Written by Dr. James Mayne, DC ~ Vernon Chiropractor

I’ve been talking to a number of patients about this lately, so I thought it would be a good idea to share my thoughts on this. There are 2 camps of people who use chiropractic care in Vernon —those who wait until they are hurting to come in, and those who come in proactively around a once a month.

Maybe I shouldn’t admit this, but I used to be someone who only came in when I was hurting. I wasn’t going to waste my money on the treatment I didn’t need; I would rather use it to go skiing or golfing. This worked for me until my 30s. In my 30s my back pain, which was definitely helped by chiropractic care, seemed to occur around twice a year (snow shoveling and spring activity). It would take about 6 visits each time to clear up. I realized that I was coming in around 12 times a year—what the maintenance program was recommending anyway—it just wasn’t once a month.

Around this tipping point, life also became a little more complicated (you know…wife, kids, more yard work…) and my free time was rare. It seemed that my back flare-ups tended to occur on golf days and ski days. I was getting frustrated. So, I started getting adjustments at the once-a-month schedule and, low and behold, my recreation time was no longer interrupted! And on an even brighter note, over the year my back became stronger. Over the next 5 years small improvements added up, so I can confidently say that my back is stronger in my 40s than it was in my 20s. The adjustments became more than pain relief. It was about constantly taking stress off my spine so that my neck and back continued to heal over the long term. Now, looking back at a 10+ year journey, I can tell you that my back is stronger, less prone to injury, quicker to heal after injury, and it did not take many more adjustments than if I had only focused on pain relief.

The goal I have for myself, as well as for my patients, is to keep our backs and necks strong so we can be physically active in our 80s and 90s. This is achieved a lot more easily if we conduct maintenance care as opposed to only patchwork repair periodically. I don’t want anyone to miss a golf game, a ski day, or whatever physical activity a person loves because their back is too sore. Maintenance care works!