What Do Your Symptoms Mean?
Migraine
Whiplash
Neck Pain
Shoulder Pain
Back Pain
Hip Pain
Headache
Sciatica
These are the top reasons people call us for help. These diagnoses are symptoms of an underlying problem. Sometimes the root of the underlying problem is something serious, but more often these are symptoms of wear and tear on your body. Chiropractic care may help you resolve these symptoms and the underlying issues that have caused them.
We are lucky as humans to have a built in security alarm. Your symptoms always mean that there is something going on, whether serious or not. Pain and dysfunction NEVER happen for no reason. There is always a cause and the effects are the symptoms. Often compared to the oil light in your car, the symptom is the fire alarm, the carbon monoxide alarm, or other warning signal to get out or get help.
When you feel one of these pains, you need to decide how you want to deal with it. Let’s use the warning light on your car for this example. Once symptoms appear (oil light), you can choose to put electrical tape over the light and it will no longer bother your eyes, or you can take your car to the shop to have it checked out. If you go the route of the tape, it’s the same as taking an anti inflammatory pill for the pain. It dulls it, but rarely addresses the underlying root of the issue. If you get checked out and develop a plan for fixing the underlying issue (like a plan for fixing broken oil pump in your car), then you are addressing the issue at the root, which should lead to longterm resolution of the symptoms as well as return you to an optimal state of function.
A corrective chiropractor will identify your underlying issues by evaluating your structure and any abnormalities that may be impairing nerve function to the degree that it will create or contribute to the problems listed above. Once identified, the correction of the structural and nerve issues will allow for your body to heal and regulate itself easier and your symptoms and underlying issues will resolve. All without the use of drugs or surgery. The amount of care you will need to make these corrections or “chiropractic adjustments” will depend on the severity of the problem, the length of time it’s been present, your lifestyle, commitment to recovery, diagnostic testing and a number of other complicating factors that a doctor of chiropractic is able to navigate for you. The longer you wait with the symptoms (diagnoses) above, the harder they typically are to resolve.
Dr. Lou Jacobs is board certified by The American Academy of Chiropractic Family Practice as a Perinatal and Pediatric chiropractic specialist. He has worked with dozens of world famous musicians as Maine’s “Rock Doc” and he is always accepting new patients at his “Small office with a big heart” in Portland, Maine.