Chiropractic adjustment or spinal manipulations is carried out by trained and licensed chiropractors using their hand or an instrument to correct structural alignment, improve body function and promotes self-healing. It’s a non-invasive and drug-free technique that relieves pain and help patients achieve optimal health and total well-being in the long run.
How do Chiropractic Adjustment work?
The most common method of adjustment and probably the most widely used is called Diversifed technique. With this method the practitioner physically moves the joint with a small fast impulse that causes an articular release or what the patients often calls “cracking”. The sound that one feels and hears is not the bones cracking but a release of gas pressure within the joint when it resets itself during the adjustment. Besides the increased mobility in the joint, the adjustment helps increase the circulation and relieve pressure upon the nerve endings that line the surface of the joint and course through the space between the joints. This is particularly useful when one has acute back or neck pain that involves muscle spasm as often one can feel immediate increase in movement and a significant decrease in pain directly after an adjustment.
The spinal nerves exit between the vertebrae close to the joints and travel to other parts of the body virtually connecting the brain to every thing else. With in mind, spinal adjustments can have a powerful affect upon many conditions besides just neck and back pain. For example with many neck conditions, the spinal nerve is often affected causing an associated pain, numbing or weakness in the shoulder, arm or hand. By adjusting the associated neck vertebrae, these problems in the extremity can be alleviated. This is also true with conditions such as headaches where in many cases the cause of the headache is due to an irritation to the nerve from the upper neck.
Adjustments are a skill that requires special training and is an integral part of a chiropractor’s education. Special physical tests as well as diagnostic x-ray and MRI, are used to determine where and what type of adjustment is needed to correct the specific health condition. Most adjustive technique is done with the hands though there are also methods of adjustment that involve instruments or sophisticated tables such as a Leander Table.
How safe and effective are adjustments?
Adjustments are safe and very effective in the hands of a qualified chiropractor. Glenville Wellness Centre works with you to restore your health in a personalised approach to overall wellness – through spinal care, exercise, good nutrition and stress management.
Chiropractic adjustments are a safe and effective treatment for numerous health problems though one should always make sure that only a graduate of an accredited chiropractic institution is allowed to adjust or manipulate the spine. Particularly in the Asian countries, many unqualified individuals are doing crude forms of spinal manipulation in the guise of massage. This is a potentially dangerous situation as person should always undertake a history and examination before having spinal adjustments or manipulation as certain spinal conditions are adversely affected by vigorous manipulations.