A New Approach To Healthcare
At Ideal Chiropractic Health Center, we address the cause of your pain, not just the symptom. We believe that education is a big part of your success. Call today!
A New Approach To Healthcare
At Ideal Chiropractic Health Center, we address the cause of your pain, not just the symptom. We believe that education is a big part of your success. Call today!
Chiropractor Dubuque IA
Welcome to Ideal Chiropractic Health Center located in Dubuque, IA. At Ideal Chiropractic Health Center the priority is to empower you, the patient, with the information necessary to better understand your problem that may be causing your pain allowing you, the patient, to take control of your own health. Before the explanation of how our Dubuque chiropractors determine your problem, there is some groundwork to be laid to better understand the premise of the entire center... the proverbial lens that the doctors uniquely look through with each patient who is seen.
You may be thinking, well I already know I have control of my health. When I’m sick, I go to the doctor and he/she gives me what I need to “feel better, the doctor fixes me”. This definition of health places the sole responsibility of your health on the doctor. Who’s responsible for your health? Is it your mom or dad, your medical physician, the company you work for, your health insurance? The answer is; none of the above!
Interestingly enough, when asked, “what is your definition of health?” It’s more often than not that patients respond with “feeling better” or “just having no pain.” Although this is a common answer or belief, it’s not 100% correct. Health is much more than just “feeling better.”
An example, a 45-year-old woman, Janice, wakes up, eats a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries and a teaspoon of flax because it’s “good for you”. It’s important to note that Janice, upon rising from bed noticed she felt a little dizzy or light-headed. She didn’t think much of it and chalked it up to being dehydrated from sleeping all night and not drinking enough water the day before. She drank some water and specifically noted that she was feeling great after the first full night of uninterrupted sleep in a long time.
She was excited to have energy and was looking forward to being productive on this beautiful 85 degree summer day in Dubuque, IA. Decidedly, she got dressed and because her husband was going to be returning from an extended business trip she wanted to make sure the grass was cut so her tired husband didn’t have to do it upon arriving home.
Feeling full of energy, she started to cut the grass and soon noticed, only a few minutes after starting, a shortness of breath and that her exhaustion that she’d been dealing with on and off for the past month had returned. Because she was using the push lawn mower, she stopped walking and felt the need to sit down. The next time Janice woke up, she first saw her husband looking over her as she heard the sirens of an ambulance with her husband saying, “Janice, it’s me Brian, you’ve had a heart attack and we’re going to the hospital, I love you.” Janice and her husband went on to find out that she needed immediate bypass surgery. Janice survived. Remember, Janice “felt great” and “felt no pain” that morning. Was she healthy?
Janice’s example is just one of many examples of why defining health as “feeling good” is a flawed definition of health. This definition, as mentioned, is how the majority of the human population defines health. Although “feeling great” is a wonderful thing in life, it's not health. Because the majority of people define health in this way, it's easy to understand why people experience, daily stress and uncertainty about their health and their overall well-being.
One part of building confidence is controlling that which you can control. If you are left feeling like you have no control, especially over your health (because once this is gone, you have nothing), the flawed definition of “feeling good” leaves you feeling anxious and with a sense of hopelessness. In essence, “waiting” for sickness and disease to strike as you age. Who wants to live like that? Nobody!
Ideal Chiropractic Health Center
At Ideal Chiropractic Health Center in Dubuque IA, a different definition of health is understood. Remember, at Ideal Chiropractic Health Center in Dubuque, IA its the doctors job to empower you, the patient, with the information necessary to better understand your problem that may be causing your pain allowing you to take a higher level of control over your own health.
Health is defined as having a completely functional nervous system. Once you know that, then and only then, can you begin to understand the process of how to take control of your health and perhaps regain your health. This definition alone, can give hope and infuse truth to the thought of continuing to gain health as you age rather than thinking you’ll deteriorate as you age leaving you feeling as if you can only to wait for disease to “randomly” strike.
