About Chiropractic Care
- Chiropractic care is safe and effective for all ages from infants to the elderly. Many patients get adjusted on a regular basis as preventative wellness care.
- Chiropractic care is safer than aspirin, muscle relaxants and back surgery. Some patients get results quickly, while others may take longer.
- Through the use of specific adjustments, as well as various physical therapy modalities, chiropractors have been successful in evoking a change in the environment of the brain and spinal cord and therefore affording their patients improved function in all systems providing a higher quality of life.
- The nervous system is housed within the vertebrae or “back bones”, so it is often through the adjustment of these vertebrae that the treatment is rendered.
- Professional athletes receive chiropractic care on a regular basis. Most Olympic and professional teams have an on-staff chiropractor as well as other healthcare providers.
- Other procedures may be suggested to help reduce inflammation, provide relief or enhance the healing process. These may include massotherapy, interferential therapy, ultrasound, moist heat or cold packs.
Chiropractic
The field of chiropractic care has its main focus the treatment and maintenance of the nervous system. It is this system, comprised of the brain and spinal cord, which has been termed the “master system” due to its control of all other systems in our body.
When a person experiences pain, what is really happening is due to an injury or degenerative change to a tissue (i.e. muscle, ligament, tendon, skin, bone, organ). This damage either applies pressure on a nerve which sends a signal to the brain causing us to experience pain, or the tissue itself releases chemicals in response to the damage which also sends a signal to the brain that causes us to feel pain. This is why pain relievers work (but don’t be fooled- it’s only temporary), their action is on the signal causing our brain to tell us we have pain- it blocks or quiets the signal.
Chiropractic’s action is also on the nervous system, but instead of blocking the pain signals, the goal is removal or repair of the disturbance, blockage or damage causing the pain. This is accomplished primarily through the adjustment.
The Job Of A Chiropractor
Is to find out what is causing the nerve to send its pain signal. Is it mechanical pressure on the nerve and if so, what is causing the actual mechanical pressure- or is it chemicals being released from damaged tissue and if so, what caused the damaged tissue in the first place? Through taking a patient history, performing a physical examination and X-rays, the chiropractor determines the cause of the pain and then begins the process of correcting it through adjustments, which may be delivered to the vertebrae or any other joint in the body (i.e. shoulder, elbow, knee) and hence, the process of correcting the problem begins.