What is Chiropractic?

Hey guys, sorry that it has been so long since our last update, but as you can imagine things have been busy. Carl had an assignment for a class and he had me proof read it for him and I was completely blown away and told him that he should put it up on the blog. The assignment was to write in two pages "What Chriopractic is to you." It was really hard for him because he felt like he could write a hundred pages and still not cover every aspect of Chiropractic, but he condensed it down into two pages and this is what he got. He wanted me to make sure and let you know that this is extremely shortened and abbreviated but I think that was the whole idea. Until know I did not know what a Chiropractor does but this really cleared it up for me, maybe it will do the same for you? Hope you like it...

What is Chiropractic?

To me Chiropractic is an alternative approach to good health, without having to fill a prescription. We know that the human body was created to heal itself, and as long as the Central Nervous System is allowed to communicate with the body, then “good health” is attainable. Unfortunately there are things that we encounter everyday that cause interferences in this communication process. These things might be the fact that we have to sit at a desk and stare at a computer screen all day inevitably leading to improper posture and stress on our spine. Or our bodies may be involved in some kind of trauma, either a car accident or slipping and falling down. Probably one of the biggest stressors that are bodies encounter is the food that we put in it.

In today’s culture we have become so accustomed to this fast paced lifestyle with “instant gratification.” If we can throw down 5 dollars and get a meal at McDonalds in just a matter of minutes, most of us will. Our bodies are able to adapt to handle and process these types of foods everyonce in a while but not every day. These foods contain fillers, which are basically like toxins to our body, and these toxins cause stresses, which can lead to interferences in the nervous system. As time goes by all of these stressors add up and our nervous system begins to experience decreased function. Which is what today’s culture commonly refers to as “being sick.”

Where Chiropractic comes in to play is we have the ability to locate and remove these interferences, which are called “subluxations” and in essence restore proper function in the nervous system. This is a really simple analogy to a really complex and compound process, but when you have your foot on a water hose, you are keeping the water from coming out the end, when you remove your foot from the hose, water begins to flow normally through the hose. The same can be related to the nervous system in the human body. When you fall down or are involved in a car accident your vertebrae may become misaligned causing interference between the communication of the brain and spinal cord to different areas of the body. When this happens the body tries to heal itself, and this is when we notice pain and inflammation. Which is a natural process of healing, but the misconception in today’s world is I just need to take some “medicine.” When really all you are doing is reducing a symptom (i.e. headache, soreness) and not fixing the real problem at hand.

This is where a Doctor of Chiropractic is best utilized. He can evaluate the spine and find the area that is misaligned and with proper contact on the vertebrae he gives an adjustment putting it back into normal position. When this occurs it is just like taking your foot off the water hose and restoring normal function. The brain is able to communicate with the area of pain, allowing the body to be able to heal itself. The Chiropractor is not the one doing the healing, he is just removing the interference allowing the body to work its magic and heal itself the natural way without having to “go under the knife” and physically remove something that God designed and gave a specific function in the body.