Chiropractic
What is this thing called Chiropractic?
What Makes it So Different?
The Focus of Chiropractic Care is on the Integrity of your Nervous System
Dr DD Palmer began the chiropractic profession in 1895 when he delivered the first chiropractic adjustment to a man who had been deaf for 17 years after a back injury. The man's hearing was restored and chiropractic was born.
How did correcting a man's back problem correct his hearing? To answer that question, let's take a brief look at how the body works.
Your body is a self-regulating, self-healing organism. These important functions are controlled by the brain and spinal cord via the body's intricate system of nerves. Your nerves keep a close check on every one of the millions of things going on both inside and outside your body every second of every day, without you ever having to give it even a moment's thought.
The skull protects the delicate tissues of the brain. The moving bones of the spine protect the vulnerable communication pathways of the spinal cord and nerve roots. Tiny misalignments or abnormal movement of the spinal bones may interfere with the normal function of the nervous system.
Chiropractic doctors call this process "vertebral subluxation".
A subluxation is a complex of joint changes that compromise nervous system integrity and may influence organ system function and general health.
Sometimes subluxation might be caused by poor posture, bad sleeping habits, slips and falls, car accidents, sports impacts, strenuous exercise, work injuries, childhood falls. Even the birth process can cause subluxation for both mother and child. Chemical stress - such as dehydration or too much coffee or alcohol - may cause subluxation. Emotional tension may also lead to subluxation, a fact to which you may be able to relate if you've ever had a headache at the end of a busy day.
Chiropractors are the only doctors trained to find and correct subluxation. By correcting subluxations and removing nerve interference, chiropractors give your body a better chance at normal health and function.
Chiropractic treatments, called spinal adjustments, are gentle, comfortable and highly effective. People of all ages can receive chiropractic care to get healthy and stay healthy. Chiropractors are highly educated, caring professionals sensitive to the natural health care needs of you and your family.
Chiropractic Wellness in Saltash
An accurate definition of health is central to understanding chiropractic wellness care. In our society today, health is often an improperly used term. Many people perceive health as “feeling good, without any pain or symptoms”; but it is much more than that.
What is “Health” Really About
Health is really about one thing – function. How well you are functioning determines how truly well you are. Health and wellness are about more than just ‘feeling good’; they are about functioning at your ultimate potential. When your body is functioning at 100%, you have the innate ability to adapt to anything that occurs in your environment and you can continually maintain optimal health.
Ill health results from an inability to adapt to stressors (i.e. a weakened immune system, stress, etc.) and the result is decreased functionality. Events like car accidents and physical traumas are often out of your control, but how you are functioning and adapting to your environment on a daily basis is completely within your power. Therefore, the choice to be healthy or unhealthy is ultimately under your control.
Making a Choice to be Healthy
Genetics and bad luck are not to blame, and are often used as an excuse in the health care community. Have you ever wondered why when there is a “flu outbreak” not everyone gets sick? It is because only those who have lost the ability to adapt are susceptible to illness. Those of us that are functioning at a higher level deal with the virus without even knowing about it.
This is where chiropractic is different. We understand that you cannot focus on sickness and disease and expect health and wellness to prevail. Merely treating symptoms and refusing to look at the body as a whole, self-healing system is a harmful mistake that is all too common. At Saltash Chiropractic Clinic, we take a broader approach to your health, and look at how you are functioning rather than just asking how you are feeling.
Restoring your Health at Saltash Chiropractic Clinic
At Saltash Chiropractic Clinic we help restore and maintain your health and wellness by working to remove the cause of your problem. This is done through two main areas. First, the Chiropractic Adjustment restores movement and adaptation of the nervous system so your body can continue to function naturally. Secondly, we will help you adopt a healthy lifestyle through our Wellness Workshops and patient education that will keep you not only feeling well, but functioning well every day!
What Is Subluxation?
Subluxation is probably a term you’ve never heard before, especially if you’re new to chiropractic.
The most fundamental definition of a subluxation, or more accurately a “vertebral” subluxation, is a spinal bone that is partially dislocated or out of alignment in relation to the spinal bone above or below it.
Chiropractors use the term subluxation a bit differently than medical practitioners. Not only do chiropractors recognize more subtle nuances of dislocation, but they also acknowledge the neurological impact that is associated with the loss of normal motion or position of spinal bones. Here’s a more complete subluxation definition.
Subluxation: A Response to Stress
What causes spinal bones to become misaligned and lose their normal position?
Chiropractors recognize three general types of stress that cause subluxation.
Physical stress is the most easily understood. Whiplash injuries due to a car accident are common occurrences. The whipping action of the head can produce profound changes to the neck and its graceful forward curve.
Chemical stress in the form of drugs, alcohol, food preservatives and artificial ingredients can affect muscle tone and result in changes to proper spinal alignment.
Emotional stress such as anger, grief, fear and many others can cause supporting muscles to tighten, the spine to stiffen and postural changes to emerge.
One way to visualize subluxation is that of a “circuit breaker” that prevents an overload to the brain by dampening the ability of nerves to conduct nerve messages.
The Subluxation Complex
With continued research during the last 20-30 years, a more complete explanation of what happens when spinal bones lose their normal motion or position has become known as the vertebral subluxation complex.
The five components of the vertebral subluxation complex explain some of the implications, both local and peripheral to the spine, when spinal bones misalign and interfere with proper nerve conduction.
Subluxation and Chiropractic Treatment
Chiropractic is different from medicine in many ways. Most profoundly, chiropractic care does NOT treat disease, conditions or symptoms. That’s the practice of medicine.
Instead, the intent of chiropractic care is to revive an individual’s self-healing ability by locating and reducing vertebral subluxation. This unique approach to better health has been helping millions of people for more than a century, without the use of drugs or surgery.
