Why Chiropractors Recommend Maintenance Care
Witten by Mike Nemastil, DC
I am Dr. Mike Nemastil with Your Health at 1730 Main St. in Columbia, SC. I was in private practice for about 26 years before moving to Columbia about four years ago. It is a lovely area, and downtown Columbia is just fantastic!
I have had many patients over the years ask me what they should do after they have completed my initial prescribed plan of care. I always recommend, without hesitation, that they do a chiropractic maintenance care plan. The maintenance plan of care typically consists of seeing me a couple of times monthly. Sometimes, they respond, "Great, I want to keep getting chiropractic care because it makes me feel so good." Other times, they look at me bewildered and ask why they need ongoing care in the form of "maintenance care." They might also ask how long they should continue maintenance care.
At this point, I sit them down in a quiet room because what I am going to explain to them is going to be a game-changer for them. I want their full attention on what I will inform them about. So here is what I explain to them.
Our spinal column is our core structure. It controls our bodies. Have you ever heard the saying, "As goes the captain, so goes the ship"? The spinal column is our captain, and as the spine, so goes our body. Let me explain further. Our spine is made up of many parts, many separate bones. These bones have spaces in between them called joints. This joint space allows our spine to move, twist, bend, and perform other motions. All these bones should be in alignment for the joint to work correctly. What do I mean by alignment? Think about how important it is to keep our car's wheels aligned. This is necessary because if we do not, the tire will incur accelerated and uneven wear or degeneration, and our vehicle will not function completely normally either. It may pull or drift one way, and this misaligned wheel will also affect our steering, handling, and braking. If the wheel stays misaligned long enough, the wear or degeneration will get bad enough that you must replace the tire. It is the same premise as the spine. Misalignments of the spinal bones cause spinal wear in the joints, discs, and the bones themselves.
We put our bodies through stressful stuff every day, like prolonged sitting, standing, lifting, twisting, sports, work stress, and exercise. And then there are bodily injuries we incur along the way, like falls, sports injuries, car accidents, etc. We live in our bodies 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for our entire life! We do not get another body, and we cannot change parts as we can with our car when a part gets worn or damaged. So, when our spine gets misaligned, we must correct the minor misalignment before it causes too much wear or tissue damage that cannot be healed. You do not want joint or disc degeneration in your spine…do you? The answer I always get from my patients is a resounding NO! The problem is that we cannot tell when our spinal bones are misaligned. So, I explained this last bit of information to them.
Our spine is a mechanical entity, like our car. It's just a bunch of parts put together. Anything mechanical requires maintenance to keep it working as it was meant to work and to prevent excessive wear or damage. When the engineers designed your car, they knew it needed maintenance to keep it working like it was designed to work. This is why you were provided an owner's manual when you bought your car, which has a maintenance schedule. Well, you weren't provided an owner's manual outlining a maintenance schedule for your spine. But fortunately for my patients, they have me, what I know, and my experience. If they follow the maintenance care plan I outline, we can detect spinal misalignments before they cause spinal damage. I hope this helps explain why I always recommend an ongoing maintenance care schedule for my patients. Call Your Health today and schedule a meeting with Dr. Josh Thorp or Dr. Mike Nemastil at 803-351-6133.