What is chiropractic?
Chiropractic is based on regulating proper biomechanics of the human body. Injury, stress or repetitive movement can cause structural abnormalities which in turn can cause nerve interference.
Your nervous system includes your brain, spinal cord and many nerves. The brain is protected by the skull and the spinal cord is housed within 24 moving bones of the spine. When the spinal bones or vertebra lose their normal position or motion, nervous system dysfunction can result. Chiropractic can help detect and correct nervous system dysfunction and improve health without covering up symptoms with drugs.
Why should I see a chiropractor?
Seeing a chiropractor is not only for back pain and neck pain. Chiropractic care is an excellent way to keep your body at its peak performance through nutrition, adjustment and overall wellness. In addition, chiropractic care has been known to help a wide range of conditions from fibromyalgia to diabetes.
What can chiropractic do for me?
- Increase and maintain muscle strength and endurance
- Restore and increase range of motion in joints
- Decrease pain and muscle spasms
- Decrease swelling/inflammation of joints
- Promote healing of soft tissue lesions
- Decrease stress
Is chiropractic effective?
Chiropractic helps to remove postural imbalances and structural misalignments that can accumulate in our bodies over time. Chiropractic works by restoring your own inborn ability to be healthy. For your body to remain healthy, your nervous system must function well. For your nervous system to function well it must be free of interference. By restoring spinal function with Chiropractic adjustments, nerve interference by misaligned vertebrae is removed, thus allowing optimal nervous system function and improved health.
Is chiropractic safe?
Chiropractic has an excellent safety record. It is the result of a conservative approach to health that avoids invasive procedures or addictive drugs.
A thorough patient history and examination reveal areas of the spine that may be causing nervous system malfunction. This information will be used to determine the best care for each patient.
Chiropractic care is a natural approach to better health that is proven safe and effective.
How does chiropractic care work?
Chiropractic is an overall way of looking at the human body. It's based on the idea that the body is self-sustaining and self-healing. The body is in essence completely controlled by the brain through its connection via the spinal cord and the vast networks of nerves that make up the body. When this system is not functioning at its peak, the overall performance of the human body is lacking.
In the chiropractic world, drugs and medicine are not utilized as a form of treating a patient. While supplementation and nutrition are almost always a part of the bigger picture, drugs and prescriptions can be viewed as band-aids to treat symptoms rather than going to the source and treating the real problem.
While it's often perceived that the chiropractor is solely here to treat back and neck pain, this is simply a small piece of what the profession really is capable of handling. Chiropractors not only treat soft and hard tissue problems such as sciatica and joint pain, but are largely called on to deal with more significant issues. Some of these issues include fibromyalgia, allergies, insomnia, headaches and many more.
What is an adjustment?
A chiropractic adjustment is the art of using specific force in a precise direction applied to a joint that is fixated (”locked-up”), or not moving properly. This adds motion to the joint, helping the bones gradually return to a more normal position and motion. The purpose of this safe and natural procedure is improved spinal function, improved nervous system function and improved health.
What can cause spinal problems?
Physical trauma such as improper lifting, car accidents, repetitive motion and poor sleeping habits can cause spinal problems. Emotional stress and chemical imbalances are common culprits too. Chiropractors detect these spinal problems and use controlled pressure to correct malfunctioning spinal segments to optimize your ranges of motion.
What is a subluxation?
When a vertebrae becomes misaligned or moves out of its normal position, this is referred to in the chiropractic profession as a subluxation. Subluxations can be caused by a wide range of issues ranging from a minor slip or bump to a car accident or any sudden trauma. When a vertebrae is subluxated, it begins to put pressure on nerves, blood vessels and everything around it. This pressure comes with a price. The subluxation interrupts the natural pathways that the messages sent from the brain need to be clear in order to be completed properly.
What can I expect from my visit to a chiropractor?
Going to the Chiropractor is a new experience for many of us. Maybe we've heard through a friend or have done some research online. It's possible that you are just fed up with living in pain and it's time to do something about it. In either case, your first visit to the chiropractor will really be about getting to know the chiropractor and discussing your history, current condition and goals.
What results can I expect from treatment?
Chiropractic is based on the idea of removing imbalances both structural and postural in an effort to allow our body to heal itself. For this to happen the network of nerves and signals from your brain, down your spinal cord, to the network of nerves must be allowed to flow freely without any interruption. Chiropractors have the ability and skill to remove these interruptions or misalignments and allow the body to perform as it was meant to.
If you've ever been in a car accident, played a sport, fell down or just bumped into something too hard, it's very possible that you are not functioning at your best due to a misalignment. While there are many potential mechanical or structural causes for misalignment, there are also chemical reasons. For instance, if you smoke or drink excessively or even just have a poor diet, the chemical issues in your body can eventually cause underlying conditions and disease to appear.
Allowing a chiropractor to get you back on track both chemically and structurally will bring your body back to the proper state it should be in to perform at its peak.