#ASKDRHETLAND - Why Only One Side?

Hey Dr. Ryan Hetland here. I got a question that I got from Tammy, actually, at our last video. I gave her her first adjustment and she asked a real popular question that we get because oftentimes in the Gonstead world, we will just adjust one hip and I will explain that to you why we just do with just one hip.

Tammy, the question was, "Why don't you flip me over and do the other hip?" You know, I adjusted one hip, why don't you do the other hip? So that's what I'm going to answer right now.

It's a great question because here's an example of hips, so come on in here if you can see this good. The hip moves eight different ways. One, if this one goes up, 99% of the time, this one is going down. If this one goes down, that one goes up.

It's like a teeter-totter. If this hip goes back, this hip's going to go forward. So, if that makes sense to you that when one goes this way, usually, the other goes the other way. Now, there are cases where that's not true, but that's why we give custom care. We don't do everything the same for everybody.

So, I'm going to show you Nicole's X-ray with her permission of her hips because her hips are hurting her and why don't you tell me what you've just said? You said one hip's hurting and the other hip's hurting.

NICOLE: So my left hip hurts right here. It almost feels like it's stuck, maybe even kind of a pinch. And then, up here, on this side, it feels like the same way, like it's kind of stuck or it's pinched.

DR. HETLAND: So if you can see-- Turn around here. If you can see where she's pointing, it's like the opposite. Down here hurts and up here hurts.

Opposite? Correction. So down here and up here, and that just goes perfectly with what we're talking about that on her X-ray, I'll show you here, her hip actually goes forward here and back like this. So when I go to make that correction, I'm going to pull this one back and this one will go forward.

So 95% of the time, when a hip has a problem, usually we'll find the joint that's stuck, correct that, and then this one will free up because really, that's not really the problem area, this one is. And when you correct that, it all just heals on its own.

And in chiropractic, you only want to adjust what needs to be adjusted. You don't want to adjust healthy parts of the body because they're good. We want to leave those alone, so you'll say, "Well, what's the harm in adjusting both sides?" Well, if it doesn't need an adjustment, then you shouldn't adjust it. You know it's pretty fair to say that's common sense.

So, in her X-ray, if you can see this, we have it all measured out here. You can see how this side goes down and these circles here are not symmetrical, which suggests that this joint here is tipped, the way I was explaining it to you.

I'm going to show you how we adjust this uniquely in the Gonstead world and you'll see kind of just what I mean by it.

So I have adjusted Nicole many times. She's not a new patient and I do my scan where I can check in before her. So I've done that already. I've looked at the X-rays. I'm just showing you and skipping right to the adjustment. So, in Gonstead, we do other assessments, but we're skipping all that to go right here.

NICOLE: And I'm so excited for this.

DR. HETLAND: You're excited.

NICOLE: I'm excited. I love this.

DR. HETLAND: So, in this case, I'm coming underneath it to be able to pull it back in and down at the same time, and I'm just using this leg to hold it, and there we got it. So the first, she's very flexible. So the first time I wasn't able to get it because she's so flexible. I had to bring her over a little bit more to get it to lock and be able to unlock that joint.

So, in Gonstead, you really want to use as little force as possible to get the best correction as possible. So, oftentimes, that first adjustment, I'm doing it slightly lighter because I can always add more. I can always do a little bit more the second time versus if I go too hard the first time, you can't take that back.

So hopefully that helps you understand why we typically will only adjust one side to make a correction.

Does it feel all right?

NICOLE: It feels great. I love that.

DR. HETLAND: It feels good? So, it doesn't mean we don't ever adjust both sides, but in the Gonstead chiropractic, oftentimes we're just sticking to one side.

Have a great day, hope that helps.