1. What is Chiropractic?
2. What do chiropractors do?
3. How does chiropractic work?
4. What kind of problems do chiropractors treat?
5. Are chiropractors Primary Care doctors?
6. What’s the difference between chiropractors and medical doctors?
What is Chiropractic? [Top]
Chiropractic is the science which concerns itself with the relationship between structure, primarily the spine, and function, primarily the nervous system, of the human body as that relationship may affect restoration and preservation of health. Chiropractic is a drugless health care method of relieving pain and restoring health. Chiropractic doctors balance the body structures through specific movements of the spine structures (called a chiropractic adjustment) and assist the body to heal naturally by recommending good body mechanics, exercise, good diet, supplementation, and by using the modalities of heat, cold, light and electric. Most chiropractic physicians work with the balancing of the muscular systems of the body to create a more relaxed patient.
What do chiropractors do? [Top]
Chiropractic is a health care system which involves correcting biomechanical deficiencies in the joints of the body, especially in the spine, to return the body to normal homeostasis. In addtion, many doctors of chiropractic use adjunctive therapy to accelerate the body’s natural healing process. This may included (but is not limited to) physiotherapy modalities (i.e. Ultrasound, hot/cold packs, electrical stimulation, etc.), traction, corrective exercise, and massage therapy.
How does chiropractic work? [Top]
Chiropractic works through restoring the normal function of the spine (and other) joints of the body and allowing the body’s natural healing processes to take effect. In essence, we remove the restrictions to healing. (When caused at the spine, this is often referred to as the Vertebral Subluxation Complex). It is not fully determined HOW this process works, but it is speculated that it has to do with removal of interference to nerve fibers through proprioceptive responses to the chiropractic therapy. This proprioceptive response creates measurable chemical changes in the body which affects the spinal nerves, spinal discs, muscles, ligaments and tendons. There may be also some effect to the autonomic nervous system through this response, but as yet this is not reproducable by scientific method, even though clinical response has been positive.
What kind of problems do chiropractors treat? [Top]
Doctors of chiropractic treat neuro-musculo-skeletal problems. (nerve, muscle, bone) such as low back pain, neck pain, and pain involved after accidents. Chiropractic care is also very effective in the treatment of headaches, especially tension headaches. Chiropractic doctors should not treat, and should refer to proper physicians, cancers, bone infections, HIV, fractures, or any neurologic active lesion (i.e. neuroblastoma). However, this does not mean if patients with these problems present with chiropractic problems also, that they cannot receive chiropractic treatment.
Are chiropractors Primary Care doctors? [Top]
Actually, chiropractic doctors are PRIMARY PORTAL OF ENTRY doctors and cannot be accurately classified as primary care by definition. However, most persons writing legislation and insurance use the terms interchangably and do not know the difference, therefore for THEIR defininition we are primary care doctors. This means that patients can come to us directly for care, without being referred by any other physician. The true reason we cannot fall into the classification of primary care is that the definition includes care for life threatening situations.
What’s the difference between chiropractors and medical doctors? [Top]
Medical physicians treat the body as parts (a “liver problem” or a “stomach case” etc.) without much respect for what other factors caused the individual organ to dysfunction. Chiropractic doctors will discuss with the patient all known items that may (or may not) have had some effect on their problem. A person may have mid thoracic pain from coughing, but the patient’s smoking habits would need to be discussed, as well as a possible connection to head/neck pain. What the patient does in his/her work may cause some of the problem. How and where they live may also contribute to the problem. This is treating the whole person.
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