By Jill Nagy
It’s a good idea to see a chiropractor before
undertaking any new fitness regimen or other
major lifestyle change, advise Dr. Bruce Steinberg
of Queensbury Family Chiropractic.
In doing so, he said, a person’s body will be
prepared to adapt to the stress of the change.
The result will be less injury and quicker
recovery from any injury that does occur, he
promises.
Dr. Jeff Sawyer of the Tackett Chiropractic
Center, also in Queensbury, gives the same advice.
“Typically, we try to develop a regimen for
the former couch potato,” he explained. A
couple of weeks before starting, he advised
getting checked out and getting the body and
nervous system ready for the changes to come.
Chiropractic treatment focuses on the central nervous system, he said, adjusting the joints to calm the muscles, get the joints moving properly, the muscles loose, the nerves happy and healthy.
Sawyer, a relative newcomer to the practice, was a teenage patient of Dr. Bill Tackett, with whom he now shares a practice, when he suffered back spasms from motorcycle riding.
Tackett emphasized the role of chiropractic treatment as “a preparatory thing when we start doing something our body isn’t ready for.” A chiropractor “can get somebody to move,” he said.
All three of the doctors noted that a large fraction of their patients are “wellness patients,” coming in every four or five weeks to make sure everything is moving as it should. “We keep them tuned up,” Sawyer said.
Essentially, the job of a chiropractor is to keep the vertebrae of the spine in proper alignment, usually by physical adjustment. That, in turn, restores the central nervous system to optimal function, they explain. Improper alignment–vertebral subluxation–is often the result of stress.
Stress, according to Steinberg, is often the underlying cause of disease, causing more damage than smoking, poor diet, or lack of exercise. Chronically ill children, including those diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), can also be helped by regular chiropractic adjustments.
Steinberg said sometimes people cannot change a bad situation and have to learn to adapt to it. His office includes technology to measure that ability to adapt by measuring heart rate variability.
“Doctors don’t heal people,” he said. “You heal yourself. Health is everything working 100 percent, you being the best version of yourself.” Tackett emphasized starting out slowly when undertaking a new fitness program. Begin with walking and light weights, “learn proper mechanics and let your body get used to doing new things,” he said.
Much of his practice is with seniors, “probably my favorite group of folks,” he said. “We tend to underestimate what they can do” and to what degree the effects of physiological age can be reversed over time.” Tackett praised the Glens Falls Senior Center for its “osteobusters” program.
The Tackett practice augments chiropractic care with acupuncture, massage and psychological counseling.
A chiropractor generally spends three years in training, after completing a bachelors degree. Much of the first year is spent int he classroom and dissection laboratory, learning anatomy, physiology and other basic science.
The second year is devoted to clinical diagnosis, laboratory and X-ray work, and practice in a student clinic. In the third year, the student treats patients under the supervision of a licensed chiropractor.
Steinberg did his preparation at the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, where chiropractic was invented. He graduated in 2006 and has been in Queensbury since March 2008. Recently, he moved into new space at Mount Royal Plaza. His telephone number is 798-1111.
Sawyer is a recent graduate of New York Chiropractic College in Seneca Falls. Between college terms, he was in Tackett’s office. Now, according to Tackett, he is bringing a lot of new energy to the practice. Thee telephone number for Tackett Chiropractic Center is 798-4322.