Low back pain is one of the most common and costliest healthcare problems in society.  Low back pain is one of the leading causes of lost days at work as well as limiting people from enjoying their daily lives and hobbies.  Pain makes life difficult and downright frustrating at times.  This is one of the main reasons we recommend “maintenance care” (MC) after undergoing a corrective care program in our office.

Research?

In 2018, the Institute of Environmental Medicine in Stockholm Sweden found that maintenance care (MC) was more effective than ‘going when it hurts’ in reducing the number of bothersome (painful) days over the course of a year.  Another study in 2011 in Spine, showed those who received adjustments every 2 weeks after their initial care plan (corrective care) did significantly better than those who did nothing to maintain their correction.  In fact, those who did nothing showed that their previous disability and pain levels returned to their pre-treatment levels.  Yikes…that doesn’t seem like a good investment of your time knowing that you’d likely return to how you started?!

Repetition

Anything you are trying to achieve in life typically takes some repetition.  Getting stronger or more flexible – requires ongoing action in the form of exercise.  Like exercise, trying to keep low back pain, neck pain, headaches, or any health parameter ‘better’, requires ‘maintenance’ in order to stay where you want it to.  And this makes sense.  Can one expect to stay where they are without a continuing effort?  Unfortunately, no.

The good thing?  Once you put in the effort and time to get you feeling better in the beginning, it does become easier.  The momentum moving you in the right direction requires less investment of your time and effort moving forward.

The payoff?  You are better, happier, healthier, and can enjoy life again.  Does it require ‘some’ effort to maintain your goals?  Of course, but this is the easiest part of the process.

Congratulations, you’ve earned the right to move from correction of your problem to maintaining your health! 🙂