WHY IS CHIROPRACTIC RIGHT FOR ME?
To understand chiropractic you first have to understand how the body works. Our bodies have the knowledge and ability (chiropractors call this "Innate Intelligence") to keep us healthy. This power controls heart rate, breathing, digestion and every other vital function. Instructions from your brain via the spinal cord are sent to every organ and cell in your body. If the instructions are received and followed properly, your body is able to reach and maintain its optimum level of health. However, if there is any interference with the transmission of those instructions the result is less-than-optimum health. Your body can no longer function normally.
Messages to and from the brain are electrical impulses traveling along a complex system of nerve fibers including the spinal cord, which extends from the base of the skull down the center of the back. It is protected by the spinal column -- sometimes called the backbone -- which forms a "tunnel" of small interlocking bones called vertebrae. Spaces between the bones allow nerves to branch off to various parts of the body. This tunnel has to be strong enough to safeguard the nerves from injury, but flexible enough to allow the body to bend and move freely.
You have approximately 200 bones in your body. Where these bones come together, either in the spinal column or elsewhere in the body, they form a "joint" or articulation which allows you to move. This area is where subluxation may occur. The vertebral subluxation is an alteration of the normal position and/or motion of the spinal bones. This alteration creates interference to vital nerve signals on their way to and from the brain. Chiropractors also correct extraspinal subluxations occurring in the shoulder, elbow, wrist, fingers, hip, knee, ankle, toes and ribs.
Subluxation is further defined by the following 5 components:
1. Kinesiopathology or problems with spinal motion.
2. Neurophysiology or nerve irritation or compression.
3. Myopathology or muscle problems.
4. Histopathology or problems on a cellular level.
5. Pathophysiology or problems with body's ability to function correctly. These effects may be seen in other organ systems that these nerves supply.
