What is Chiropractic?

As I said in my first post, in July of 2014 I'll be starting chiropractic school at Life University in Marietta, GA.  Since the next 4 years of my life are going to revolve heavily around chiropractic and healthcare in general, I thought it would be good to take some time to explain exactly what Chiropractic is, especially for those of you who may not be familiar with it.

Chiropractic Medicine is centered around the idea that all of the organs, processes and functions in our body are controlled by our brain.  The only way the brain and body can communicate with each other is by sending signals through our nervous system.  The nerves in our body act as the pathway for every signal that comes from our brain, and almost every single one of our nerves runs from our brain, through our spine and then into the organ/tissue that it's communicating with.  So, the spine not only serves as the central core structure for our bodies, but also as the pathway and protection system for our nervous system.  The spine is formed by 24 individual bones (vertebrae) that are stacked on top of one another.  Since the spine is made up of many individual parts and not a single bone, they can easily be displaced by harsh/repetitive movements, impacts, etc...this is what we call a SUBLUXATION.  When one of our vertebrae get displaced or subluxated, they put pressure on the nerves that are running through it.  A study done at the University of Colorado showed that the weight of a dime on a nerve can reduce its ability to transmit signals by up to 60%.  Another study showed that stretching a nerve by only 6% can reduce its ability to communicate by 70%.  So a subluxation in the right place could mean that your heart is only receiving 30-40% of the information that is necessary for it to be healthy and function properly.  If the heart isn't functioning properly, you get heart attacks, atherosclerosis, hypertension, etc.  An organ or system that is not functioning properly is one that is extremely prone to disease.  As shown in the diagram below, every vital system and function in your body is controlled by your nervous system, and that means that every system in your body can be affected by a subluxation.

The idea behind chiropractic is that by adjusting the spine, we can to fix those subluxations so that your body can regulate and heal itself properly.  According to Lorraine Day, M.D., "most people don’t realize that they are “injuring” their body every day by the way they are living and eating...Unfortunately, doctors only learn how to treat the symptoms of disease rather than addressing the root cause of the disease itself.  Why?  Because they are never taught the causes of diseases."  Chiropractors believe that the root cause of disease that normal medical doctors are missing out on is the subluxations that I've been talking about.  We want to fix the causes and not just treat the symptoms.  Now before you get upset, I'd like to say that there are definitely places where an M.D.s are very important.  Critical care, emergency surgery, structure repair, etc are all areas that are extremely crucial, but I believe that Chiropractors should be the ones providing regular wellness care.

A 7 year study by Richard Sarnat M.D. and James Winterstein D.C. showed that patients who used chiropractors as their primary healthcare providers had 60% fewer hospitalizations, 62% fewer outpatient surgeries and 85% lower pharmaceutical costs.  In conclusion, Dr. Sarnat stated that "I have always believed that the over-utilization of pharmaceuticals and surgery, and the underutilization of more natural healing techniques, such as Chiropractic, has been the cause of great suffering.  Yet, I had no idea that the magnitude of both clinical improvements and cost effectiveness would approach 50% in both cases."

So what point am I trying to make here?  For decades, modern medicine has told us that the only way to get rid of sickness and disease is to medicate and treat and cut and remove, but chiropractic aims to restore the innate ability that our bodies have to keep themselves healthy and strong.  But why are we just realizing this now?  Well the truth is that we aren't; Chiropractic Medicine was developed by D.D. Palmer in 1895.

A patient once asked their Chiropractor, "if our bodies are created perfectly, then why does our spine get subluxated and we have to get adjusted?"  The chiropractor answered, "Our bodies are also created to eat 3 times a day and to exercise 7 times a week.  So if we only have to get adjusted once a week, we're really getting off easy aren't we?"  It's time that we start treating our bodies like the amazing machines that they are, and a big part of that is chiropractic care.