What is Chiropractic?
Chiropractic is a system of healing which focuses on the nervous system and our body's own innate healing capabilities, with the goal of restoring the body to its natural state of optimal health. Chiropractors utilize a variety of natural healing methods with the main focus being their chiropractic adjustment. The adjustment is a quick movement applied to a vertebra or extremity with the purpose of restoring normal range of motion, reducing spasm, and relieving nerve irritation.
It is so much more than pain relief!
The nervous system is the master system in the body and controls and coordinates all other systems such as the muscular, digestive and immune systems. So the primary goal of the chiropractic adjustment is to keep the "lines of transmission free of interference" by removing disruptions in the flow of information that may be caused by slight vertebrae misalignment.
In addition to the chiropractic adjustment other skills utilized are manual therapies that address stress within the muscular and facial systems, these systems are the surrounding tissues of muscle and connective tissue which also can be involved with nerve entrapment and responsible for abnormal biomechanics. The U.S. Dept of Labor Occupational outlook handbook states: "Because the Chiropractors emphasize the importance of healthy lifestyles and do not prescribe drugs or perform surgery, chiropractic care is appealing to many health conscious Americans".
Some chiropractors also adjust extremities and use other forms of physiological treatments such as electrical stimulation, ultrasound, traction, trigger point massage, exercise, stretching and a variety of manual therapies. Keeping the body healthy or "wellness care" as opposed to just treating symptoms is also a primary focus of chiropractic.
