What is Maintenance Care?

Young woman with pilates gym ball on white bacground

Most of my patients come to see me when they are in pain. This is understandable. Why spend money on treatment if you don’t need treatment? If you are feeling good and you are exercising, then you don’t need therapeutic care.

But what about “Maintenance Care?”

If you are active, healthy and not in significant pain your body is still accumulating micro-trauma. Left unchecked, this will eventually lead to pain and inflammation and then you’ll be in my office receiving therapeutic care. Which is more expensive and time consuming — and less pleasant. But what if you were to receive sporadic maintenance care visits to prevent ever needing therapeutic care?

Maintenance care is a visit to the clinic on a regular schedule (I usually recommend once per month or every 6-8 weeks depending on the patient) when you are actually feeling good. The goal is to rid you of the effects of micro-trauma and to keep the body running in its prime zone. Every day living creates the slow accumulation of scar tissue and inflammation which begin to hamper the fluid movement of the body. This occurs below the pain threshold so you won’t notice it. Eventually this creates a negative cycle that slowly but surely promotes malfunctioning joints, muscles and tendons. At the very least, this will prevent optimized functioniniStock_000018996121XSmallg (and if you are an athlete, this will cost you in competition) and at the worst, lead to injury and the need for more extensive care.

We get our oil checked in our vehicles before anything bad happens to our precious engines. We run spyware on our computers to keep them clean and functioning at maximum capacity. We brush our teeth twice per day to prevent cavities and gingivitis. As you see, we practice maintenance care on all the things we value.

Why not treat the body as something worth protecting?

When patients get maintenance care, I can also check up on their exercise routines and ergonomics and update these if necessary. Keeping the body in the “high performance zone” has positive mental as well as physical effects that will optimize all areas of your life.

If you value your body and mind as the most precious machines you own, think about a small investment in keeping them functioning at the top of their game!

See you soon,

Dr Parenteau

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