According to The Association of Chiropractic Colleges, “Chiropractic is a health care discipline which emphasizes the inherent recuperative power of the body to heal itself without the use of drugs and surgery. The practice of chiropractic focuses on the relationship between structure (primarily the spine) and function (as coordinated by the nervous system) and how that relationship affects the preservation and restoration of health.”
What Do Chiropractors Do ?
To put it simply, chiropractors are trained to locate and treat spinal subluxations.
A spinal or vertebral subluxation is a complex of functional/ structural / pathological joint changes that compromise neural integrity and may influence the way organ systems function, and adversely affect overall health.
Using a number of unique and highly refined skills, the chiropractor checks the patient’s spine for any misalignments, fixations or other abnormalities (vertebral subluxations). If subluxations or other abnormalities are found, the chiropractor will generally apply a gentle force in a corrective manner to the area affected. This force can be applied with hands, or specialized instruments that gently tap the joint back into position without any “popping”.
In addition to spinal adjusting techniques, soft tissue techniques such as massage, dietary and nutritional counseling, physical modalities, and lifestyle modification programs are commonly utilized.
Chiropractors take a holistic approach when it comes to evaluating and treating patients. This includes identifying and correcting the cause or causes of the patient’s health ailment. In contrast, the medical approach tends to focus more on treating the symptoms rather than the cause of the problem.
Chiropractors believe that correcting the cause of the problem provides significant long-term benefits over only treating the symptoms.