Informed Consent requires that you understand and accept the potential benefits, risks and alternatives related to the care we propose. This document is a general statement applicable to all clients we see.
Before you begin care at our health centre, we will ask you to complete a form acknowledging that you have read and understood this information, that we have discussed this with you and that you have had opportunity to ask questions to clarify anything contained herein. This form will also note any individual risks that we may have identified that apply to you based on your personal circumstances and health history.
You can download a PDF copy of this statement by clicking here
[STAFF USE ONLY]
1) OUR FOCUS
Our health centre is focused on helping you toward living your best life possible. One essential part of this process is maximising the efficient and clear communication between your brain and body, via the nervous system and spinal cord.
There is clear evidence that dysfunctional or deranged nerve input feedback (resulting from subluxation) can have significant and detrimental impact on the function of your brain, and by extension, your LIFE. There is also clear evidence that such dysfunction is often present without symptoms or any awareness on your part! Regular assessment and analysis (prenosolgical testing) is useful to identify such functional disturbance in advance of any symptoms presenting. The earlier subluxations are found and reduced, the increased likelihood that your body will operate at its best.
Adjustments are performed by your chiropractor using primarily their hands (and at times other parts of their body), specific instruments, tables and other equipment. Adjustments are usually very fast and gentle but may also involve sustained contact/traction or maintaining a given posture/position over a period of time with the assistance of gravity. Sometimes you will hear a ‘pop’ or noise with an adjustment, at other times you will not. This ‘cavitation’ is a release of pressure (in the form of a gas bubble) within one or more joints – like the release of pressure when you pop a cork in your champagne. The noise is NOT the adjustment!
Supporting Information & Concepts:
It is irrefutable that the brain coordinates and controls your function, health and wellbeing based primarily on appropriate processing and analysis of the sensory information it receives from the body (perception of your internal and external environment). For this to occur most efficiently and accurately, clear brain-body connection & communication requires that your nervous system, spinal cord and the joints of your spine (and body) are functioning at their best. This provides for correct input-output loops, essentially improving your brain’s ‘awareness’ of your internal and external environment – the result: better coordination and control.
By addressing Subluxation (a form of neurological interference that disturbs this brain feedback) energy and resources within your body are liberated, making you more EFFICIENT and by extension, improving function such as growth, cellular reproduction and healing. If we find clinical evidence of subluxation our primary recommendation is regular, ongoing nervous system checks by a qualified chiropractor to identify and reduce subluxation combined with teaching you how to work toward preventing their reoccurrence.
We accept that removal of subluxation is only one part of being truly “well.” As such, we also provide other services collectively termed ‘Optimal Life Wellness Coaching.’ Such advice may include recommendations for home-care, nutrition, supplements, neuro-emotional work, lifestyle change suggestions and more. This coaching aims to support the correction of subluxations and continue to improve your body integrity, further enhancing your quality of life and function.
Definitions:
Adjustment: The specific application of forces with intent and direction to facilitate the body’s self-correction of subluxation. There are many different techniques to achieve an adjustment.
Health: A state of optimal physical, mental and social well being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. (ie. just because you are not ‘sick’ or don’t have overt symptoms DOES NOT mean you are necessarily healthy).
Subluxation: Dysfunction (misalignment, fixation or aberrant motion) of one or more joints of your body (particularly those of your spinal column). Subluxation causes nervous system damage – altered nerve feedback hampering correct brain function; this results in a lessening of your body’s innate ability to express its maximum health potential.
2) HOW WE MAKE OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
Our recommendations are based on our professional experience, your presenting history, analysis and examination results and the goals you have set for your care. Our recommendations often include an initial period of intensive care, with frequency of your visits reducing over time, as we see your body begin to respond, change and ‘learn’ new habits.
We regularly assess your progress and confirm your goals because we’re all about you achieving your desired outcomes as quickly as possible! We believe that incorporating ongoing spinal health checks as a healthy life habit for the rest of your life can be, quite literally, life-changing! A recommendation of regular nervous system (spinal) checks and clinical care if it is found necessary is valid whether or not an illness, condition or diagnosis exists (see above – subluxations rarely cause overt symptoms).
