What is Chiropractic?

When a patient seeks chiropractic care, and when a chiropractor accepts a patient for such care, it is essential that they both be seeking and working toward the same goal. Chiropractic has only one goal, to locate, analyze and correct subluxations.

Patients usually seek treatment to alleviate whatever ailments or conditions that are bothering them. However, treating diseases is not the goal of the chiropractor. Straight chiropractors do not treat or attempt to cure disease.

Chiropractic is based on the premise that living things have an inborn ability to maintain their own health. It recognizes that the greatest doctor is the doctor within. When the body is unable to maintain its own health, it is frequently due to some sort of interference .

A major form of interference occurs when a vertebra of the spine becomes slightly misaligned to an adjacent segment in such a way as to disturb the functioning of the nerves that pass down through or between them. This interference is referred to as a “vertebral subluxation. ” Correcting these subluxations is the job of the chiropractor.

The chiropractors goal is to examine the patient’s spine and should subluxations be detected, correct it by means of a chiropractic adjustment. The adjustment re-establishes a more normal nerve function. This adjustment is not meant to be a treatment for any particular disease. It is intended to return vertebrae to their normal relationship, thus removing interference to the nerve function and allowing your body to function at its optimum potential.

Other Important Terms

Adjustment- A specific thrust or pressure delivered at the right time, location and angle to relieve vertebral subluxations

Disc- A cartilage pad that separates vertebrae, absorbs shock and protects the nervous system. Disks can bulge, herniated or rupture but because of the way discs connect to the vertebrae above and below they cannot “slip.”

Health- A state of optimal physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease. When your body works the way it was designed to work.

Subluxation- A misalignment or malfunction of the spine, which affects the nervous system and the body’s ability to function at its optimum potential.

Vertebra- Any of the individual bones of the spinal column