How long does it take for chiropractic to work?
Chiropractic results vary depending upon many factors. How long have you had your problem? Are you sitting, sleeping, or standing with poor posture on a weekly basis? Do you keep your appointments? Are you getting the proper rest, exercise and nutrition? Are you in otherwise good health? Within a short period of time, usually the first 3-4 weeks, most patients experience 25 -75% symptom relief.
Since chiropractic care depends on the healing abilities of each patient, results are hard to predict. The longer an individual has had a problem the longer it typically takes to correct. It is important to remember that if you had an injury to your lower back 5 years ago and you never had any treatment, despite the pain diminishing for a period of time, it is likely that the problem has continued to progress over the past 5 years. What I mean is that even though you may have only experienced a few bouts of intermittent pain or discomfort since the original episode, it is very likely your body has simply compensated and continued to wear out or break down from the original injury if you haven’t been doing any treatment to prevent this. Even if this is the case, the good news is a lot of the pain will go away fairly quickly with chiropractic care. It is correcting and preventing a recurrence that is a more difficult and longer term process.
Every patient responds differently. Some detect changes in a few short days or weeks. Others may take weeks to months before showing progress. For most adults their problems actually developed after multiple traumas or micro-traumas causing temporary discomfort, a period of rest and improper healing due to no treatment, and then weakness and compensation of surrounding muscles and joints. This very common scenario will continue unless stabilized or corrected, and this process usually takes many months or longer to fully correct or stabilize. In some cases these types of problems continue to improve over the years with proper follow up or wellness care. The good news is that most of the pain goes away much quicker than that.
Chiropractic adjustments are designed to correct misaligned spinal segments, restore proper motion to locked or dysfunctional joints and remove or normalize nerve pressure in the joints and nerve roots that result in pain and improper messages being sent. Because the ligaments and other soft tissues that hold the bones in place have been stretched or injured it requires time coupled with normal position and movement in the joint to get these soft tissues to heal with the bone in place. It is for this reason that adjustments for lower back pain or other maladies are repeated, in order to help correct or stabilize the cause of the problem.
So, if you are simply looking for pain relief it is likely that you will experience that within 2-4 weeks receiving adjustments. If you are looking for more longer term correction, improved health and a method to help identify and prevent future problems, then the process will take a little longer.
