Postural muscle imbalance is the core aspect of the chiropractic method. Dr. Aiello believes that postural muscle imbalance is the cause of pain in the majority of his patients. Multiple obvious factors contribute to postural imbalance, including a sedentary lifestyle and excessive time spent on computers and cell phones. However, factors that are not well-known or accounted for are what his care addresses. After the initial evaluation, recommendations are made for home care to address the obvious lifestyle modifications. A daily routine of self-care is essential for maintaining optimal physical and mental well-being. Proper eating habits, exercise, and stretching are the recommendations given on the first day.
The less apparent factors are part of the treatment protocol that Dr. Aiello uses in the office to correct postural muscle imbalances. The spine sits on the pelvis, and if the pelvic joints are misaligned, the spine has to compensate by bending and rotating to adapt to your posture. This unnatural spinal posture is hard on the muscles of the spine and even the muscles of the extremities. Pelvic alignment is thoroughly assessed and treated as the first step of treatment. Once the pelvis is in proper alignment, the vertebrae are assessed individually for restriction of movement caused by the pelvis' compensation. This is the part that involves the manipulation, or "cracking" of the spine. The procedure is very safe and performed gently, contrary to many other chiropractic techniques. Other techniques that depend on X-ray evaluation of the spine attempt to crack the spinal bones in place. Dr. Aiello's philosophy is that you can adjust spinal joints into place multiple times with very little progress if the pelvis is not properly aligned. The misalignments viewed by X-ray are the result of compensations for the pelvic dysfunction. That is why it is not necessary to get 3 visits per week for weeks on end with his techniques. It will take 3-6 appointments for mild and medium extremity cases to properly align the pelvis when the misalignment is addressed. Adjusting the spinal joints restores mobility restricted by muscle irritation, which results from postural muscle adjustments compensating for an unlevel pelvis.
Many people question what the main cause of pelvic misalignment is. This is where Dr. Aiello's self-developed method differs from the other practitioners in his field. Dr. Aiello is trained in Functional Chiropractic Neurology. His method evaluates a postural muscle imbalance that occurs on one side of the body. In the lower body, the patient will experience slight weakness in the muscles in the front of their body, and tightness in the back of their body. This imbalance is what causes the pelvis to misalign. The approach to Functional Neurology is to adjust the spine to stimulate the brain on the side where the muscle imbalance is occurring. This theory clings to the fact that spinal manipulation provides a large stimulus to the postural control centers in the brain that were not working properly. With this technique, you would adjust one side of the spine to stimulate one side of the brain. For 22 years, Dr. Aiello practiced this method successfully, but had found its success to be temporary. Patients would come back months after the episode he treated for tune-ups, as the pain was returning. Some patients needed corrections weekly to live pain-free.
In 2019, Dr. Aiello discovered something interesting while stimulating acupuncture points with a cold laser. The cold laser affected the muscle imbalance, which meant it affected the brain. This discovery led to several instances of research and experimentation, with the final result of Dr. Aiello writing his first book on the topic of Biophotonics and the nervous system. Biophotonics are frequencies of visible light that are emitted by living tissue. Dr. Aiello developed a method of neurologic stimulation of sensory nerves with different frequencies of cold lasers to correct multiple issues, which can lead to one-sided muscle imbalances that were distorting the pelvis. A great example of how apparent this imbalance is, is that many people with low back pain have a pelvic misalignment related to food allergies. With his method, he can remove the food allergy by balancing the biophotonic communication network of the immune system to the food they are allergic. This amazingly takes one appointment to accomplish, and many patients have immediate relief. This is one of many ways that cold lasers can be used to correct postural muscle imbalance and pelvis misalignment. During the initial evaluation, each sensory nerve is checked with a laser stimulus to evaluate the effect on posture tone. When the offending frequencies are discovered, the effect that it has on testing muscle strength is very efficient. Patients find the results to be unexpected. By stimulating the nerve that is having an issue, a noticeable weakness in strength is found in the pelvic muscles. This new method is very safe and is performed with the lowest potency hand-held lasers, not much stronger than ones used for playing with cats. Correction of the imbalance takes 1-3 visits, during which noticeable improvement in pain is observed.
By combining cold laser treatment with Chiropractic Care and Massage Therapy, very rapid, long-lasting results are achieved much faster than standard treatments.