How long until I get results that last?
Whenever a patient asks me, "how long until I get results," my first answer is three months.
It's not a popular answer, and it's often not the real answer to the question they intended to ask, but it's an unassailable truth for many natural or holistic remedies.
The question new patients intended to ask is, "when will I see progress," or "when will things start to get better?" While the answer can depend on the therapy, certainly, most patients start feeling and seeing progress in a matter of days or weeks -- even minutes or hours if you consider pain relief offered by a chiropractic adjustment.
However, progress is temporary and usually involves just the abatement of symptoms. Real results that fix underlying problems usually take about three months. That timeframe seems to be the typical pace at which your body heals when it's given consistent, effective, and natural treatments.
For example, if you start taking a high-quality fish oil supplement in sufficient quantities to help your arthritis, you can expect your best results to come at the end of three months. Establishing this expectation ahead of time is important. If you are expecting things to feel dramatically different in a few weeks, you may give up at the end of the first month because " it didn't work." With this mentality, you are never going to put yourself on the road to treatment.
This is the fundamental difference between most natural remedies and prescription drugs. Let's go back to the example of arthritis pain--ibuprofen might make the pain go right away, but meanwhile, it is tearing up your stomach, wrecking havoc on your kidneys, and not actually helping to heal your arthritis. Fish oil, on the other hand, won't start making a noticeable difference until a few months in, but it is actually healing your body instead of taxing your system and it is helping to fix or improve the underlying problem.
Another example can be seen with chiropractic adjustments. Even though a single adjustment can provide immediate relief, it is a complete series of adjustments performed over many months that can fundamentally correct the structural imbalances that brought you to the point of crisis and intense pain.
So, if you're wondering, "how long until I see progress?" -- not long at all.
But, if you want to know, "how long until you see results?" -- give it 90 days.
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*This article includes excerpts from "Made Whole: Regaining the Health Your Body Was Born to Enjoy by Working With the Missing Pieces of Wellness" written by chiropractic physician, Dr. Douglas B. Cook, D.C. To purchase this book, visit the Nutrition Store inside the Oklahoma Health and Wellness Center.
**The information in this post is based on the opinion of the authors and is intended for general consumer understanding. Read our full disclaimer here.