What is Chiropractic Care?

Simply put, chiropractic care is a manual healing art supported by the scientific fact that the human body is a self-sustaining, self-regulating, self-healing organism. The aim of chiropractic care is twofold:

To identify why the body's natural healing abilities have been compromised, and
To return the body to its healthiest functioning state.

Distinguishing Symptoms from Conditions

Many people consider chiropractic care when they suffer from neck or back pain, but pain is not the best gauge of the body's health. Pain often does not appear until long after the body's normal functioning and healing mechanisms suffered a breakdown. Treating pain alone would not resolve the condition that initiated it, so relieving pain or other symptoms does not constitute healing.

Chiropractic Care promotes healing of underlying conditions by restoring optimal functioning of the nervous system, which is vital to your body's ability to function at its best. Because the nervous system is responsible for communicating information between the brain and every organ, tissue, and cell in the body, a healthy nervous system heightens the body's ability to heal itself. Quality chiropractic care restores the body to its healthiest functioning state before pain or symptoms even present themselves.

Taking the Pressure Off

Although the brain sits on top of your spinal column, it is actually at the center of the nervous system. Spinal nerves located between each vertebra of your spine relay information and responses between the brain and the nerves leading to all other systems of the body. When a vertebra is out of its proper alignment or not moving properly it is called a vertebral subluxation. When vertebrae are subluxated, they produce mechanical and chemical irritation on the spinal nerves. This irritation will manifest itself in a number of inter-related health issues and symptoms:

Organ dysfunction
Muscular tightness and spasms
Pain

Your spinal nerves and the signals they carry to and from the brain keep your entire system healthy and functioning in a similar fashion that water from a garden hose will keep your garden healthy. If you were to step down putting pressure on a garden hose, the amount of water coming out the end to nourish the garden would be decreased, much like how subluxations putting pressure on your spinal nerves will affect the quality of the signals being sent and received between your brain and all the organs, tissues and cells of your body. If water to a particular part of your garden is continuously being affected, the garden will start to struggle, become weakened and infected causing a strain on your garden as a whole, before it eventually dies. The nervous system and human body have a similar albeit much more complicated and elaborate relationship as the hose and the garden. Irritation of spinal nerves will effect wherever those nerves are going as well as putting stress on the system as a whole. This overall stress may distract your system from taking care of even the simplest task such as the common cold.

Chiropractors examine the spine in order to identify subluxations that impair the nervous system's normal functioning, impede natural healing processes, and lead to other health issues and symptoms. Quality chiropractic care identifies subluxations you may not even realize you have -- before pain or other symptoms occur.

Correcting What Went Wrong

Chiropractors correct subluxations so that the nervous system and all body systems relying on it function at their best. By restoring proper vertebral alignment, chiropractic care improves nerve flow and communication throughout the body, correcting compensatory malfunctions, related degeneration and symptoms.

With appropriate chiropractic care, the body experiences healing of underlying conditions and benefits from long-lasting improvements in functioning.

Tight muscles relax;
Blood flow improves;
Pain levels decrease;
Overall health and wellness improve.

The extent to which symptoms improve depends greatly on the severity and length of time that spinal and nervous tissues were irritated or under the effect of stressors. Like allowing a crooked tree in the yard to grow large before attempting to straighten it, subluxations that have been left untreated for a long time takes considerably more chiropractic treatments to correct. Nevertheless, it is never too late for chiropractic care to improve your health. The human body has tremendous regenerative capabilities, and with the proper support it can do amazing things.

Providing a Healthy Start

It is never too early to include chiropractic care in your health and wellness plan. In fact, subluxation can begin with the pushing, pulling and twisting of your spine during the birthing process. Gentle chiropractic adjustments for infants are safe and beneficial to their health.

As children begin walking, the lower spine suffers considerable jarring, and as they become more active throughout childhood and adolescence, falls and strains on the body increase the incidence of subluxations. But children and adolescents are like pliable saplings that can easily be righted with proper care.

Adolescence is the most crucial time to receive chiropractic care because the body hasn't had the opportunity to degenerate or suffer compensatory responses to irritation and injury. Chiropractic adjustments for children are very gentle and safe. They respond remarkably well and very much enjoy the "popcorn" sounds their spines produce.

Keeping Your Kids Growing Strong

Beginning in childhood and continuing throughout your life, prevention and a little correction at the onset of any health problem help your body do what it does best, so you can be at your best. Routine chiropractic care keeps you growing strong.