What Every Patient Needs to Know
One of the most common questions from patients is, “How long will it take to resolve Vertebral Subluxation Complex (VSC) and restore spinal health, mobility, and overall function?” It’s important to understand that restoring spinal mobility and health is a separate process from resolving symptoms. Often, these two processes don’t align in a predictable timeline.
Restoring spinal health involves the body’s natural healing stages: inflammation, repair, and remodeling. Pain, on the other hand, is an emotional experience influenced by various factors, including mood, lifestyle, and physical condition. This means pain levels are not always accurate indicators of your spinal health or healing progress.
During the healing process, your comfort level will likely improve, but the rate at which this happens can vary. Some may experience rapid relief initially, followed by gradual improvement, while others may see slow progress at first that accelerates over time. What’s crucial to know is that numbing pain with medication does not address the root cause—only proper care can restore spinal function.
Scientific literature documents that the inflammatory phase lasts around 72 hours, where discomfort might initially increase as the body begins to heal. The repair phase follows for approximately six weeks, during which new tissue stabilizes the area, gradually restoring both function and comfort. This is also the stage where the new elastic fibers in the collagen tissue begin to align with the vectors of force through that tissue, ensuring strength and flexibility. Only proper motion can elicit this alignment, flexibility, and strength!
A study highlights that “12 sessions of spinal manipulation over six weeks from a chiropractor yielded the most favorable pain and functional disability improvement for chronic, non-specific low back pain.” It further states, “Approximately half of patients would be expected to achieve 50% improvement in pain/disability” during this period (Haas, M. et al., 2014). However, it’s critical to note that while about half of the patients (the fast responders) may experience 50% improvement after the first 12 visits, those who discontinue care at this point not only fail to completely heal but may also lose the benefits they’ve achieved.
The remodeling stage, lasting up to 12 months, is where the final alignment of new collagen tissue occurs, providing the most flexible, mobile, durable, and strong long-term repair. This stage is crucial as it restores neurological pathways, sensori-motor integration in the brain’s sensory-motor cortex, neuromuscular and biomechanical function, and ultimately, maximum therapeutic benefit. Clinical research underscores the importance of the remodeling stage for maintaining the benefits of care and reducing the likelihood of dysfunction and symptom recurrence.
Research also indicates that “only the group that received spinal manipulations during the [9-month] follow-up period after the initial 12 visits showed more improvement in pain and disability scores at the 10-month evaluation. In contrast, those who did not maintain spinal manipulation therapy saw their pain and disability scores return near pretreatment levels” (Senna & Machaly, 2011).
The evidence is clear: to achieve proper scar tissue resolution, collagen alignment, strength, mobility, and neurological function, and thus full healing, chiropractic care is essential. Chiropractic adjustments restore and maintain proper segmental motion throughout the healing stages, leading to long-term restoration of health and function.
“In addition, people mostly treated by chiropractors had, on average, less expensive medical services and shorter initial periods of disability than those treated by physiotherapists and medical physicians. This trend is significant considering that chiropractors are the only providers who explicitly state they have an effective treatment approach to maintain health” (Cifuentes et al., 2011).