Dr. Marcus Pierce stopped by the Hampton B. Allen Library for the Adult Summer Reading program to talk with attendees about chiropfactors, the spine and the nervous system’s affects on the rest of the body.

X-rays determine what type of adjustments and therapy is needed.

“Depending on where your pain is, where your complaint is, and what’s on the x-ray when I analyze it, that will determine what happens,” he said.

He added that patients may not have symptoms, but looking at symptoms based upon the nerve chart, it will help him to identify what part of the spine needs to be adjusted.

“You really don’t notice that it’s your spine, when you have a tingling in your finger or toes, or a little pain here or there,” Pierce said.

He added that everything is attached to a part of the spine by nerves.

“Only 10 percent of those nerves are pain-related,” he said. “The other 90 percent are function-related.”

He said that is why people have said that their allergies are better, blood pressure decreased, and other positive affects have occurred after a visit to the chiropractor.

“I don’t like to promote that because that’s not something a lot of people can connect to since it’s not a direct connection,” Pierce said.

Everything is controlled by the nervous system, and he said that chiropractors work to get bodies at normal functionality.

“The closer you are to 36, 42 and 40, the more you function the way you are supposed to,” he said, referring to the alignment of the spine.

Chiropractors use adjustments to correct the spine alignment, using a various number of techniques.

“We look at those places and introduce a force and it pushes the body into a normal range of motion,” Pierce said. “Motion is life; if you’re not moving, you’re dying.”

He also said muscles always work to keep the body in line.

“We do the least invasive thing first,” he said.

He added that there are certain phases that a chiropractor cannot bring a patient back from.

“Once you’ve gone so far, we can give pain relief, but it’s there and damaged,” Pierce said.

He used the analogy of the rusting of a car to demonstrate this, saying, “you can’t get that to go away; and we don’t get spare parts.”

He said that plans are variable, though he has a basic plan that works for most people. It usually lasts 12 visits, spread out however the patient needs, and can be stopped when the patient is satisfied.

“Tissue takes time to heal,” Pierce said. “An internal injury is no different from an external injury, except that you can’t see it.”

Pierce said that there’s nothing wrong with seeing a chiropractor while having physical therapy. In fact, he said he thinks it could work better for the patient’s recovery.

The goal is to get everything in the right position and hold to that position, he stated.

He also uses a machine called a rapid release that taps the muscle.

“Basically, it’s a really fast massager,” Pierce said. “It releases tension on the muscle.”

He added that he uses it a lot because if a patient has an injury, it is tight.

“You spasmed, it pulled and we want those things to repair,” he said. “I like to see functional improvement and that’s what I work for.”

Natalie Davis | The Anson Record Dr. Marcus Pierce patricipated in the Adult Summer Reading program at the Hampton B. Allen Library to talk with attendees about chiropfactors, the spine and the nervous system’s affects on the rest of the body.
https://ansonrecord.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/web1_Chiro-1.jpgNatalie Davis | The Anson Record Dr. Marcus Pierce patricipated in the Adult Summer Reading program at the Hampton B. Allen Library to talk with attendees about chiropfactors, the spine and the nervous system’s affects on the rest of the body.

By Natalie Davis

The Anson Record