Cracking good feeling

mid-day reporter Mitali Parekh undergoes chiropractic procedure at Dr Chirag Joisher’s clinic. Pics/Kirti Surve Parade

A radiating pain down the shoulder to the elbow to the hip led to Dr Chirag Joisher in Ghatkopar. This came after a year of physiotherapy which helped immensely, but not completely. In a few months, the pain changed lines to become pins and needles in the left elbow. Chiropractoric adjustment, with it's satisfying crack and [apparent] instant relief, called to me as blue ice cream would in a stack of vanilla and chocolate.

At rhetorical clinic, first, a female physiotherapist takes a picture [on my phone] of my undressed back, and reads the diagnosis to me: Ears, shoulders and elbows are not level, a flesh fold on the right one fold on my right is deeper than the other, and right hip is higher. My spine is wonky, or as doctors say, has scoliosis, which is why my right traps have sinewed into ropes, squeezing the nerves to my hand to the point that I can't lift a glass of water on some days. This despite regular, intense yoga for many many years.

Joisher, confident, extroverted and energetic, sees me next, repeats the explanation and asks what I do for a living. Dealing with large, aggressive dogs; sitting for long hours to write; and sitting with one leg over the other are the culprits. "It's wear-and-tear of your profession," he says, realistically. A remedy is swimming regularly.

I lie down on an old fashion raised examining table, and he reassures me with "I'll do some basic, simple adjustments, relax, loosen your neck…" before fear and hesitation step in, he turns my neck at an upward angle, and twists. Crack. Crack. He cracks his way down with each exhale: The shoulders feel the best, there's a twisting of my hips that doesn't crack as satisfyingly, then each leg and toes. A towel around my chin, one nice tug later, there's intense decompression in my lower back - a place of tenderness for more than a decade. "That was a big one," and gives me a few minutes to recover.

It's not pain, but more a decompression at each adjustment. I am advised four sessions (Rs 3,000 each) more, once a week. My shoulders relax, my neck has more mobility, though the hips remain tight. Over the next weeks, my brain fog clears, a common side effect, Joisher says as impulses from the brain flow freely down nerve highway to the limbs. It's better than a good massage, and a routine I hope to follow annually.

Where: Dr Chirag Joisher consults in Charni Road and Ghatkopar. Waiting time at Ghatkopar can run to over an hour and a half.
Appointment: 8898898819