Chiropractic Adjustment
Information about Chiropractic Adjustment by Dr Barry Marks, Chiropractor Orange, CA. Dr. Marks has been practicing Chiropractic since 1986 and is a former Associate Clinical Professor at a leading chiropractic college.
Chiropractic Adjustment of the Spine
The basis of chiropractic goes back to ancient Egypt. Hieroglyphs reportedly show ancient healers performing some form of manipulation or adjustment to the spine. Greek philosopher, Hippocrates once said, “Get knowledge of the spine, for this is the requisite for many diseases.”
Specific chiropractic adjustments to restore health began in Iowa by D.D. Palmer in the 1890s. Palmer was interested in healing and was well-read in the current knowledge of health, anatomy and physiology for the time period. The first adjustment delivered by his hands were to a janitor, Harvey Lillard, who was nearly deaf every since he bent over and felt a “pop” in his upper back.
Palmer was curious to learn if the pop had anything to do with Lillard’s deafness so he figured out how to manipulate or adjust the spine. He moved the deaf man’s spinal bones and miraculously restored his hearing. Palmer went on to experiment more and eventually opened the world’s first chiropractic college to teach others.
Modern Chiropractic Adjustment
Many years and much scientific scrutiny followed Palmer’s early work. Chiropractic is one of the most widely researched health care treatments. Much of the research was funded and performed by groups trying to discredit chiropractic to prevent competition with physicians who preferred the emerging pharmacological approach to healthcare. To their surprise, each time they attempted to prove chiropractic a sham, the results showed that chiropractic adjustment actually does work!
Today, research is proving that chiropractic adjustments are a viable source of relief for many painful conditions. Many agencies, professional associations and insurers have adopted guidelines to include chiropractic adjustment or spinal manipulative therapy as a first treatment prior to drugs or more invasive procedures.
A Chiropractic Adjustment Explained
Your spine is a column of interlocking bones called vertebrae which are designed to be flexible yet protect the sensitive spinal cord that connects all nerves to your brain. Think of the spine like a bicycle chain as a series of interconnected links that must be flexible yet strong. When a link in a chain becomes rusty or is damaged, a kink occurs and the chain cannot move around the sprocket well. Your spinal joints must be flexible and free of “kinks” to function properly.
Sometimes your spine becomes “kinked” or misaligned due to trauma, chronic poor posture, etc. When a spinal joint loses its flexibility and cannot freely move, the nerves underneath become irritated. Some times it will cause pain and sometimes it doesn’t show up for a while. Our bodies have an amazing ability to cope with malfunction, but once the problem has been there long enough, it will begin to present as symptoms of pain, stiffness or tingling, numbness or other abnormal sensations.
Incidentally, Chiropractic Translates to “By Hand”
Specifically, a chiropractic adjustment is a procedure (traditionally and still most commonly done manually by hands) to locate the spinal interference and provide a thrust or pressure to specifically unlock the joint. Once the joint is free to move, function is restored. The adjustment is a physical unlocking of mechanical joints, but it is also an electrical event. Adjustments cause a surge of nerve activity to the brain which causes a release of hormones that relieve pain and cause relaxation of muscles.
Chiropractic adjustments delivered precisely and with skill are painless. Of course if you have a painful injury and acute spasm, it may be painful to get into position, but the adjustment itself is usually quite tolerable. Applications of heat, electrical stimulation and massage can relax you and make the adjustment easier. The goal of a good chiropractor is to make the adjustment with the least force possible and still move the joint. Each patient is adjusted differently due to body type, type of condition, etc.
Safety of Chiropractic
Specifically, Chiropractic treatment has been shown to be both effective and safe. For example, the most commonly reported side effect is transient muscle soreness after an adjustment. Ever hear the claim that chiropractic adjustments cause stroke or other life threatening conditions? Liability insurance company funded research shows that the risk for serious adverse effect like stroke or other vascular complication is 1 in 5.85 million adjustments.
Actually, a chiropractor would have to practice for 1,430 years before being involved. Comparing chiropractic to a common and seemingly harmless treatment such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs), Stanford University of Medicine reported at least 16,500 deaths each year in arthritis patients directly related to NSAID use. That lead one researcher to declare “The best evidence indicates that cervical manipulation for neck pain is much safer than the use of NSAIDs, by as much as a factor of several hundred times.”
In Fact, Chiropractic Adjustments Are Safe and Effective to Relieve Headaches, Neck pain, Back Pain and a Host of Other Conditions.
Finally Ready to Experience a Pain Relieving Chiropractic Adjustment with a Chiropractor Nearby?
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References:
Gaucher-Peslherbe PL. Chiropractic: Early Concepts in their historical setting. Lombard, IL: National College of Chiropractic; 1993.
Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. Chiropractic in the United States: Training, Practice, and Research. Rockville, MD: Agency for Health Care Policy and Research; 1997. AHCPR publication no. 98–N002.
Parkin-Smith GF, Davies SJ, Amorin-Woods LG. Looking ahead: chronic spinal pain management. Journal of Pain Research 2017 (Aug 30); 10: 2089–2095
Nansel D, Szlazak M. Somatic dysfunction and the phenomenon of visceral disease simulation: a probable explanation for the apparent effectiveness of somatic therapy in patients presumed to be suffering from true visceral disease. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 1995 Jul-Aug;18(6):379-97.
A Risk Assessment of Cervical Manipulation vs. NSAIDs for the Treatment of Neck Pain. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 1995 (Oct); 18 (8): 530–536
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