Frequently Asked Questions in West Lafayette IN

Chiropractic is a clinical health discipline that deals with the relationship between the various joints of the body, particularly the spinal column and nervous system and the role that relationship plays in the restoration of health and prevention of dis-ease.

Pain and stiffness, low energy, brain fog (the fancy word for all that is called malaise) responds well to manual care. An array of bodywork therapies, manual therapy, low force and well as traditional chiropractic is used to care for the neck, back and extremity joints along with their muscles and connective tissue.

Joints can become locked, limited and painful over a period of time or from an acute overexertion or injury. Traditional chiropractic applies a quick controlled amount of force to overcome a barrier of resistance in a joint fixation in the limbs: the wrist, elbow, shoulder, and hips, knee, ankle and feet as well as in the spine-the jaw, neck, mid/low back ribs and hips. Alternative low force stretching from a modern motorized table gently decompresses joints with alternating flexion and extension motions. Stretches, nerve glides and manual therapies can be used for individuals not wanting to feel a joint “pop” with traditional chiropractic care.

Board approved and licensed chiropractic is safely used through out the US and world. The safety record of chiropractic is reflected in its low malpractice fees as compared to other medical providers. Cervical manipulation inducing a stroke or vessel tear is noted in the literature, this instance is shark attack level rare and not distinct to chiropractic alone. Patient stroke in a medical office is the same ratio as that of patient stroke in a chiropractic setting. The goal is to catch a stroke that may actually be in progress if a patient presents with issues at the time of their visit. The first rule: Do no harm, is always being exercised. Gentle alternative therapies are available and used for patients who have various hardware/implants, brittle bones, blood thinners and other issues that would caution heavy bodywork and manual care.

With something simple, like locking up a sacroiliac joint from raking leaves may resolve in a single office visit. Other issues response depends on tissue involved. An issue involving primarily muscle and fascia can respond quickly, a ligament connects a bone to another bone, an injury here responds slowly due to its limited vascular supply. Medicare and various insurance carriers have worked with physicians to identify length and frequency of care parameters. For a significant injury care may be needed for three months or longer and require one or two visits a week to maximize injury recovery and limit long term residual impairment.

Generalized de conditioning, obesity and diabetes-notorious for driving poor response and longer recovery times are consideration factors when estimating recovery times.

Quite frequently, patients tell Dr. Mattern, something like “I see physicians and they just want to do tests and give me pills. This is the one place where I know I will feel better after he works on me” Joints, sinew, connective tissue, muscle and fascia love motion. Manual therapies improve blood and lymphatic fluid circulation. Motion stimulates receptors called muscle spindle cells and golgi tendon organs. The stretch response after a joint correction fires parts of the nervous system that inhibits pain and improves motion, this releases feel good chemistry. It’s like a factory reset for your nervous system.

Patients with lots of generalized inflammation will be more sensitive to manual massage, vibration devices intended to limit pain may feel unpleasant. DOMS-delayed onset muscle soreness can be more pronounced if you are consuming too much sugar, and seed oils in your diet. Botanicals like turmeric and black seed oil can stem the degree of any muscle soreness identified with hands on care.

Patients in relatively good health typically report minimal discomfort when a joint moving poorly is identified and released with hands on correction. Patient with chronic adhesions, fibrosis, boney arthritic spurring and joint dehydration report a little discomfort with the release of a stuck or fixated joint or articulation but enjoy almost immediate improved mobility and feel good sensation once the joint is released.

An enthesis is a condition where an anchored site has pulled away from the “skin” of the underlying bone, this and a common issue called a herniated trigger point, where muscle has popped thru the fascial weave of connective tissue surrounding a muscle both hurt when addressed. There’s no sugar coating it, heavy thumb pressure on a focused site doesn’t feel great but the results are worth it. Sometimes decades long vague ache disappears like magic once 20 seconds of heavy focused pressure with a thumb or manual devise resets the lesion of the connective tissue.

