Welcome to my regular column Ask
the Chiropractor . Many of you have used chiropractors
and would like to know if a certain condition could be
helped or not. Many of you have no idea what a chiropractor
does except to work on the spine. Chiropractors are able
to offer safe, natural alternatives to prescription drugs.
For that reason, our popularity has grown immensely over
the years. More and more people choose chiropractors to
help with their aches and pains rather than simply medicate.
In the 1970s, there were 13,000 chiropractors in the
country. Now there are over 65,000 worldwide - mostly
in America. Chiropractic is an American institution. In
1895, Dr. D.D. Palmer first began manipulating patients
and went on to establish our profession. At that same
time, Dr. Still established osteopathy and both professions
were quite similar in their early years. Along the way,
the osteopaths became more medically oriented, using drugs
and surgery as well as some manipulation; the chiropractors
continued to specialize in spinal manipulation.
Chiropractic is based on the fact that the nervous system
controls everything in the body. The nerves give you feeling,
control your muscles as well as operate your organs. The
spine houses and protects the spinal cord. If there are
misalignments in your spine -- which we call subluxations
-- pressure can result on nerves or spinal cord and cause
pain, numbness, weakness and even organ problems like
difficult digestion. Chiropractors manipulate the spine,
called an adjustment to correct these misalignments. This
allows the nervous system to operate at its full capacity
and restore your health.
All of this is done naturally and without drugs. Chiropractic
can be very effective in treating
spinal and joint pain as evidenced by our growth in popularity.
I welcome your inquiries and hope to be of help! You
can email questions or mail your questions to Ask the
Chiropractor, 2165 Miamisburg-Centerville Road, Dayton,
Ohio 45459.