What do chiropractors do?

When it comes to back pain, neck pain, headaches, and general aches and pains, there are a multitude of treatment options available to you. Which one is the most suitable for you?

You and your family should expect nothing less than the most beneficial care. Since back and neck pain related to the spine is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, it is essential to seek the right approach to solve your problems.

So where does chiropractic fit into this and is it really just about reduce pain?

What is pain?

Pain is simply a symptom. It is important to understand that when it comes to health and chiropractic.

Over time, most of the pain will eventually subside to a tolerable degree, if not completely, either with the help of medication or not. The underlying problem is that the source of the pain is often still there; However, once you no longer experience any pain, you mistakenly believe that you are cured. Hence the “just toughen up and deal with it” mentality.

This leads many people experiencing chronic intermittent pain that never really goes away wondering why. The result is usually a bigger problem over time that goes beyond the annoying and affects your ability to function.

An alternative approach, which is gaining in popularity with the abuse of prescription pain medications that is now classified as an epidemic (1), is chiropractic care.

Surveys show that chiropractors are used more frequently than any other group of alternative providers with a high satisfaction rate and consistent patient use that has tripled in the last two decades. (2)

What is chiropractic?

On a broad spectrum, you can seek conservative or non-conservative care for a health condition. Let’s analyze our options. Chiropractic, physical therapy, massage, and acupuncture are all forms of conservative care. Non-conservative care tends to require a more invasive approach, such as surgery, injections, or prescription drugs (ingested chemicals) and is recommended and performed by physicians.

Depending on the severity of the injury, illness, or condition, you may need immediate medical intervention or even surgery. This is a rare scenario, but it still needs to be addressed. Logic would tell us that any non-life threatening condition should be treated initially with a more conservative approach and then move towards more invasive approaches if conservative care is not working in a reasonable amount of time.

Chiropractors are musculoskeletal specialists who are experienced in caring for a variety of conditions related to the spine, including neck pain, low back pain, and headaches. One of the main differences between chiropractors and other healthcare providers is their ability to find and correct a condition called subluxation. A subluxation is a slight misalignment and restriction of movement in the joint space that connects two bones in the spine (called the “intervertebral joint space”). This restriction can lead to associated muscle tension, nerve irritation, and a number of accompanying symptoms, including pain.

Depending on the resources you access, a subluxation can cause anything from low back pain to compromised lung function. This argument of how far a subluxation can go is not within the scope of this document. The investigation is out there.

However, an irrefutable fact is that if left untreated, it can result in the development of adhesions in the stuck joint space (3) and evidence shows that immobilized joints can also lead to premature osteoarthritis (degeneration). (4)

What is an adjustment?

Chiropractors improve subluxated spinal bones by delivering a specific force to stuck spinal bones and joint spaces to free movement and in some cases even improve alignment. The force is called adjustment.

It can be administered by hand or by an electric or spring-loaded instrument. The amount of pressure or force applied to the stuck spinal bones depends on the age and size of the patient, as well as their overall health.

For example, the average pressure used to adjust a healthy adult can be 300 to 400 newtons. The tightening force of a child is usually less than 30 newtons. As a point of reference, the typical pressure used to type on a keyboard is 13 newtons of force.

While a chiropractic office may limit the practice to adjustment, many chiropractors offer services beyond ‘chiropractic’. It is important to understand that chiropractic is not the only strategy you should employ to conservatively improve spinal problems such as subluxations. Stretching and strengthening, improving your diet, getting more rest, reducing stress, and changing your posture at work and at home are great examples of next-step approaches to take to achieve lasting improvements in your spine.

Chiropractic is a field that philosophically incorporates preventive or maintenance care that is part of a healthy lifestyle. Most chiropractors empower and educate their patients to live a healthy and active lifestyle that allows them to be functionally fit. Like anything else, it takes time to learn and incorporate a new lifestyle to prevent subluxations in the future.

Most chiropractic care plans require multiple visits to restore proper movement and then recommend continued care, less frequently, beyond this point to prevent future subluxations and ensure that the spine remains mobile and healthy.

Chiropractic care is a lot like exercise. You exercise to get in shape, but you have to keep doing it to stay in shape. shape. And like exercise, routine chiropractic maintenance care is not something you need to do to stay alive, but it has been shown through many studies to improve the quality of your life.

Sources

1. Unintentional drug intoxication in the United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010. Prescription drug abuse. White House Office of National Drug Policy. Consulted in November 2013.

2. Source: Meeker, Haldeman (2002), Annals of Internal Medicine

3. Cramer GD, Henderson CNR. Little JW, et al; Zygapophyseal joint adhesions after induced hypomobility. JMPT 2010; 33 (7); 508

4. Videman, Experimental models of osteoarthritis: the role of immobilization. Clinical Biomechanics, 2: 223-229, 1987