The word chiropractic stems from the Greek language—the word chiro means hand and praktos means done, so chiropractic means done by hand. Traditionally chiropractic health care is given by the practitioner using their hands as the tool.
A Science, Art & Philosophy
Chiropractic is also considered a science, art and philosophy that utilizes the inherent recuperative powers of the body. Chiropractic deals with the relationship between the spinal column, the nervous system and the restoration of health by removing pressure from the nerves. When that takes place, the body can function properly without any miscommunication from the brain to the body and the body to the brain.
Keeping Communication Clear
The master controlling system of the body is the central nervous system. The CNS controls and coordinates every organ, every tissue and cell of your body. The CNS is such an important system; it’s the only organ system in the body—made up of the brain and spinal cord— that is completely protected by bone (your skull and the 24 vertebrae). There’s constant communication between your brain and every single body part and all the body parts back up to the brain.
Anything that interferes with that communication causes dysfunction to the body. That dysfunction leads to disease. Think of the word disease, which means lack of ease. Disease can lead to symptoms like pain, swelling and inflammation.
Chiropractic care removes the interference and restores proper function to the body because it re-establishes the communication between the brain and the body and the body and the brain. When you look at what causes miscommunication from the brain to the body, the term is called subluxation—sub meaning less than, and luxation meaning dislocation.
Subluxation is a condition of a vertebra that’s lost its proper position with a bone above it, or the one below it. While a subluxation isn’t a complete dislocation, it impinges nerves and interferes with the transmission of those nerve impulses.
The Role of the Chiropractic Adjustment
What a chiropractor does through a gentle chiropractic adjustment is get mobility and alignment back into those spinal segments. That action takes pressure off of the nerve and allows the body to function the way it is supposed to.
A chiropractor looks at your body from a deductive approach or a whole system approach versus a traditional medical approach. The highly deductive approach in conventional medicine is one where numerous specialists look at all the different organs and body parts.
With chiropractic, the portal of entry into your body is through the spinal column and nervous system. Through the adjustment, a chiropractor removes pressure from those nerves which will restore function. In contrast, the medical portal of entry into the body is through the mouth—by giving you some type of pill or potion—or through the skin, by giving you an injection.
More than Bone Doctors
Most people think that chiropractors are bone doctors. Yes, we do help a lot of patients with back pain. However, restoring function is the intent of the chiropractor. If a patient comes into the office with back pain and we give a gentle adjustment to the spine, we can help with that musculoskeletal issue that they’re having.
Not only can chiropractic help relieve a person’s pain but more importantly, it helps restore normal communication between the brain and the body.
Getting to the Cause
We have many cases in the office of patients that come in with mid-back pain. Our goal is to get rid of the cause of that back pain versus just treating the symptom. Traditional medicine merely masks symptoms.
For a patient with that mid-back pain, for example, we’ll restore normal mobility and function to that area through gentle chiropractic adjustments. A few days later, the patient may say to Dr. Hanopole, “Since you’ve been adjusting my mid-back—it’s really weird doc— but I don’t have that heartburn anymore.”
Dr. Hanopole will tell the patient, “No, it’s not weird!” We love to see patients experience the unexpected “side effects” of chiropractic care.