Chiropractic Case Studies

Case 1 - Judith

Judith, a 57 year old housewife, had been experiencing left sided thigh and calf pain for two and a half years. She found the pain particularly unbearable after walking short distances, gardening or working around the house. Sitting down often relieved her discomfort but the pain would soon come back again once she was on her feet. She had seen her GP who had given her blood tests, which turned out to be normal,
and referred her for some physiotherapy which unfortunately did not help. She was resigned to putting up with the pain when a friend suggested she see a chiropractor.

On the first visit, Judith was given a thorough examination and, because of the severity of her symptoms, an x-ray was ordered. The chiropractor then embarked on a course of treatment which involved gently unlocking the joints of Judith's lower back and stretching out some of the very tight muscles of the thigh and buttock.

For the first two months she saw her chiropractor quite regularly and she made good progress, although she still had difficulty walking more than a kilometer. As she improved, the space between the visits became longer and longer, so that one year after first seeing her chiropractor, she is down to seeing him once every six months and she is able to walk as far as she likes. Judith is even contemplating a skiing holiday next year, much to her husband's delight.

Case 2 - Stephen

Stephen, a 44 year old teacher came to see his chiropractor about some persistent pain in his left elbow. It had been gradually getting worse for some months and he was finding even carrying books between classrooms a real problem. As he had been to a chiropractor before about a neck problem, he decided not to consult the GP and went straight to find out what his chiropractor thought.

After examining his elbow, the chiropractor diagnosed the problem as tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis). He gently unlocked the joints of the elbow and also worked on the soft tissues of the forearm. He checked his neck and found that it was stiff, and movement of the head was slightly restricted. He told Stephen that this was common in people with persistent tennis elbow.

Case 3 - Laura

Two years ago Laura was a 12 year old girl, who had suffered recurring health problems most of her life. She would visit her doctor most weeks, where she often presented with chest and throat infections and was prescribed antibiotics. She would 'catch any bug going' and was often off school. She suffered badly from hay fever in the summer, which would confine her to playing indoors. Her mother was also concerned that she had a poor appetite and seemed small for her age. Her parents had noticed that she seemed to swim with her left leg 'dragging', which was the only obvious skeletal problem she was showing.

On presentation Laura was quite cheerful, but although she had good overall movement in her spine, she was very restricted in the left side of her pelvis and hip. Also her top vertebra, where the head joins the spine, had rotated and was not moving.

Laura had joint problems and subluxations in her neck and was adjusted over a period of a month to free her neck and pelvis. Improvements occurred within a few days and immediately her swimming improved. She was also educated on a holistic approach to health at an education session provided by the chiropractor. The content of the talk was the importance of posture in promoting good nerve system function, nutrition, adequate rest, positive attitude and exercise. Laura’s parents noticed improvement in her health and consequently they too chose to have a spinal examination.