Consider what motivates people; there are three great motivators in the human race; 1. Pain 2. Power and 3. Money. Which of the three do you think is the greatest motivator? Pain is the greatest motivator of all.
Why do you suppose most people schedule an appointment with one of the doctors at Ideal Chiropractic Health Center in Dubuque, IA? Do you think people schedule for financial advice or how to become more powerful and respected? Not exactly. That said, it must be noted that the sooner you take control of your health, most likely, the brighter your financial future. That’s an entirely different topic for another article, however.
Pain can be described in many ways with a vast amount of related symptoms that have more specific names such as headaches, migraines, back and shoulder pain, back and shoulder stiffness, tingling and numbness in the arms and fingers, mid back pain, low back pain, tingling and numbness in the legs and feet, restless legs, sciatica, asthma, indigestion, acid reflux, constipation or diarrhea, irritable bowel, anxiety, depression, fibromyalgia, ADD, and/or ADHD to name a few.
These symptoms present themselves in a variety of different forms, some physical forms of pain, and some emotional forms of pain. Understand that pain does not stand alone and it doesn’t happen randomly if you are healthy. The human body is not created to have pain. The human body is created to have energy and mobility; it is meant for health.
Naturally, if you are in pain, realize that most often there is there is something underlying or present that can be identified as “the problem.”This problem is often the cause of your pain; tingling and numbness, chronically tight muscles, headaches, migraines-name any symptom that you’re suffering with for that matter. The pain described then is most likely the result of a much bigger problem. You might ask; “isn’t my pain my problem?” Most probably not.
Your brain may be spinning at this point with all the talk of pain and problems so this is an appropriate time to shed some light on this concept. What did you do the last time you had a headache, for example? You may have thought, take ibuprofen, which is the most common response, among a list of many other potential options for headaches; like ice, heat, stretching, yoga, massage, nutrition detox, cortisone shot, botox shot, or some other form of pain medication like narcotics, opioids or, perhaps, even surgery. These types of medications and techniques can potentially help you temporarily feel better or decrease your headache pain.
What then do you do when the pain returns? If “the problem” wasn’t addressed, the pain will indeed return. You then go to a pain specialist who prescribes a higher dose of pain medication or botox as an attempt to “fix” your headache which could potentially help you temporarily feel better again. All the while, however, your problem continues to worsen.
If you continue to define health solely based on how you feel, which again is a very common way for people to define health, then you can see with this simple example how that definition of health can take you down a rabbit hole chasing what you think is optimal health and wellness, when really you’re chasing a symptom that continues to take you further and further away from correcting your problem that is actually causing your pain. This would then unfortunately lead to a continued deterioration of your health and well being, ultimately negatively impacting your life.
Would you rather get rid of your pain or symptom at this stage or would you rather get rid of your problem causing the pain? Most people when asked this, respond with “well doc, of course I want to get rid of the problem causing my pain, but I want to feel better too.” Recall that pain is the motivating factor driving most people to schedule an appointment with one of the doctors at Ideal Chiropractic Health Center in Dubuque, IA, so there is a clear understanding that when you schedule an appointment, you would want to feel better. It’s important to know that when the problem causing your pain starts to be addressed, it’s at that moment that you may start to feel better. This process can take hours, days, months or sometimes years depending on how long your problem existed before your even began.
Do you think the problem is gone as soon as the pain is relieved? Many people make the mistake of thinking exactly that, my pain is gone, I’m fixed and my problem is gone too! This, in most cases is not true. An example; have you, a child, a friend or colleague broken your arm? When you break your arm, a cast is placed to create additional stability to allow for the bone to heal properly. The pain goes away rather quickly, say, within days, but is the problem (the broken arm) healed? The answer; not for another 6-8 weeks.
What comes on first, the pain or the problem? Most often, the pain is the last to come. Meaning, the problem, unless it was caused by an accident or specific personal injury like the broken arm example, was possibly there for days, months, or years prior to when the pain started. Again, the mistake people make is thinking that when the pain goes away their problem has been resolved as well. This, in most instances is not the case.
