What is a Boost Adjustment? 

A boost adjustment is an extra adjustment that is recommended and provided in addition to your regular care plan frequency. These additional adjustments are designed to provide extra support and enhance nervous system function, build resilience, and increase adaptability during busy and stressful times, immune challenges, growth spurts, and so forth. 

As Neurologically-Focused Pediatric + Family Chiropractors, we know that life is constantly changing and bringing forth new challenges. That’s why it’s important to not only have our good consistent health-building routines like prioritizing sleep, getting adjusted regularly, staying fit and active, eating healthy, and maybe taking our vitamins and supplements, but also to keep some flexibility and adaptability built into our routine. 

In order to ensure our patients experience optimal results with our care, we always provide personalized and customized care plans that set a consistent schedule or frequency of adjustments to optimize the health of their nervous system, and then we also make sure they know to text or call in for boost adjustments when facing added stress, an immune challenge, or any other one of the ten (10) reasons we’ll cover below. 

When Do We Need Boost Adjustments? 

In short, we recommend boost adjustments during periods of extra stress, growth spurts, and especially during immune challenges. In order to really be at our best consistently throughout life and avoid having to use drugs and medications that are full of chemicals and nasty side effects, and having access to additional chiropractic adjustments during these times allows us to do just that. 

While we always want to be fully proactive with our health and wellness, there are times when injuries, immune challenges, and busy seasons will sneak up on us and surprise us, so don’t worry at all if you end up scheduling your boost adjustments after the fact or when you’re not feeling your best. The boost adjustments are designed to help get you and your family back on track as fast as possible, and they tend to work fast since you’re already under regular neurologically-focused care! 

That said, absolutely feel free to schedule your boost adjustments ahead of these busy times! We know especially our sensory, spectrum, and seizure kiddos and patients are more susceptible to seasonal weather changes, life transitions like back to school or the busyness of the holidays, and so forth… so we will often proactively bump up their frequency and build in a few weeks of additional boost adjustments to get them through these extra stressful times as smoothly and optimally as possible. 

In order to get your boost adjustment(s) scheduled, simply text, call, or use the app to schedule. Or talk to your Doc or Care Advocate all about these at your next appointment! 

Now let’s go through the Top 10 Reasons To Get a Boost Adjustment and provide a bit of an explanation as to how Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care helps during those tougher times! 

1. Immune Challenges + Illness 

While well-adjusted patients tend to experience far fewer immune challenges like colds, coughs, ear infections, and so forth, some of this is part of regular life for most everyone, so the real key to being healthy is getting through it as fast and smooth as possible. That’s where boost adjustments come in, helping to not only optimize the function of the neuro-immune system and ensure it’s working at its best but adjustments also help the most important and foundational component of immune and respiratory challenges – drainage or moving mucus, congestion, and pathogens through and out of the body. 

To learn more all about what’s called the ‘Neuro-Immune-Endocrine Super System’ and how Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care helps improve its function, reduce inflammation, and promote better health and resilience, check out this research article and download this incredible “Kick the Sick” Guide. 

1. Growth Spurts + Growing Pains 

This one needs to go pretty high up the list in our pediatric-focused practice because, just like fighting off a cold, going through growth spurts is an obvious and natural part of life for kids. But what many parents may not know is that this regular, rather frequent occurrence can be quite stressful, especially for the neurospinal system. 

When growth spurts occur, the body’s bones are obviously growing and getting longer, which means the soft tissues like muscles, ligaments, and so forth need to stretch, be pliable, and adapt to the growth spurt as well. One component of the soft tissue system not talked about as much outside of chiropractic is what’s called the dura mater or meningeal system, which is the very strong yet pliable, absolutely essential protective set of tissues that surround the brain and spinal cord. 

When you put all the individual vertebrae together and include the cranial bones as well, the spine and neurospinal system actually function as the longest bone in the body. This vital neurospinal system is actually the most sensitive to growth spurts, and often primary or major subluxation patterns and tension build back up and reemerge some during growth spurts. 

While we think of growing pains being more in the legs, many kids will experience these “growing pains” in a more sensory, behavioral, and emotional way. And since the dural tissues, spinal cord, neurospinal system, and vagus nerve are all so intricately connected, we often find that our sensory, spectrum, and even seizure patients can experience a small uptick in challenges during growth spurts if we don’t proactively or reactively respond with additional boost adjustments. 

