Life is Better When Your Back Doesn’t Hurt

[Learn how chiropractic care could benefit your body]

Story by Tara Ekren
Photography provided by Essentia Health

Whether you were shoveling out after one of our many winter storms or enjoying a pickup game of basketball, that nagging pain in your lower back just won’t go away. What are your treatment options? Taking a pain reliever or anti-inflammatory drug might lessen the pain, but it won’t fix the actual problem causing the pain. A visit to a chiropractor could be just what you need to fix the problem.

Chiropractic care is a holistic approach to providing health care which focuses on disorders of the musculoskeletal system, the nervous system and the effects of these disorders on general health. Chiropractic care is most often used to treat neuromusculoskeletal complaints, including but not limited to back pain, neck pain, pain in the joints of the arms or legs and headaches.
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According to the American Chiropractic Association, a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) practices a drug-free approach to health care that includes patient examination, diagnosis and treatment. Chiropractors have broad diagnostic skills and are also trained to recommend therapeutic and rehabilitative exercises, as well as to provide nutritional, dietary and lifestyle coaching.  ​

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Holistic Healing 

Within chiropractic, spinal manipulation is the most commonly used treatment and can help with low back pain, basic back strains or sprains, pregnancy pain, headache, neck pain as well as sports injuries and a variety of ailments in children, such as ear infections, colic, bed wetting and constipation. This is evidence-based medicine; the benefits of spinal manipulation are many and it is a very safe form of treatment.

Overwhelmed with Options?

A quick search of chiropractors in the Fargo area results in a myriad of choices and a feeling of being overwhelmed with the options. How does a person choose where to seek treatment? One way might be asking your primary care physician for their advice, another might be relying on word-of-mouth among your friends and family, and yet another might just be picking the closest place and hoping for the best. 

All-access Care

A visit to Essentia Health Chiropractors Allen Hager, DC, or Allison Klug, DC, means you have the resources of an entire health system behind you. One of the main benefits of seeing a chiropractor within a health system is that they have access to your medical records. “You’ll have the confidence of knowing that we’ve already reviewed your chart, rather thoroughly, when you come in for a visit,” Klug says. This allows the provider to have a good idea of past concerns, issues and procedures. This is useful because a patient may not think an issue is relevant to their current symptoms, although the chiropractor may be able to glean information from your medical history that may help them with their diagnosis. “This allows us to really look at the big picture and be able to better recognize something that might be a more complex issue than just back pain,” Hager says.

Collaborating for your Care

Another benefit is collaboration and continuity of care. There are no gaps in your care when you are seeing multiple providers and when necessary, colleagues are a phone call away or even across the hall to provide the individual care that each patient needs. And, if a patient needs to have any lab tests or imaging done, all your providers will have access to those results. And in turn, when you visit another provider within Essentia Health, that provider will have notes and diagnoses from your chiropractic visits as well. 
It is easy to be seen by either chiropractor if you are at other appointments and referred for chiropractic care. 

“Care at Essentia Health is comprehensive,” explains Hager. “We’ve got everything from an ice pack to a neurosurgeon ready to operate. You won’t find that level of service outside of a health system.”

What should you expect from your appointment?

Your first visit will involve a discussion of your medical history, an exam based on the symptoms you are presenting with, treatment with manual muscle work and spinal manipulation, stretching and maybe some exercises to use at home. One of the few side effects of chiropractic is soreness from the manipulation.

Essentia Health provides chiropractic services in Fargo, Wahpeton and Graceville. Visit EssentiaHealth.org to learn more about chiropractors at Essentia Health, the benefits of chiropractic care or request an appointment.

For more information, contact:

Essentia Health

• 1702 South University Drive, Fargo
• 701.364.8900
• essentiahealth.org

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