What is Chiropractic?
Doctors of Chiropractic (Chiropractors) practice a hands on, natural and whole-person approach to healing and overall wellness. It's based on the idea that the body is self-sustaining and self-healing.
In the chiropractic world, we don't use drugs to treat our patients. While medications have their place, they often only treat symptoms. Chiropractors choose to look at the body as a whole and find the underlying root cause of your problem. Chiropractic treats the problem naturally and in turn, prompts the body to heal itself.
Chiropractors focus on the neuro-musculoskeletal system and look to restore function with the help of an adjustment. You know that your body is controlled by your brain, but the spinal cord and vast network of nerves that carry its messages are just as important. When this system is not functioning at its peak, your body’s overall performance suffers.
We are also trained to recommend therapeutic and rehabilitative exercises, as well as to provide nutritional, dietary, and lifestyle counseling. Don’t be surprised when we ask you about how much water you drink or what your daily level of stress looks like! All of these things give us important information about your well-being and how well you might heal. The Doctors at Schwabe Chiropractic are also more than willing to refer you to the appropriate healthcare provider when necessary and to work in conjunction with other medical professionals. We believe in collaborative care.
Chiropractic Qualifications
Doctors of Chiropractic (DC) are educated in nationally accredited, four-year doctoral graduate programs that include a minimum of 4200 hours of classroom, laboratory, and clinical internships. The average DC program is equivalent to the classroom hours of allopathic (MD) and osteopathic (DO) medical schools. Doctors of chiropractic are educated in orthopedics, neurology, physiology, human anatomy, clinical diagnosis including laboratory procedures, diagnostic imaging like X-ray and MRI, exercise, nutrition, and rehabilitation amongst others. Because chiropractic care includes highly skilled manipulation/adjusting techniques, a significant portion of time is spent in clinical technique training to master these important manipulative procedures.
Chiropractors must pass a series of national board exams for licensure and meet yearly continuing education requirements.