What Is Chiropractic Care?
The word Chiropractic comes from the Greek words cheir (hand) and praxis (action) and literally means done by hand. The official beginning of the Chiropractic profession is dated to 1895 when Daniel David Palmer discovered benefits of manually adjusting the spine. Two years later, Dr. Palmer founded the Palmer School of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, which continues to train doctors of chiropractic to this day. Spinal adjustments to correct subluxations are what make doctors of chiropractic unique in comparison with any other type of health care professional. Chiropractors go to undergraduate college for 4 years then transfer into a Chiropractic college for another 3 to 4 years of training. So what does Chiropractic mean to me? It is using your hands to manually manipulate and correct misalignments and imbalances in the body to allow for optimum performance of your overall health.
One of the biggest misconceptions is that the Chiropractic profession is based mostly on treating patients who are in pain. Yes, I will say from my experience from practicing for over 10 years, I mostly treat patients who are hurt or have pain. But I will tell you there are a growing number of patients who are taking action and trying to be more proactive in their health and not waiting to have pain. People are starting to understand the long term investment into their health and the impact it has on not only their life but also their kids. Not being able to play and run around with your kids because you are having chronic back or neck pain is something no one wants to encounter.
Chiropractors recognize that one of the main causes of pain is the misalignment and abnormal motion of the vertebra in the spinal column called a subluxation. Some of the most common effects of a subluxation are decrease in flexibility, muscle spasms, abnormal joint and muscle tension, disc injuries and other postural alignment injuries. I always like to use the example of while you are driving your car and you feel the steering wheel pulling in one direction you know it’s time to have your car aligned and balanced. And you may notice the faster you drive the worse it gets, right? Well when you have a misalignment in your spine or your hips are unleveled the same concept happens, but with your muscles and joints which predisposes you to an injury. If you are an athlete training for long distance it will especially magnify your condition just like driving faster increases the pulling of the steering wheel in the car.
Chiropractic is practiced in every community from hospitals, gyms, and almost every pro and local sporting league to private practices. Chiropractors are using a number of different natural healing methods, including adjustments, massage and specific soft tissue therapies, nutrition, exercise rehabilitation, lasers, taping, traction, etc.… Unfortunately, there are still many people who have never been to a chiropractor and don’t understand what we do. I hope this quick article helps pursued you to feel the difference of Chiropractic in your life.