What is Chiropractic care?
Chiropractic is a complete system of healthcare focused on restoring, preserving, and optimizing health by natural hands-on care.
Where conventional or “allopathic” medicine focuses on curing illness through surgery and pharmaceuticals, the goal of chiropractic is to optimize health with a non-invasive approach that does not use drugs or surgery. Chiropractic’s primary avenue of care is manipulation of the spine and the framework of the body.
The spine is an important structure that houses and provides protection for the spinal cord, while providing mobility for the upper body. This dual requirement of strength and flexibility makes the spine a very complex structure, with multiple joints at each spinal segment (the vertebrae) forming the spinal column.
When these joints (also known as articulations) are not positioned or functioning normally, it can affect the nerves exiting the spine. Chiropractic care attends to irritations along the spine by manually repositioning these joints. This is a chiropractic “adjustment.”
Chiropractors are licensed professionals who are trained to diagnose and treat patients. To provide the best care chiropractors work in conjunction with other medical professionals and are trained to refer patients to other treatment alternatives that may provide the best care for the patients’ condition.
Chiropractors provide treatment in two forms. Initially, Chiropractors treat patients’ current symptoms and secondly they provide referrals and education on continuous care.
Patients visit their chiropractor periodically in order to relieve existing irritations by receiving “adjustments.” Patients seek chiropractic care for back pain, headaches, joint pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, sprains, as well as non-musculoskeletal conditions including allergies, asthma, and digestive disorders. Some chiropractors further specialize in orthopedics, sports injuries, neurology, pediatrics, nutrition, internal disorders, or diagnostic imaging such as X-rays and MRI’s.
What is Chiropractic underlying philosophy?
Many people believe that Chiropractic care is receiving adjustments. Chiropractic is not just about manual care of the spine, although it has certainly built a reputation caring for the spine, a troublesome piece of anatomy. Chiropractic, care involves care of the spine and the nervous system. Care of the nervous system is important to the human health. Chiropractic services provide optimal care for an individual’s health as a whole and not just a means to relieve back complaints.
A basic philosophy of chiropractic is that the body naturally seeks the proper balance among all the systems of the body, that are meant to work together. A second basic principle is that proper structure is necessary for proper function. For example well maintained abdominal muscles resulting in a health lower back.
If a structure is impaired by injury or stress, its function can be adversely affected.For example, when our spine (structure) is not positioned normally, it can irritate the nerves exiting the spine. And when spinal nerves are irritated, they don’t function normally and can affect the function of the tissues they interact with. This effect is the central interest in chiropractic care.
Therefore, chiropractic focuses on the integrity of the spine and its surrounding tissues as a means to enhance normal human function and health.
References
Chapman-Smith, D. A. (2000). The chiropractic profession: Its education, practice, research and future directions. West Des Moines, IA: NCMIC Group Inc.
Cherkin, D.C., Mootz, (Eds.). (1997). R.D.Chiropractic in the United States: Training, practice, and research. AHCPR research report. Rockville, MD.: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.
Sportelli, L. (2004). Introduction to chiropractic: A natural method of health care (11th ed.). Palmerton, PA: Practice Makers Products.
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