Health Essentials - Do I have to go to the Chiropractor forever?
Hey there, Dr. James Fedich from Village Family Clinic here. A question we get in the office all the time is: “Do I have to go to the chiropractor forever?”
So there’s a short and a long answer to that. I’ll give you a quick rundown.
The short answer is: No. Of course you don’t have to go to a chiropractor. Nobody’s going to make you.
But the real answer is: Why would you want to stop doing something that makes you feel good?
One way I explain it is with exercise. Exercise makes you feel good, helps you live longer, improves your quality of life. In a typical year, I exercise six days a week—so I’ll get in about 300 workouts.
Now, many wellness patients get adjusted 50 times a year, or maybe 25 times a year—once a month, 10 to 12 times a year. So if I’m working out 300 times a year, getting adjusted 20 to 30 times doesn’t seem like much at all.
But why should we get adjusted regularly?
Well, for example—we just heard about Ozzy Osbourne passing away. Whether you liked him or not, he was definitely a rock and roll legend. In some of his final interviews, he mentioned a spinal surgery that accelerated his decline—and that’s why he couldn’t walk during his last performance.
Now, would Ozzy have lived another hundred years? Of course not—he partied hard, and we all know that. But he might have lived a little longer. The surgery led to an infection, and that’s what ultimately cut his time short.
So, I like to draw this chart when I explain it:
Life typically starts up here—we’re healthy and strong—and over time, our bodies slowly deteriorate until we reach the end. That’s just how life works. But if we take care of ourselves—get adjusted, eat well, exercise—we can potentially extend that timeline.
I’ve got 80-year-old patients golfing, playing tennis. One patient recently told me, “Hurry up and fix my back—I’ve got a tee time!” He also told me he plays tennis. I asked if he plays pickleball, and he said, “That’s for old people—I’m only 80.”
That’s the kind of active lifestyle we want to maintain.
The other thing is—life doesn’t always follow a smooth decline. Sometimes we experience sudden setbacks: a car accident, an illness, an injury. And when that happens, chiropractic care can help get us back on track.
If we’re already taking care of ourselves, we’ll bounce back faster from those setbacks. But if we’re not, those setbacks can speed up our decline.
That’s why it’s important to maintain chiropractic care—to keep optimal nerve flow going to every cell, tissue, and organ in the body. When nerve flow is at 100%, everything works better—your chemistry, your organs, your overall function.
Regular chiropractic care won’t guarantee you live longer—but it can definitely help you live better.
Going back to Ozzy—his spine issues and the surgery that followed ultimately led to his decline. He was aging, sure, but he might’ve had another five or ten good years. That spinal setback sped things up.
If we hit a setback—say a car accident—and we’re already way down on the health chart, that timeline shortens. That’s why we want to keep ourselves as high on that chart as possible.
We’re not going to live forever, but the better we take care of ourselves, the better our performance will be—and the longer we can live with optimal health, wellness, and function.
So yes, it’s important to maintain regular chiropractic care. Everyone should get adjusted regularly.
I’m going to exercise at least 300 times a year—six days a week. Going to a chiropractor 20 or 30 times a year really isn’t that much.
If you have any questions, give us a call or text us at (908) 813-8200.
