Dr. Elyssa Wright, a chiropractor in Boulder, Colorado along with her friend, Mama Poff (mother of 2), busts the myths about what is chiropractic care in the Balancing Holistic Mamas Podcast. This introduction is a fun and relaxed conversation about the stereotypical assumption about back and neck pain, how chiropractic care can help babies poop, and more! This is just the start of sharing with listeners how holistic care can keep you and your babies’ health and bodies in balance.
Follow Dr. Elyssa Wright on Facebook for more holistic and chiropractic resources
Transcript
Intro:
Hi, mamas. Welcome to Balancing Holistic Mamas podcast. My name is Dr. Elyssa Wright, and I am so excited to be here with you today. I work with moms, babies, and mamas to be covering all types of topics to help make raising a family easier, whether it be fertility, pregnancy questions about pediatric fevers, or just trying to figure out how to live more holistically. We will cover that and more here on this podcast. I’m a chiropractor and functional medicine practitioner, and I’ve spent the past decade of my life dedicated to helping families live healthy, happy lives. So I can’t wait to get started.
Dr. Elyssa:
Hello, mamas and welcome to the Balancing Healthy Mama’s Podcast. I am so excited to be here with you for episode one. And I am here with one of my favorites, Mama Poff. My good friend, Jen is here to ask me some questions about what chiropractic care actually is.
Mama Poff:
Hi, Dr. E! I’m so excited to be part of your new podcast . This is just going to be so amazing to help other mamas and women with their bodies and their kids. It’s just, we have a lot of juicy stuff lined up. I’m excited.
Dr. Elyssa:
Me too. So what has your experience with chiropractic been?
Mama Poff:
So I remember growing up, I grew up on a golf course, and my dad worked 12 hour days and he would be pushing and pulling equipment and, you know, heavy machinery and mowing and like all kinds of labor stuff all day. And I just remember growing up and him, laying on the living room floor, trying to stretch his back out and pulling his hip over his side and then going to the chiropractor. And so in my head, I just grew up thinking a chiropractor was for when your back and neck hurt. Right? And even when I met you, what, 10 years ago?
Dr. Elyssa:
Yup . 10 10. Yeah .
Mama Poff:
Yes . I came to you because in my home office I had dual monitors set up and I must have had them off center because I had an horrible kink in my neck. And the first thought was I need to go to a chiropractor. And since then you’ve taught me so much more. And so I regionally before doctor , he would think chiropractor his back and neck back and neck pain, but really it’s so much more. So tell me what is chiropractic.
Dr. Elyssa:
So chiropractic is a combination of art, which is why every time you go to a chiropractor, you get a different experience. Some maybe do more cracking, some, maybe do more low Forrest or non force. Every single chiropractor you go to, it’s going to be different because there is an art that we develop that we make it our own.
Mama Poff:
Wait. So you’re saying being a doctor is an art form.
Dr. Elyssa:
It is. And it’s all, it’s all. So the same with medical doctors. I mean, every doctor you go to, they’re going to have their different prescription. They’re going to have their different rehab. So there’s a piece of, we take what we learn and then we do what’s we feel is best for our patients.
Mama Poff:
That’s awesome. And being an artist myself, I’m like even more connected. Now I feel to the chiropractic world.
Dr. Elyssa:
It’s a lot of fun because there’s no box to put everybody into. So each person’s a little puzzle and you figure out what pieces of your toolbox is best for that person in their puzzle to help them get feeling better, faster.
Mama Poff:
So I’ve mentioned my experience was back in back and neck pain, but what, what do you hear your patients coming in first time, patients like first time chiropractic visited patients, what are, what are some of the things they’re first coming to you for
Dr. Elyssa:
Most of the time for my first adult patients, they’re coming with some time of type of ache or pain. So it’s a sitting at a computer for too long. It’s the weekend warriors who go out and play basketball for 12 hours on Saturday when they haven’t necessarily played basketball in like 10 years. It’s the people that trip and stumble, too much gardening too much, too much snow shoveling. So there’s usually a cause and an effect. And then they show up at my office.
Mama Poff:
So like a reactionary, Oh , I’m hurting. I need to go get this fixed.