If I’m in pain or my health is deteriorating, how do I know what my problem is? At Ideal Chiropractic Health Center in Dubuque, IA the doctors provide a thorough exam, consultation and use X-ray as the main objective tool to determine if your spine position is in an abnormal, incorrect, or unhealthy position. After a thorough review of your x-rays by one of the doctors at Ideal Chiropractic Health Center in Dubuque, IA most often the cause of your pain can be determined. It’s known that the incorrect positioning of your spine can cause excessive stress and strain on the soft tissues (muscles, tendons, ligaments) and very possibly the nerves that control the function of every cell, tissue, and organ in your body.
How do I know if my pain is due to the incorrect positioning of my spine? Unfortunately, you don’t know if you haven’t had an X-ray performed on your entire spine. It’s important to note, that the x-rays taken at Ideal Chiropractic Health Center, in Dubuque IA are not taken with the primary purpose of determining if a fracture or a disease is present (which is the primary reason your medical physician would take an x-ray) but rather to determine if you have a compromised spine “a problem” that might be causing your pain and symptoms.
If you have a compromised spine causing interference to your nervous system, which is very common, there can be a very long list of physical and emotional challenges that cause suffering. These challenges negatively impact your life and most often it’s in more ways than you realize.
Common Symptoms We Help
OFFICE HOURS
Monday
8:00am - 10:00am
Tuesday
3:30pm - 5:30pm
Wednesday
3:30pm - 5:30pm
Thursday
3:30pm - 5:30pm
Friday
8:00am - 10:00am
Saturday
Closed
Ideal Chiropractic Health Center
1082 Cedar Cross Rd Suite 1002
Dubuque, IA 52002
(563) 845-7283
Why we are different
When you schedule your first appointment at Ideal Chiropractic Health Center in Dubuque, IA you will first go through a special consultation, a simple conversation with the doctor to review your health history. During this consultation, often times it is indeed discovered how much your pain or your health symptoms are negatively impacting 4 critical areas of your life including: 1- work 2- relationships with those you love and those who love you, 3- your hobbies, 4-recreational activities. It may come to your surprise how much those 4 specific areas of your life are negatively impacted and often times, it’s one area more than the others that is affected most.
Say, for example, you suffer from headaches. You may have noticed that you can’t focus as well at work which perhaps has decreased your productivity but until asked, you didn’t realize how irritable you’ve been with your spouse and children when you return home from work. When made aware, through a series of very specific questions asked by the doctor, you realize that your headache is causing disagreements and ultimately strain on the relationships you hold dearest to your heart.
Another example perhaps, imagine you have low back pain and you’re an avid runner, after consulting with one of the doctors, you are asked: “how is your low back pain impacting your running?” Your response: “not much”, which is a very common response. When asked specifically, however, how much and how fast you typically run, you respond by saying “an average of 4-6 miles a week at a 9-minute mile pace.” The doctor then asks, “how far and at what pace are you currently running since your low back started hurting?” You respond, “actually, I’ve only been running about 3 miles and I have to stop and walk at times because the pain in my back becomes unbearable.”
It’s at this point in the conversation that you make the connection of how your low back pain is directly impacting your passion: running. This will often affect you emotionally as well as physically because part of the reason you love running is that it helps reduce stress. After the doctor asks you that specific question about running, it dawns on you that you have indeed been far more stressed since your low back pain started. Ultimately, you went from thinking your low back pain wasn’t affecting your life, to realizing your life is actually being negatively affected every day! This special consultation is the start of a very important process that allows you to paint a picture for your doctor, and for yourself, of what your life was like prior to your pain and what life is like now that you have pain.
Now for a quick note on how pain impacts your life. It’s been mentioned earlier in the article, this is a topic that requires further explanation, however. If you are in pain, does it positively impact your life or does it negatively impact your life? You may respond by saying “Well of course doc, it impacts my life negatively.”