1. Teething 

Obviously, this one is for our littler and younger patients, but many parents are surprised both how stressful and dysregulating teething can be and how older kids can still be thrown off by back molars coming in, or even mild to moderate tooth infections, decay, and so forth. 

While keeping up with regular dental checkups and care is obviously essential for this component of our health, the teeth are actually loaded with sensory nerve receptors and have a rich neurological connection, including a lot of connection and overlay with the vagus nerve. Since the vagus nerve is responsible for helping our nervous systems shift into rest, digest, and regulate functions, these are the things often thrown off track during teething. 

This is why your little one may be extra fussy, experience poor sleep, and be more susceptible to respiratory congestion, illness, and infections during periods of teething. Not only is there all the blood flow and uncomfortable physical elements of teething, but it can actually throw the delicate balance of the nervous system off track as well. That is why getting some extra boost adjustments for your little one during teething can help so much. 

1. Injuries, Falls, and Accidents 

In addition to getting sick, growing, and teething, kids like to climb, run, fall, crash into each other, and whatnot! While we will absolutely positively continue to promote nonstop physical activity and being outside climbing, playing, and having fun for all of our patients, this will come with at least a few bumps and bruises. 

Thankfully, God designed our kids brilliantly, and their bones and tissues to be more pliable and flexible during the early years while they’re learning to be more coordinated and efficient with their movement. Even still, sometimes, these falls and injuries can definitely lead to some subluxations and tension building up on their little bodies. 

And then from there, sadly, there are injuries, falls, and accidents that we know are serious, like car crashes, broken bones, trips to the urgent care or emergency room, and so forth. If this is the case for you or your child, be sure to schedule a run of boost adjustments in order to promote optimal healing and recovery. 

1. Seasonal Changes + Weather Shifts 

This is the one that often sounds like “an old wive’s tale,” as they say, but it’s as true as can be that seasonal changes and weather shifts can really throw the nervous system out of whack. This is especially true of our sensory, spectrum, and really our seizure patients. 

The sensitivity or variability of the nervous system comes into play because one of the main roles our autonomic nervous system plays is regulating our body temperature and blood pressure (along with other circulatory functions). Therefore when major weather and pressure changes roll in fast, it can throw our nervous system regulation out of whack. Once again, vagus nerve function is very much at play here. 

Again, this one is more important to monitor for our seizure patients than anyone we have found. While many of us live in an area with constant weather changes and fluctuations, it’s important to know that we can still try to boost proactively ahead of big weather shifts or events. 

1. Busy Seasons With School, Sports, and Schedules 

In today’s world, once school gets up and running, it’s pretty consistently busy. A regular day starts with getting up, going through our morning routines, and getting off to school. Then comes all the classes, transitions, and social-emotional components of the school day, and homework and after-school routines from there. When kids play sports and participate in other activities as well, the busy schedules stack up and show up fast and frequently. 

Once again, our kids and patients who are extra sensitive to stress and transitions can really experience some added trouble during these busy seasons. If your child struggles with sensory, spectrum, anxiety, and ADHD type challenges, we always recommend proactively boosting their care plan frequency and adjustment schedule during extra busy seasons. 

For all families, no matter the number of additional sports or activities, the back-to-school transition in the fall, the run of holidays in the winter (which often bring immune challenges due to constant sugar and food dye-fueled parties and celebrations as well), and the spring-to-summer transitions are always a bit extra stressful. Be sure to get your boost adjustments in for the whole family as needed during these times! 

1. Extra Stress + Big Projects At Work 

This one here is for us grown-ups and big kids, who are constantly helping our kids keep up with all that life brings them (and therefore us) and all that work and life puts on our plate as well. When you’ve got major work stress, job changes, or big projects, you’re in the thick of being sure to schedule extra boost adjustments and sneak in at least one additional time during these times to optimize not only your health but also your performance. 

What Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care is really all about is the efficiency and performance of the brain and nervous system, and while having a fully optimized nervous system keeps our body healthy, it really works wonders for brain function as well. These busy seasons come with a lot of big decisions and require our mental emotional health to be at its best, both at work and at home, so getting extra boost adjustments can be essential to kicking butt at work during busy seasons and maintaining a higher quality of life at home as well! 

1. Big Life Changes + Emotional Challenges 

While growing pains, teething, and frequent falls are regular parts of life for kids, as adults, we often face some really big challenges with relationships, health challenges or loss of loved ones, and all sorts of other stuff that can really put our emotional stress into overdrive. Unfortunately, nothing tends to overwhelm and get the nervous system out of balance, quite like a run of serious mental and emotional stress. 

