What is Chiropractic?
Chiropractic is a health care profession that focuses on disorders of the musculoskeletal system and the nervous system, and the effects of these disorders on general health. Chiropractic care is typically used to treat such issues as back pain, neck pain, pain in the joints of the arms or legs, and headaches.
Chiropractors typically perform a therapeutic procedure called a “chiropractic adjustment” or “spinal manipulation.” The purpose of this adjustment or manipulation is to restore joint mobility by manually applying a controlled force into joints that have become restricted in their normal movement. The restoration of mobility to restricted regions of the spine (or extremities) helps to reduce pain and muscle tightness and allows the tissues to heal properly. There are a great number of scientific studies on the effectiveness of chiropractic evaluation and treatment, showing that manipulative therapy is both safe and effective.
How does Chiropractic work?
Your body is a self-healing and regulating machine, controlled by your brain and the signals it sends out through the spinal cord and the various nerves located throughout your body. When your body is impaired by pain or injury, the communication passageways can become clogged with messages trying to regulate the problems. If the nervous system is impaired in any way, it can lead to tissue and organ malfunctions.
Many times, these interferences are located within the twenty-four moving bones located in your spinal column. Because your brain sends information down your spine to parts of your body, impairment in your spine can greatly affect your overall health. A chiropractor – such as Dr. Marcus Wilcox – can help pinpoint and reduce the various potential interference that could affect your natural ability to remain healthy. By performing a chiropractic adjustment to the affected region of the spine, this helps ensure that each of these spinal bones (or vertebrae), maintain in their normal position with natural movement, which speeds the healing process.
What can a Chiropractor do?
Chiropractic doctors, known as chiropractors, go though very detailed academic training and study that matches the intensity of many general practice doctors. As such, chiropractors like Dr. Wilcox of Back in Alignment Chiropractic, have highly specialized knowledge and expertise on how to review your case history and pinpoint specific problem through an in-depth examination.
During this examination, neurological and musculoskeletal tests will be performed. The treatments usually consist of chiropractic adjustments, and may also include therapies such as electrical muscle stimulation, interferential electrical current stimulation, myofascial release or therapeutic stretches or exercises.
What kind of education do Chiropractors get?
Chiropractors receive an education that is among the most stringent of any health care profession. Prior to entering Chiropractic college, applicants have already acquired nearly four years of pre-medical undergraduate education, including courses in biology, inorganic and organic chemistry, physics, human physiology, and lab work. Chiropractic college is then an additional four to five academic years of study. Due to the hands on nature of chiropractic, a significant amount of time is spent in clinical training. Chiropractors receive more intensive education than most medical doctors or physical therapists in such areas as anatomy, physiology, and rehabilitation.
Aspiring chiropractors must also go through an intensive National Board Examination, to determine whether the doctor is qualified to practice chiropractic professionally, and then become state licensed. They must also maintain yearly continuing education requirements to renew their license.
This vast education allows the chiropractor to diagnose health care problems, treat the problems in the chiropractor’s scope of practice, and refer patients to other health care practitioners when appropriate.