A true story to help you realize why that simple question isn’t so easy to answer for some. One day at Ideal Chiropractic Health Center in Dubuque, IA a patient scheduled for the very first time with a complaint of head and neck pain. The patient started by consulting with one of the doctors and the doctor asked, how do your head and neck pain affect your relationships with those you love and those who love you most, say your spouse for example? The patient responded: “not at all.” The doctor asked: “you work as an engineer at John Deere, on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most productive and 1 the least before you had your pain, rate how productive you were at work “10” the patient said. The doctor then proceeded to ask, rate your level of productivity at work now that you have pain “10.” It’s important to note at this time in the story that the patient is literally telling the doctor that his head and neck pain have absolutely no effect on his life.
A valid question then would be, why did this person schedule? Believe it or not, there are some patients that can’t even imagine life without pain. Meaning, when asked, they minimize the negative impact it's having on their life and worse don’t even realize it's affecting them on a daily basis in the 4 areas of life affected most by pain: 1- work 2- relationships with those you love and those who love you, 3- your hobbies, 4-recreational activities. The sad part, living in a state of pain is “normal” for many people, to the point in which imagining life without pain is virtually impossible because pain is what they’re accustomed to. After all, how can low back pain NOT impact your life?
A quick story to help you better understand the concept of negative life impact... There was a 23-year-old young woman who presented with migraines. Going through the consultation she shared with the doctor that she was fearful of losing her job because she had already used all of her sick days, that she was recently engaged, but scared she was going to lose the engagement because when she got home, she couldn’t maintain the house, she wasn’t fun and life as she once knew it prior to her debilitating migraines was now a distant memory of the past.
Prior to scheduling she had seen several different doctors and had “every test possible” performed on her with all the test coming back negative, finding “nothing wrong with her.” The last doctor's office she was in even referred her to a psychiatrist, leaving her walking away from that appointment thinking: “am I living in a nightmare? Why can’t they find anything? I hurt. Is this all in my head?” As she sat in front of the doctor at Ideal Chiropractic Health Center in Dubuque, IA crying, the doctor said: “Sarah, you need to have some x-rays of your entire spine to see if perhaps there is a problem causing your pain.” She agreed.
Would you guess the x-ray was a textbook normal spine that had no issues? No, of course not. After the doctor reviewed her spine through a detailed lense of specific measurements that helps determine if the positioning of her spine was the potential problem causing her pain; it was determined that Sarah’s spine, admittedly was in bad shape and it was in an abnormal, incorrect, and unhealthy position.
This is a person, 23 years old, who appeared to the human eye to be a very healthy individual, but in reality, was a young woman that had lost control of her health. Once she lost control of her health she also lost control of her life. After a brief discussion with the doctor, Sarah went on to choose the care plan that best met her needs after a brief discussion with the doctor.
After consistently following through with her recommended treatment plan, post-x-ray (a comparison x-ray that helps compare her first x-ray to the x-ray after receiving care) she improved by over 50%. Do you think her headaches got better, stayed the same, or got worse with over 50% improvement in the structure of her spine on her x-rays? With over 50% improvement in the structure of her spine, do you think her headaches got better? Stayed the same? Got worse? The answer? Got better. In essence, Sarah at 23, lost control of her health, fearing she was going to lose everything with little to no hope that she was ever going to find the care that would help her headaches.
After committing and following through with her care she gave herself the opportunity to take back control of her health. She went from being miserable in pain and hopeless to having an unparalleled excitement about her future- wedding, and relationship with her future husband and thriving in her job! Can you imagine, what would’ve happened to Sarah and her life had she not chosen chiropractic care? You don’t know for sure, but natural deduction allows you to assume that her life would have looked quite different.
CHOICES OF CARE AT OUR OFFICE
At Ideal Chiropractic Health Center in Dubuque, IA there are two different choices of care you may be presented with when choosing your care. Patch care is one choice of care and it last 5 weeks. This type of care is designed to try and decrease your pain which is probably the great motivator that brought you in for care. Remember, pain is more powerful than money or power when it comes to motivating people. Some people chose patch care and are taught that patch care is temporary pain relief at best. Fix or as near normal as possible care is the other choice of care.
