What is Chiropractic?

Chiropractic is a health care discipline which emphasizes the inherent recuperative power of the body to heal itself without the use of drugs and surgery. The practice of chiropractic focuses on the relationship between structure (primarily the spine) and function (as coordinated by the nervous system) and how that relationship affects the preservation and restoration of health.

The Goal of Chiropractic
Because chiropractic treatments are primarily applied to the spinal region, many individuals incorrectly assume that chiropractors treat only back and neck ailments. While we do quickly and effectively eliminate back and neck pain, it’s not our only goal. Besides pain relief, our goal is to restore and optimize human health.

How Chiropractic Works
You may be wondering… how can the same chiropractic treatment which effectively treats my back pain also optimize my health? The answer can be found by looking into the relationship between the spine and the nervous system. As you may already know, the nervous system is the master controller of all living cells, tissues and organs; orchestrating and coordinating all functions of the body.  When spinal bones have lost their normal motion (for a variety of reasons), the nervous system is inherently affected.  Because the body’s innate recuperative powers are affected by and integrated through the nervous system, correcting spinal abnormalities which irritate the nervous system can lead to a number of favorable results in patients suffering from both spinal and possibly non-spinal health conditions.

What Chiropractors Do?

Practically speaking, chiropractors are primarily concerned with locating and treating vertebral subluxations.
Simply put, a vertebral subluxation is a complex of functional, structural and/or pathological joint changes that compromise neural integrity and may influence organ system function and general health.

Using a number of unique and highly refined skills, the chiropractor checks the patient’s spine for any misalignment’s, fixations or other abnormalities (vertebral subluxations). If subluxations or other abnormalities are detected, the chiropractor will generally apply a gentle force in a corrective manner to the affected spinal area.

Chiropractors use many specialized techniques to identify and treat these spinal abnormalities and optimize overall health. In addition to spinal adjustive techniques, soft tissue techniques such as massage, dietary and nutritional counseling, muscle stim/ultrasound, and lifestyle modification programs are commonly employed.

How Chiropractic Differs From Medicine
There is a significant and very important difference between the way chiropractors and medical doctors approach health ailments. When evaluating and treating patients, chiropractors take a holistic approach which includes identifying and correcting the cause(s) of the patient’s health ailment. In contrast, the medical approach tends to focus more on the treating the symptoms of a condition rather than focusing primarily on the actual cause(s).  Chiropractors believe that correcting the cause of the problem provides significant long-term benefits over only treating the symptoms.