Should you consider seeing a chiropractor for your low back pain? More importantly, should you consider seeing a chiropractor for your low back pain first? That is, before you go see your general practitioner, before you're prescribed medications, and more importantly, before you get started on a course of treatment that can only end in surgery if you don't get the right results?

For many people, seeing a chiropractor is their absolutely last choice.

So you've made the decision to become part of the nearly 10% of the population that visits a chiropractor. While more than 50% of people surveyed have indicated that they would consider going to chiropractor for their health concern many still don't because they're not sure what to expect.

If you're considering chiropractor care, here are three things you should ask the potential chiropractor:

1.

If you're like many people, you'd love to be a healthy person. If you already feel pretty healthy, that's great. However, I've noticed more and more people are searching the internet for ways to get healthy. They want to be healthy, they just don't necessarily want to have to take any difficult action steps in order to make it happen.

Getting healthy usually means all the normal steps.

Based on the best ergonomic research available today, you would believe that if your monitor is in the right place, if your keyboard and mouse are positioned just right, you'll be free of any type of repetitive stress injury.This is just not the case.

My practice is in an area heavy on computer users. They all work for top notch companies that have hired ergonomic experts to measure the angles and modify the employee's desk and chair to make sure they are in the best position possible.

Do you need to seek out chiropractic care following an auto accident? My answer is a resounding "yes!" Why is it so important? Why can't you just rest and take the medications that were prescribed by your medical doctor? Is the insurance company going to give you a hard time about it?

The reason why chiropractic care is so important after an accident has little to do with you being in pain (although it's good for that too).

At least once a month I get a question from a patient asking some version of "Why can't I just adjust myself?" And more often, I have patients that regularly do adjust themselves, particular grabbing their own head or neck and performing a maneuver that gives them a bunch of "cracks" and makes them feel like they've done something good.

There are probably more reasons than what I'll list here, but the answer is "no" you can't be your own chiropractor.

My practice is in an area that is filled with people that sit at their computer all day. They don't have the best posture in the world, and they don't always have the best ergonomic set up for their desks. They are also under a lot of stress. However, usually bad posture, stress, and poor ergonomics will lead to frequent headaches, neck and upper back pain.

Most health problems can be avoided. Many of the problems we deal with every day didn't have to be there at all, if we were willing to take a good hard look at ourselves and decide to be healthy.

The first question is, do you think your body wants to be healthy or do you think you have to medicate it into being "healthy?" An easy example is if you get a cut on your skin.

While I want to encourage each and every patient I come into contact with to start making healthier choices for themselves, I've had to learn to be very specific in the questions I ask them about what it is they're doing.

"I started going to the gym three days per week!" To hear someone that has done little to no activity for themselves for years, it's hard not to just be excited at that moment.

There are problems that have just started, lurking beneath the surface where you have not yet felt their pain. You may go years, occasionally feeling some soreness and stiffness, just to have it go away on its own. Maybe you feel a twinge, take a pill, and it all seems like it's going to be okay.

Then one morning you get up, accidentally drop your socks on the floor, bend down to pick them up and you can't get back up.