Let Sea + Spine Chiropractic Set You Straight!
Imagine your favorite style of house. The look, the lawn ornaments, the paint color, all of it.
It’s perfect!
One catch though, the house has a poor foundation. Is it such a big deal? Well, maybe not at first, but eventually, the house is going to run into issues that may take thousands of dollars in repairs, or get to the point where it seems uninhabitable. That good foundation is more important than how the house may look cosmetically.
The same goes for us. On the outside, we may look healthy, but if we’re not giving attention to our foundation, our musculoskeletal system (how your muscles and bones interact), we may be looking at trouble down the line. One of the best ways to keep this system in check is by visiting a chiropractor. As we mentioned in our “Getting the Most Out of Your Massage Post”, you want to feel comfortable with your practitioner, whatever they may be working on, so it may take some time to figure out what you want.
For me, after trying different practitioners for my chiropractic needs, I’ve found that Sea and Spine in Asbury Park has really gone above and beyond to get to the root of my issues. Not only are they personable, they’re analytical, using advanced scans and X-rays to see what’s really going on in my body.
While I can gush about Dr. Blair and Dr. Hannah at Sea and Spine for hours, it’s better to let the results speak for themselves. Over the next few months, I’ll be taking you through my treatment, what’s involved and the outcome, to show you what a difference adding a chiropractic treatment can bring!
The Initial Visit
When starting any new treatment, your practitioner is going to want to know your concerns, your goals and your medical history. Sea and Spine does a thorough intake process to assess your needs and make sure there are no complications going forward.
Then the fun can start.
To see where your body is physically, a neuro-spinal analysis is conducted with Insight Technology. While you know how you’re feeling, and can MAYBE guess where the problems are, these scans can show hidden patterns of stress and determine how much work needs to be done to get us closer to our goals of better health.
The analysis includes:
Heart Rate Variability Scan
Surface Electromyography (sEMG) Scan
Thermographic Scan
After the initial visit, you review your scans on your next visit. 3 months later you retake the scans to see what progress you’ve made. I just got my 3 month evaluation done! Before we take a look at my progress, let’s break down what each scan does.
Heart Variability Scan
This scan measures the time in between your heartbeats, the amount that the heart rate fluctuates between when we breathe in, and breathe out. It shows us how your nervous system’s adapting to stress.
The results show how the two parts of the autonomic nervous system are working together. You might remember us talking about the sympathetic nervous system, and the parasympathetic nervous system in our massage blog as well. The cliff notes version:
Sympathetic: Fight or flight, pumps the gas
Parasympathetic: Calms you down, presses the brake
Ideally, these two are in balance. However, even without our knowledge, these two systems can get out of balance as they respond to additional stress. If a person gets stuck in that “fight or flight” sympathetic state, it can exhaust the body and leave a person drained. Research shows that regular chiropractic adjustments positively affect HRV and good HRV scores are associated with better cardiac health, aging and longevity. Just something to think about.
Surface Electromyography (sEMG) Scan
An EMG evaluates the electrical activity produced by the muscles on either side of the spine. Basically, it measures how much energy you’re expending to hold up your posture. We never think about how much energy it takes to stand, but when that energy isn’t evenly distributed, it’s being taken away from other spots in the body where it can be of better use.
The instrument is placed on the different sections of the spine (cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacrum) to get a reading. Generally, the spots that are checked are points where the spine transitions and would experience more activity and is a good reflection of the rest of that spinal section.
Thermographic Scan
Like the sEMG scan, the thermal scan measures the differences in temperature on either side of the spine in sections. The autonomic nervous system controls your blood vessels which in turn directly effects your skin temperature, so this can give us a lot of information on how the brain and body are communicating.
For example, you can see that there are more areas of activity on the right side of the stressed diagram (on the left), whereas on the right there is more of an equalizing and fewer areas of intense stress.
Physical Exam and X-Rays
Now we’re in the last stretch! The physical exam takes a look at your balance, flexibility and checks on your overall symmetry. It may not feel like it, but you may be a little crooked. Once that’s complete, it’s time for x-rays. Sounds like a whole other office right? Well, one of the main perks of the Sea and Spine office is that they have an x-ray machine in house! It’s a quick trip to the back, you don’t have to do anything special but sit. The doctors will instruct you as they take films of your spinal sections.
The technique Dr. Blair and Dr. Hannah uses is bolstered by the information provided by the x-rays, so it gives them a crystal clear picture of what needs to be done. Having been to multiple chiropractors, I've never understood how adjustments could happen without X-rays. Can they "feel" and "see" when things are off? Sure, but having X-Rays done gives the most accurate read on where the work needs to happen so you can SEE progress and SEE results.
Then you’re done! The whole thing takes 30-45 minutes.
The Second Visit
During the second visit you evaluate your results. All of this information together, the scans, the exam and the x-rays paint a picture of your spine’s current health so you have a baseline. This can help decide how often you’ll need to come in for the most effective treatment for your body.
For my needs, I started out getting adjusted 3 times a week (now I’m down to 2 because of my progress!) That MAY seem like a lot but we’re talking about undoing years and years of trauma. It takes time.
After you go over your results during your second visit, you can actually get your first adjustment!
They use manual adjustments and a tool called an arthrostim. This tool fires at a frequency that’s faster than your spinal reflexes can react to. This allows them to actually move your bones!
On The Road to Recovery
Now that you have an idea of what goes into your evaluation, you’ll have a better understanding of the progress I’ve made! I can’t wait to share my scans and X-rays with you in the next post.
There’s so much more happening to our bodies that we don’t even know about. I’m grateful for the hard work that Sea and Spine has put into my care.
(It doesn’t hurt that one of their employees has a great bedside manor.)
Now is actually a great time to make an appointment* and do some good!
Sea + Spine is now collecting donations of non-perishable food items in partnership with The Local Fix Foundation and their current project, Rocktoberfeast, to benefit Fulfill, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) food bank serving Monmouth & Ocean county.
Until the drive ends on November 15th, donating items (totaling an equivalent value of $50 or more) at their location gets you a FREE chiropractic evaluation! (a $130 value).
You can drop off donations anytime at Sea + Spine, located at 1303 Memorial Drive at The Shops At Sunset Point
*Sea + Spine doesn’t accept insurance, rather they work with your insurance company so you can send a bill and hopefully get reimbursed. This allows them to “provide care at a significantly lower price than you would typically pay with insurance.” Their rates are totally reasonable without insurance though! You can read more about it here.