What is Chiropractic?
Chiropractic treatment is a hands on approach to treat a patient’s injuries and painful conditions. An adjustment or manipulation is often used to restore normal movement in a person’s back, neck, arms and legs to reduce irritation and relieve pain.
Chiropractic is a health care profession that focuses on disorders of the musculoskeletal system and the nervous system. Chiropractic care is used most often to treat neuromusculoskeletal complaints, including but not limited to back pain, neck pain, pain in the joints of the arms or legs, and headaches.
Doctors of Chiropractic – often referred to as chiropractors practice a drug-free, hands-on approach to health care that includes patient examination, diagnosis and treatment. Chiropractors have broad diagnostic skills and are also trained to recommend therapeutic and rehabilitative exercises, as well as to provide nutritional, dietary and lifestyle counseling. A chiropractor must complete a minimum of three years university education and then a four year chiropractic program.
The most common therapeutic procedure performed by doctors of chiropractic is “spinal manipulation,” also known as a chiropractic adjustment. The purpose of manipulation is to restore joint mobility by manually applying a controlled force into joints that have become hypomobile – or restricted in their normal range of movement – often as a result of injury.
Some injuries can be caused by a single traumatic event, such as improper lifting of a heavy object, or through repetitive stresses, such as sitting in an awkward position with poor spinal posture for an extended period of time. In either case, injured tissues undergo physical and chemical changes that can cause inflammation, pain, and diminished function for the patient.
Manipulation, or adjustment of the affected joint and tissues, restores normal movement, thereby alleviating pain and muscle tightness, and allowing the joint and tissues to heal.
Chiropractic adjustment rarely causes discomfort. However, patients may sometimes experience mild soreness following treatment (as with some forms of exercise) that usually resolves within 12 to 48 hours.
In many cases, such as lower back pain, chiropractic care may be the primary method of treatment. When other medical conditions exist, chiropractic care may complement or support medical treatment by relieving the musculoskeletal aspects associated with the condition.
Doctors of chiropractic may assess patients through clinical examination, x-rays and other diagnostic interventions to determine when chiropractic treatment is appropriate or when it is not appropriate. Chiropractors will refer patients to the appropriate health care provider when chiropractic care is not suitable for the patient’s condition, or the condition warrants co-management in conjunction with other members of the health care team.
What causes the “Crack”?”
During a chiropractic adjustment or manipulation a cracking sound is often heard. This is not caused by bones snapping together but by the joints unlocking. This unlocking restores the normal amount of movement that an individual joint is supposed to have. The joints in your spine, known as facet joints (click to picture) are the same type of joints as those in your arms and legs. In the case of the neck, the cracking may seem louder simply because it is so close to your ears.