Chiropractic treatment uses muscle and joint manipulation to assist the body in healing itself. It belongs to a growingly well-liked group of non-surgical, non-opioid pain management techniques. The societal and personal advantages of chiropractic therapy are substantial given the risks that each of those interventions can frequently include and the fact that 70 million adults suffer from chronic pain.
Nowadays we might have heard the word Chiropractor, which deals with manipulation and postural correction. Chiropractic is a form of alternative medicine that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, especially the spine, under the belief that these disorders affect general health via the nervous system. It is the largest alternative medical profession, and although chiropractors have many similarities to primary care providers, they are more similar to a medical specialty like dentistry or podiatry.
The main chiropractic treatment technique involves manual therapy, especially manipulation of the spine, other joints, and soft tissues, but may also include exercises and health and lifestyle counseling. Doctors of Chiropractic provide care in hospitals and other multidisciplinary facilities.
Chiropractic is a covered benefit in many traditional insurance policies. According to some reports, as many as 87 percent of all insured Americans have coverage for chiropractic.
Daniel David Palmer was the pioneer in this field. He started this new concept in 1895 in the USA. D.D.Palmer was the first person who introduce the concept that manual manipulation can cure a lot of diseases. The first chiropractic patient of D.D. Palmer was Harvey Lillard, a worker in the building where Palmer's office was located. He claimed that he had severely reduced hearing for 17 years, which started soon following a "pop" in his spine. A few days following his adjustment, Lillard claimed his hearing was almost completely restored.
A Doctor of Chiropractic corrects subluxations which they called misaligned segments) by delivering a controlled and highly specific corrective thrust to the subluxated area. This is known as a chiropractic adjustment. An adjustment can be delivered with the hands, or with the aid of an instrument. Doctors of Chiropractic most often treat conditions such as:
Back pain
Neck pain
Pain in the joints
Headaches
Whiplash
Sports and work-related injuries
Carpal tunnel, otitis media, colic, asthma
Chiropractors believe there are 5 main components to the vertebral subluxation complex:
1. Neuropathology: Abnormal Nerve function
Compressed or facilitated nerve tissue may result in hyperactive reflexes, hypoactive reflexes, etc.
2. Kinesiopathology: Abnormal Motion
Joints in the area show loss of normal position and may result in increased or decreased ranges of motion.
3. Myopathology: Abnormal Muscle Function
Muscle spasms, muscle weakness, muscle atrophy, etc.
4. Histopathology: Tissue Abnormalities
Swelling, edema & inflammatory changes to the area.
5. Pathophysiology
Abnormal anatomical changes due to the prolonged and combined effects of components 1-4
This loss of normal position affects the nervous system resulting in abnormal function.
The positional fault is corrected by high-velocity thrust or manipulation. The human body starts work at an optimal level after correcting the positional fault.
The same thing can be done by taping and other treatments. We are treating positional faults in various manual therapy concepts like Mckenzie, Mulligan, Kaltenborn, and Maitland's approach.
We should be careful that the home exercise or self-management should be specific to restore the dysfunction. Postural advice should be proper whether you are giving chiropractic treatment or any house of thoughts of manual therapy. Nowadays some physiotherapist is also practicing this to give better result to their patient.
In western countries, it is a very popular way of treatment, but you should have to go to a good practitioner, not to a quack. Chiropractic is like a glass of old wine in a new bottle. There is lot of criticism regarding this practice. D.D.Palmer also went to jail for practicing chiropractic without a license. So this field is still working hard to get into the mainstream of healthcare facilities, but the astonishing result of this field repeatedly proved that it is REALITY, not MYTH.
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