Have you ever had to fine tune a radio or a musical instrument? It has to be done delicately and exactly. A musician doesn’t just grab a guitar and start twisting the knobs. Chiropractic treatment has been called Spinal Manipulation, but I prefer the term Spinal Adjustment. The word “adjustment” better describes the exact and delicate fine tuning of the joints than the word “manipulation” which seems like a less exact and less delicate word.

Chiropractic adjustments work by restoring and maintaining the normal position and movement of the spinal joints. Joints can lose their normal motion through micro-trauma such as bending the neck forward for hours a day looking at phones and computers, or macro-trauma such as car accidents and falls.

Discs don’t have a blood supply, they get their nutrition through normal movement. As you move the disc is squeezed to let waste out and stretched to draw fresh nutrition in. If a disc is not moving, or not moving normally then it decays and may herniate, bulge, or just dry up. Chiropractic adjustments promote healthy discs.

Normal pressure on bones makes them stronger. If a bone isn’t moving normally it grows rough edges and even large spurs that can dig into your back like sharp teeth. Chiropractic adjustments promote healthy bones.

The brain and the body talk to each other using the spinal nerves. You touch a hot stove, a message goes from your fingers along a nerve to the spinal cord and up the cord to the brain. The brain gets the information and sends a message along another nerve to tell your hand to jerk away. All of these nerves have to come and go from the spinal cord through openings between the spinal bones. If the disc is damaged or the bones have spurs or if the bones are just a little out of their proper position then they pinch the nerves. A mildly pinched nerve can cause big trouble. If that nerve goes down the arm or leg the person can experience pain, numbness, tingling, or a burning sensation. The arm or leg can feel “asleep”. If it’s bad enough the muscles can start to weaken no matter how much the person exercises. If the nerve goes to the stomach, kidneys, adrenal glands, or other organs it can cause them to function at less than 100%. Chiropractic adjustments promote healthy nerves.

Many people have minor or severe misalignments in their spines. They could have slipped and fell when they were 8 years old. They may have been involved in a serious or seemingly minor auto accident recently or many years ago. I have had patients come in who herniated discs by sneezing, driving over speed bumps or riding in a rough elevator. Some attribute their pain and stiffness to age. It’s often not the age of the patient but the age of the injury and how long it’s gone without chiropractic care that determines the extent of the problem.

Spinal adjustments were an important part of ancient medicine in Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman history. Hippocrates the “Father of Greek Medicine” wrote two books on adjusting. Galen, the greatest of all Roman doctors first came to fame by adjusting the roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and curing him of a “withered arm”. Modern Chiropractic was developed in The United States in the late 1800’s. Chiro is the greek word for ”hand”. Praktikos is the greek for “done by”. Chiropractic is the natural healing “done by hand”. We restore and maintain health through our gentle and specific “adjustment” of the joints.

The chiropractor is trained to gently bring the joints into position, introduce just the right amount of movement in just the right direction, at just the right speed giving the joint the opportunity to resume its normal and natural position. I never force anything to move, I give it the opportunity to move. I train it through repetition and consistency to return to its normal movement.