"Will I Need to Keep Coming Back?" (July 29, 2014)
That’s the question that often arises at the start of a course of treatment in chiropractic or in Chinese medicine. And it is a very good question that can have more than one answer.
If you have a problem with a known cause, and the problem itself is limited (like a twisted ankle or a case of the flu) the problem may indeed be gone after treatment and you won’t need further care for that problem. But those kinds of problems are in the minority these days. Most of our health difficulties are chronic and the result of a combination of one or more circumstances we can't really change (damage from an old injury, a workplace issue, or an inherent weakness of some kind). In other words, even if we get rid of the current symptoms, we have good reason to think that the problem might easily return.
If and when you should return for future treatment after you have achieved a result that you are satisfied with depends both on the nature of the problem itself and on your personal health and wellness goals. Chronic musculoskeletal pain problems, especially in middle-aged or older people, have a tendency to recur. In that case coming back in for a monthly or seasonal “tune up” regardless of your symptoms may not be a bad idea.
My own preference as a practitioner is twofold. (1) I feel strongly that almost anyone will benefit from a monthly adjustment and/or a seasonal (four times a year) acupuncture treatment and that everyone should get those the same way they get their teeth cleaned and checked every six months. (You do that, right?) Or, (2) You can just wait till the problem starts to return and then knock it back by treating it again for a bit. That is a completely valid option. We can only guess at when a problem might recur, and often they DO go away for good -- and we don't always know which ones those will be.
"Will I need to keep coming back?" often really translates as "Can I fix this so that it never ever bothers me again?". Since most problems are a combination of inherent weakness plus lifestyle, the short answer to that is usually "no", and people often find that discouraging. So let's not say that. A much more accurate answer would be, "no, but we can almost certainly figure out a way to keep it at bay, to keep it from interfering with your life and how you want to live." Which to my mind is as good an answer as anyone could hope for.
--dr. diane holmes
Copyright © 2014
That’s the question that often arises at the start of a course of treatment in chiropractic or in Chinese medicine. And it is a very good question that can have more than one answer.
If you have a problem with a known cause, and the problem itself is limited (like a twisted ankle or a case of the flu) the problem may indeed be gone after treatment and you won’t need further care for that problem. But those kinds of problems are in the minority these days. Most of our health difficulties are chronic and the result of a combination of one or more circumstances we can't really change (damage from an old injury, a workplace issue, or an inherent weakness of some kind). In other words, even if we get rid of the current symptoms, we have good reason to think that the problem might easily return.
If and when you should return for future treatment after you have achieved a result that you are satisfied with depends both on the nature of the problem itself and on your personal health and wellness goals. Chronic musculoskeletal pain problems, especially in middle-aged or older people, have a tendency to recur. In that case coming back in for a monthly or seasonal “tune up” regardless of your symptoms may not be a bad idea.
My own preference as a practitioner is twofold. (1) I feel strongly that almost anyone will benefit from a monthly adjustment and/or a seasonal (four times a year) acupuncture treatment and that everyone should get those the same way they get their teeth cleaned and checked every six months. (You do that, right?) Or, (2) You can just wait till the problem starts to return and then knock it back by treating it again for a bit. That is a completely valid option. We can only guess at when a problem might recur, and often they DO go away for good -- and we don't always know which ones those will be.
"Will I need to keep coming back?" often really translates as "Can I fix this so that it never ever bothers me again?". Since most problems are a combination of inherent weakness plus lifestyle, the short answer to that is usually "no", and people often find that discouraging. So let's not say that. A much more accurate answer would be, "no, but we can almost certainly figure out a way to keep it at bay, to keep it from interfering with your life and how you want to live." Which to my mind is as good an answer as anyone could hope for.
--dr. diane holmes
Copyright © 2014