Chiropractic

Chiropractic

The term "chiropractic" is derived from the Greek language and means "done by hand." Chiropractic therapy involves manual manipulation (primarily of the spine but can and often does include other manipulation of the musculoskeletal system (MSS) such as ankles, knees, hips, wrists, elbows, shoulders and ribs) to correct musculoskeletal disorders and improve overall health.

Chiropractic therapy is based on the theory that illness stems from blockages within spinal nerve roots, which exit the spine at regular intervals along its length. Chiropractors do not treat your illness unless the problem is directly musculoskeletally related. Instead, they seek to correct the MSS-related cause. If that problem is fixed, chiropractors say, the human body often has the ability to heal itself. So, chiropractors stress the importance of the relationship between the musculoskeletal system and the nervous system in regaining and sustaining health. They use adjustments, joint manipulation and other techniques to normalize spinal function, relieve various disorders and promote your body's natural healing process.

Chiropractors take a holistic approach to health, meaning they treat you and your body as a complete system. When one part or system is disabled, chiropractors believe it affects the entire system. They pay particular attention to preventive treatments to keep you well, such as changes in nutrition and exercise. The practice involves neither drugs nor surgery, but most chiropractors will advise you to consult with another health care professional if your condition requires a different type of treatment.

Spinal manipulation has been practiced for thousands of years, and modern chiropractic care is more than a century old. Modern chiropractic was initially established by Daniel David Palmer, who was seeking a way to cure disease without using drugs. Palmer concluded that most disease results from spinal misalignment (a concept that has since been discarded in the light of new evidence) and that many ailments are caused by the vertebrae impinging on spinal nerves. This impingement or blockage, he said at the turn of the 19th century, interferes with natural nerve transmission. He termed this condition "subluxation." Subluxation, he said, should be treated with manipulations or adjustments to properly align the spine and eliminate the blockage, restoring nerve transmission and allowing the body to heal itself. Dr. Palmer, however, was open to new scientific findings, something that was unusual at the turn of the 19th century.

Different Approaches

Today, there are several types of chiropractors, but most can be grouped into one of two basic schools. "Straight" chiropractors are purists, adhering to the philosophy that subluxations are responsible for most diseases. An element of this group spurns diagnosis and works to adhere to the early teachings of chiropractic. The much larger group -- historically called "mixers"-uses various approaches and isn't limited to manipulation and adjustments. They perform diagnosis to the level of the general medical practitioner in order to work more closely with physicians. Like straight chiropractors, many mixers believe that certain disease processes are attributable to subluxations: others disagree. These differences of opinion are fading, and according to a report by the U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, more than two-thirds of chiropractors use techniques other than manipulation (such as exercise, nutritional counseling and physiotherapy), but 93 percent of the conditions treated by chiropractors are musculoskeletal in nature.

The larger group generally promote chiropractors as primary health care providers and are members of the American Chiropractic Association (ACA), the largest professional association for chiropractors.

There's a third, much smaller group of practitioners-many represented by the National Association for Chiropractic Medicine (NACM). It doesn't publish either its numbers or the names of its members, preferring to remain secretive while it cooperates with individuals and groups that are hostile to the chiropractic profession. This group focuses only on musculoskeletal back disorders. They do not treat other conditions, limiting their practice to spinal manipulative therapy. NACM membership requirements state that a Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine must renounce the chiropractic hypothesis and/or philosophy: that is, that subluxation is the cause of disease. The chasm between the American Chiropractic Association-the largest and more progressive of the chiropractic groups-and the other groups is wide and contentious.