Correction vs. Relief

When a person seeks chiropractic care, and when their chiropractor accepts them for chiropractic care, it is essential that they are both working toward the same goal. Traditionally, health care focuses on a person’s symptoms and the treatment or relief of their symptoms. This is the entire basis for relief care. Today Chiropractic care is very well known for its ability to provide relief care. It is often referred to as miraculous in its ability to provide relief where all other forms of health care have failed. However, although many chiropractors specialize in and are extremely successful with providing relief care, this was never the intended purpose for Chiropractic. From its inception in 1895, chiropractic was designed to be a corrective form of health care. The goal or objective of Chiropractic is to identify the underlying cause of a person’s health challenge and to correct it. A condition of the spine known as Vertebral Subluxation interferes with the body’s natural ability to heal itself. Corrective and Wellness Chiropractors locate Vertebral Subluxations, thoroughly analyze all of its components, design a specific program of adjustments and exercises to correct Vertebral Subluxations, and most importantly to help you and your family learn how to achieve a state of optimal health and how to maintain a healthy spine into the future.

To fully appreciate and understand this difference and the importance of corrective care, let’s start by looking at the difference between “symptoms” and “warning signs.” The difference is best understood through a simple comparison. If a person sprains their ankle and experiences pain in their ankle – this is a direct relationship. The location of pain and the location of the injury is the same. This is a classic example of a symptom. However, if a person is suffering from heart disease and is experiencing pain in their left arm – there is likely nothing wrong with the left arm! This is a classic warning sign of a problem with the heart. It would seem quite silly – even foolish – to spend a tremendous amount of energy and resources treating a person’s arm pain when the cause of this pain is coming from the heart.

Very similarly with the spine – if vertebral subluxation is affecting the spine and causes pressure on the nerve going to your leg, over time, you may begin to experience leg pain (commonly called sciatica). However, we could examine and treat the leg, and we would be doing so in vain as this was a warning sign telling us of the problem in the spine. Depending on which nerve(s) in the spine is being affected will depend on what type of warning sign we may experience. (Be sure to see the Vertebral Subluxation Nerve Chart). Fortunately or unfortunately, there is often a significant time delay between the onset of subluxation and the first warning signs. This is because of our body’s amazing ability to adapt to its internal and external environment. For example, if you have a pebble in your shoe – you don’t lean on it – you lean off of it, and your body behaves very similarly in relation to Vertebral Subluxation.

Very commonly, one of the first Vertebral Subluxations to occur in the spine is in the neck. This is for various reasons, including the fact that the vertebra, ligaments, and muscles in the neck are the smallest, and the head (in particular in children) is disproportionately heavy compared to our body. Small slips and falls as a child or even the birth process itself can result in the small vertebra of the neck becoming displaced or subluxated. The body behaving very intelligently will change our posture, often shifting the head well in front of the shoulders and leaning the head to one side or the other to reduce the pressure this subluxation places on the spinal cord. As a result of the change in head posture, our rib cage may bend or shift to reduce pressure on the spinal nerves. Similarly, the big muscles of the lumbar spine and pelvis will compensate further to reduce the unwanted pressure on the spinal nerves. This is a much better state for the body than suffering the immediate and devastating effects of the spinal cord and spinal nerve pressure. However, this leaves the pressure on the vertebral discs imbalanced and causes them to begin wearing out at a progressive rate.

It is most often not until the discs of the spine begin to wear significantly, and the body begins losing its ability to naturally compensate for the Vertebral Subluxations that we start seeing the intermittent warning signs related to subluxation. (Be sure to see the Subluxation Degeneration page). Quite often, the first place in the spine to begin to fail and lose its ability to compensate is the lumbar spine. This is because all of the forces of gravity within the body affect the lumbar spine, and we often use our lumbar spine to lift amounts that are no problem for a healthy spine. Still, with Vertebral Subluxation Degeneration, the spine continues to become weaker over time. Things we used to do with ease we may start avoiding because when we do them now, it causes pain. However, this avoidance is often the result of continued degeneration as we ignore the warning signs which our body is giving us. Similarly, if we begin treating this person’s lower back pain without thoroughly analyzing their Vertebral Subluxations and the cause was actually coming from a Vertebral Subluxation in their neck – we may be able to relieve their lower back pain temporarily. Still, it will only be a matter of time before it returns because the back pain was simply a warning sign.

Corrective and Wellness care chiropractors specialize in detecting, analyzing, correcting, or in some cases minimizing Vertebral Subluxation. Our education programs are designed to help you heal as fast as possible and to achieve a state of Optimal Health. Most importantly, we will help you learn how to keep your spine and the spines of your family healthy into the future.

We specialize in Corrective and Wellness Chiropractic Care. We provide Specific, Scientific, Chiropractic Adjustments over time and with repetition to correct the cause…the Vertebral Subluxation. We get amazing results. We look forward to serving you!