Dr. Mattern is not old!…just older. I know a thing or two, cause I’ve seen a thing or two. I have been, and continue to be a chiropractic patient, so I have seen many times both sides of the adjusting table. The term Doctor actually means teacher, I take this to heart and give you nuggets of information that if employed will give you better odds at reducing unnecessary pain and suffering. This is a small town, I shop where you likely shop. As I go about in my world, I don't worry about encountering patients because I know I have done my best effort to effectively and affordably help them.

We schedule for 15-20 minute office encounters. Plan on 30 minutes start to finish, a little more if you are doing paperwork for the first time in the office. I strive to be on or nearly on time-someone on a crutch with acute spasms will for instance can get me behind. Someone showing up with a weird presentation will get me behind. Me screwing around and not watching the clock can get me behind, or so I’ve heard. You, walking in late will get me behind. Park in the For Visitors spaces directly in front of the building. That the will get you in quickest to the office.

I did pre-requisite studies in undergrad with all the pre-med, pre-dentistry, pre-veterinarians then matriculated to Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1985 for an additional 4 years, so I have a bachelor of science and Doctor of Chiropractic degrees. 8 years of training is now the standard, but back in the good old days I was able to get my degree in six years along with national and state board certifications.

Indiana requires yearly continuing education credits. I am licensed for PT physical therapy in Indiana as a chiropractor, I do not prescribe medications, nor do I have hospital admitting privileges. I can and do make referrals for imaging such as MRI, pain management, pre-surgical ortho and neurologic consultatations. The one excepting: Medicare, those mental midget will bounce you to your primary and make you wait.

Yes, and many do. Body change and pelvic shift with later term pregnancy, I have observed and been told, go up to and through delivery much better with periodic care during the pregnancy.

Not to my knowlege. Once people find a reliable way to feel better many people will remain under care periodically or for a brief stint of care to get up and running again. That sound like common sense, not addiction. . No one dies if they don’t see a chiropractor, their spine is not going to fall out like a bad transmission or muffler. I have heard to complaint: Ónce you start you’ll have to go forever” that sounds more like a medical model for various prescriptions, most people stay on BP meds and statins once they start, seems like they never quit. I see many people a few times and they are good, some I have seen for years with 200 or 300 office visits over decades.

If a joint is loaded and compressed then a low amplitude quick impulse is applied the joint/articulation in question may cavitate, this is a release of gas inside the joint capsule where two bones are in approximation. It is much like opening up a soda can. No bones are breaking. Gapping the joint in this manner extends it to its maximum elongated potential, it is said to be extended into the paraphysiological joint space. Joints do not always have to be cavitated for a positive effect, a joint is not binary, it is not in or out like a light switch. Spinal adjustments or manipulations do however illicit a positive effect of inhibiting pain, breaking fibrotic adhesions, improving circulation, and mobility. Joint cavitation stimulates mechanical nerves, and inhibits the nerves that your brain will ultimately perceive as pain.

In some instances yes you can. Your body is often able to self correct displacements while you are sleeping. One caveat, a joint may pop easily and feel good for a period of time then feel like it needs to pop again, if so, the source of the imbalance extends beyond the joint feeling better when a force is applied. Self applied force can gap the easiest joint to move and the real trouble makers can remain stuck, this potentially can create more imbalance where some joints move too much and others remain stuck and fixated. For the neck especially, stretches and short isometrics can be a better way to self manage issues until a chiropractor can address the truer source of dysfunction. For some issues, unless you are very creative, you will need someone else to generate the force and its vector needed to correct a joint fixation.

Yes, we participate with many insurance carriers, being located so close to Purdue University means we see and attempt to contract with carriers across different states and sometimes nations. . There are provisions and limitations which may be carrier specific. Some plans are so poorly designed I chose not to participate as a provider and encourage participants to seek out a better carrier. After meeting your deductible mostly common plans have some provision for chiropractic care. In addition, we offer a cash plan for people with poor or no coverage for chiropractic services.

