What is chiropractic?
Chiropractic is a complete system of healthcare focused on restoring, preserving, and optimizing health by natural hands-on care.
Where conventional or “allopathic” medicine focuses on curing illness through surgery and pharmaceuticals, the goal of chiropractic is to optimize health with a non-invasive approach that does not use drugs or surgery. Chiropractic’s primary avenue of care is delivering “chiropractic adjustments” to the spine and the framework of the body.
Chiropractic care is based on the scientific fact that the nervous system controls and coordinates the function of every cell, tissue, and organ in the body.
Interference to the nervous system causes the body to malfunction and develop symptoms. The spine, when misaligned, is the most common structural cause of interference to the nervous system. This is called a vertebral (spinal) subluxation.
When you have “subluxations” in your spine, the spinal bones cause interference to your nervous system. Chiropractors locate the areas of the spine that are subluxated and perform adjustments (treatments) to heal the subluxations and remove the interference to the nervous system.
What makes chiropractic care different is the approach to your health problem. As chiropractors, we try to heal your health conditions and improve the overall health of your body. We are not trying to merely cover up your symptoms.
Our approach to your health is to heal the cause of your health problems, improve your overall health, and then work to keep you as healthy as possible for the rest of your life.
Chiropractic patients often visit their chiropractor periodically in order to simply relieve irritations – to get “adjusted.” Individuals also seek chiropractic care for back pain, neck pain, joint pain, headaches, migraines, arthritis, dizziness, vertigo, disc herniations / protrusions, bulging discs, posture concerns, pediatric health problems, athletic performance, carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, sprains, as well as non-musculoskeletal conditions including allergies, asthma, and digestive disorders, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
What is a subluxation?
A “subluxation” is a misalignment or biomechanical malfunctioning of the vertebrae (the bones of the spine) that interfere with or irritate nerves. When a vertebra doesn’t function properly, it causes mechanical stress that accelerates wear and tear on surrounding spinal muscles, discs and joints. This can lead to pain, decreased mobility and muscle spasm.
More important is the interference that subluxation causes to the nervous system. Because of the direct relationship between the spine and nervous system, vertebral subluxations can negatively affect general health due to the interference to the nervous system. Impairment of nerve function can lead to decreases in the communication network within the body’s nervous system and jeopardises overall health and wellness of the individual.
What causes a subluxation ?
A fall, injury, sudden jar, trauma, or sometimes an inherited spinal weakness can displace a vertebra. Other causes include improper sleeping conditions or habits, poor posture, occupational hazards, incorrect lifting practices, poor diet and nutrition, lack of rest and exercise, and stress.
How is a subluxation corrected?
Doctors of Chiropractic are specialists in neuromusculoskeletal conditions. They are trained to restore the misaligned vertebrae to their proper position in the spinal column. They do this manually, utilizing the chiropractic procedure known as a “spinal adjustment”. Your chiropractor, will use his hands or an adjusting instrument in applying corrective pressure to the spine in a specific direction and location. The manual force or thrust helps restore the alignment and mobility of the vertebrae.
What is an adjustment?
The goal of the chiropractic adjustment is to correct spinal subluxations detected during the examination. To do that, the doctor applies a gentle pressure to the bone and “unlocks” it from its improper position.
Spinal joints that aren’t moving correctly can choke or irritate nearby nerves. Chiropractic adjustments add motion to these restricted joints, reducing nervous system disruption. Every cell in your body requires uninterrupted nerve communication to function at its capacity.
Many people think that the chiropractor forces a vertebra back into its “proper” place. Unfortunately, the muscles connected to subluxated vertebrae get used to their positions and have a tendency to pull the bone back out of place. It may take several adjustments before the adjustment “holds,” and the normal alignment of the spine is restored.
Chiropractic care is for everybody. Newborns, infants, children, seniors and even those who’ve had previous back surgery can get adjusted. Naturally, adjustments are tailored to your size, age and particular health issue. Patients at the clinic find the modern adjustment techniques used in our clinic to be pleasant and non-invasive.
Pain relief vs. Corrective care
The difference between corrective care and pain relief care is the difference between optimal health and merely applying a band-aid to cover the symptoms.
Although chiropractic is effective in providing patch-up or pain relief treatment, we have found correcting the spine offers long term benefits for decades to come. This is why our office specialises in Corrective Chiropractic care. Like all health care fields there are many different types of chiropractic care. Most people associate chiropractic care with back pain and symptom relief. Relief care is designed to do just what it sounds like; decrease pain. Many chiropractors are very good at doing this, leaving their patient to feel gratitude for the short time the pain has been eased only to find themselves once again suffering in pain. Now the patient will usually return to the wonderful doctor who relieved their pain last time and again will be very appreciative for the care given. Although all chiropractors are able to relieve symptoms, the doctors at Total Health Chiropractic Wellness Clinic will search for the true cause of any health condition and design a specific plan of action for each patient.
Corrective care is a completely different approach to achieving and maintaining optimal health. A true corrective care chiropractor will evaluate the Central Nervous System (CNS) completely. Corrective care evaluates the person for not only trauma and pathology but more importantly for function. Since our CNS controls every single one of our cells, tissues and organs we need it to function as close to 100% as possible. A corrective care chiropractor will evaluate the curves of the spine. When we see a patient for the first time at Total Health Chiropractic Wellness Clinic we always let them know there are two basic forms of chiropractic care. There is pain relief care, which is about pain control, and there is corrective care, which is working on the underlying structural abnormalities (that are causing the pain) to make a more permanent change.
The true advantage of corrective care is the possibility to never having to rely on medication to manage illness. Corrective care will build a healthy body and immune system. The education process at Total Health Chiropractic will teach you and your family how to achieve the highest level of health.
Can chiropractic help me ?
Your nervous system is the master controller of all function in your body. Your nervous system controls and regulates every cell, organ, gland and tissue of your body. It is the job of your nervous system to see that everything is functioning properly and keeping you healthy.
When your nervous system doesn’t work correctly, you don’t work correctly. An optimally functioning nervous system is a requirement for you to achieve optimal health. Nerve interference can result from postural distortions of the spine called “subluxations”.
Most often, people go to chiropractors the first time for relief from back pain. But chiropractors treat a broad range of complaints, including back pain, neck pain, headaches, arthritis, dizziness, vertigo, herniated discs, bulging discs, posture concerns, pediatric health problems, athletic performance, and more. Chiropractic care is effective and safe for people of all ages, from infants to the elderly.
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References:
- Anrig, C. and Plaugher, G. (2012). Pediatric chiropractic. 2nd Edition.
- Giles, L.G.F. and Singer, K.P. (1998). Clinical anatomy and management of cervical spine pain. The clinical anatomy and management of back pain series. (Vol. 1-3).
- Haldeman, S., Dagenais, S., and Budgel, B. (2004). Principles and practice of chiropractic. 3rd Edition.
- Studin, M. and Owens, W. (2016). The Science of Chiropractic: Circa 2015.
- Bergmann, T.F. and Peterson, D.H. (2010). Chiropractic Technique: Principles and Procedures. 3rd Edition.