Chiropractor Ken Frederick Explains How Often Chiropractic Adjustments Are Needed And Why

Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Chiropractors.Media

One of the questions that people will have, I am sure ’cause I had it, is how many times a week, or what is the frequency that I need to come in? Because I assume it would be a greater frequency, the more severe, or does that correlate?

Ken Frederick – Chiropractor – Port Orchard, Washington

That’s true. Frequency depends on a couple of things. The severity, if it was a trauma, and how long have you had the condition? The longer you’ve had it, the more treatments it takes us to restore the body in its natural state. The more severe it is, the more treatments it takes to get the body back into its natural state. It’s never been a one treatment option for anybody.

Bone only moves so much. I think research suggests that it can move up between 1/2 and 3/4 of a millimeter, which isn’t very far. No, it’s not. But it’s cumulative. Each treatment moves the bone further and further.

The severity that we talk about is caused by the muscle that attaches to the bones we need to move. If it’s severe, muscle is in spasm. When muscle spasms, it swells and it shortens. So, if it shortens, it’s going to pull a bone out of its natural alignment. We’ve got to try and move that bone back to its natural alignment, and that spasm is going to fight us every step of the way. So, with chiropractic, it’s always a two steps forward, one step back deal. That’s why we have a frequency of treatments like we do.

So, if I can move a bone half a millimeter, there will be really good results, there will be less pain. But until I see that patient again, if it’s a severe injury, I’ll be seeing them probably in 48 hours. And in those 48 hours, we’ll lose half of everything we gained strictly because of the muscle spasm. In the case of a person that’s had this problem for a long time, these muscles will have a memory. They’ll have a habit. We’ll move a bone where we need it to go, but the muscle memory says, well, wait, we’ve been like this all this time. We’d rather be back here. And we say as a chiropractor, no, we’re going to have another treatment and we’re going to move this bone even further back to where it’s designed to be.

So, the different scenarios of a condition really determine the amount of treatments that we have to provide. Again, even a patient that’s had a problem for years, I will always do my best to try and get them better in the shortest amount of time possible with all the techniques that I know.