Chiropractic

care is a form of manipulative therapy that has been used since the 1880s.  The founder of chiropractic, B.J. Palmer, theorized that the body’s pain and dysfunction can be due to joint immobility, especially in the joints of the spine, which are very close to the important nerves sending signals to and from the brain.  When these spinal joints lose their normal motion—whether due to injury, stress, or arthritis, their internal tissues become inflamed.  Inflammation causes swelling and invasion of immune mediators—both of which can have detrimental effects on the quality of nerve transmission.  Chiropractic uses small manipulations of specific force and direction to mobilize the joints and restore normal movement.  The pathology diagnosed by chiropractors is called a subluxation, but it is different from the medical definition of the same word, nor is it a “bone out of place”.  In modern chiropractic theory, subluxation refers to the dysfunction of the relationship between two spinal vertebrae.

Chiropractic has an important historical place in the development of healing philosophy.  The guiding concept of chiropractic thought is that the body possesses an innate ability to heal itself, under ideal circumstances.  The wear and tear of normal life created blockages that prevent this healing process, that the chiropractor aims to remove.