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Chiropractic
The Chiropractic profession offers countless techniques, philosophies, and patient care models. Among all the variability, the one uniting element is the Chiropractic Adjustment. In simple terms, a Chiropractic Adjustment is a specific force applied by the doctor with his/her hands to reposition and "free-up" a joint that is misaligned and/or restricted ("stuck").
Misaligned and restricted joints are problematic because they do not allow full motion to take place. Without this full motion, correlating joints and soft tissues (muscles, ligaments, tendons, fascia, nerves) suffer by being under or overused.
Misaligned joints will cause the muscles that control them to become overused and they break down resulting in such conditions as tendonitis, muscle strains, and nerve entrapment (ie. carpal tunnel syndrome). Another response to misaligned joints, especially in the spine, is that they will send messages to the surrounding muscles that attach to them, telling them to spasm and lock the area down. Now pain is coming from two sources - the misaligned joint and the surrounding muscles that are in spasm.
Restricted ("stuck") joints place increased burden on the surrounding joints by having them make up for the motions lost. Restrictions in joints result from the joint not being lined up properly, essentially a misalignment. In addition to increasing the work load on surrounding joints, a restricted joint will also suffer itself from a lack of nourishment. Unlike most tissues of the body, joints do not have a direct blood supply. Joints rely on motion to create an osmotic effect that helps to pull in nutrients from the surrounding tissue and to get rid of waste products that all cells produce. Without full range of motion, a joint will build up waste products and will not receive adequate nutrients, all which lead to faster degeneration and arthritis.
The doctor will determine which joints are misaligned and/or restricted by using their hands to feel and induce motion. Then, with a precise contact and direction of the doctor's hands the Adjustment is performed.
Adjustments are often needed to treat the following conditions:
- Headache
- Spinal Pain
- Neck
- Between the Shoulder Blades
- Mid Back
- Lower Back
- Pelvis/Hips
- Whiplash
- Sciatica
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