Dr. Elyssa:
Yep , exactly. And then I have my mama’s and my littles that come in and I’m out in Boulder, Colorado, and I had a practice in Pennsylvania also. And both of those places, my mom has come in with little ones that can’t latch, are having trouble breastfeeding or having trouble gaining weight are the colicky babies that are up all day and all night screaming at the top of their lungs, the toddlers who can’t go poop. One of my favorite things to talk about!
Mama Poff:
everybody poops!
Dr. Elyssa:
We all got to get that stuff flowing. And my kiddos come in more so for digestive support.
Mama Poff:
Now, I remember you did you treated my oldest daughter for really long time. And that experience in itself was so enlightening because she was just always sick as a baby. She had croup and RSV and stomach thing and eye thing, and she would have seizures. And like , there was just always something. And we went right to medical pediatric doctor and they would just prescribe medicine and treat symptoms. But when I would share that with you during that time, you helped me recognize the early signs of some kind of onset coming with her. And I remember calling you and saying, okay, she’s getting the drippy and she’s getting the puffy and she’s getting the cough. Like , is that a you question? Is that a chiropractic seeing or is that a pediatric seeing? And , and we would go to you and I’ll just never forget that first visit with you when you did I call it the touchy feely? No. What did we call it? Um , the it’s a sinus drain, but I used to call it something like in my own , but you, you, you like did this treatment on her glands and her forehand and her, you know, in her neck. And she sat up and her eyes were bugging out. I mean, I think she was probably like first grade at this time. And I remember thinking what’s the matter? And I said to her, like, are you all right? And she’s like, no, I can feel it dripping down my going down my throat. And you’re just sitting back like, yup , that’s right. And it’s going to drain today. She’s going to cough a couple times and she’s going to be fine. And after we started seeing you, she never had to have breathing treatments again. She never had to get medicated again. And cause we, you taught us the proactive signs to look for, to catch it before it got worse.
Dr. Elyssa:
Yep . And this is where I’m going to go. All science, geeky. So reel me in if I get to be too, too sciency. One of the big things that I look at and chiropractic looks at is the brain and our brain controls everything in our bodies, including our immune system. So when there are those little signals of an illness coming up, an ear infection coming, the pulling on the ear, the crying, the red face, the drippy eyes, the drippy nose, all those are little signs that if you can support the master controller, AKA the brain, you can support everything else downstream.
Mama Poff:
I love it. Okay. Doctor E, I have another question for you. Absolutely. I even, my husband is convinced until he met you, of course, is that chiropractor’s whole business operation is that to get you to come for life, to put you on a retainer, to make sure you’re coming all the, and cause they just want your copay, but really, is it true? Do you have to, once you start, is it locked in now in order to make it worth it?
Dr. Elyssa:
Yes and no. So I’m going to start with the no first and then I’m going to swap to the yes. I always tell my patients when they come in that my first goal is to get you out of pain. So a lot of people come in, they’re hurting. They just want to feel better. And that’s what I call acute care, which is, Hey, you come in, there’s a problem. Let’s get it fixed. And that could be the end of your chiropractic experience. And you’re still going to get a ton of benefit. You’re going to be feeling better. You’re going to be moving better. And most of the time we also give out exercises. So that way you can stay healthy and not need to come back. For the people that choose to come back and have a longer, a longer length of time with their chiropractor. That is because it’s kind of like going to the dentist where you go, when you get your teeth cleaned , to keep them from rotting, our bones also rot or degenerate. So the people that come in more regularly come in to keep their bones moving and to keep them from degenerating. And the next question I usually get is, well, why did my bones stop moving? What causes our bones to stop moving or any type of stress? Let’s see, you’re a little kid and delivery was really, really rough on you and your mom. That’s going to be a stress on your system and it’s going to affect how your bones move. Fast forward-you’re a toddler learning how to walk and you keep falling on your bottom. That’s a stressor it’s gonna affect your nervous system.
Mama Poff:
So those impacts that our bodies take on a day to day basis. Exactly. So maybe a way to think of it, if you’re, yeah. You’re dealing with the aches and pains version, right. Which we need that. But the maintenance of which you alluded to dentistry care, maybe another way for our listeners to connect to it is when you get a gym membership, because you can’t just go to the gym one time and think you’re going to lose the weight or tone the muscle or whatever you have to keep going. You have to keep it a healthy practice because it does take time to get the body to operate or shift or function in a different way.
