What the Heck is Chiropractic??

I hope y’all brought your coffee and are ready for another week of Coffee and Chiropractic! I have really enjoyed thinking of awesome blog topics but I thought maybe I should start with the basics of what chiropractic is and what the heck I’m studying at school. Chiropractic is defined by the all-knowing Wikipedia as “a system of integrative medicine based on the diagnosis and manipulative treatment of misalignments of the joints, especially those of the spinal column, which are held to cause other disorders by affecting the nerves, muscles, and organs.” I’d like to break down that definition into a slightly simpler way of looking at it since you’re only two or three sips into that delicious cup o’ joe (or tea, I don’t discriminate) and maybe aren’t quite ready for that deep thinking.

To start, your body is constantly adapting to the environment that you consciously put it in. For example: Have you noticed when you go outside when it’s chilly your hands and toes are the first things to get cold? When you expose your body to the cold environment, naturally and unconsciously your blood vessels in your extremities constrict to preserve heat so that your core temperature remains as close to normal (98.6 F). The organ controlling this constant and intelligent adaptation is…the BRAIN. In order to communicate with the entire body, the brain relies on the nerves that extend from the spinal cord to the rest of the body. When there is interference in these nerves from a misalignment of a vertebra is when there’s a problem and your body ends up not adapting to the best of its abilities and this is when we see SYMPTOMS.

A chiropractor’s job is to locate this misalignment and analyze it to decide if it is the cause of the interference and if it is, apply a specific corrective force to put the spine back in proper alignment. You can think about it like a kink in a hose, in order for you to get optimal water pressure through the hose it needs to be clear of kinks so it can perform its functions. To be clear, the chiropractor’s job is not to fix the SYMPTOMS, your body does that part, their job is to clear the body of these problem-causing misalignments to allow the brain to communicate with the rest of the body effectively. I hope this clears up any confusion about what chiropractic is and what a chiropractor’s job is! I hope you’re enjoying that coffee and I’ll talk to y’all soon!