While God designed us to all be incredibly resilient and adaptable, and these stressors and even loss are a part of life for us all, the challenge with mental + emotional stress is that it tends to be continuous for longer periods of time, which really leads to the overwhelm and nervous system dysregulation, and why getting boost adjustments during these hard times can be especially helpful and keep you from getting too low, exhausted, or even ill. 

1. Medications, Vaccinations, and Other Medical Interventions

The truth is there is no medical intervention that doesn’t come with some side effects, no matter how small or big, that can throw off our neurophysiological system or that of our kids. That is why every single medical intervention out there comes with a whole host of side effects printed on the handouts, and often even more than make the print sheet. 

Truthfully even medical visits, testing, and exams can be highly stressful and throw the nervous system out of whack because most of the time, when we are put inside the medical system, it comes with a lot of fear, anxiety, and high amounts of stress. 

That said, sometimes certain medications (or changes to them) are necessary, and other interventions need to happen. When that is the case for your child or you, be sure to both proactively and reactively schedule boost adjustments to help optimize nervous system function throughout this period of time. 

Taking it one step further it is a really good idea to even get an updated INSiGHT Scan to set a baseline before a new medication or change in medication is put into play, before vaccinations, and so forth. It’s to be expected that these medical interventions are going to really challenge the nervous system, and many of them significantly alter gut, immune, endocrine, and even brain function. Therefore having those pre and post scans to determine how out of whack things get is a good idea to then know exactly what adaptations and updates we need to make to the care plan to best support health + well-being during these times. 

1. Starting or Changing Biomedical Interventions, Therapies, etc. 

In today’s world, and especially with our practice’s focus on serving families struggling with autism, developmental delays, sensory issues, etc, we often have patients who are adding in functional or integrative medical protocols, therapy programs, and more. 

While we absolutely champion and encourage these kinds of added healing programs and love working in tandem with these brilliant professionals to get optimal healing results for patients, they often can bring about a “reset” or change in nervous system patterns when they first get started, or dosages and such are increased. 

The most common interventions that can throw off nervous system regulation for a bit are detoxes and cleanses, as well as herbal and homeopathic remedies. In an often very awesome way, these interventions are pretty “heavy hitters,” and they intentionally ask the body to do a lot of work in the way of repair and healing. 

Therefore, we always try to proactively increase the “dosage” of chiropractic care ahead of time and simultaneously to both optimize results from these interventions and therapies, and minimize any short term “bumps” in the road that may come along. 

Putting It All Together: Building Resilience 

In short, getting healthy, healing, and staying healthy as a family is never quite a straight linear line for any of us. Life is full of changes and challenges that will bring about extra stress and require our nervous systems to grow, adapt, and build resilience. 

We first built our practice on the saying “Building Health From Within” and we still operate from that premise here today. In today’s more chaotic, stressful, and toxic world, our kids + families face more challenges than ever before. But at the same time, we also know more and have more access to natural, drug-free healing and health-building resources like chiropractic care than ever before. 

The most important thing we can do to build health for our families and teach the true principles of health, wellness, and happiness to our kiddos is to not live in fear of germs, sickness, or stress but instead always take it head on with confidence and a proactive plan to build resilience and optimize adaptability! 

Health does not come from avoiding illness or stress. Instead, the true measure of health in our children, as well as for us, is our ability to overcome stressful times and challenges in life. The stronger and more resilient we go into all this, the faster, smoother, better, and stronger once again, we come out on the other side. 

This, more than anything else, is our foremost goal and vision for our work as PX Doctors and Pediatric + Family Chiropractors! We want to teach and empower your family to live a “Life Without Fear” and for your children to grow up knowing that health is not what traditional medicine and the conventional pediatrician want us to believe, up to chance and dependent solely on our genetics. 

By far and away health, well-being, and happiness is dependent on our choices and our actions over everything else. We can’t avoid challenges, but we can overcome them and come out stronger and more resilient on the other side of them. 

This is one major reason we love boost adjustments so much. It actually provides us an opportunity to teach the real, deeper philosophy and perspective shift that Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care provides families! 

Living in a state of constant fear, anxiety, and dependence on medications is not a life that we wish upon anyone. Instead, living life where your entire family is part of a healthy, vibrant, resilient community that supports each other and takes life on full steam is the way to go!