This month I have seen my three old patients who have not received chiropractic care for a very long time. The treatment gap varies for each of them. For one patient it was a year and a half, for another nine months, and for the third one it was six months gap. All three patients made an appointment to see me because their pain symptoms got so bad that none of them could function properly on day to day bases. Their quality of life has gone down to the point that it was basically a painful existence.

I have asked all of these patients the same question.  “Why would you wait for so long that your pain level has gone to the point that you can not enjoy your activities of daily living?” The first patient told me that He felt good for a long time since he saw me last time and gradually his symptoms reappeared and got worse. This gentleman has to seat in his office chair for 10 hours a day six days a week. When he walked in to my office his posture looked like a question mark.  Pretty scare stuff. He was crying like a baby when my massage therapist was working on his soft tissue. The second person was a patient who had a sport injury while skiing. Her neck and mid back were in pretty bad shape. The worse symptom was her eye site. She was loosing it very rapidly. Prescription glasses had to be replaced every other month. About twelve sessions of therapy brought her eye site back to normal, to the point where she did not need to wear any glasses. Neck and mid back pain has disappeared. Good results in a relatively short period of time. Third person had a bad case of TMJ. After several sessions utilizing SOT technique and some other tools his problem was resolved and he was very pleased with the results.

My advice to all of these three patients was to come back once a month for maintenance cares. I like to compare our bodies to a vehicle.  Everyone changes oil in their vehicle every 3000-5000 miles depending on the oil they use. After certain mileage we change tires, rotate them and balance the wheels. Tune up is a must for every car and changing brake pads is an inevitable process. Human body needs the same thing.

Every day stress creates micro injuries in our bodies. These micro injuries turn into more serious problem over time. For some it takes longer for some it takes much faster. Maintenance or Wellness care is the same thing as the tune up for your vehicle, oil change, and brake pad replacement. Without these basic things the vehicle will not run properly, and eventually will brake down. The same thing will happen to our bodies in a form of pain and eventually disease. My question is:  “Is it better to have a healthy quality of life or to live in a miserable existence.” Choice is always yours.