Frequently Asked Questions

You’ll learn a lot at the first visit, get a jump start.

1. How will the adjustment help me?Chiropractic adjustments by themselves do not actually heal the body. Your body is controlled by your nervous system. Your nerves run signals back and forth between your body and your brain. The 24 moveable spinal vertebrae become misaligned from traumatic incidents like a fall, from the accumulative impact of common day-to-day behaviors like hunching over your laptop or walking unevenly all day. When they are out of alignment, they impede the nerves’ path. This further contributes to the stress on your body. In short, it makes it harder for all the millions of pieces in your body to do their jobs. Chiropractic adjustments help eliminate that imbalance or disruption so that the body can function at its true potential.
2. What should I expect on my first visit? You will spend about an hour face-to-face with Dr Cohen. He will conduct a thorough medical history and go over the documents that you downloaded from this site and filled out before your arrival. He will listen to your concerns. He will answer your questions. During your adjustment, he will explain what he is doing and why and answer any new questions that come up once your are being adjusted. After your adjustment, he will retest you, double-checking his work. You will not feel rushed, left behind, or unclear about what is going on. Your goals will direct the visit.
3. How are you different?Dr. Cohen is constantly studying to improve his ability to provide you with the best healthcare possible. He prioritizes continuing education, seeking out seminars and programs through which he can improve his skills and develop new ones. He typically gets 10-20 times the annual state-mandated continuing education hours.Dr. Cohen is a certified Applied Kinesiology practitioner. To become certified, a doctor must attend a rigorous post-doctoral course and pass a practical examination. In San Francisco, there are only a handful of doctors who have received this level of certification.Dr. Cohen integrates functional blood chemistry into his practice to identify imbalances in your metabolism, and, thus, sub-prime operation of your principal bodily functions. A blood chemistry panel measures biomarkers in your blood and urine to identify health risks and sources of health complaints.
4. What is Applied Kinesiology (AK)?Applied Kinesiology is the use of manual muscle testing to evaluate body function through the dynamics of the musculoskeletal system. Basically, AK evaluates how efficiently the nerves are running between your brain and your muscles by testing how fast your muscles are “firing.” This shows Dr Cohen where there are imbalances in the nervous system, in other words, where there are subluxations that he needs to adjust. The great thing about AK is that the tests are fast and incredibly clear. You can see your body function better immediately by comparing a before and after test. This allows you to determine if the treatment is working at each visit.
5. What is Functional Blood Chemistry?A blood chemistry panel is the most efficient screening tool for your doctor to assess your health. It is an effective and inexpensive way to identify imbalances in your metabolism, and, thus, sub-prime operation of your principal bodily functions.A blood chemistry panel measures biomarkers in your blood and urine after a short fast. We analyze the results in light of your thorough medical history, identifying patterns that indicate health risks. If there is disease indicated, we will refer you to the appropriate professional for further care. Generally, we find imbalances that we can address with supplements and lifestyle modifications like diet and activity. These conservative, non-invasive approaches allow us to act on early warning signals from your body, keep you in great health and prevent deterioration to disease.The blood chemistry analysis offered by ProActive Chiropractic differs from most blood tests in two key features: first, we measure twenty-four biomarkers in your blood and urine, far more than most doctors consider. Second, we measure those biomarkers on the functional range, not the pathological range.The functional range gauges risk for disease before any disorder arises. The pathological range detects disease. In the common medical field, your lab work is “flagged” when you slide out of the pathological range. The pathological range compares your health to people with a disease, whereas the functional range compares you to your healthy ideal. The difference between these ranges is the degree of deviation that each considers healthy and the point on the spectrum at which your healthcare provider will intervene.
6. How do you get patients out of care more quickly?Each patient is different and each visit is different because we know things probably shifted since we last saw you. By spending more time evaluating each patient at each visit, we find the root of that particular patient’s problem. This way, a patient gets better more quickly than if the doctor only spends a couple minutes at each visit treating the problem as it manifested during the initial visit. In short, we take extra time at each visit. We test and retest, we invest heavily in continuing education, and, at each visit, we listen to the patient and to the patient’s body.
7. How long will it take to feel better?Most patients walk out of the office feeling better- not necessarily cured, but better. This is, of course, a very difficult question because we see such a vast variety of patients. We see patients for low back pain, neck pain, shoulder dysfunction, knee complaints, ankle sprains, jaw pain, and migraine headaches, just to name a few chief complaints. Often times by the time a patient finds us, she or he has had the problem for a while and often has seen other health care providers with little or no improvement. Therefore, a generic answer to this question doesn’t work, but most patients feel dramatically better within the first couple of visits. We spend more time with each patient during the visit and therefore need to see them less often.
8. Are neck adjustments safe? Yes, as safe as simply walking into your medical doctors office. The Neck Pain Task Force Report of the Bone and Joint Decade 2000-2010, a study sanctioned by the United Nations and the World Health Organization) indicates neck manipulation is a safe and effective form of health care,” according to the medical journal Spine. The study, which analyzed nine years’ worth of data from a population of 110-million person years, concluded that vertebrobasilar artery (VBA) stroke is a very rare event and that the risk of VBA stroke following a visit to a chiropractor’s office appears to be no different than the risk of VBA stroke following a visit to the office of a primary care medical physician (PCP).
9. Will it hurt?It is not nearly as dramatic as you might think. Does cracking your knuckles hurt? No, but it sometimes makes an impressive noise! There are many different ways to make an adjustment to the body. If you’re afraid it might hurt or are anxious about any part of your visit, just let us know and we’ll find an approach that you’re comfortable with. Dr. Cohen has many different high tech tools to assist with the corrections as well.
10. Do you take insurance?We are not in-network, but provide patients with a superbill that they can submit to their insurance company if they have chiropractic coverage and the insurance company reimburses them directly. Much of what we do insurance companies consider outside of “medical necessity.” Their goal is to patch you up whereas our goal is to improve your health and prevent future problems as best we can. So they don’t value the extra time we take to teach you how to take care of your body and to look at you as a whole person. Insurance companies “streamlined” care so that you only get a few minutes with the doctor who quickly jumps to a conclusion as to what’s wrong and delivers the treatment (whether it’s a quick prescription or adjustment). As mentioned before, we practice healthcare the old-fashioned way and treat you the way we’d like to be treated. Health Savings Plans are a great fit because you can use pre-tax dollars for your care.
11. How much does the care cost?This is a complex question because you have to weigh the options. To answer this you have have to ask how much is your time worth. We typically get people better in 1/3 to 1/2 of the visits the doctor down the street takes. So how much is your time worth to commute there, wait in their office for 15 minutes to be put in a room to wait another 5 or 10 minutes to spend 2-10 minutes with the doctor three times a week. We rarely see a patient more than once a week and quickly push visits out to every 3 weeks. What’s your time worth? That said, as we tailor a treatment plan to your individual health needs, we are mindful of your economic concerns as well. Remember, Dr Cohen’s healthcare philosophy was born volunteering in third-world countries. Effective care that is efficient long term is his goal.
12. How does chiropractic education compare to medical school?As a primary care provider, the doctor of chiropractic has a high level of education and training in areas of diagnosis and clinical sciences.  This document compares the similarities and differences in the programs.