How Chiropractic Works

How Chiropractic Works



Medicine became “scientific” with the appearance of bacteriology. Since then, the education of the medical man has centered around the germ theory of dis-ease and has focused almost exclusively on germs causing dis-eases.

Although progress has been made in the fight against germs, medical science is beginning to realize that it is actually the degree of natural immunity, natural body defense, and vitality which determines the success or failure of any treatment.

Because the medical profession has been preoccupied with germs, viruses and infections, the vast majority of conditions, ills and dis-eases that trouble mankind, have been ignored.

15,000,000 Americans suffer from chronic headaches, another 28,000,000 have arthritis. Heart disease is still the no. 1 killer. Chronic fatigue, high blood pressure, stomach ulcers and nervous disorders still must be dealt with. Hay fever, asthma, and sinuses make hundreds of thousands miserable and sciatica plagues millions. Chronic backaches increase every day.

Orthodox medicine has failed to meet these challenges, while a new kind of doctor has emerged – the Doctor of Chiropractic – the second largest healing profession in the world.

Chiropractic gets sick people well and prevents the healthy from getting sick.

None of the body functions “just happen.” Your heart doesn’t just happen to beat. Your lungs don’t just happen to inhale and exhale. Your stomach does not just happen to digest your dinner. All doctors know that your brain and nerve system coordinate these functions which make life instead of death, health instead of sickness.

It is your brain and nerve system which causes your heart to beat 72 times per minute, 60 minutes every hour, 103,680 times every 24 hours and pump 4,320 gallons of blood through nearly 100,000 miles of blood vessels, thus supplying oxygen and nourishment to every cell in the body, some 50 – 75 trillion of them.

Because your brain and nerve system direct it, today you will breathe 23,040 times, digest about 3 1/4 pounds of food, drink and process about three quarts of liquid, speak about 4,800 words, move over 600 muscles and exercise millions of brain cells.

None of these things “just happen.” The nerve system – often called the Master System – controls every function either directly or indirectly in your body. This makes you a whole human being rather that a collection of parts.

Amazing Nervous System

The nerve system resembles an upside-down tree. The main trunk is suspended from the brain and the tiniest twigs end in the cells of the body.

Distribution of nerves throughout the body is so intimate and extensive that if we could dissolve away all other tissues, we would still see the form and proportions of the body, made up entirely of nerves.

When the impulses flow smoothly and unimpeded as nature intends, a person enjoys health and a feeling of well-being. But when there is interference in normal nerve function, there will be imbalance either physical, chemical, or emotional.

The spinal column is intended to protect the spinal cord and the nerves leading from it. Should there be any loss of structural integrity, curvature, motion, restrictions and distortions of the spine, this could result in imbalance called subluxation. This imbalance causes interference with normal nerve function.

Structure relates to function, function relates to structure.

Subluxations – Health’s Hidden Enemies

In order to enjoy sound health, the individual must maintain structural balance of the spinal column. Any imbalance in structure or function will result in lowered immunity to dis-ease.

It is stresses and strains, knocks and bumps of living that sometimes creates this imbalance. Just look around you – heads forward, slumped shoulders, hollow backs, protuberant bellies, rotated hips.

You can be sure these people suffer from attendant health problems – back, heart, stomach, liver, headaches, sinus trouble, sciatica, and ear infections are only a few. They may suffer from any of the nearly 400 different diseases or conditions caused by structural or functional imbalances.

Misaligned vertebrae which create interference are called subluxations. A fall or injury may produce subluxations. They may result from stresses or strains either physically, chemically or emotionally which may overload the nervous system’s protective mechanism and produce subluxations.

How Nerves Become Pinched.

An adult spine is composed of 24 moveable bones called vertebrae. Each vertebrae has the general shape of a person’s ring. The rings are stacked one on top of another forming a vertical tunnel.