Yes, yes, and yes. These are the 3 most common conditions I see on a daily if not hourly basis. Your history and my assessment and cloths on physical exam help determine if you are in the right office. My care is best suited for musculoskeletal complaints-that’s muscle, joint, bone, and connective tissue that fastens you together. Fortunately, 65% or so of pain people see a doctor for is the musculoskeletal stuff, which I’m pretty good at helping. Sometimes additional diagnostics help determine if you are in the right office. If you do not respond in a positive fashion in a manner I feel you should then I am quick to ask…What else? Is something missing? That’s when I begin outsourcing other provider specialist, and diagnostics.

I work with some great PT’s their offices tends to be bigger and they are situated for more exercise based rehab procedures. As a chiropractor my office visit will be shorter, (you might do a PT session for 90 minutes) I focus heavily on hands on scanning assessment of complaints with my hands to identify segmental joint dysfunction and global postural dysfunction. I commonly demo and give you an exercise or stretch, it’s up to you to motivate and comply, a PT will stand there and make sure you grind out every rep of an exercise. For me I might give you an excellent exercise expertly demonstrated on YouTube and expect you to do it. If you do it, it will help, if you don’t, it won’t.

Yes, 30% of what I work with involves an extremity injury/overuse-elbows from pickleball, shoulders from CrossFit, ankle and knee complaints from soccer etc. They are often the most rewarding patients to work with because they are in tune with their bodies. They respond quick and are motivated to get back to the game they love.

Yes. I look at gravity as being one of the greatest physiological stressors the body has to physically endure. We live in a flexion based society. Head forward posture is incredibly common. I am now seeing the first wave of patients were practically born with an iPhone in their hand. Jaw pain, headache, rolled shoulders with entrapment issues, elbow and carpal tunnel complaints are common. These are soft tissue complaints that I see a lot of and can really help with.

Yes, it is often very effective, early sports and roughhousing can displace joints, long days slouching in school, book bags, gaming in front of a monitor can all add up to complaints that can cause pain, divide their attention. The good news-they haven’t been messed up for 30 years so a little hands on work to reset things goes a long way.

Yes, I used to do more nutrition in office but Amazon’s largely taken over that arena. The commonest support I recommend is the addition of magnesium, vitamin d3 with K2. It’s practically a universal recommendation, but meds might alter that so ask me. About 60% of the American population has SIBO-small intestine bacterial overgrowth. Dietary addition of yogurt you make at home with selected healthy bacteria, aka probiotics have demonstrated some remarkable improvements with brain fog, body ache, skin disorders and chronic stomach and intestinal complaints and a host of autoimmune related disorders.

The body is self regulating, the fancy word for this is homeostasis, a steady state. I can’t cure you of anything, I can’t cure a ham, but your body knows innately what is needs to regulate itself. A lot of chiropractic is just giving your body a nudge, de-stress the system, give it an energetic reset by allowing proper nerve to tissue communication and then get out of the way.

A. Intra cellular energy production: Yes, we’re talking your nemesis of high school biology, the powerhouse of the cell, the mitochondria. Application: NAD+ magnesium and methylene blue helps you crank out ATP, your body currency, your fuel source for life itself.

B. Dysglycemia: ultra high processed foods, AKA the SAD diet Standard American Diet spikes glucose, insulin responds to drive blood sugar into the cell, eventually it can’t so you run with high blood sugar and that little spike of sugar will eventually destroy your vision, it will destroy what’s between your legs and what’s between your ears. You won’t die outright, you’ll just lose parts for 30 years.

C. Chronic inflammation: No disease process can occur without first having in place the biological markers of a chronic inflammatory state. Support: turmeric, ginger, avoid seed oils, seek out dietary tree oils like coconut, avocado and olive oils.

Yes, this is an extremely common condition. Muscle is a muscle because it contracts, the sleeve around a muscle is the fascia. It’s white, foamy, shiny and self-orienting to tensions applied to it. Nutrition and energy deficits, injury with poor healing result in a fascial adhesion. The muscle gets entrapped and compressed in a sleeve that gets too tight, this slows the exchange of good stuff in and bad stuff out, this lowers the PH of the area, this change in fluids tends to trigger small free nerve endings in the area to fire and result in a deep boring or sometimes throbbing ache. Goading and muscle stripping though not super comfortable is effective at resolving this presentation.