Chiropractic care primarily involves relieving stress to the nervous system by adjusting Subluxated vertebral joints, as well as other large joints (knees, ankles, shoulders).  These slight misalignments cause irritation to the nervous system which causes not only symptoms (pains) but, dysfunction of the central nervous system, possibly leading to whole-body health conditions.

 

Only 6% of nerve fibers are pain sensation fibers.  The other 94% go from the brain to the organs, muscles, circulatory system, etc.  This is how a person who may not have pain, can develop a chronic arthritic condition or illness, such as heart disease without apparent problems (symptoms), and then suddenly be stricken.

 

No other health system is as effective, safe, or studied as Chiropractic care.  In the past decade alone there have been dozens of attempts to discredit the effectiveness of this approach to pain relief and wellness care.  All of them have shown a lasting benefit to chiropractic care over traditional Medical and Physical Therapy care.  There is no comparison to the cost savings of the Chiropractic approach over its competitors in the medical fields for similarly treated conditions.  As far as safety is concerned, we all know about the inherent complications of modern medicine and drug therapy, not to mention the occasional mistake.  According to a well respected, recent research study, Chiropractic care is 400 times safer than taking aspirin for headaches!  There are only a few serious complications worldwide per year for Chiropractic care!

 

So, do not hesitate to explore the most appropriate care approach to regaining or maintaining your health quality.  Do not think this care is limited to pain syndromes.  Besides rehabilitating thousands of patients over the past thirteen years for back pain issues, I have personally seen positive results through chiropractic care with infant colic, childhood asthma, chronic headaches, hemorrhoids, severe menstrual cramps, chromic indigestion, better vision acuity, cold symptoms and the list goes on.  It is a true early intervention for whole-body health.  Do not take the risk of a drug reaction or an invasive procedural.  I can not believe the amount of people that undergo very painful, invasive, and often humiliating medical procedures without trying chiropractic care.  Do not rely of anyone other than a Doctor of Chiropractic to tell you if Chiropractic care is an option.  Remember to read the Chiropractic history area for a reason why.

 

Check out http://www.chiropractic.org/  the International Chiropractic Association (ICA)  site for further information on chiropractic education and health topics and research.

 

REAL HISTORY of CHIROPRACTIC

Chiropractic is scientifically based and has a colorful history.  Other health care professionals, our competition in the business of health care, see you as pain or inflammation or a diseased organ.  Chiropractors look at the whole person's health status and see a person with an ailment that is giving off symptoms, pain.  Symptoms are like dashboard lights or what some call "dummy" lights.  They let you know something is wrong, but only after the problem has developed fairly far along.

 

Grabbing something to take away the symptoms is like pulling the fuse on your dash warning lights.  You are covering up the cause.  Chiropractors do treat pain but, we differ from the medical approach by recognizing there is a reason for the pain and try to address it as well.  Unfortunately, most people think of pain as the enemy that has to be quickly eliminated by the most effective drug available.  Slow down.  Pain is your hazard light telling your body to slow down and deal with the problem.  As you read on, you will learn there is a more effective health care method. 

Chiropractic care came from simple beginnings just as modern Medicine did.  Many of our early patients, diagnosed as (medical failures), came to a brilliant man in Iowa for help.  Dr. Daniel David Palmer, chiropractics founder knew the human anatomy so well that it is said he taught the Mayo Brothers, of the famous Mayo Clinic, some of their early medical education.  He even traveled to Europe to dissect the human body for scientific reasons (it was illegal here at the time).  He discovered that the nervous system controlled all aspects of the human body.  When nerves are stressed or "pinched" from joints failing to move properly, health problems and pains occur.  Surprisingly, deafness (not just back pain) was resolved in the "first" patient following a specific spinal adjustment.

Chiropractic (meaning done-by-hand) became world-renown by helping not only those in pain but, many diagnosed as being terminally ill or hopeless.  The demand for Palmer's services allowed them to build a top-rated and eventually Federally accredited Chiropractic college.  The wealth also created the first radio station west of the Mississippi, which employed a young Ronald Reagan.  It also produced envy and jealousy from Medical practitioners that lost business.

 

CHIROPRACTIC AND JAIL

This antagonism boiled over the in 1920's-50's when Chiropractors were jailed across this country on a trumped up charge of "practicing Medicine without a license" and "a threat to public health".  This was born out of the fact that the two groups competed for the same patients.  All fifty states passed Chiropractic Practice Acts legalizing my profession.  This would not have happened without millions of patients actually protesting in the streets.  Even then, like now, elected officials needed to be reminded health care is a fundamental right.

 

The monopoly of health care delivery were publicly recognized when efforts to "do away with the Chiropractic menace", was exposed by a Federal Lawsuit in 1990.  The AMA and others disallowed Medical Doctors from accepting referrals or associating with Chiropractors.  The Supreme court allowed the Federal District Judge's finding that AMA and others tried, in the proceeding decades, to "eliminate" the profession of Chiropractic!

Keep in mind the above history lesson when you hear negative comments about Chiropractic care.  If you need a referral for chiropractic care from a medical "gatekeeper" accept that they have their own opinions, but demand your choice.  And remember, this competing groups do not naturally endorse their competition. Health care is a business!  In a true free market economy, the best will swim and the most expensive and ineffective will not survive.  When you, the consumer demands more accountability, accessibility, and more effective care options, we will see less expensive care and insurance premiums, higher wages and profits.

 

SPINAL ANATOMY LESSON 101

Spinal anatomy is fairly simple.  How your body is wired and how it acts is however, very complicated.  Movement is the key to good spinal health.  Movement exercises spinal joints, maintains strength of your ligaments, dense bone, and repair injuries.  If there is improper spinal movement, joints become stressed, inflamed, and symptoms occur, in that order.  When the nervous system is involved, Chiropractors call this Subluxation.  A mechanical disruption of the joint / nervous system relationship interferes with the whole body.  Internal stress to the nerves from inflamed joints can and does cause other health problems other than pain.

 

Your spine is made up of seven (7) Cervical, twelve (12) Thoracic, and five (5) Lumbar Vertebrae. The spine develops from several growth plates and then grows together forming the spine.  No one has a perfect spine.  Injuries, illness and other factors effect the development of the bones.  If any of these factors effect the growth of the bones as a person matures they can very well develop structural problems, which effects how the joints move.  Maintaining joint movement is absolutely necessary.   They should be movable in relation to one another.  Chiropractics role in health care is to maintain proper joint mobility by reducing the inflammation to nerves that effect not only the joints but the whole body.  When joints become inflamed effecting the nerves, this is called subluxation.  This effects not only the joints and muscles, but it effects a persons over all health and immune system.  

 

Unlike a broken bone, ligaments heal with scar tissue which is not the same pre-injury soft-tissue.  This material is different under the microscope.  It is less flexible or elastic.  Pain flare-ups of old injuries are common due to increased sensitivity to chemical "stressors" including, lactic acid, caffeine, nicotine, and others from overwork or lack of sleep.  Sprain tissue is also not as strong and prone to re-injury.  Degenerative arthritis and some osteoporosis are the result of long term loss of range of motion to point of disease.  The pain and disability associated with these conditions can still be managed with chiropractic care.