**It is critically important to understand that we are not recommending spinal adjustments as a form of treatment or cure for diagnoses of conditions (if present).
Irrespective of diagnoses you may have or level of health (or illness), your body will function better (and by extension, heal better) when it is subluxation-free.
Some people choose more limited periods of care. We recommend care plans for a distinct number of visits and we always set a review date (often approximately 12 visits). You are free to cease or modify your care-plan at any time in consultation with us however we recommend that you keep to your agreed care-plan until your review. Our experience has shown that changing your care-plan (or ceasing care) before a review does not tend to achieve the outcomes people seek – it is well known that healing takes time!
3) SYMPTOMS GETTING BETTER?
Symptoms (and other conditions or illness) may improve or resolve while under chiropractic care HOWEVER chiropractic care is not a FIX, TREATMENT or CURE. It must be understood that if symptoms resolve this is a happy SIDE EFFECT!
It is vital to understand that chiropractic care is about improving healthy brain-body communication and then maintaining it by teaching your body healthier habits/strategies. We’ll celebrate with you if symptoms or illnesses improve, but we never claim to ‘treat’ ‘fix’, or ‘cure’ symptoms or disease processes.
We are primary-care health professionals and we do have an obligation to assess you and refer you elsewhere if your presenting situation falls outside our scope. If during the course of our examination or your subsequent care, we encounter unusual findings, we will advise you. If you desire advice, diagnosis or treatment for those findings, we will refer or recommend you to the appropriate health care provider.
Symptoms are indicators that your body has hit a point of dysfunction and/or exhaustion – you have exceeded your body’s phenomenal ability to adapt. As you (with our help) begin to provide the ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS for living at your best, your body will have more resources at its disposal to resolve or heal from such dysfunction.
4) BENEFITS
It is impossible (and unethical) to GUARANTEE specific results. Every person is different. We truly don’t know how your body will respond, and therefore, what results you will achieve or how long this may take. What we CAN confirm is that most people who begin chiropractic care and stick with our recommendations (including doing their self-care ‘homework’) report significant improvements as they complete stages of chiropractic care.
Some of the clinical outcomes we have seen include:
- Improved energy levels
- Improved concentration
- Improved sleep quality and hygiene
- Improved productivity in life and at work
- Better balance and body coordination
- Better flexibility or range of motion
- Reduced discomfort (pain) and/or inflammation
- Improved moods, emotions and in some cases, mental health outcomes
- Improvements or changes in learning, behaviour and memory
- Better interpersonal relationships, increased levels of happiness, fun and vitality.
- Better ‘quality of life’ (measured in a variety of ways)
We also often see people who have chosen to continue with regular chiropractic care for a period of time tend to begin implementing healthier life strategies (exercise, yoga, life-planning, and more) and in some cases achieve weight-release (-loss) goals.
Beyond these possible benefits, normalising brain-body communication loops (feedback) can help reduce the unconscious ‘stress’ response (fight-or-flight) in the body which can potentially result in significant improvements to many body-wide (systemic) functional disturbances or ‘conditions.’
5) RISKS
All types of healthcare have associated material risks. It’s important to weigh these risks against the expected or likely benefits before beginning such care. Chiropractic adjustments occur as a result of variable forces used by a chiropractor to move spinal bone/joint structures or other body parts. These forces can put stress on blood vessels, bones, discs, nerves and soft tissues (muscles etc.)
Relatively benign (less serious) but somewhat common risks that may occur include: muscle/joint soreness (discomfort), occasional bruising, nausea/dizziness, sprains/strains, occasional inflammation or referral of symptoms to other areas of the body (this list is not exhaustive). Such outcomes are usually due to the break-up of adhesions (micro-scars) in body tissues, and/or your body adapting to its improved movement or function. Similar to retraining the body at the gym, there may be some element of delayed-onset soreness. If these things occur they tend to be temporary (short-term) and pass quickly.