Dr. Elyssa:
Yup , exactly. So there’s kind of two avenues with chiropractic one, come in, get quick fix and off you go or to put in more of the work to reset your muscles, to reset your joints and to keep your body healthy and moving for longer.
Mama Poff:
That’s awesome. Okay. Wait, now I have to ask you this one because wait, let me tell this story. Another story about how I met you. When I came in with the kinky kinky neck, I came in with my little toddler and you were so compassionate about not scaring her with whatever shift you were going to do to take care of me. And in that time, my neck was stiff. So you were gonna twist my neck and I’m sure there’s your science doctor language for that, right? But you didn’t want to scare her. And so you use what I call the clicky thing that did whatever it’s called an activator, but you use the clicky thing to do to release the pressure. And I , and I’ll let you allude on that in a little bit, but then the next time you did do the full neck jerk thing and there was cracking sound, what is that cracking sound? That happens when you do get adjusted.
Dr. Elyssa:
So in between our joints. So our joints are where two bones come together. And in between those two bones to keep it from rubbing and making all of the bad like noises, there’s a little bit of fluid. And to keep that fluid inside, there’s a wrapping around that joint. And what a chiropractic adjustment is is we adjust into that joint and open it up and put more space in there and more movement. And we change the pressure gradient. And when you change the pressure, if you get the crack, so it’s just chemistry.
Mama Poff:
Now people crack their knuckles. Is that kind of the same thing,
Dr. Elyssa:
same thing.
Mama Poff:
What about that myth of crack your knuckles too much. You’re going to get arthritis.
Dr. Elyssa:
So when you can crack something in your own body, you are actually moving stuff that is already moving too much. So when something is moving too much, and then you keep putting more and more emotion into it, our bodies are super, super smart, and they’re going to go, Oh no, this is moving too much. And it’s gonna start to tighten up the joint. So that might look like arthritis that might look like a ligament or a tissue injury. So I always tell my patients do your best, not to crack on your own. Cause that’s actually a sign that something isn’t working right, somewhere else in your body.
Mama Poff:
What else should we go through to explain to people who are new to chiropractic care or have never visited a chiropractor? What else they should know as an intro, as to what chiropractic is?
Dr. Elyssa:
The biggest thing is call your chiropractor ahead of time and interview them, ask them what kind of technique they use, ask them, Hey, this is my first time in a chiropractor. And I’m a little nervous. How is my first visit? Is it, are you going to do cracking? Is it going to be gentle? Are you going to help me with my muscles? Am I going to feel better right away? Cause there’s so many different chiropractors out there and so many different techniques that you want to just reach out and go, Hey, I have a bunch of questions and ask to make sure that you feel comfortable and that you pick a chiropractor, that’s the right fit for what you’re looking for.
Mama Poff:
That’s perfect advice. And on asking questions, we should remind your viewers and listeners. I should say that on the website of Body and Balance Chiropractic, where it talks about the Holistic Mama’s Podcast, that they can submit their own questions there for you. And they can ask you anything about chiropractic care and using that for themselves or for their kids.
Dr. Elyssa:
Absolutely. And that is a great way to reach out and ask me questions. And then there’s also a place that if you know, somebody who is super awesome and you’re like, Oh my gosh, I’d love to see like how they could work together and how they go together. Maybe it’s a massage therapist or maybe it’s your lactation consultant that you love send me their information too . So that way we can collaborate and get you information from all sides of a story.
Mama Poff:
Well, let’s just take an extra second on that one, because I remember when you were here in Erie, Pennsylvania, you worked really closely with our local OB GYN and shared patients through their pregnancy and postpartum recovery time too . So these guest speakers we’re talking about are really people who are team effort of taking care of women and their mamas .
Dr. Elyssa:
Absolutely. I have a really firm belief that we are all in this together and the more people you can have on your team and the more ways that you can address your health, the healthier and happier you’re going to be. So chiropractic isn’t the answer to all the questions, but I don’t think a medical doctor is the answer to all the questions or I don’t think a PTs and answered all the questions. I am all about collaborating so we can all lift each other up and get our patients and you feeling the best. All right , well, thank you Mama Poff for coming in today and asking me all these great questions. I hope it gave you some new information and also gave our listeners some new information and listeners keep an eye open as we bring you more episodes, every member to check them out at bodyandbalancechiropractic.com podcasts, looking forward to chatting again with all of you soon, have a great day.
