Special Interest Articles
What is Chiropractic?
Alternative health care is moving into the mainstream. Many of you are using one or more of these approaches on a regular basis for better health and wellness and to address a variety of health care issues.
Of the various natural health care approaches, one system has a long and distinguished history in the United States. It’s an exciting system, which addresses the whole body, focuses on the nervous system and the body’s ability to heal itself, and whose practitioners use spinal adjustments as their primary treatment form. This amazing system is called “chiropractic,” and it is the second largest and fastest growing, natural-based primary health care system in the country.
Chiropractic usage, like many forms of alternative health care, has soared over the past decade. But did you know that chiropractic has been available for more than 100 years in the United States?
So what is chiropractic? According to the International Chiropractic Association, chiropractic is a “conservative and natural healing art and science that concentrates on keeping people well. Doctors of chiropractic attempt to get to the root cause of a health problem rather than just treat the symptoms. They seek to maximize the natural strengths of the body and its capacity to heal itself without the use of drugs or surgery. The primary focus of chiropractic is detection, reduction and correction of spinal misalignments and nervous system dysfunction.”
Since its beginning, chiropractic has been based on scientific fact that the nervous system controls the function of every cell, tissue, organ, and system of your body. While the brain is protected by the skull, the spinal cord is more vulnerable, covered by 24 moving vertebrae. When these bones lose their normal motion or position, they can irritate the nervous system. This disrupts the function of the tissues or organs these nerves control.
Chiropractic’s primary treatment approach is the use of manual manipulation. Chiropractors use these precise, controlled manipulations (or “adjustments”) to resolve spinal “misalignments” and to treat other joint structures of the body.
The word adjustment describes hundreds of ways of using carefully directed and controlled pressure to restore spinal bones to a more normal position and motion. When spinal function is improved, nervous system function (health) can improve too. After years of training, chiropractic doctors become experts at using just the right amount of force in the right direction. This may require a quick movement, or in other instances a slow and constant pressure.
The critical concept here is that chiropractic treatment has both local and whole body effects via its input to the nervous system. This input, through chiropractic adjustments, has profound health benefits for the spine, the nervous system and to the body’s overall health and well being.
Chiropractic has proven itself to be the treatment of choice for spinal and soft tissue conditions. Chiropractic is a very important natural based, primary health care system which, to date, has been underutilized by the American public.
