Chiropractic Answers

As a Doctor of Chiropractic I’m primarily interested in the mechanics of the human skeleton. In practical terms this means assessing the motion of any of the joints in your body. A lot of people come with spinal issues but I have experience with all other skeletal joints.

Information contained elsewhere on this page describes the therapy given at this clinic goes well beyond just the skeletal system.

Chiropractors are trained to find joints that have lost their normal motion, the technical term is joint dysfunction, the old term is subluxation. The main Chiropractic premise is that the jammed joint cause biomechanical problems.

The joint dysfunction may very quickly lead to pain and symptoms but sometimes symptoms only develop after this aberrant motion has been present for some time.

The chances are high that the longer the abnormal biomechanics reside the more it may involve other body systems.

The longer a body has to grapple with abnormal skeletal biomechanics the more it may involve other body systems. One major system that can become affected is the nervous system. The nerves in our bodies are very sensitive; they do not handle well an environment that makes their function hard. To communicate their problems they will give off messages. These messages come in the forms of pain, numbness, tingling, burning and aching.

Another system that gets influenced when the mechanics get upset is the soft tissue system. Muscles involved with the skeletal system have the job of creating movement in the body and they can only do this over a joint. When the joint is malfunctioning the muscle has a more difficult job. This results in increased muscle tone. The muscular system has its own way of communicating its displeasure with its environment. Symptoms may include pain, aching, and spasming. Muscles that are held contracted for long periods of time become fatigued and eventually become weakened.

The ligamentous system is part of the soft tissues of the body and like the muscular system is affected by joint dysfunction. In the short term ligaments are quite resilient but the longer they are subjected to stretch and compression the more their integrity is compromised. In the chronic state the ligaments become hard, ropey and quite nodular and similar to other body symptoms give off their own characteristic pain symptoms.

Often a vicious cycle is established where the worsening of one system aggravates another, and so on. However, this clinic is dedicated to assessing your bones and nerves and soft tissues. We also have an active interest in your nutritional health. For more information here see Nutrition section on Our Techniques page.

Often the patient only sees one problem i.e. the symptom. But as outlined in section “Do chiropractors only look at bones” there can be a number of bodily structures contributing to that symptom/s or the overall condition. Mentioned on that page are the skeletal, nervous and soft tissue systems but it gets even trickier as the proportions of each involved system is never equal. Lack of recovery can come when therapy is directed at only one component of the triad, the unattended system/s impede progress or continually regress the condition.

The main therapeutic approach at the Healthmont Clinic is to gain an understanding about the overall situation and then address all these body systems in their priority order.

Being a Chiropractor the starting point of treatment is often the skeletal system and getting this more stable is paramount. If your problem has contributions from parts other than this system then in due course we may need to change the therapies to bring about improvements therein.

In these cases attention may be directed at the nervous and the muscular systems. 

The main therapeutic approach at the Healthmont Clinic is to address all these body systems in their priority order.

After your examination the most appropriate technique is chosen. If skeletal system intervention is necessary the choice will vary from passive stretching techniques to joint adjusting via the Activator device to manual adjusting techniques. For more detail see page “Our techniques”

Techniques to influence the muscular system include: stretching, massage, trigger point therapy, vibrational massage or cross friction massage. For health problems heavily weighted in the muscular system referral to a Myotherapist or Massage therapist may be in order or communication can be made to your existing therapist. 

Postural assessment is performed at the Healthmont Clinic and part of this approach is to check for any biomechanical distortions in the feet. We use the Foot Levelers system of analysis and if indicated prescription of custom made orthotics (stabilizers) will be recommended. For more details see “Foot Levelers” page

I hope it can be seen our approach is to explore many factors that could be contributing to your problem/s. Depending on what we find will determine the therapeutic approach designed specifically for you and your recovery.

This is a very commonly asked question but is extremely difficult to give a succinct answer. The pathway into health issues is sometimes very quick, like falling off the monkey bars, but more often is a process over a much longer timeframe. Such onset times will probably vary the length of treatment.

Often there are many factors that go before everyone who develops a health issue. For instance, underlying health status will influence recovery. E.g. a person who has just finished chemotherapy and has a whiplash injury will probably take longer to get better. Another instance is the degree of harmoniousness or stressfulness of our environments, such as work, school, university or home, will vastly impact our road to recovery.

The body often gives symptoms as warning lights during the decline into a health problem however the good news is the body also gives signs during the progression out of it.

So if your case does need an extended period of chiropractic care you’ll never be put on a long program without constant reviews to monitor your progress back towards optimal health.

Our bodies operate within an incredibly complex environment of elaborate chemistry. All circulating at the same time are vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, neurotransmitters and then there are those hormones of some 50 different types.

Nutrition plays a major role here. What we put into our system influences our system both positively and unfortunately negatively. 

Clinical Nutrition at the Healthmont Clinic leans on a variety of assessment techniques to gain insight into any biochemical disharmony. Steps are then taken to ensure you get the specific intervention that your body may require.

More information can be found on the Clinical Nutrition page on this website or at www.thegreenground.com