At our Colorado Springs chiropractic center, we ask patients “Which came first, the problem or the pain?”
Patients are smart enough to answer, “the problem.”
Getting rid of pain is often the patient’s first concern, and it is ours, but for the pain to be gone for good, you must correct the problem – what we call the dysfunction.
This is called “corrective chiropractic care” within the chiropractic industry. The idea is that our symptoms (such as pain) stem from a deeper problem (the dysfunction). You could say that “pain is the alarm to your fire.”
There are many clinics that advertise or speak of corrective chiropractic care in Colorado Springs, but few are certified to deliver.
Chiropractic Biophysics (CBP) is the leading certification in the chiropractic industry teaching techniques to correct the curvatures of the spine. CBP-certified chiropractors first look at what a normal and healthy spine should look like, and then help patients re-create their spine from a dysfunctional spine to a normal, healthy, functioning spine.
Orthodontists who utilize braces is to re-hape the bite and teeth are akin to CBP-certified chiropractors.
To our knowledge, the only Colorado Springs doctor certified in CBP in Colorado Springs is Dr. Molly Kallenbach. Dr. Kallenbach actually worked in the founding clinic of CBP in Nevada after graduating from Life University outside of San Fransisco, CA.
In the current US health care model, patient care is divided into two camps: Suppression of the body’s natural symptoms or stimulation of the body. A pain killer would be an example of suppression of a symptom, while correcting the shape of the spine so that the body is “aligned with its design” – as we like to say – is an example of stimulation. Typically, if you remove the dysfunction in the body, the pain is removed as well.
“Taking a prescribed or over-the-counter pain killer may be a necessary short-term solution for back or neck pain,” said Dr. Kallenbach. “But it is an unwise long term solution.” The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) states that 16,500 people died in 2000 from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory and pain medication. It’s also said that approximately 6,000 Californians die each year from Aspirin, due to ulcers.
Patients come to Thrive Health Systems complaining of headaches, Sciatica, numbness in the hands or feet, shooting pain, migraines, dizziness, strange neurological disorders, bulging discs, and more.
Patients want the pain gone. When we x-ray the patient or look at their MRI and find the dysfunction that is causing the pain, we get to work to fix it. Reggie was one of those patients.
Reggie came to our office in Feb of 2012 complaining of pain, numbness and tingling. We took a look at Reggie’s X-rays (the second X-ray in the three to the right), and found that he had lost 45.4% of his normal, healthy spinal curve. Normal is -42 degrees (as shown in the top picture), and Reggie’s was -22.9%.