This type of care is also designed to decrease or eliminate your pain as quickly as possible, but this care goes far beyond pain. Fix or near normal as possible care is designed to objectively identify the problem in your spine that very well may be causing your pain or symptom. At 12 weeks in care, you’ll have a re-x-ray taken so that it can be determined if you’ve improved 5% better, 50% better, or 100% better. There is no way to know how much you’ve improved unless you’ve had your re-x-rays for comparison.
Why do you think some people choose patch care? They just want to feel better temporarily. They may not think they have the time for fix or near normal as possible care. If you think pain is your problem, you may choose patch care, but if you understand there is a problem that's causing your pain, you may want to choose fix or near normal as possible care.
Anyone who is in pain wants to get out of pain as quickly as possible, if you are going to respond to chiropractic care you will experience pain relief just as quickly whether you choose patch care or fix or as near normal as possible care. You might ask yourself why some patients choose patch care: the primary reason is that most people "hope" that one 5 week session of patch care might not only take their pain/symptom away but keep it away. The reality is quite different and is clearly explained when the option of patch care is discussed in a patient's report of findings. Patch care is, at best, a temporary pain relief option. A patient's pain/symptom will mostly likely return within weeks or months after patch care has been completed. When a patient's pain/symptom returns they need to contact the office, schedule an appointment to be reevaluated and, if they like, they can choose patch care again. The greatest challenge with patch care chosen again and again over time is that the actual problem in a patient's spine that is most likely causing their pain/symptom will worsen. This happens because along with gravity, "life happening" and natural aging, a spinal problem will continue to get worse. It's not so important how quickly it may get worse, but worse is simply worse. At some point even chiropractic care (the only care option that most often improves spinal problems) will no longer help to even reduce a patient's pain/symptom. Many patients describe this as a very sad ending but it was a decision of trying to repeatedly patch a pain/symptom that lead to this "sad ending".
You might also ask yourself why most people choose fix or as near normal as possible care. There seems to be a variety of reasons, some of which include: a person hurting for a prolonged period of time and getting to the point of not being able to stand the pain any longer, to a person being in extreme pain and deciding to choose a type of care that might keep their pain from ever coming back but the most common reason most people say they choose fix or as near normal as possible care is they want to avoid the problem in their spine that's most likely causing their pain/symptom from getting worse and worse over time eventually costing them their option of chiropractic care. When people really understand that fix or as near normal as possible care can not only prevent their spinal problem from getting worse but, might very well improve their spinal problem. Their choice in care is driven by common sense when they choose fix or as near normal as possible care.
WHY CHIROPRACTIC CARE?
In most instances patients seek care at Ideal Chiropractic Health Center because they have some sort of pain/symptom. Those who choose patch care often realize they need to come back again and again for multiple sessions of patch care because their spinal problem can never be addressed in such a short period of time. Most patients choose fix or as near normal as possible care because they're looking into the future attempting to improve their spinal problems and their health so that they are capable of doing the things they want to do in life and need to do in life instead of just "living the moment" day-to-day.
If you have a pain/symptom you owe it to yourself to contact Ideal Chiropractic Health Center in Dubuque, IA and set up an examination in order to find out if your pain/symptom, regardless of what it might be, may be caused by a problem in your spine. Due to the fact that it's your pain, your problem and your life being impacted by your pain you would then need to make a decision about your choice in care. There is no "bad choice" there are simply differences in the outcome with each choice in care. Rather than sitting, suffering and wondering what kind of problem might be causing your pain/symptom there's no need for you to worry about it, simply call 563-845-7283 to reserve your appointment at Ideal Chiropractic Health Center in Dubuque, IA so you can gain the knowledge of exactly what you have going on with your pain/symptom and your problem.