Today I was going over the findings of my exam with a new patient and she said to me, “I never knew that was the focus of chiropractic!” I’d like to say that this was the first time I’d heard a phrase like this from a patient, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.
You see, the overwhelming perception of chiropractic is that we focus on cracking bones and dealing with people recovering from car accidents and other traumas. And quite frankly, that’s our fault. A generation or so ago, chiropractic as a profession got singularly focused on accident cases and unfortunately that public perception has managed to stick around. We’re working now on trying to change that up and little by little we’re educating people on the whole story.
The patient I was meeting with today is a Pediatric Dentist and was mind blown about what she was learning about chiropractic care and how we focus on the whole body. While we may utilize the spinal bones, or vertebra, for our adjustments, we do so in order to create an effect in the nervous system.
What we’re actually working on as chiropractors is detecting and correcting spinal subluxations. Think of subluxations as interferences in normal nerve flow. When a subluxation is present, it causes a dysfunction in the tissues and organs that a nerve is connected to. In simple terms a subluxation is the cause of all kinds of negative symptoms in the body. Here’s a chart that displays the brain-body connection and some of the symptoms that may arise.
So to sum things up, chiropractors focus on the nervous system and creating a positive change in the function of that nervous system. By doing so we are addressing the root cause of the problem or health challenge that a person may be facing. If you’ve got some health issues right now, and have never considered chiropractic as a solution, now may be the time. Head over to our New Patients page and find out more about our process.
