How does Chiropractic help?

When there is an injury to the spine from either major traumas, such as whiplash-type injuries, or from the minor traumas of day-to-day life, it is the tissues in and around the joints of the spine and body that are torn. Chiropractors find the areas of the spine and body that have increased stiffness and are less elastic. The Chiropractor identifies these areas as joints that have been injured and have lost their mobility due to the stiffer scar tissue that has formed in the joint. This prevents the joint from working properly. Chiropractors attempt to gently move those scarred tissues using a technique called an adjustment in an effort to help the scarred tissues remodel better. Without motion the tissues will not remodel properly. The goal is to get the best healing possible. Without proper motion we cannot obtain the optimum remodeling needed for the best healing.

Chiropractic adjustments help to create more motion in the fibrous scar tissue, which allows more of the scar tissue to remodel. This means the patient will have a better quality of healing with less chance of flare-ups of pain and spasms during times of increased use or stress on the tissues that have been injured. Chiropractic adjustments move joints through their entire range of motion allowing all of the injured tissues the chance to properly remodel. This encourages for the best healing which will allow the patient to have the least amount of weakness, the least amount of stiffness, and the least amount of soreness with a smaller chance of flare-ups of pain and spasms from everyday activities of daily living.

What is Chiropractic?

A. Chiropractic comes from two greek words Chiro and Praktos. Chiro means ‘Hand’ and Praktos means ‘Done By’. The literal translation of chiropractic means ‘Done By Hand’. What we do with our hands is move the vertebrae that are misaligned and unmoving in the body. It’s like rusty hinges that need to be oiled and moved. 80% of our body is designed to move, but in our modern society which tends to be sedentary (Accustomed to sitting or to taking little exercise) or invokes incorrect motions of the body (i.e. lifting heavy objects with the back rather than the legs) we get strained muscles which affects the bones and then the nerves that pass by these structures. This usually shows up as pain in the body.

Chiropractic is an adjective that has been turned into a noun like a Tryptic (a painting with three panels).

What is an adjustment?

An adjustment is the moving of the vertebrae with techniques designed to increase motion in the joints and position them back into their correct places. These are generally low force, faster velocity techniques with the hands, although some additional instruments may be used to assist the movement. It’s an adjustment because it is specific with a purpose behind it rather then a manipulation which just sounds bad.

What is the noise that comes out during an adjustment?

The noise, or popping sounds is called cavitations. It is generally agreed upon in the chiropractic profession that the noise one hears is the gases being released from fluid-filled sacks surrounding each joint called synovial joint capsules. No bones are ‘cracking’ but it can be misconstrued as such and makes for many jokes.

What is a subluxation?

A subluxation is a condition of a vertebrae(the back bones) which has lost its proper position and motion. When this occurs it affects the nerves coming out from them resulting in decreased muscle strength, altered sensitivity and reflexes. The nerves to organs, sweat glands, blood vessels and immune system are also affected and therefore leads to miscommunication to those systems.