Learn About Chiropractic

"Bonesetters" have been around since ancient Egyptian times, but it wasn't until the year 1895 that the art of Chiropractic was developed by a man named D.D. Palmer. Taken from the Greek words cheir (the hand), and praktickis (done by), Chiropractic was first theorized when D.D. noticed that his janitor, Harvey Lillard, could barely hear the racket of a truck outside the window. When questioned about his condition, Harvey recounted an accident that had occurred 17 years earlier when he bent down to pick up a heavy object from a stooped position. He felt a "pop" in his back and noticed an immediate loss of hearing. After listening to Harvey's tale, D.D., who at that time was a magnetic healer, began to examine his spine in the area that Harvey felt the "pop, and noticed that one of the vertebra had been racked from its normal position. D.D. reasoned that if he replaced the vertebra, Harvey's hearing should return.

Using the spinous process of the vertebra as a lever, D.D. set the bone back into position and, lo and

behold, Harvey's hearing returned. At first D.D. advertised his discovery as a cure for deafness, until his next patient was helped with a heart condition. D.D. reasoned that "if two diseases, so dissimilar, were "cured" by relief of vertebral nerve impingement, were not other diseases due to a similar cause?" Thus

began the science, art and philosophy of Chiropractic.

Most of us know that Chiropractic is an excellent, conservative treatment of many musculoskeletal

conditions. You bend down and hear a "pop" in your back or neck, and the next thing you know, you can't move. Who do you call for help? The first person on your mind should be your local Chiropractor. But how does it work? A joint is formed when two bones come together, such as the knee (tibia and femur), usually allowing for a range of motion (a.k.a. ROM). Range of motion can be divided into three categories:
Active - The ROM provided by normal muscle contraction (i.e. pointing your finger), Passive - The ROM beyond active that can only be done with external help (i.e. pulling your finger back from a pointing position). Passive ROM acts as a springy shock absorber to prevent permanent ligament and joint damage. The last category is called Paraphysiological Space - The very end ROM (i.e. that noise you hear when you crack your knuckles).

Spraining your finger, or "throwing out your back", will cause you to lose the passive ROM and some

active. When a joint loses its ability to move through a full ROM, it doesn't function properly, which stimulates a series of aberrant reflexes such as pain and muscle spasm. This is your body's way of

protecting an injured area from further damage. In the spinal column, these reflexes can interfere with nerve flow, causing a breakdown in communication between the spinal cord and organs.

When you go to a Chiropractor, one of the first things he/she will do is palpate (feel) the individual

spinal joints to find areas of decreased ROM, called fixations, or subluxations. If areas of decreased

mobility are found, your Chiropractor will restore normal ROM by taking the joint through the active and passive ranges of motion, to the paraphysiological space, causing that all too familiar "crack" that we are all identified by. This process is called a Chiropractic adjustment, and the crack you hear is the release of nitrogen gas that has built up in the fluids that lubricate the joint. It is NOT the bones breaking. Normal ROM allows for continuos release of this gas, but when you don't move the joint normally, that gas builds up and you can feel stiff and sore. This is most noticeable in the morning when you wake up stiff. After half an hour of cracking and moving around, the joints are all warmed up and moving, and you don't feel stiff anymore. One thing to note here is that the body is always trying to function as normally as possible, so if you have a vertebra that is fixed, and not moving properly, then the vertebrae above and below will become hypermobile (move excessively) to compensate. When people to try to "crack" their own necks and backs, all they are doing is moving these hypermobile bones. This can make the condition much worse because the area that needs to be adjusted is the fixed area, which continues to get worse. Once this fixation is removed, the overcompensating joints return to normal, and the ache and stiffness goes away. No one can adjust themselves, not even Chiropractors.

So, how did D.D. help the man with the heart condition? Well, first we have to understand how the spine and nerves are related to other organs in the body. The best way to explain this is through an illustration comparing the spinal nerves to telephone lines, which both deliver information from one place to another. Let's use the military as an example. The military bigwigs (your brain) are stationed securely in the mountains of Colorado in a place called NORAD (your skull). From here they develop all the battle plans and call the shots for all the troops (your muscles and organs) in the field. There is constant communication between the field troops and headquarters using various forms of communication (your nerves), which allows the bigwigs to react to what's going on and adjust the battle plans accordingly. You can easily see how important it is to keep those lines of communication open to keep those troops alive. And so it is with the organs and muscles in your body relying on the brain for information on how to function properly. Spinal nerves directly, or indirectly, conduct nerve impulses to virtually every cell in the body. When the spinal bones are in correct alignment, the nerves channeled through them can deliver normal, healthy information that allows the body to function at optimal levels. If the spinal bones become misaligned, or subluxated, the nerves passing between them become compromised. This can cause miscommunication to the organs and muscles, which in the long run can lead to disease and organ failure. Now I'm not saying that Chiropractors cure diseases like cancer or ulcers, but what Chiropractic does do is free up the lines of communication to give your body the best chance it has for fighting disease. Chiropractors don't cure diseases, your body does with the help of proper nutrition, exercise, positive mental attitude, and spinal alignment.