What is Chiropractic?

According to The Association of Chiropractic Colleges, "Chiropractic is a health care discipline which 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." Because of the intimate relationship between the spine and nervous system, biomechanical and structural problems in the spinal column can irritate parts of the enclosed nervous system. This irritation can result from harmful inflammatory biochemicals released during tissue injury or may result from direct mechanical pressure.

As the body's recuperative powers are integrated through the nervous system, correcting spinal abnormalities which irritate the nervous system can lead to the relief of pain in patients suffering from various, seemingly non-spinal health conditions. Many things in your every day life can cause the 24 moving bones of your spinal column to lose their normal position and motion. Chiropractors call this a subluxation. When these bones lose their normal motion and position it sets off a chain reaction affecting the spinal bones, nerves, muscles, and soft tissues.This results in degenerative changes throughout the body. Subluxations appear as many symptoms, including headaches, lower-back pain, pain in the arms, pain in the legs, and in many other areas that you might not realize could be affected. 

It is important to remember that being checked for subluxations is similar to going to the dentist regularly to be checked for cavities. Regular adjustments can detect and correct subluxations before they become problems. This is called health optimization. It is a way of correcting problems while you are still well and it can improve your overall health. Allow me to help you bring out the best in yourself and improve your performance in athletics or your daily work.

What Conditions Benefit from Chiropractic Care?

Many conditions and diseases get dramatic results from chiropractic care. Yours might be a condition that would also benefit from such care. I treat naturally-occurring problems such as headaches, bulging discs, low back pain, sciatica, carpal tunnel syndrome, and TMJ problems. I also treat problems resulting from sports injuries, car accidents, and other kinds of trauma, as well as a wide variety of other conditions. The average person in the United States spends between $1,500 - $2,000 a year to maintain his or her car. The reason for doing this is to make certain problems are found and prevented, so that the car will last longer with fewer repairs. Preventive maintenance of the body is just as important.

Most people visit their dentist on a regular basis to prevent cavities and tooth decay. It is just as necessary to maintain the health of your back and spine with regular chiropractic exams and adjustments to correct what we call subluxations. These subluxations occur when bones lose their normal position as a result of stress, trauma, and chemical imbalances. Improper lifting or sitting, overexertion, trauma, poorly-fitting shoes, an improperly-designed work environment, and many other activities can cause subluxations. Most of the time you will not even notice subluxations until they cause pain in the neck and arm and/or pain in the lower back and legs. Pain is the last symptom of a problem. If a subluxation is present in your neck, the only change you might notice is that you cannot turn your head as far as you once could. If this lack of movement is due to a subluxation, it could prevent your vertebrae from moving smoothly. As time progresses, the decrease in range of motion might wear down the disc between your vertebrae, and might also cause the disc to bulge. The spine has 24 discs which require movement for nutrition. In time the disc will thin and disc degeneration will begin, along with inflammation causing a strain on your immune system. These symptoms will go unnoticed, except for the decrease in movement, by most people until years later when the pain begins. The problems become more difficult to treat.

The inflammation and degeneration affect the nervous system, resulting in numbness, tingling, aches, and electric pain. This is where Chiropractic comes into the picture. For instance, you can change your oil in your care every 7000 miles instead of every 3000. Your engine will still run, but it will eventually break down. The same goes for your spine. You can take no action to maintain it, but as you age your spine will deteriorate sooner and, eventually, cause you additional problems. Chiropractors focus on how the joints of the body work together. By adjusting the spine to carefully remove the subluxation, the subluxated vertebrae begin to move, allowing the disc to regain its nutrients, as well as range of motions. This adjustment also helps stop degeneration. Going to a chiropractor before pain is present allows subluxations to be corrected before they create problems.This is what we call maintenance or health optimization. One way of looking at it is that chiropractors serve as the mechanics or dentists for the spine and other joints. Have your spine checked for subluxations before the problem becomes painful and costly. The benefits of chiropractic can be applied to all aspects of your life from the athletic club to the workplace, giving you the added edge of a body performing at its finest.

The Benefits of Chiropractic

Short-term and regular chiropractic care have a number of benefits including:

• spinal and extremity pain relief
• headache relief
• increased mobility and range of motion
• decreased stiffness and muscular spasms
• arthritic joint pain relief
• increased joint health
• increased performance and energy
• increased sense of well being and relaxation
• increased balance and coordination
• reduced degeneration and risk of injury
• enhanced tissue healing
• decreased tissue inflammation

What Chiropractors Do

Chiropractors are primarily concerned with locating and treating vertebral subluxations (misalignment of one or more vertebrae in the spinal column). Using a number of highly refined methods, the chiropractor checks the patient's spine for any misalignments or other abnormalities. If subluxations or other abnormalities are detected, the chiropractor will generally apply a gentle force to correct the alignment in the affected spinal area. Chiropractors use many specialized techniques to identify and treat these spinal abnormalities and optimize overall health. In addition to spinal adjusting techniques, soft tissue practices such as massage, dietary and nutritional counseling, physical therapies, and lifestyle modification programs are commonly utilized.

How is Chiropractic Different?

When evaluating and treating patients, chiropractors take a holistic approach which includes identifying and correcting the cause(s) of the patient's health ailment. Chiropractors believe that correcting the cause of the problem provides significant long-term benefits over only treating the symptoms.