Your chiropractor will provide their phone number in case you need to clarify what you are feeling or ask any questions.
Rare (and potentially more serious) Risks:
There are rare risks of fracture (including of the ribs) and exacerbation of injuries such as disc protrusions/encroachments/ruptures (in the order of 1/139,000 (neck) & 1/62,000 (low back)) which may cause nerve irritation. These usually only occur as a result of pre-existing conditions and we screen (examine) you thoroughly to reduce the likelihood of these risks.
RISKS OF NOT having chiropractic care:
Spinal problems may get worse if uncorrected or not managed and may lead to progressive damage of the spinal discs, the spinal nerves, the spinal cord and even general health. Just as you would get regular dental or medical checks, it is smart to get regular chiropractic checks too!
Does chiropractic care cause Stroke or Stroke-like symptoms?
Chiropractors are required in Australia to warn of the rare risk that adjustments of the neck may be temporally associated (one happens within a certain time of the other) with stroke or stroke-like symptoms (the figures we must quote are inexact as best – ranging between 1 in 2 million to 1 in 5.85 million (Haldeman, et al. Spine 1999 24-8)).
Research from 2008 (Cassidy, et al. Eur Spine J. 2008; 17: 176) which has since been replicated by others has shown that such risks are not only very rare, but also are identical to the risk of stroke occurring following medical doctor visits (ie same level of risk). Given that GP’s do not adjust your neck, and given significant data showing that adjustments do not impact the vessels in your neck the way they were once thought to, it is likely that other factors contribute to this rare outcome.
Importantly, the risk-likelihood of strokes in everyday life is many times more common from circumstances such as: 1) reversing your car, 2) sneezing, or 3) having your hair washed while at the hairdresser!
6) ALTERNATIVES
As described above, chiropractic care at Noosa Junction Chiropractic is focused on identifying and reducing subluxation to enhance brain-body communication, improve function & coordination and assist you to heal or manifest positive changes (improvements) in your lifestyle and life!
You are at all times free to combine this care with other healthcare and lifestyle modalities (or seek other approaches instead of chiropractic care), however it must be understood that there are no alternatives to chiropractic care directed at achieving this outcome. Chiropractors are the only health professionals trained in assessing for subluxation and adjusting to reduce subluxation (some chiropractors do offer other services or ‘therapies’ which may have other alternatives).
Most musculoskeletal pain syndromes and conditions have what is called a ‘natural history’ meaning that associated symptoms will likely resolve over time on their own (if you do nothing to aggravate them further). Whether the condition truly resolves or in fact your body just compensates for them better and you stop ‘feeling’ them is a matter of some debate. However as described earlier, our intent is not to treat your symptoms, it is to address subluxations to enhance your brain-body connection.
If your primary focus right now is the suppression of symptoms, ‘fixing’, ‘curing’ and ‘treating’ of conditions then alternatives definitely do exist. Bodywork modalities such as massage, myotherapy, physiotherapy, alternative practitioners, and traditional medical approaches such as medications or surgery are all at your disposal. We are not skilled in these approaches and are not able to advise about the potential benefits or risks of these options. If pain-reduction is your singular or only need right now, faster cheaper alternatives will be found at the chemist!
One clear alternative is having no chiropractic care at all! Many people in our society make that choice every day, usually because they just don’t know about the potential benefits of chiropractic care.
This general statement is provided to all potential clients to assist them in providing informed consent. It has outlined the intent of the proposed care, the benefits, risks and alternatives to the proposed care.
Subject to any clarification with the doctors or team at Noosa Junction Chiropractic deemed necessary by any individual this document provides awareness of general potential risks. Such risks may lead to referral, further tests, surgery, incapacity and the like. It is understood that results are not guaranteed.
After reading this statement, and when commencing chiropractic care with Noosa Junction Chiropractic the subject of informed consent will be discussed and opportunity will be given to ask any questions necessary for clarification. At such time, acknowledgement of such discussion will be noted and any specific or unique risks or modifying factors to an individual’s case that may have been identified will be outlined.
