Expedition Chiropractic Podcast

How Utilizing the Gonstead Technique Transforms Chiropractic Care

• Dr. Steven Barger • Episode 2

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What Is The Gonstead Technique, And How Does It Differ From Other Chiropractic Methods? 

Precision makes all the difference in spinal health, and today Dr. Steven Barger reveals why the Gonstead chiropractic technique stands apart from conventional approaches. If you've ever wondered why some chiropractic treatments deliver quick results while others seem to drag on without progress, this episode uncovers the secret behind truly effective adjustments.

Dr. Barger takes us through the five critical components of the Gonstead methodology that transform chiropractic care into a precise science rather than guesswork. While most practitioners use what Dr. Barger calls a "shotgun approach"—adjusting multiple areas in hopes of addressing the problem—Gonstead chiropractors function like skilled snipers, targeting only the specific vertebrae causing nervous system interference. This precision typically delivers faster relief, with patients often experiencing noticeable improvements within the first month of treatment.

From the often overlooked importance of visualization (actually seeing your spine) to the crucial role of x-rays in treatment planning, Dr. Barger details why skipping any of these assessment steps compromises patient outcomes. He explains how conditions like reverse cervical curves or spondylolisthesis require modified approaches that would be impossible to determine without proper imaging. Ready to experience the difference precision makes? Visit online to schedule an appointment and discover what your spine has been trying to tell you.

To learn more about Expedition Chiropractic visit:
https://www.ExpeditionChiropractic.com
Expedition Chiropractic
3233 SW Port St Lucie Blvd
Port St. Lucie, FL 34953
772-245-7069

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Expedition Chiropractic Podcast, where your spine embarks on an adventure toward better health. Hosted by Dr Stephen Barger, your severe spine specialist, we offer expert Gonstead chiropractic care right here in Port St Lucie, Florida, serving the entire Treasure Coast. Whether your back has taken an unexpected detour or just needs a tune-up, you're in the right place. Let's get started.

Speaker 2:

The Gonstead technique is known for its precision and thorough approach to chiropractic care. But what sets it apart from other methods? Today, dr Stephen Barger explains why this technique is a game changer in spinal health. Welcome back everyone. Benjamin John, co-host, slash producer, back in studio with Dr Steven Barger. Dr Barger, how's it going today?

Speaker 3:

Dr Steven Barger. I'm great Doing great Dr.

Speaker 2:

Justin Marchegiani Good, good, good. You're always doing great, dr Steven.

Speaker 3:

Barger yeah, thanks for sitting down with me today.

Speaker 2:

Dr Justin Marchegiani. Absolutely so, Dr Barger. What is the Gonstead technique and how does it differ from other chiropractic methods?

Speaker 3:

Yes, so the Gonstead technique is a technique named after Clarence Gonstead, so that's where it gets its name from. Dr Clarence Gonstead was a famous chiropractor that created this technique and there's a foundation to the technique to make sure that we're able to give the most precise chiropractic care. That's probably something you'll hear me reiterate a lot in this podcast is we want to try to be as precise as possible when we give our chiropractic adjustment. Most chiropractors do some type of chiropractic adjustment and that's the famous like they crack your neck or they crack your back and you try to get that relief in your spine. With our technique we try to be as precise as possible. How I like to explain it is most chiropractors you do a shotgun approach. They kind of hit everything and hope they find the problem. But we're more like snipers. We want to be very precise, find the bone that needs to be adjusted, we adjust it and then that should relieve the pressure off the nervous system and allow their body to start to heal naturally. So the first thing I've had to describe the Gaunt Chiropractic technique is when we're analyzing your spine we're looking for what we call subluxation. Subluxation is a joint is not working properly. That improper joint not working properly is putting pressure on the nervous system, causing some type of symptom. That symptom could be back pain, neck pain, headaches. It could be heartburn, digestive issues or vertigo or lots of other things as well. So my job is to find what parts of your spine are not working properly and they're putting pressure on your nervous system. So when I'm looking at someone's spine, I'm looking for a subluxation. Now we have five components of the Gonstead technique that I'm going to try to find that subluxation. So I'm essentially looking for who committed the crime in your spine. The five things we're going to kind of look for the first one is like visualization. This is a very important one. I'm going to look at your spine. Most chiropractors they actually don't even look at your spine. They adjust you with your clothes on and if you went to the dentist and the dentist didn't look at your teeth, I think you can get a lot of really good information. But by just looking at somebody's spine so guys they take off their shirt, women they put a gown on and I just want to see head to, like your pelvis and your sacrum. Where is their spots of inflammation, edema and stuff like that? So that's the first thing that we're going to be looking for with our eyes is like where on the spine is there possible part of this visualization is also like your gate or how you walk. So once I might have somebody walk and I can see how their pelvis is moving or how their lumbar spine or their sacrum is moving, and then that can give me keys on what we're going to want to fix on that given visit. So that's the visualization.

Speaker 3:

The next one is the instrumentation. So if you're listening to the podcast you won't see this, but I have the instrument right here. This is called a nervous scope or a Delta T. It's a dual probe meter that just detects temperature difference between the left and the right of your spine. The technology is very simple. It's not very advanced, it's just detecting temperature difference between the left and the right of the spine but there's a small meter on it. When that meter kind of flicks very quickly over one area, that lets me know that there's inflammation over that nerve in that one area. That lets me pinpoint what areas you're responding, want to adjust and what areas you want to leave alone. Just like I said earlier, we want to be like snipers. So this lets me know a level in the spine that we might want to focus on on that visit. So that's the instrumentation part of it, and that's also part of why I have people take off their shirts or put a gown on it so I can run this meter down their spine, and that gives me an idea of what level we're going to want to work on.

