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Dr. Merrill Asks...

Can someone who has had back surgery receive chiropractic care?

Yes. Rest assured that we will avoid the surgically modified areas of your spine. However, what we find is that surgical interventions will often produce spinal instability above or below the involved level. This is will be the focus of your chiropractic care.

What's the difference between a "good" drug and a "bad" drug?

As a chiropractor, I see the use of many drugs (legal or illegal) as merely symptom treating. Worse, virtually every drug produces unwanted effects. The effects of chiropractic are largely positive effects. If you're a Midtown East parent, consider carefully before giving your child a cough medication, cold remedy or pain reliever so this sort of question doesn't arise in the first place.

Anxiety Disorders

If you know anyone who suffers from the effects of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), you know their life is anything but normal. The disorder involves obsessive recurring thoughts that result in compulsive habitual actions to try to alleviate the obsessive recurring thoughts.

Common obsessions include:

• Fear of contamination through contact with other people’s germs
• Fear of disorder, so everything must always be in the same place
• Fear of inflicting some type of harmful behavior on yourself or others
• Superstitious thoughts or fears

Common compulsive behaviors include:

• Frequent handwashing
• Compulsive cleaning and tidying up
• Counting systems, such as locking and unlocking the door a certain number of times
• Double and triple checking of things (i.e., that the iron or coffee maker is turned off)

OCD is characterized as a medical disorder, having to do with the production of a chemical called serotonin in the brain. Certain types of stress can seem to trigger the condition, including becoming a mother for the first time, a change in residence, major life transformations such as marriage or divorce, problems in school or with a job or any stressful event.

However, some think OCD may be genetically transmitted and may be caused by certain types of illness as well. Strep infections are thought to trigger the onset of OCD in children.

There are non-drug treatments for OCD that include exercise, massage therapy, proper diet and nutrition, and relaxation techniques to relieve the anxiety associated with OCD.

Chiropractic care has been known to help some people with anxiety-type disorders, such as OCD, because it focuses on the integrity of the nervous system and how it operates through the brain–body connection. And while chiropractic isn’t a treatment for OCD, a more normally functioning nervous system can help anyone, regardless of their specific health complaint.