What Is Chiropractic?

Chiropractic is the world’s largest non-surgical, non-drug prescribing, primary contact health care profession. It is a natural approach to health, based on the relationship between your spine and your nervous system.

Chiropractic is a health profession which diagnoses, manages and prevents spinal, bone and muscular disorders and their effects on the nervous system and general health. Chiropractors enhance your body's natural ability to repair itself without the use of drugs or surgery. To achieve this, chiropractors apply a wide range of manual techniques which can improve the proper function of your body and promote good health. Studies show that chiropractic care is safe and effective for many conditions including low back pain, neck pain, as well as shoulder, arm, and leg symptoms.

In addition, chiropractic care has been shown to be effective in relieving tension type headaches as well as migraines. Many people report that other functional disorders, including insomnia, irritability, behavioural problems, digestive troubles, breathing difficulties, sinus and earache also respond to chiropractic care. Chiropractic care may also involve other natural forms of health care including stretching and exercise programs, nutritional advice, home care, ergonomic and postural advice, lifestyle and health education information.

Why is the spine so important?
Your spine has a very important function. Not only does it support your body's weight, it also protects your spinal cord, which is the "central highway" of your nervous system. The spinal column is made up of 24 mobile segments, called vertebrae, separated by 23 discs. When every thing is working well, your spine is strong and flexible. However, the stress of daily living, injuries, or accidents can cause restricted spinal motion and spinal strain. These changes, which chiropractors call subluxations or fixations, can impair your body's ability to function properly and may lead to pain, other symptoms and overall ill health.

Hands-on health care
The word chiropractic comes from Greek, meaning "treatment by hand". Chiropractors are specially trained to restore spinal function and make the precise adjustments that allow your spine to work properly again. Chiropractors use a wide variety of manipulative or adjustment techniques. A properly functioning spine promotes optimal health by restoring proper nerve, muscle and joint function. Put simply a healthy spine helps you get back to your best.

Care options
There are different ways a chiropractor can care for you depending on your condition and health status. Generally there are three levels of care:

1. Relief care is provided for relief of pain and discomfort.Depending on your diagnosis, your age and physical condition, relief care is offered over a relatively short period of time.
2. Corrective care treats longer term spinal problems.Because these problems have existed for some time, often without symptoms, they may require a longer program of care.
3. Maintenance or wellness care helps you maintain and enjoy the benefits you've achieved from relief and corrective care
4. Continuing to work together with your chiropractor and having regular adjustments will help keep your spine as healthy as possible. Because of chiropractic's concern for your overall well-being, treatment is often accompanied by exercise, diet, and other healthy living suggestions to help keep your back healthy and strong and improve general health.

You're in safe hands
Since its foundation in 1895, chiropractic has been the third largest health care profession in the Western World. In Australia, chiropractors are required to complete a minimum of five years university education. Chiropractic students receive 800 hours of classroom instruction in hands-on therapy in addition to 400 hours of supervised clinical training. By law, chiropractors are required to be registered by the Government in the Australian State and Territory that they practice. Chiropractic is made up of health professionals who are trained and have the ability to recognise their scope of practice and refer patients to other health care providers when required.

Chiropractic: fact or fiction?
MYTH - "Chiropractic care involves cracking my spine."

FACT
One part of chiropractic care may involve applying quick, precise pressure to the joint, which may create a cracking or a popping noise. This is called an adjustment or manipulation. The popping noise doesn't come from your bones, but the release when two joints are separated, just like when you take a wet glass off a table top.

MYTH - "No one should use so much pressure on my spine … that can't be right."

FACT
Chiropractic adjustments do not involve a great deal of force. Skill, positioning, speed and timing are more important than force.

MYTH - "I heard that cracking your joints can cause arthritis."

FACT
There is no proof of such a connection. In fact, an adjustment increases mobility, reduces pressure on the joint, muscles and nerves and restores normal joint function.

Education of Doctors of Chiropractic
Australian trained chiropractors must complete five years at an accredited chiropractic college. The complete curriculum includes a minimum of 4,200 hours of classroom, laboratory and clinical experience. Approximately 555 hours are devoted to learning about adjustive techniques and spinal analysis in colleges of chiropractic. In medical schools, training to become proficient in manipulation is generally not required of, or offered to, students. The Council on Chiropractic Education Australasia requires that students have 90 hours of undergraduate courses with science as the focus.

An individual studying to become a doctor of chiropractic receives an education in both the basic and clinical sciences and in related health subjects. The intention of the basic chiropractic curriculum is to provide an in-depth understanding of the structure and function of the human body in health and disease. The educational program includes training in the basic medical sciences, including anatomy with human dissection, physiology, and biochemistry. Thorough training is also obtained in differential diagnosis, radiology and therapeutic techniques. This means, a doctor of chiropractic can both diagnose and treat patients, which separates them from non-physician status providers, like physical therapists. According to the Council on Chiropractic Education DCs are trained as Primary care Providers.

Chiropractic Philosophy
As a profession, the primary belief is in natural and conservative methods of health care. Doctors of chiropractic have a deep respect for the human body's ability to heal itself without the use of surgery or medication. These doctors devote careful attention to the biomechanics, structure and function of the spine, its effects on the musculoskeletal and neurological systems, and the role played by the proper function of these systems in the preservation and restoration of health. A Doctor of Chiropractic is one who is involved in the treatment and prevention of disease, as well as the promotion of public health, and a wellness approach to patient healthcare.

Scope of Practice
Doctors of Chiropractic frequently treat individuals with neuromusculoskeletal complaints, such as headaches, joint pain, neck pain, low back pain and sciatica. Chiropractors also treat patients with osteoarthritis, spinal disk conditions, carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, sprains, and strains. However, the scope of conditions that Doctors of Chiropractic manage or provide care for is not limited to neuromusculoskeletal disorders. Chiropractors have the training to treat a variety of non-neuromusculoskeletal conditions such as: allergies, asthma, digestive disorders, otitis media (non-suppurative) and other disorders as new research is developed.

A variety of techniques, treatment and procedures are used to restore healing which will be the topic of future education releases.

Works Cited

• Chapman-Smith, David: The Chiropractic Profession. West Des Moines, Iowa, NCMIC Group Inc., 2000: 11-17, 70-71.
• Chiropractic: State of Art. Arlington, Virginia, American Chiropractic Association, 1998: 2-3, 12-14.
• Spinal Manipulation Policy Statement. Arlington, Virginia: American Chiropractic Association, 1999: 6.