MyTopFace wrote about hundreds of different beauty brands, products, and services, but our experts have never visited a chiropractor. This was and becomes again a pretty popular service in the city after the pandemic, so our experts wanted to have a try for themselves and share it with you.

After doing the research we got in touch with Dr.Shelby and made an appointment for service and interviewed her about the chiropractic business:

– Dr. Shelby, why did you become a chiropractor?

I became a chiropractor after my experience with chiropractic as a patient. In college, I gained a lot of weight and my face broke out into severe cystic acne. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before and I sought the help of several doctors. Once diagnosed with an autoimmune disease of the thyroid called Hashimoto’s I was put on medication. I felt jittery and unwell while taking it so explored how I might be able to heal my body naturally. After seeing a chiropractor, receiving adjustments and nutritional counsel, and supplementation I was able to get off the medication and heal my condition. This was so incredible to me I decided to pursue it as a career in order to help others who would prefer to heal naturally.

– What techniques do you practice?

I use a variety of techniques depending on the person I’m caring for and their needs. I use a gentle touch and activator instrument adjusting for babies and the elderly, I use Thompson drop work and webster technique with pregnant moms, and I use diversified and a combination of the aforementioned methods for adult patients. I am a wellness family doctor. This means I not only adjust the spine for alignment and a healthy nervous system, but I also look at nutrition and movement patterns and stress to get a full picture of how healthy a person is and seek to encourage and guide my practice members in all three areas of physical, chemical, and emotional health.

– Do you take x-rays when necessary?

I take x-rays in the house when necessary as I do structural corrective chiropractic. Meaning if there is a loss of curve in the neck or scoliosis of the back I help people to change that over time so we can see not only where we are starting but all the improvements and corrections they are making.

– What tools are you using in your practice?

I use a lot of different tools in my practice. I love new inventions and ways to keep current and keep improving. Chiropractic means by hand only, so in keeping with tradition, my hands will always be the most important tool at my office. In addition, I use an activator adjusting tool which helps to gently realign the vertebrae, arthritis to help adjust and restore proper motion to joints that have lost mobility, a vibration/percussion instrument to help relax and balance soft tissue around the spine, active cervical traction to help restore disc health and normal curve in the neck, a wobble cushion that helps to restore motion and disc health of the low back, a unique cold laser device to help heal and reduce pain and inflammation in the tissue, a chi machine to help re-energize the body, and an NES health scanner to determine any energetic or informational deficiencies with a person’s body chemistry.

– How many visits usually needed?

Chiropractic is part of a healthy lifestyle. Just like if you eat well and exercise and brush your teeth for a week it’s good; however, eating well, exercising, and brushing your teeth on a regular basis is better and has a bigger and better impact. I have been getting adjusted for 13 years now regularly and have noticed a huge benefit to my overall energy level, adaptability to stress, strong immune system, and the ability to live pain and illness free. If someone is new to chiropractic the frequency of their visits may be a couple of times a week at first. Someone who has normal alignment on x-ray has been getting adjusted regularly, and leading a healthy lifestyle at home might only need to get checked once a month.

– Do you need to prepare before visiting a chiropractor?

No preparation is necessary before visiting a chiropractor. We are an essential health care practice and chiropractors are portal of entry primary care providers which means you can walk into our office without a referral just like you would a general practitioner.

– How do you recommend manage stress?

Making a recommendation for managing stress, just like anything else I recommend is a very personal recommendation. I work with my patients individually to determine what they need for their situation and their level of stress. By making sure the top vertebrae of the spine are in alignment it makes our parasympathetic nervous system active. The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for our rest and digest mode. In other words, when those vertebrae are misaligned we will be more apt to be stressed out and less able to adapt to new stress. With regular chiropractic adjustments to keep those vertebrae in alignment, we will be more calm, focused, and adaptable to new stress.

– Are there side effects or risks?

There are possible side effects or risk to chiropractic just like there are risks walking to the store or biking around the city. That being said Chiropractic is one of the safest health care offices. Our medical malpractice is much lower than an allopathic general practitioner because we are so safe. There are very few side effects to chiropractic care, usually, the worst that’s reported to me is some soreness after an adjustment now and again. Just like orthodontists move teeth back into place and sometimes soreness is involved, so too do chiropractors realign the spine back into place. The most common “side effects” I hear are better sleep, less pain, more stamina, and a general feeling of lightness and ease in the body.

– How do you check the patient?

I check or examine a patient in many different ways. I start by examining a personal health history, posture, and overall spinal alignment. One of the fun things we do is a digital posture screen in which a program takes a picture of you from several different angles and measures how close your posture is to normal. This helps us to determine where to look deeper and where some weak points might be in the body, We look at hip height, shoulder height, and forward head posture through this technology, just to name a few.

– Is chiropractic care different from massage?

Doctors of Chiropractic are very different from massage therapists. Massage therapists help to relax and release tight muscles, fascia, and often even can help the lymphatic tissue to improve. Massage therapy training is also shorter and less rigorous. Chiropractors are primary care physicians. We, just as medical doctors, spend a great deal of time in school (usually 7 years depending on the program). We also are highly trained to diagnose a variety of conditions systemically, take and read x rays, adjust or realign the spine, take a series of many rigorous board exams to get licensed, and are required to keep current with continuing education in chiropractic and the latest medical research. In some states we are even able to deliver babies and perform minor surgeries. Chiropractic is the philosophy, art, and science of detecting and correcting subluxations (misalignments of the spine interfering with the nervous system).

– If a person never visited a chiropractor – what symptoms are a sign that you need a chiropractor?

Just like you don’t need a toothache or a cavity to visit the dentist, anyone who has never been to a chiropractor can go to check their spinal and nervous system health. Since the posture is related to nervous system function and the nervous system controls our entire body it makes sense for anyone with a spine and nervous system to care for it. If we do we are healthier and with less pain and illness. If we wait till we feel a pain or symptom it is often harder to return to health than if we just maintained it from the beginning. 80% of children born in the US sustain a misalignment of the first vertebra in the neck. This is why it’s so important for children as well as adults to get checked and corrected. If a child gets a gentle chiropractic adjustment to correct this early on they will grow and develop to reach their potential. When the misalignment from birth is not corrected it can look like trouble latching, colic, acid reflux, allergies, developmental delays, etc.

– In what areas chiropractic is the most effective?

Chiropractic is very effective for people who want to have a healthy immune system, optimize a healthy weight, eliminate headaches and migraines, improve athletic performance, improve sleep and digestion, optimize their adaptability to stress, grow and develop at their best, age gracefully, improve memory and focus, and many more.

– Who shouldn’t visit a chiropractor?

Anyone with a spine and nervous system owes it to themselves and those around them to get checked and take care of this very important system so that not only can they be their best and healthiest self for themselves but also able to be the best version of themselves for those they love and serve.

MyTopFace expert reported -‘I feel lighter and happier after my appointment with Dr.Shelby. She was able to determine incorrectly positioned vertebrae in my neck that was causing an uncomfortable feeling of extra weight and tiredness. I am going to add chiropractor visits to my monthly schedule from on! Visiting The Wellness Manhattan is similar to visiting a SPA where instead of masseurs the staff consists of professional doctors that make you feel better without the medicine while being fully relaxed.’