The delicate spinal cord – just thicker than a pencil – is suspended from the brain and extends down through the tunnel formed by the ring-like vertebrae. Smaller nerves lead from the spinal cord through openings between the vertebrae. These openings are called foramen. The nerves emerge in pairs, one to the right and one to the left. There are 31 pairs of spinal nerves. Each nerve controls a specific area of the body. When the spinal column is in proper alignment, the nerves pass unimpeded through the foramen. But when one or more vertebra become misaligned, the nerve creates inflammation and irritation which alters normal nerve function to that area of the body served by that nerve.

Sometimes misaligned vertebrae correct themselves. But most subluxations need outside assistance for correction. That assistance is chiropractic care.

The Chiropractic Story

The principle of chiropractic was discovered September 18, 1895 by Dr. Daniel Palmer in Davenport, Iowa. On that day, Palmer was in his office carrying on a shouted conversation with the deaf janitor of the building, Harvey Lillard.

Lillard was explaining in shouts to Palmer that about 17 years earlier while working in a cramped, stooped position, something had “popped” in his back. Since that time, his hearing had become progressively worse.

Dr. Palmer, a curious, intelligent man, examined Lillard’s back and found a painful, misaligned vertebrae at the spot where something had “popped” 17 years earlier. He suspected a connection between the misaligned vertebra and Lillard’s impaired hearing….and reasoned that if something had gone wrong in his back and caused deafness, the correction of the misaligned vertebrae should bring back Lillard’s hearing.

Using his hands, Palmer repositioned the vertebra with a gentle thrust. Lillard’s hearing improved immediately. In that moment, Palmer made the breakthrough that had eluded the greatest medical minds of all the ages…he had discovered the cause of nearly all human dis-ease.

During the next few days, Palmer continued the hand treatments on Lillard’s spine. Within a week, Lillard was able to hear as well as anybody and was telling anybody who would listen about Dr. Palmer’s hand treatments.

Dr. Palmer’s fame quickly spread as he proved that the hand treatments were effective in all sorts of dis-ease disorders and dysfunction’s. He became a world renowned specialist in the spine and nerve system.

His research into the cause of dis-ease had led him to the conclusion that misalignment of the spinal column interferes with normal nerve function and thus, creates alteration of structure.

Imbalance in the Nervous System Causes Dysfunction

Everyone knows that if you cut yourself on the outside of the body over time the wound will heal.

Everyone knows that pinched nerves in the back can cause sciatic pain down the legs and that nerves severely compressed cause paralysis.

Why, then, do some of us shut our minds to the same pinched nerve theory when (for instance) the lungs, heart, stomach or other parts of the body become dis-eased ? Such thinking is inconsistent.

Lung, heart and stomach conditions need the same consideration that more obvious forms of paralysis receive. Tissue deprived of nerve energy (impulses) cannot maintain health without neurological guidance.

Nature Heals With Chiropractic Care

Chiropractors do not need to give medicine to restore health. They know that nature provides each person with a built-in druggist capable of compounding medicines, hormones, enzymes and antibiotics. Just as there is a health kit inside your body that heals cuts, mends broken bones and repairs damaged organs…so is there a doctor on the inside who can prescribe everything you need…in the exact dose needed…and without harmful side effects. The human body is capable of healing itself of every dis-ease provided nothing interferes with normal nerve function.

The Doctor of Chiropractic works with the spine and nervous system. Chiropractors were the first to recognizes that spinal bones (vertebrae), twisted slightly out of place (subluxations), interfere with the nervous system. This creates altered physiology resulting in inflammation and irritation. Chiropractors are dedicated to analyzing, locating and removing the subluxation through the chiropractic adjustment. It is through the chiropractic adjustment that homeostasis (inner balance) is reestablished; and health is the result.

You’ll find your chiropractor to be an intelligent, scientifically-trained doctor. Many years of professional schooling in basic and clinical sciences have given your chiropractor the necessary background for discretion and judgement in caring for their patients.


The Chiropractor is the only doctor in your community with the know-how to restore normal nerve functions, the natural way to lasting health.



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