I have been treating and managing spinal conditions for over 35 years. During that time, I have seen health conditions develop related to structural balance. The challenge I face is that, it is human nature for people to wait until their health problem is bad enough that it compromises their lifestyle before they are willing to go to a doctor about it. This is particularly true about musculo-skeletal conditions that we see in our chiropractic practice daily.

An example of this, would be pronated feet. That is where the arch drops and rolls the ankle to the inside. I see this frequently in children and young adults. Those people that don't address the problem early on, show structural changes in later years like bunions, heel spurs, corns, callouses and hammer toes. Some of which end up requiring surgery. It doesn't stop there. The torque of the foot and ankle continues up the kinetic chain to affect the knees, hips and back.

Usually the joints that are affected begin to show signs of wear and tear over time and lead to osteoarthritis.

Spinal conditions of back pain or neck pain that only see temporary relief after treatment and the symptoms just continue to re-occur, usually it is because the cause of the structural imbalance has not been found and dealt with. For example, I could make structural corrections to the back and neck until the cows come home, however the corrections won't begin to hold if I haven't addressed the cause of the structural imbalance in the first place. That cause may be a pronation of one foot causing a leg length imbalance that internally rotates the knee and tips the pelvis. If the foot is not stabilized, the pelvis won't be stable either and the patient continues with either constant or intermittent chronic pain.  The cause may come from head foreward posturing, being over weight, deconditioned trunk muscles or the ergonomic environment that individual is required to be in because of his or her job.

Our bodies are just like our house or our car or anyother machine that requires maintenance. Just like that commercial for car oil and air filters. They say "you can pay me now or pay me latter" and typically it costs a lot more the longer you wait. If your car was not checked periodically for alignments it would begin to show signs of wear and tear wouldn't it. You would begin to see the tires wear unevenly, the car might pull to one side and begin to shake at higher speeds. Our bodies behave similar.

Chiropractors are no different than any other doctor when it comes to periodic checkups. Do you go visit your medical doctor and they say you never need to see them again, or do you see your eye doctor or dentist and after an examination or proceedure they tell you to only come back if you are in pain. Of course not, because all physicians know that by receiving periodic checkups we can prevent smaller health problems from developing into larger ones.

When I fly to a particular destination, I am constantly making small corrections to keep me on the desired course. It is the same with our health reguarding structural balance. Once the cause is found and corrected, we recommend periodic checkups to stay that way.

Dr. Rick Haas DC