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Dr. Marcia S. Kesten

Chiropractor

Why Choose Chiropractic?

I have been a chiropractor for over 36 years. It baffles me when I speak to people and they do not know anything about chiropractic except maybe we work on the back and often you hear popping noises when we do our work.

Before I explain why to choose chiropractic, you first require knowing what chiropractic is. As chiropractors, we are structural neurologists. We work with structure to affect the neurology, i.e. the nervous system. The nervous system includes the brain, the spinal cord, the nerves that go to and from the spinal cord to distant parts (actually every cell) of the body. Every cell means every thing: muscles, organs, blood vessels, bones, joints. Everything requires "juice" to work and nerves carry the "juice". So, to reiterate, chiropractors reposition structure to allow sufficient "juice" to flow through the nerves, to enable the body part to function.

How do we do this? We thoroughly examine the region of your symptoms, whether they be pain, numbness tingling. We do this by touch. We also do a series of orthopedic and neurological tests; we may x-ray your back. Depending on the results of our examination, we adjust your spine or any other joints that we find out of proper alignment with adjoining joints. The adjustment, often called manipulation, is the central part of what we do. After the adjustment, we may utilize other modalities to assist reducing your symptoms, like ice, heat, acupressure, trigger point therapy, massage, electrical stimulation.

So why choose chiropractic?

Chiropractic offers a more thorough approach. We adjust and we often use physiological therapeutics. If there is misalignment of the spine or other joint associated with your symptoms, an adjustment is necessary to resolve your condition.

Chiropractors specialize in offering spinal adjustments to reduce symptoms. I have seen patients after they have been in physical therapy for several weeks. They typically say, "I am better, but I still hurt". The good news is that because they have received all of the beneficial therapy, they don't require many chiropractic treatments to resolve their problem. Again, chiropractic is not "therapy". Therapy is often utilized as a part of the chiropractic office visit, but the adjustment is central to the office visit.

Anti-inflammatories, muscles relaxants often utilized by M.D's can be helpful as long as you realize you are masking the problem by reducing the pain. Often people will carry on normally and do things they could not do if unmedicated. This can further injure the tissue. Similarly, taking anti-inflammatories prophylactically can be dangerous to injured tissue. When my patients ask about using meds, I say, "If you hurt enough to be taking medications, then you need also to limit your activities if you want to recover".

There is a place for all forms of health care. We each offer different perspectives, different talents to the health care consumer. In the perfect world, each health care provider will have an understanding of all health care modalities available and the patient will be able to make an informed choice as to where to receive appropriate help. For now, this brief summation allows you to understand why to choose chiropractic.