Too many people believe that you have to hear that “popping” sound when you’re adjusted to truly mean you’ve been adjusted.  With the method that I use, people never hear the “popping” noise and get adjusted each time.  So, this belief is definitely not true.  Let’s explore this phenomenon a little further, shall we?

First of all, the “popping” sound is caused by gas rushing in to fill the partial vacuum that’s created when then joints are gapped slightly.  This is a totally painless and harmless effect.  Research has shown that this “popping” noise doesn’t necessarily come from the joint that’ s being adjusted though.  They used tiny microphones and placed them on each side of the neck in different places to measure exactly where the noise was coming from.  What they found was that more times then not, the “popping” noise was coming from 2 – 3 segments above or below the joint that was actually being adjusted.  As you can see, the “popping” noise alone does not equal an adjustment.  I believe that people are lead to believe this because there are not enough chiropractors properly educating their patients on what actually is happening during their treatments.  As a result, when I was in the out patient clinic in school, I dealt with patients that were not satisfied unless they heard the pop and some that were not satisfied unless they heard a lot of pops.  If you’ve been reading my previous entries, you all know now, that defeats the whole purpose behind the chiropractic treatment.  The chiropractor needs to be as specific as he/she can be in order to only affect those joints that are misaligned.  Ultimately, the less “pops” you hear at a time, the more specific the adjustment was and probably the more effective.

Secondly, there are techniques out there that will not ever produce a “pop” when the patient is adjusted.  For example, the method I use, the Activator Technique, will never produce a “popping” sound with any adjustment.  The reason being is the adjustment is delivered so fast, the gas that is produced does not have time to escape the joint space as it does in manual adjustments.

This is good news for a lot of you out there that do not like the “popping” noise but like the way chiropractic treatments make you feel.  Or is great for the individual that is scared to even try chiropractic because of the noise you’ve heard the adjustment makes in your body.  My advice to you, if you’re close come see me or seek out a chiropractor in your area that does another method of chiropractic that does not make the “popping” sound.  You can search for an Activator doctor online by visiting: www.activator.com.