By explaining that vertebral subluxation is their body’s creative attempt to accommodate physical, chemical, or emotional stress, you’ve laid an important foundation for your patient education overtures.

Most patients think of stress as being primarily emotional. These days they endure a lot of it and it isn’t immediately obvious how it could affect their spine.

It might be worthwhile to identify a physical stressor that has a more direct relationship to their spine and nervous system. A stressor that is pervasive, omnipresent, and relentless.

Gravity.

Chiropractic care is a constructive force that can help neutralize the effects of gravity, particularly the burden of balancing our “bowling ball” head on the uppermost bone of the spine no larger than the surface formed by our thumb touching our index finger.

Eventually gravity wins and we return to the dust from which we came. Until then, chiropractic care is our own antigravity machine.

Bill Esteb has been a chiropractic patient and advocate since 1981. He is the creative director of Patient Media and the co-founder of Perfect Patients. He’s been a regular speaker at chiropractic gatherings since 1985. His 12 books explore the doctor/patient relationship from a patient's point of view. His chiropractic blog, coaching program, patient focus groups and consulting calls have helped hundreds of chiropractors around the world. Since 1999 Monday Morning Motivation has been emailed to over 10,000 subscribers each week.