Medical Lake Chiropractic Care

Dr Chris showing off his treatment table for Medical Lake chiropractic care.

Adjustments, or manipulation as they’re sometimes referred to, are the minor movement of vertebrae in the spine. The objective of our Medical Lake chiropractic treatments is to realign vertebrae that have moved out of place for a number of reasons ranging from normal daily activity to trauma such as a car accident.

When these vertebrae are out of place, it has an overall systemic effect from muscular to the central nervous system. Without proper alignment and flow of all nerves and systems in the body from the brain, we can’t function at our peak.

Medical Lake Chiropractic Adjustments

An adjustment is often a pressure from the chiropractor utilizing the hands or an instrument to move a vertebrae back into place. This happens with a quick movement and is often without discomfort. You may hear a noise that sounds like you’re cracking your knuckles referred to as joint cavitation. It is the release of gases such as oxygen and nitrogen from the joint.

Overall, adjustments are an excellent way to keep the body functioning at its highest level. When the body is in alignment, the body is able to respond and perform as it was designed to. Our Medical Lake chiropractic care is an overall way of looking at the human body. It’s based on the absolute FACT that the body is self-sustaining and self-healing.

Most importantly, Chiropractic is the healthcare profession which understands that the body is in essence completely controlled by the brain through its connection via the spinal cord and the vast networks of nerves that make up the body. When this system is not functioning at its peak, the overall performance of the human body is lacking.

Chiropractic Does More than Treat Back Pain

Often times we hear that Chiropractors are “back doctors”.  While Chiropractors DO treat “back problems”, the profession was and has always been a true alternative to what is termes “allopathic medicine” (ie. your medical doctor).  While being the 3rd largest healthcare profession in the United States, Chiropractors only see about 7-10% of the population, while providing more than 95% of all spinal manipulation.

Luckily, with current research into the brain and nervous system, the “Chiropractic Paradigm” (the way we treat) continues to be validated.

What once was considered an alternative is now considered mainstream treatment for the majority of musculoskeletal conditions. Our Medical Lake chiropractic care is no different and we see and treat many patients in and around the area, helping them out of pain and back to health again.

Spine Health provides a great definition of what a chiropractor does.

Drugs and Prescriptions are Merely Band Aids, Medical Lake Chiropractic Looks to Heal

In the chiropractic world, drugs and medicine are not utilized as a form of treating a patient. While supplementation and nutrition are almost always a part of the bigger picture, drugs and prescriptions can be viewed as band-aids to treat symptoms rather than going to the source and treating the real problem.

And while it is true that some states are allowing Chiropractors to prescribe medications, and perform injection therapies, the backbone (pun intended) of the Chiropractic treatment will always be stimulating the body’s own natural healing processes, either through the spinal adjustment (treating the nervous system and hormones), supplementation (for nutritional deficiencies), or lifestyle modifications.

While it’s often perceived that the chiropractor is solely here to treat back and neck pain, this is simply a small piece of what the profession really is capable of handling. Chiropractors not only treat soft and hard tissue problems such as sciatica and joint pain, but are largely called on to deal with more significant issues. Some of these issues include fibromyalgia, allergies, insomnia, headaches and many more.

Just like the medical profession has “specialists” (ie internal medicine, rheumatology, neurology, etc.), so does the Chiropractic profession.

This is why our Medical Lake chiropractic care looks to treating the cause rather than the symptoms.

Your Medical Lake Chiropractic Doctor, Dr Chris Wellwood

For instance, Dr. Wellwood is a Board Eligible Chiropractic Internist and has advanced training in pain management, internal medicine/diagnostics, and neurology.  Furthermore, his specific type of Chiropractic treatment is called “neuro-hormonal chiropractic”, meaning that in order to help a person completely, we must understand that the nervous system is what controls the hormones and immune responses.

Pain is about controlling inflammation and controlling inflammation is a strictly neuro-hormonal treatment.

Other types of Chiropractic Physician Specialists include:

• Internal Medicine / Family Practice
• Sports Medicine
• Rehabilitation and Physiotherapeutics
• Minor Surgery and Proctology
• Dermatology / Family Practice
• Occupational Medicine
• Neurology
• Orthopedics
• Radiology
• Pediatrics and Midwifery

How does it work?

Chiropractic is based on the idea of removing imbalances both structural and postural in an effort to allow our body to heal itself.  This is very similar to our cousins, the Osteopathic Physicians, who believe structure and function have adverse reactions on disease as well.  For the body to heal itself, the network of nerves and signals from your brain, down your spinal cord, to the network of nerves must be allowed to flow freely without any interruption.

Chiropractors have the ability and skill to remove these interruptions or misalignments and allow the body to perform as it was meant to.

It used to be that we would speak to patients about what Chiropractic was and is by saying that “we put your bones back in place” or “we take the pressure off your nerves like when you take your foot off of a hose”.  While this “sounds nice”, it is a very simplistic view of what Chiropractic is and is not.  It is mainly an educational tool we use to relate what is going on with patients.

While the basic idea behind chiropractic has remained the same (that the nervous system controls everything and the chiropractor helps the nervous system function better), the science behind it has rapidly evolved.  In the not so distant past (literally 1985), Chiropractors were vehemently fought against (ie. Wilk vs. AMA) to be able to practice.

Now that the science behind the Chiropractic Paradigm has caught up to the idea of Chiropractic, the profession is flourishing, although it is still an uphill battle.  We still do get some patients say we are “back crackers”, but when the studies show that if you get adjusted regularly, that your body functions better, our stress is reduced, our health is improved, and literally study after study shows that regular adjustments reduce the average annual healthcare costs, then we all understand it is becoming more accepted.

So, how does it work from a science view?  Quite not-so-simply, it works on many levels.  Some of which are reduction of allostatic loading (the body’s stress response mechanism), induction of norepinephrine, downregulation of group IV afferent nerve endings, regulation of neurogenic inflammation, reduction of “stiffness”, all while inducing proprioceptive ability.

In other words, it works (all within a few miliseconds of each other) by regulating the central (brain) and peripheral (everything else) nervous system to its normal “stress-free” state, which creates a sense of wellness and allows the body to heal itself.

Why not try for yourself? Our Medical Lake Chiropractic care has fantastic results in both reducing pain and preventing pain. Book an appointment today.