Should I Still Get Adjusted After Back Surgery?

The simplest answer is yes, and it might even be essential. When I started my practice 11 years ago one of my first patients presented with severe pain in her neck. As a flight attendant, she would only be able to take one trip or so out a month because the pain was just unmanageable.

When the pain became so severe that she was genuinely unable to work, she had a spinal fusion surgery in her neck. The back surgery took her pain down to what she considered a manageable level of 2-4, but the pain never completely went away. I was invited to give a lecture at a nearby Curves, and that's where we met! She scheduled an appointment and, after a thorough exam, I determined that I could help her.

After just a few treatments, which included adjustments to her entire spine, neck, and the segments above and below her fusion, she was pain-free. Once pain-free she returned to her globetrotting job as a flight attendant working full time. It may be essential to get adjusted after spinal surgery because of a change in the biomechanics above and below the fusion. After a spinal surgery, the vertebra is fused. This fusion and subsequent biomechanical change causes more motion at the two joints around the fusion and leads to stresses and strains in the ligaments and discs.

The chiropractic adjustment, when coupled with Applied Kinesiology, allows us to balance the muscles that support those joints, delivering the proper adjustment and possibly finding other causes to that joints instability. It's cases like I mentioned above that make me proud of Applied Kinesiology. Part of the beauty of Applied Kinesiology is that it gives me the tools to determine what adjustments will be most beneficial and well tolerated by the patient.

Often patients are understandably nervous to be adjusted after a back surgery. I find that nervousness dissipates after the first treatment and when the patient notices they physically feel better!

I hope you found this week’s Q & A helpful. Please pass it along and, if you have any questions, please send them to [email protected]