Chiropractic is Unique

Chiropractic is definitely unique. It is probably the only branch of the healing professions that treats the cause of your condition and not just the symptoms.

Thomas Edison was quoted as saying. “The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and the cause and prevention of disease”.

This quote from such a man as Thomas Edison is very meaningful for us as chiropractors because he seemed to tap into the basic philosophy of chiropractic a long time before chiropractic began. On a personal level, I would like to think I am doing the very thing that Thomas Edison is addressing in his quote.

To begin with, all the organs and systems in the body function by way of the central and autonomic nervous systems. These are a very intricate network of nerves that travel from the brain outward toward each and every cell in the body and then back to the brain. These nerve systems carry billions if not trillions of nerve impulses every second so the brain can tell the cell what to do and the cell can let the brain know what it’s doing. If there is a glitch in any part of this complex procedure, the lines of communication are broken and the cell gets sick and sometimes dies prematurely. Each different type of cell (heart, skin, bone, liver etc.) has a fairly predictable life span, and if it gets sick and dies, then the body has to replace it with another one just like it. This significantly increases the stress levels throughout the entire body. If the glitch affects too many of the cells at the same time, that organ or body part may begin to show signs of breakdown or “disease”. Now it’s time to see your doctor and you are diagnosed with something or other that needs treatment or surgery.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could keep all the nerves in your body working at 100% function so the “disease” would never manifest itself to be “diagnosed”? Of course this would be a utopian world and could probably never happen. But wait; what if you could keep the nerves working better and the lines of communication running a lot more smoothly. Wouldn’t that keep all the body parts working more efficiently and more healthily, and help prevent the onset of “disease”?

My answer would be a resounding: Yes it would.

From my point of view as a chiropractor, Thomas Edison must have known something. He was thinking like a chiropractor way before chiropractic first appeared on the scene back in 1895 in Davenport, Iowa.

When I attended Chiropractic College in Davenport, Iowa, the philosophy I learned dwelt heavily on this brain cell to tissue cell and back to the brain cell idea, and how it affected our health and well being. I learned that it would be a much better concept to prevent sickness and disease than to allow it to rear its ugly head and then try to “cure” it. A person does not need to have specific symptoms to benefit from chiropractic care. There could be interference to a nerve and causing a “glitch” without having pain.

I am very confident that in my many years in practice I have prevented dozens or even hundreds of patients from coming down with whatever it was they were about to come down with. Can I prove it? Not really. Can I be confident that it is true? Yes. This confidence is based strongly on the feed-back I have received from patients I have treated and maintained on a long term basis over the years.

Chiropractic treatment is not painful or traumatic. The techniques I use are state of the art and very specific to the area of the spine associated to the condition or conditions that brings the patient to the office. Recently I have had patients tell me that their medical doctor has told them not to go to a chiropractor because they are “too old”, (whatever that means) to get chiropractic treatment. What rubbish. I treat patients over 90 and it is just as safe for them as it is for 50 or 20 year olds or even new born babies. I use the amount of force that is appropriate to the age and which is necessary to correct the subluxation or misalignment.

So, don’t be afraid of the chiropractor as some people seem to be. At least come in and talk to us. Don’t always assume your medical doctor knows what chiropractors do. That’s like asking a Ford dealer if you should buy a Chevy?