Please keep in mind while you read that Upper Cervical Care wants to achieve the most stable correction possible in the shortest period of time possible to help you regain and maintain your health and save you time and money in the process.
Retracing Cycles of Repair
By The Blair Chiropractic Society
What do we mean by retracing? Primarily it implies going over ground that has already been covered until the individual reaches the point from which they started.
When a patient is under Upper Cervical Care, it often occurs that they exhibit symptoms that have not manifested themselves for months, or even years. Their first impression is that they are becoming worse, but they are retracing the several stages through which their condition progressed in the making.
The question of time is essential in the matter of retracing. If a condition has been in progress for a number of years, the patient should not always expect to regain the normal state within a few days.
As it took time for the condition of the patient to change from health to a maximum degree of abnormality, so it takes time to retrace from the abnormality back to health.
What the Upper Cervical Doctor Does
The Upper Cervical Doctor is thoroughly trained to detect the abnormal positions of the upper cervical spine. They are further trained in the technique of restoring this area to their normal positions.
The question naturally arises in the mind of the patient as to why the Upper Cervical Doctor cannot return the upper neck immediately to its normal position and thus immediately restore the body to a healthy state.
What actually happens when a correction is given is the head and neck are returned toward its normal position. When an correction is done the ligaments and muscles are given an opportunity to regain, in part, their normal tone, and this permits them to hold the head and neck in a more nearly normal state.
Points To Remember
The spine, however, and the body in general is subject to more or less strain during the every day life, and it is possible that the head and neck may recede toward its old abnormal position, thereby necessitating another correction.
Keep in mind that tissues often must be rebuilt in order for the head and neck to hold its normal position.
In addition, tissues that have perhaps for years assumed an abnormal condition, due to the gradually increasing pressure upon the nerve fibers, must be allowed time to return through the various stages they have passed in the production of the abnormality.
This all takes time, and patience becomes a cardinal virtue, based on the knowledge that all is progressing as it should.
Gradual Retracing
It can thus readily be seen that there is a gradual retracing in the position of the spine from the time when it attains the maximum degree, to the time when it returns again to normal.
There is also a retracing in the condition of the tissues that are supplied by the nerve fibers impinged. They have gradually attained a maximum degree of abnormality and must return through those various stages by which they progressed in the attainment of that abnormality.
Not only is there retracing so far as the spine is concerned and the tissue cells affected, but there also may be a retracing in the symptoms exhibited by the patient.
Various Stages
Different stages of correction can give rise to different symptoms, and as the order reverses itself, symptoms that were present, perhaps years ago, may again occur.
If the spine is being returned rapidly toward its normal position, an entire series of symptoms may develop at one time and the patient consequently will believe they are getting worse.
As a matter of fact, the outlook is particularly bright at this time, and the patient should realize this fact. Naturally, if they do not understand the condition, they will assume that they are becoming worse and may stop Upper Cervical Care entirely.
It cannot be made too emphatic that this is the very time when they should continue with Upper Cervical Care, because the results are being obtained which will do the greatest good.
Must Be Retracing
It is immaterial whether the problem is one of long standing or an acute condition. There must be retracing in the position of the vertebra and in whatever structural or functional change has occurred.
Naturally, if this is true, there must be a retracing in the symptoms. In acute cases they may be so slight in degree that they pass unnoticed.
Finally, every patient should realize the necessity for continuing with Upper Cervical Care, even though they cannot note the progress made from day to day, or even though they believe the condition is worse.
It is essential for this period of retracing to be passed through, and they should not allow any temporary discouragement to preclude the ultimate health, which will be theirs if they continue.
Posts
