparts. As part of their education, chiropractic students also complete a residency working with real patients in a clinical setting, supervised by licensed doctors of chiropractic. Once chiropractic students graduate, they have to pass four sets of national board exams as well as state board exams in the states where they want to practice. Just like medical doctors, chiropractors are professionals that are subject to the same type of testing procedures, licensing and monitoring by state and national peer-reviewed boards. Federal and state programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Workers’ Compensations programs cover chiropractic care, and all federal agencies accept sick-leave certificates signed by doctors of chiropractic.

The biggest difference between chiropractors and medical doctors lies not in their level of education, but in their preferred method of caring for people. Medical doctors are trained in the use of medicines (chemicals that affect your internal biochemistry) and surgery, taking an outside-in approach to treat symptoms. Chiropractors are trained to treat misalignments in the central nervous system, taking a natural approach to treat the actual cause of disease and pain throughout the body.

Another distinction is the fact that it is completely appropriate to receive chiropractic care even if you do not have symptoms. Unlike standard medical doctors, whom you visit when you have a symptom to be treated, chiropractors offer adjustments and various other therapies to improve spinal alignment thus improving overall well-being before symptoms develop. Chiropractic care with other lifestyle changes is the best form of prevention!

Myth #2 – Chiropractors only treat back pain

Nothing could be further from the truth. While chiropractic adjustments can be especially helpful in relieving pain for facet joint injuries, osteoarthritis, and sacroiliac joint dysfunction, scores of patients with chronic headaches, sinus problems, high blood pressure, ear infections, leg pain, digestive issues, arthritis, and many other illnesses have reported significant relief after chiropractic therapy. Chiropractors treat and remove nerve interferences to restore communication from the brain to the rest of the body.

Myth #3 – You can adjust yourself

Maybe you can, but it’s not a good idea! The chiropractic adjustment or manipulation is delivered by a highly trained doctor to the joints that are dysfunctional and in need of manipulation (usually due to a restriction of some sort). Contact points and line of thrust are extremely important in the effectiveness and safety of an adjustment. When you “self crack” what happens most of the time is that you are “cracking” a joint or joints that are hypermobile (too much motion), and you are simply accentuating the instability of these joints instead of addressing the problem of your stiffness. Sometimes the easiest way is not always the right way.

Myth #4 – You risk high injury when you get adjusted

In general, proper chiropractic treatment of your body’s lumbar, or lower back, region, involves very little risk, and the rewards can be significant. In fact, a recent study by the Rand Corporation found that a serious adverse reaction from cervical (neck) manipulation may occur less than once in 1 million treatments. The American Chiropractic Association believes those odds are even greater-about one in every 2 million treatments-the same odds of dying in a commercial airline crash. A more recent article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found only a 1-in-5.85-million risk that a chiropractic adjustment of the neck may result in vertebral artery dissection. Compare this to over 2 million people a year being hospitalized for adverse reactions to medications; chiropractic would clearly be the safer option.

Myth #5 – Neck adjustments can cause stroke

A 2003 study published in the journal Neurology asserted that chiropractic treatments were the culprit in a patient’s stroke, claiming that a cervical adjustment led to a vertebral artery dissection (VAD). According to the American Chiropractic Association, the study is fraught with design flaws and needlessly alarms the public about a safe and effective form of treatment for neck pain and headaches. The ACA claims that VAD is a rare type of stroke associated with many other commonplace activities such as talking on the telephone, swimming, stargazing, overhead work, hair shampooing, and even sleeping. In fact, according to the ACA, a recent biomechanical study found that the forces transmitted to the artery during cervical manipulation are less than one-ninth the force necessary to stretch or otherwise damage a normal vertebral artery. “Based upon this study and other recent evidence, many experts now believe that it is physically impossible for a competently performed neck manipulation or adjustment, as provided by a trained doctor of chiropractic, to cause a vertebral artery dissection unless the artery already has a significant pre-existing weakness,” according to the ACA.

Myth #6 – If I feel fine (no pain or sickness) I don’t need to see a Chiropractor

Most people think that if they have no back pain, they have no spinal misalignments, thus no need for a chiropractor. Symptoms are deceiving and even more importantly, no symptoms are deceiving. Did you know that 80 percent of the time the first sign of heart disease is a heart attack? Or that by the time cancer is detected on the best medical tests, there are already billions of cancer cells growing? On the flip side, let’s say you unknowingly eat some spoiled food. Later you get stomach cramps and vomit. You certainly don’t feel well, but thankfully your body is functioning correctly. Imagine the tragic consequences of taking a drug to calm your stomach, retaining the toxic food! You simply cannot go by how you look and how you feel – to do so, can be dangerous. Corrective care chiropractors work to remove nerve interference and restructure the spine to its most stable position, restoring life to your body to enable you to reach your health potential! Chiropractors do not only focus on symptoms and the treatment of symptoms – that is why chiropractors are one of the top leaders of disease prevention in healthcare today.