The Chiropractic Approach

Medicine today thrives on identifying disease and treating the symptoms of said disease. This is pretty obvious if you ever pay attention to those television commercials for pharmaceuticals. If you notice, every drug commercial claims that its product treats the symptoms of a disease. If you pay attention until the end of each of these advertisements, you should also notice the long list of possible negative side effects mentioned, which, in my opinion, can be somewhat morbidly entertaining. The United States is the single biggest consumer of Pharmaceuticals in the world. If medicine made us healthy, one would assume that Americans were some of the healthiest people on earth. In reality, we struggle to crack the top 10.

This is not at all an indictment on the medical profession, as medicine plays an integral part in helping people who do suffer from disease. I am simply painting a picture of what Chiropractic is NOT. Where much of medicine seeks to treat symptoms of disease, Chiropractic seeks to identify the root causes and treat those causes at the source.

The spinal column is typically made up of 7 cervical, 12 thoracic and 5 lumbar vertebra, which are seated atop the sacrum. Protected by the vertebral bones is the spinal cord which carries all of the signals sent to and from the brain, acting as a highway of nerve impulses. If anything interrupts these signals, which exit the spine via the spinal nerve roots at each vertebral level, a number of symptoms can occur. These symptoms range from pain or numbness to weakness or even paralysis.

In order to have a healthy spine, each vertebra must maintain its proper position and range of motion in relation to the vertebrae above and below. If one vertebral joint were to become misaligned or restricted in its proper motion, the neighboring segments would have to compensate. This increases the stress placed on the effected vertebrae and begins to put pressure on the nerve roots that exit at those respective levels of the spine. Over time, this compensation also causes accelerated wear and tear and damages the joints and connecting tissues.

Most people seek out Chiropractic care when they are experiencing back or neck pain, sometimes after seeing a medical doctor with no lasting results. Some patients I see in my office can tell me exactly what happened that injured them but many can’t identify exactly how they got to where they are. So part of my job as a Chiropractor is to be a detective.

During a physical examination, a Chiropractor will be able to identify and locate any vertebrae which may be restricted in movement or misaligned. Once these “stuck” vertebrae are discovered, an adjustment is performed on the patient. There are various techniques that can be utilized based on the individual patient, but to put it simply, a low force adjustment is administered on the stuck vertebrae to free the restriction of its range of motion. Typically, a series of adjustments is required to fully correct the problem, the length of which varies depending on the severity of the condition. Then, for the same reason one sees their dentist, dermatologist or primary care doctor regularly, it is recommended that a patient follows up routinely with their Chiropractor to preserve the correct motion and alignment of their spine.

In closing, Chiropractic and traditional western medicine differ in philosophy and approach. When it comes to pain related conditions, the typical medical approach tries to alleviate symptoms with pharmaceuticals in the hopes that the problem will go away on its own. It should be mentioned that this approach can mask symptoms and complicate the discovery of the root cause of the condition. Chiropractic, on the other hand, examines the patient and uses their symptoms to help discover the exact cause. If the cause is found to be related to the spine, Chiropractic adjustments help to relieve the stress and pressure from the effected area, thus allowing the body to heal more efficiently.