Concerns with "Do it Yourself" Chiropractic in O'Fallon MO

We're going to talk today about the topic that I cover a lot in my office with a lot of my patients. I get this question a lot and the question is, is there any concern with do-it-yourself chiropractic in O'Fallon MO? A lot of people like to pop or crack their own necks and their own backs. I understand that. The question is, is there some concern with that and should they be doing that?

The short answer is, that there is concern, yes. And no you should not be doing that. If you are doing that please stop. We'll talk about that in a minute or two here. First, let's talk about what the difference is between popping or cracking your own neck and back and a chiropractor doing the same thing or what seems like the same thing.

Work With a Trusted Chiropractor in O'Fallon MO

First of all let's talk about terminology. When a chiropractor pops someone's back or neck we call it an adjustment. Not popping or cracking. Sometimes I actually even cringe when I hear one of my patients use that terminology. It's an adjustment it's not popping or cracking. If you are doing it on your own you can call it that if you like, but like I said, you really shouldn't be.

Lets talk about why someone feels the need to pop or crack their own neck or back. Lets talk about what's going on inside those bones and joints in the body. Let's talk about the neck for example. I brought my friend to kind of demonstrate this point. So we're going to use a dry spine so I can show you what's going on. What happens ... Let's take a normal movement. Say you're trying to bend your head to the side like this.

When you do that each bone in the spine contributes to that movement just a little bit, so each bone moves a little bit to get one big movement, but what happens sometimes through accidents or injuries or poor posture or any type of thing that puts stress on a spine. Sometimes one of those bones or levels will get locked in place and won't move properly. When you go to do that movement, whether it's to the side or back or whatever you need to do, as you bend that to the side, that bone that's stuck isn't moving so the other bones have to move more to make up for that one that's not moving.

What happens is when you are trying to do do-it-yourself chiropractic what you're doing is your moving those bones that are already moving too much. That is not a good idea, because that just perpetuates the problem. What chiropractors do is we palpate, assess and we find those spots that are not moving enough, we adjust those spots, get proper movement back in those joints and that allows for proper movement through that full range of motion.

Think about this, if you are someone who does like to pop or crack your own neck or back ... It feels good for a little while, but you have to do it again an hour later or a few hours later. That's because you're not really correcting that problem. But then, I get the question...why does it feel good when someone pops their own back? It feels good so that must mean it's good for me, right?

Well, that's not exactly true. The only reason it feels good is because when you do pop or crack your own neck what you're doing is opening up the joints in the spine and anytime you open up a joint like that you're going to hear that noise. That area is going be bombarded with endorphins which are the natural painkillers in the body. So it feels good, but like I said, it's not actually correcting that underlying problem that's going on in the spine.

The other question is, why does it get in that situation in the first place? Is because like I said, things get stuck and things are slightly misaligned from where they should be and that's where seeing a chiropractor can really help get those spots unlocked, get better movement and get you feeling better. Here's the really cool thing, I've had a lot of my patients tell me when they first come in to see me, they tell me how they like to pop or crack their own neck or back. As we go through their treatment they don't feel the need to do that anymore. That's because we're getting those spots that aren't moving, moving better and now they don't feel that need to do that popping or cracking on their own.

If you are someone who does feel that need to pop or crack your own neck, I can almost guarantee you there's something going on in there that's not right. That's a good sign that you need to get to see a good chiropractor. If you are someone with that problem or have that going on, please feel free to give our office a call and we'll get you in here for a consultation and we'll figure out if the problem you have is a chiropractic problem.

If it is then we'll help you with it. If it's not we can help you get to the type of doctor that you need to get to to get that problem addressed or corrected.

Thanks a lot for watching the video today. Hope you enjoyed it. If you got some benefit from it, please like it. Please share it with someone who it can help. You can always check us out on the internet at www.ofalloncrossingchiropractic.com. Or always give our office a call at (636) 272-7473. Thanks a lot guys. Have a great day.