A case study on how a RCMP officer improved their health and wellness
*John has been with the RCMP for several years. He reached out to Infinity Chiropractic & Wellness mostly due to the fact his benefits included a healthy stipend that could go towards a Registered Massage Therapist as well as a Chiropractic Doctor, which also included funds for foot orthotics.
After some attempts with physiotherapy, he saw some great results, but didn’t seem to be improving as well as he’d hoped. Chiropractic care and registered massage is within his benefits, so he decided to try it out.
RCMP Benefits Coverage**
For massage therapy, it required a quick appointment at the doctors to get a prescription. Same for foot orthotics. For chiropractic care, turns out there are some instances where a prescription is required but not always - so a quick call to Medavie Blue Cross would answer that one.
Different coverage is available depending on the program, it can range from one massage a month to once a week, and it may or may not include x-ray to start the initial chiropractic assessment in order to build a treatment plan. For John, he was happy that he would be covered for one per month, and x-ray and chiropractic care was included.
John was also happy to leave all the necessary paperwork for the practitioners to take care of, one less thing for him to worry about. After the initial intake paperwork, they took care of the rest including the billings. Then it was just an annual prescription appointment added to his regular annual check-up with his general practitioner doctor.
Occupational Hazards
Living the life of a RCMP officer may include injury (including at times post-surgical care), stress, anxiety and PTSD. As these brave men and women literally put their bodies and minds on the line for our country, it’s not a surprise that some of them have seen and been through really difficult experiences (to say the least) - everything ranging from mental and/or emotional stress to physical wear and tear, and trauma. Quite a few clients and patients report injuries starting with their experiences during the initial training program.
For John, he has some physical issues with his back due to strain from an injury that was not addressed at the time of injury and resulted in bouts of pain and discomfort since then. Having the funds to try a different approach, he came in with an open mind on how we could help.
There were times his job demanded him to be away, but setting up a regular routine with this type of care was also a possibility, and especially after seeing the results over a short period of time so that he made his appointments a priority. There were also some underlying mental and emotional concerns, but he didn’t think much of them in this case as he was going for physical relief.
Results
What surprised John the most was how the treatment plan positively affected his overall stress, anxiety and PTSD. Who knew getting an adjustment from a chiropractor a few times a month or a massage once a month could improve his concentration, mood, and handling stressful situations - the practitioners took the time to also include simple yet effective protocols to do at home and work, like breathing techniques and some rather simple lifestyle adjustments.
Did you know most of us don’t breathe properly due to the diaphragm being locked from a tight back? John didn’t, but now he does a quick five minute breathing and mindfulness practice first thing in the morning to get his day started right.
His sleep patterns also started to improve, he was able to take a calmer approach to situations, and felt overall less stressful, both mentally and physically.
He asked his massage therapist and chiropractic doctor about this correlation:
For massage, touch can have a healing effect for many people. Also, many emotional and mental stresses can, overtime, show up in the physical body if the underlying issue is not dealt with. This stress shows up in how we carry ourselves during movement and our day to day posture. Massage helps to increase circulation and move ‘stuck’ trauma.
For chiropractic, adjustments allow the nervous system to work optimally which has a ripple effect in the body allowing better communication from the brain (a.k.a. "the motherboard") to the other areas and functions of the body with more ease.
Working on the body, especially with a whole body approach as is done at Infinity Chiropractic & Wellness, helps it learn how to come back to balance on its own, which means it learns to relax and process healthier stress responses.
All of this has a positive effect on other parts of the body like digestion and releasing calm-inducing hormones. Physically, with the body improving and feeling better, the stress that these injuries caused decreases as well.
Overall, besides John’s physical improvements, he has also realized significant emotional and mental benefits - which he realizes now are far more important than he had first considered.
*Names have been changed to protect the identity of our patients and clients.
**The case study was written October 2020. Benefit changes may have changed since this posting, so please refer to your case manager and/or insurance coverage.
Disclaimer: This blog post is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. The content provided is for informational purposes only. Use of the content provided on this blog post is at your sole discretion.