FAQ

What is Chiropractic?

A Natural Systemic Approach to Healing: Chiropractic is a way of looking at the human body as a whole. It's based on the idea that the body is self­-sustaining and self­-healing.

You know that your body is controlled by your brain, but the spinal cord and vast network of nerves that carry its messages are just as important. When this system is not functioning at its peak, your body’s overall performance suffers.

In the chiropractic world, we don’t use drugs to treat our patients. While supplementation and nutrition are almost always a part of the bigger picture, drugs and prescriptions can be viewed as band­aids to treat symptoms rather than treating the source of the problem. Chiropractic treats the problem naturally and in turn prompts the body to heal itself.

While it's often perceived that the chiropractor solely treats back and neck pain, this is a small piece of what the profession is capable of handling. Chiropractors not only treats soft and hard tissue problems such as sciatica and joint pain, but are largely called on to deal with many different health issues. Some of these issues include fibromyalgia, allergies, insomnia, and headaches among many more.

How is chiropractic care effective?

When a vertebrae becomes misaligned or moves out of its normal position, this is referred to as a subluxation, or more precisely, the Vertebral Subluxation Complex (VSC). VSC can be caused by a wide range of issues ranging from a minor slip or bump to a car accident or any sudden trauma. When a vertebra is subluxated, it begins to put pressure on nerves, blood vessels and other surrounding structures.

The subluxation interrupts the natural nerve pathways that carry messages to and from the brain. In addition, as time goes by and the subluxation remains untreated, the spine and surrounding features such as discs can begin to degenerate.

This degeneration becomes more difficult to reverse as time goes by and the surrounding muscles, nerves and bones begin to adjust to the new shape. Because the body is a remarkable machine, it will start to accommodate these changes by compensating in other areas. The longer the subluxation is untreated, the longer it will take for treatment to return the vertebrae to its normal position.

When these vertebrae are out of place, it has an overall systemic effect from muscular to the central nervous system. Without proper alignment and flow of all nerves and systems in the body from the brain, we can't function at our peak.

Chiropractic adjustments, or manipulation as they're sometimes referred to, is the minor movement of vertebrae in the spine. The objective of this movement is to realign vertebrae that have moved out of place. Through treatment, a vertebral subluxation can be corrected back to healthy functionality.

An adjustment is often a pressure from the chiropractor utilizing the hands or an instrument to move a vertebrae back into place. This happens with a quick movement and is often without discomfort. You may hear a noise that sounds like you're cracking your knuckles referred to as joint cavitation. It is the release of gases such as oxygen and nitrogen from the joint.