Question
What area (muscles, vertebrae, etc.) do I need to give attention to in order to have a treatment stay in place more than 24 hours?  Would I benefit from glucosamine chondroitin?  I presently take vitamins and get a massage once a month.  I try to get a chiropractic treatment once a month, and occasionally have to go several days in a row to be free of headaches or back aches.  And, yet, within 1-to-3 days I have the problem again.  What do you recommend?  I've noticed this is getting worse just the last five years.


Answer
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Hello,

What a great set of questions!  Although I cannot guarantee this answer is specific to your situation, I抣l do my best to answer your questions.

What area (muscles, vertebrae, etc.) do I need to give attention to in order to have a treatment stay in place more than 24 hours?
This is very broad and it抯 difficult to say that you should give special attention to a single area to help your adjustments hold without knowing you personally.  However, chiropractors are taught the ? T抯?cause patients to go out of alignment: Thoughts, Traumas, and Toxins.  These are broad categories.  Thoughts could be anything from negative thoughts, underlying mental pathologies, having an argument with someone, to just a stressful day at work.  As you can see, the list is broader than just the scenarios mentioned, so going out of alignment is possible whenever your mind is not in the right place.  Traumas are much more obvious.  They include anything from a whiplash (chronic or acute) to working out too hard or exercising improperly at the gym.  Toxins are most often related to diet, but could be related to other environmental factors as well.  Anytime your body is subjected to environmental poisons, such as carcinogenic stimuli, or unhealthy foods, it is believed these could cause your alignment to falter.  To know which is most likely causing your muscles to tighten or your vertebra to slip out of alignment or become fixated is something you should discuss with your chiropractor in person.  If you can determine which stimuli are causing you to go out of alignment or cause fixation in your spine, then it is much more likely for your adjustments to hold in place by focusing your attention on avoiding those stimuli, rather than singling out the muscle, vertebrae, etc...

Would I benefit from glucosamine chondroitin?
Let me start by saying this is a very controversial topic.  Some research say it does nothing and many doctors will tell you that you抮e wasting your money, and some research indicates clear benefit with doctors and patients alike swearing by the product.  I, personally, am a fan of the product.  Glucosamine affects the cartilage, so it can take awhile before you begin to notice improvement (because of the poor blood supply of cartilage, which is mostly avascular).  Additionally, you should buy a good product.  Talk to the employees at the store you buy it from or talk to your chiropractor to see which product/brand is a good one.  Typically with glucosamine chondroitin, you get what you pay for.  It抯 unlikely you are going to notice improvement in your condition unless your condition is related to wear and tear, degenerative changes, arthritis, cartilage thinning, etc?br>
I hope this clears things up a bit for you.  Best of luck!

Dr. JR Strecker, DC