Speaker 3:

The next is palpation. That's simply feeling with your hands. There's two types of simple palpation. It's static you just sit there and I use my hands to try to feel how is that joint? Is there swelling, is there edema, is there inflammation in that joint? And the other is motion. I need to know how the joint is moving. I wouldn't ever adjust a joint that's not working properly or not moving properly. If something's moving properly, I won't adjust it. So I have to find where is it stuck and we compare the vertebrae above to the vertebrae below and if it's not moving properly, those are the ones that we're going to focus on on that visit.

Speaker 3:

The next step is going to be an x-ray.

Speaker 3:

So I take a full spine x-ray on essentially all of my patients and that gives me a blueprint of where, again, what areas you want to adjust, what areas you want to leave alone.

Speaker 3:

There might be an area of your spine that has an old fracture or an old injury that you didn't know about.

Speaker 3:

That we may want to not adjust at all. A lot of people they might have a reverse curve in their neck where I would not adjust that have to adjust other areas of their spine. So it lets me know again areas you want to adjust, what areas you want to leave alone. And make sure that we're not guessing with your spine. If you don't have an x-ray, you're ultimately just kind of guessing. We don't want to do guesswork so we're able to get the best results with all of our patients. And then the last one is the case history. What the patient tells me is very important. They may be having a sciatica, a pain in the low back, a headache. Where's that headache located? All that information is very important as well, but those five components I just went over are going to be the most important thing. I tie each of those pieces together and that lets me find the one or two bones that we want to adjust for that person on that visit to get them the best results.

Speaker 2:

Wow, well, that's a very elaborate breakdown and I can tell that you do a thorough job with that, and I like your analogy about being a sniper.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, exactly, and that's the one that I think fits the best is the adjustment itself does not take long to apply to the patient. I mean it takes 10, 15 seconds. The majority of my visit is finding where on the spine do we want to adjust. Most chiropractors you just like kind of lay face down, they check your legs and they just crunch your whole spine, where I want to not just guess and kind of hit everything and hope we find the problem, but try to be as precise as possible and if we're able to do that we can make sure that we get the best results. And whether we have somebody that's been to other doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists if they didn't get great results somewhere else, that's really my favorite patient because I know we're not going to skip any steps to get them the best results and to make sure that they can get the results that they may have not got somewhere else.

Speaker 2:

I got a couple of follow-up questions for you. Yeah, go for it. I know that you explained the difference, but this might be a little bit of a different question. How does the Gonstead method compare in effectiveness to diversified chiropractic techniques?

Speaker 3:

Yes, okay, that's a good question. It depends on the case itself, but I generally like to think if you're very precise, you can get better results very quickly. A lot of chiropractors they will lay out long, extensive care plans where for every person they just give the same one. I'm going to see you two or three times a week for 12 weeks or whatever. It might be 24 visits over three months. I generally can get quicker results with most people and that's really where I want to strive for people to make sure that we can start seeing results fairly quickly.

Speaker 3:

What I don't want to see is somebody that's coming in with a symptom and if we go six, seven, eight visits they're not seeing any change in their symptoms.

Speaker 3:

That's something that we don't want to see and we want to make sure that we're starting to see changes in the symptom that they're coming in with. That lets me know that their body is healing and that we're on the right track. Now they might not be a hundred percent fixed at six visits, but we want to start seeing some change fairly quickly in the first three to four weeks. Where I know some other professions, they might drag them along for six, eight weeks and they're just not really making a lot of progress, but the precision we really want to start seeing change really in the first month. A good, positive outlook. It might not be again they're probably not going to be 100%, depending on how long their symptom has been there but we want to start seeing change within six to eight visits and then allow that to start to snowball and really increase their activity, decrease their pain levels and keep them active.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you talked about how do x-rays enhance the accuracy of the Gonstead chiropractic adjustment.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's one of the most important parts of our analysis, because if you don't have the x-ray, you're ultimately you're just guessing. You don't have a hundred percent confirmation on what you're adjusting and how. You're just guessing. You don't have 100% confirmation on what you're adjusting and how you're adjusting it. And then there's a lot of times you can have certain fractures, like in your low back they call it like a spondylolisthesis, where that bone's actually sliding forward. And if that bone's sliding forward, I don't want to put a force more forward into it to actually make it worse.

Speaker 3:

So I really want to make sure that we don't make anybody worse by accident. And the same thing up in their neck. A lot of people have reverse cervical curves. Now, a lot of that's attributed to cell phone and computer use in long-term, poor postures, sitting a lot and stuff like that, and I've had this reverse cervical curve. I actually don't want to adjust their neck at all. We have to work lower in their spine to make sure that they get good results with their headaches or their neck pain or numbness into their arm.

Speaker 3:

So if I don't have the x-ray, I'm ultimately just guessing what their spine looks like. The x-ray is a very important step in our process.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Wow. Well, I appreciate you breaking down. I mean, you're going into a lot of thorough detail with this, what I really appreciate and I'm sure the listeners value as well, and I'm undoubtedly certain they're getting a good grasp of what the Gonstead technique is and how effective it is. So well, I love it. Dr Barger, we're going to wrap this one up. We'll catch you in the next episode, where I think we're going to talk a little bit about things beyond spinal misalignments, and so I'm excited to talk about that. So you have yourself a fantastic rest of your day, okay.

Speaker 3:

Awesome.

Speaker 1:

Thank you. Thank you for joining the Expedition Chiropractic podcast, ready to set your spine on the right path. Visit expeditionchiropracticcom to request an appointment or call us at 772-245-7069. Here's to aligning your spine and your life. Until next time, keep moving forward.