Chances are you know someone in Grand Rapids MI who has had some type of back or neck surgery. Whether it's been from having a "bad back" for years or after some type of accident. A common rebuttal I get is "I've had surgery" or "my husband has had surgery, so he can't come in to see you." The fact of the matter is that is absolutely not true at all.

The goal of the most common type of spinal surgery is to stabilize a damaged area by fusing the segments. Essentially, making two bones one. This is done several different ways but the end result is the same: limited mobility, months of recovery, and a 50% chance the symptoms return weeks, months, or years later. This occurrence is called Failed Back Surgery Syndrome.

Now after a surgical fusion takes place, the mobility of that area is decreased. As you heal, you begin to regain some of that mobility back but the issue is how that is being done. The different regions of the spine have varying amounts of mobility in all the different directions. For example, it's very common to be able to bend your neck to the side around 45 degrees. You have 7 cervical vertebrae and a couple of the thoracic vertebrae get in on this movement as well. (We'll say that the first two thoracic are the only two involved for the sake of the example.) That gives us 9 moving segments to create that 45 degrees - giving us +/- 5 degrees at each segment. As long as all the segments are in the proper position, 5 degrees is not stressful to a singular motion segment. Let's say two vertebrae are fused. What ends up happening is that the segments above and below the fusion will be the two areas that make up for the lack of movement due to the fusion - causing an extreme amount of stress to those two "healthy" joints. Over time, this additional wear and tear will cause weakening, instability, misaligment, nerve pressure (subluxation) and eventually the dis-ease process (which will affect what ever sensory, motor, organ, and/or gland signals that are sent through that nerve). If this additional wear and tear is not offset, future surgery is commonly recommended - which will compound the issue.

Can Chiropractic help in Grand Rapids MI?

So the question becomes, how can chiropractic help? A specific chiropractic adjustment will offset the wear and tear created by the extra stresses of the changed movement pattern. Keeping these vertebrae in line, limiting or eliminating the nerve interference, will allow your body to continue to function at its peak capacity. Great care should always be used when adjusting the spine but adjusting a patient that has had surgery requires a skilled doctor to ensure the proper use of stabilization, a correct line of drive, and proper patient positioning to limit any stresses to surgical areas. The Gonstead Technique shines in this area because of being the most biomechanically complete approach to adjusting as well as using instrumentation to specifically identify areas that are experiencing nerve interference. This is why Gonstead Chiropractors have so much success with difficult cases.

Typically the surgical area itself is not treated and we cannot change the fact that surgery has occurred. What we can do is prevent future complications and the future necessity for surgery. Ideally, I'd like to see you before any surgery is necessary but we don't live in an ideal world. Ultimately it is your choice to take proactive steps to help your body age gracefully and offset the accumulating wear and tear we incur every single day.

A note must also be made that every surgical case is different and 100% of cases are not compatible with chiropractic. It all starts by having a spinal evaluation to determine what can (or cannot) be done naturally, without the use of drugs or (more) surgery.