Chiropractic Services

What is Chiropractic?
Chiropractic is concerned with the relationship between the structure (primarily the spine) and function primarily coordinated by the nervous system) of your body and how that relationship affects your health. In the late 1800s, Daniel David (D.D.) Palmer, researched this relationship and his hypotheses and subsequent discoveries laid the groundwork for modern chiropractic care.

No part of your body escapes the dominance of your nervous system. Improper function of the spine due to slight misalignments–called subluxations–can cause poor health or function, even in areas far removed from the spine and spinal cord itself. Misalignments can also reduce the ability of your body to adapt to its ever-changing environment. Even the slightest malfunctions of your spine may alter the regular transmission of nerve impulses, preventing that portion of your body from responding optimally.

Chiropractic is a natural form of health care that uses spinal adjustments to correct these misalignments and restore proper function to the nervous system, helping your body to heal naturally. Chiropractic  doesn’t use drugs or surgery. Rather, a chiropractic spinal adjustment–the application of a precise force to a specific part of the spinal segment–corrects the misalignment, permitting normal nerve transmission and assisting your body to recuperate on its own.

Few chiropractors continue to subscribe to the view that sublaxations cause almost all health problems. Today, most acknowledge that disease can also result from infectious agents, such as viruses and bacteria, and from lifestyle factors, such as smoking, alcohol or drug abuse.  Nevertheless, (in accord with original chiropractic theory) chiropractic care remains centered around the notion that the spine is a major factor in health and disease.

A study, conducted at the Rand Corporation in 1991, reviewed the scientific literature on spinal manipulation and rated the efficacy of spinal manipulation in 1,500 hypothetical back pain causes. They concluded that spinal manipulation is helpful for some patients with back pain. Specifically, the experts concluded that spinal manipulation is useful for common acute low-back pain that has been present for three weeks or less, so long as x-rays do not reveal fractures, tumors or other abnormalities. For other types of back pain, the panel was not able to reach a consensus about the effectiveness of manipulation.

Many doctors believe that 80 to 90 percent of acute back pain causes will clear up without treatment. The main benefit of manipulation therapy is rapid relief, because it frees patients low-back pain in a shorter period of time than other treatments. Evidence suggests that adjustments may help against chronic back pain as well. Chiropractic care has proven useful against a single ailment–back pain.

What does a chiropractic adjustment do?
Treatment consists of conservative chiropractic care designed to remove encroachment of the spinal nerve roots, restore mobility and maintain the normal structure–function interrelationship of the spinal framework. The improvement resulting from manipulation is due to the gentle stretching of muscles, ligaments and tendons that have become shortened as a result of spasm from the injury. Manipulation facilitates the stretching of the fibrous tissues surrounding the joints of the spine that have become contracted and developed adhesions after prolonged immobility. Manipulation can restore reflex homeostasis.

A dentist places braces on a patients teeth to make a structural change for cosmetic and especially functional reasons. If the teeth are misaligned, the jaw will not function correctly and given enough time, disease (arthritis) will occur.

A chiropractic doctor makes a structural change, not in your mouth, but instead, the bony framework of your skeleton. Why is this important? Two reasons:

1. If your skeletal framework is misaligned, the human body cannot function correctly.
2. Because the bony framework of your spine houses the lower extension of your brain, the spinal cord. Your spinal cord and brain control, coordinate, and regulate every activity of your body by receiving and sending nerve impulses. Chiropractors, ostensibly, make sure that you do not have any interference with the nerves exiting your spine. Chiropractic cures nothing. It simply ensures that your body utilizes its normal recuperative powers in restoring itself to normal function. Because your structure influences your function, chiropractors want to make sure that you function at your best.

* Abnormal posture, structure or position, results in abnormal loads on the tissue, abnormal stresses and abnormal strains. Over time, abnormal loads cause tissue breakdown and disease and pain is the result.

What are the benefits of chiropractic care?
Research has shown chiropractic therapy to be effective in treating low back pain and to be helpful in treating neck pain and headaches.

Some relief through chiropractic care is actually immediate. Often times when you lay on a chiropractic table and the doctor manipulates you, you will get up feeling better. This is due to the fact that the doctor has the ability to realign joints and limbs that are not right now. That means when he puts them back into place he can and he will provide you with a lot of immediate relief. There are many physical benefits to chiropractic care. Here are just a few of the things that can be made better in your life through chiropractic care.

• Decreased arthritis and pain in joints
• Pain relief for all areas of the body
• Reduction of pain in the back, legs, feet and knees through the relief of spinal pressure
• Less muscle spasms throughout the region
• You will be able to move better and more if you were restricted to begin with aka your range of motion will increase
• You will have increased energy, self esteem and you will feel better overall
• There are additional benefits of chiropractic care as well. When you realign the body as it should be, you relieve pressure throughout it. This often allows your body to heal as it should again. For example, it can help your joints to heal, your tissues to heal and your pain to leave.

Immune System Benefits
Each of us were born with all the power of health within us, enabling our body to heal itself. It is not normal or healthy to have chronic pain or even the occasional cold or headache. A person can be unhealthy without any symptoms whatsoever. For example, 35% of all heart attacks happen without any prior symptoms or warning signs. Were those 35% healthy the day before their heart attack?

Since its inception, chiropractic has asserted that viruses and microbes don’t threaten us equally and that a healthy immune system easily repels most invaders. The immune system protects us from the flu, as well as other infectious disease and strives to get us well again when we do fall ill. Our immune system, like every other system in the body , is coordinated and controlled by the nervous system. For example, nerve cell endings in the skin and white blood cells of the immune system are in intimate contact, and chemicals secreted by the nerves can shut down immune system cells nearby.

Chiropractic corrects vertebral subluxations that result in interference of the nervous system by placing pressure on nerves. Since the nervous system controls all functions of the body, including the immune system, chiropractic care can have a positive effect on immune function.

During an immune response, the brain and the immune system ‘talk to each other’ and this response is essential for maintaining homeostasis or balance in the body. If the nervous system is not functioning properly, then the immune system cannot function at 100%, thus the body becomes fertile ground for bacteria, viruses and illness.

When you first come in, we will:

• Perform a thorough diagnostic work-up, which should include your medical history and checking your muscular reflexes, muscle strength and the range of motion in your joints. In most cases he or she may order x-rays of the problem area depending on the results from the exam.
• Provide a clear explanation of the entire treatment program before beginning any therapy

Is Chiropractic Safe?
A chiropractic care treatment may leave you a bit sore and aching. Consider the fact that your body has been out of alignment for so long that it is going to feel different and it may hurt a bit to fix it. Discuss with us any potential risks associated with chiropractic treatment. Side effects may include minor pain or discomfort at the point of manipulation, headaches and fatigue. Most of these effects go away within a day. Your body’s joints and muscles have a memory, thus have a tendency to revert back to where they were “comfortable”. The discomfort that results is due to this. We will tell you what to expect from the chiropractic care treatment and it is a sure thing that benefits are likely if you need them.