The spine to the body is like the stem is to the flower. It’s fragile, it holds a lot of responsibility, and if it breaks you’re in trouble. So you want to take care of your back so it can continue to take care of you. Since it’s such an integral part of your body you don’t want to entrust it to just anyone. That’s why you need to take yourself to see Dr. Ryan Porterfield at Porterfield Family Chiropractic.
Dr. Porterfield and his staff know that the spine is connected to the inner workings of everything else in the body. When something is out of whack with it, another part of the body suffers whether it takes form as migraines, a sore arm, tingling or numbness in the legs, trouble concentrating, etc. So when people come in to Dr. Porterfield, he takes his time in making the diagnosis. “I can’t tell you what is wrong by looking at you,” he said. “I start with a consultation. I ask in depth questions to help me with my exams.”
Dr. Porterfield suggests that patients bring a loved one with for support and a third-party perspective. He will take x-rays of the patient’s back to see what results will be yielded.
“I won’t give someone an adjustment without doing x-rays first,” Dr. Porterfield said. “It’s not worth the risk and you never want to just guess when you are dealing with someone else’s health.”
After the x-rays are come back he will do a test adjustment. Using his findings from the consultation and the x-rays he will try different things to see which path will lead to a solution. The second adjustment is when he will give the patient a treatment plan. This includes future appointments with him and things that the patients need to do on their own like stretches, sleep changes, or diet changes.
“The adjustments after this will be aggressive and as time goes on the patient will notice positive changes if he or she follows the treatment plan,” Dr. Porterfield said. “We’ll then give the spine time to heal as it was just moved in different ways. Like when you’re sick or had a tough workout, your body needs to heal before you can pick up and keep going.”
Then comes the rehab stage. Dr. Porterfield tests the spin to see if it’s ready for maintenance. If so, the patient will be scheduled to come in for maintenance adjustments for weekly or monthly intervals. The spine is now in correct alignment and the symptoms are relieved, but it won’t stay that way on its own. Routine adjustments will keep things where they are supposed to be.
Sometimes just having the knowledge is all one needs to make life changing decisions. If you are having health issues that no doctor has been able to diagnose with typical medical means, then why not give chiropractics a try? It’s noninvasive, less expensive than surgery, and nicer to your body than taking pain pills that only mask health problems.