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Chiropractic is about much more than fixing pains in the neck and back. It’s about reconnecting mind, body, and spirit. This natural, healing art can make significant changes in the quality of people’s lives.

Chiropractic, defined in Latin as, “done by hand,” was first practised in 1895 by a Canadian, Dr. D.D. Palmer. He understood that all living creatures have the ability to heal themselves, and proved so with his first patient, Harvey Lillard, the deaf janitor who maintained the building in which Dr. Palmer practised magnetic healing. Lillard had lost his hearing 17 years before when he bent over and heard a “pop” in his spine. Upon examination Palmer found a lump on Lillard’s back, restored the vertebra to its correct position, and Lillard could hear again. It wasn’t until Dr. Palmer’s son followed his father’s footsteps into chiropractic that the true understanding and philosophical principles of chiropractic were developed.

Chiropractic is philosophically aligned with Vitalism, which appreciates that nature controls all self-healing and self-regulating in the body via an inborn intelligence. In Western tradition, these powers were called the “humours”; in Eastern traditions, they are called “qi” or “prana.” This view differs dramatically from a Mechanistic philosophy, in which the body is represented as a series of parts that, when diseased, require external means such as drugs or surgery to treat the dysfunction.

When we are conceived, we are given life, a brain, and nervous system to control all functions in the body. Innate wisdom, our inborn intelligence, travels via the nerves properly organizing and maintaining trillions of cells. When the forces of innate intelligence flow freely, our body receives proper communication from the brain and the body heals and functions at its optimum. When the nervous system is compromised, innate forces are constrained and the body begins a process of disease, which is a state of suboptimal health and nerve flow.

Compromising the Nervous System

Nerve interference arises from stress in the spinal column, which protects the nervous system. Stress has a negative effect on the body.

Physical stresses like car accidents, falls, traumatic childbirth, and poor posture can cause an abnormal shift in the spinal column. Emotional stress may cause tension in the supporting muscles of the spine, and chemical stresses and toxins can interfere with nerve function. This causes a condition known as “vertebral subluxation.” Manifestations of stress, subluxations may occur suddenly with a severe injury or develop slowly over many years.

On a typical visit to a chiropractor, a subluxation check-up takes place. Using a stress history, postural and flexibility examinations, muscle and nerve examinations, computerized spinal imaging, and X-rays, a chiropractor can detect subluxations. X-rays are essential because they may rule out other diseases or infectious processes, aid in the detection of scoliosis, and allow spinal curves to be visualized so posture can be corrected.

The spine is adjusted to remove subluxations and reconnect nerve flow, which allows the flow of innate intelligence and restoring optimum self-healing and self-function. Chiropractic really does not “treat” any disease. But by permitting proper nerve flow to the cells, tissues, and organs of the body, chiropractic naturally corrects many health problems. As the master system of the body, the nervous system primarily controls all systems of the body, including immune, circulatory, digestive, endocrine, and elimination. Correcting subluxations in the neck may clear headaches, visual disturbances, infantile colic, and allergies. Correcting subluxations in the mid-back may normalize blood pressure, improve asthma, and clear ulcers. Correcting subluxations in the lower back may normalize constipation, correct low-back pain, and decrease menstrual cramping. The underlying premise to remember is that the body will function better when the nervous system allows innate intelligence to flow freely.

Chiropractic is the fastest-growing primary health care profession. More than 4.5 million people get adjusted regularly every year in North America. Well-adjusted people are far less likely to use medication and are more likely to take their health seriously. They exercise regularly, eat healthy food and vitamins, drink lots of clean, filtered water, and see their chiropractor to stay well and optimize nervous system health.

Chiropractic turns on your power and gets your innate intelligence flowing at its maximum. Who’s your chiropractor?

Peter Hryciuk, DC, runs the Royal York Chiropractic Centre, a family, wellness-based practice. Visit spinalhealth.com for more information on achieving optimal health with natural chiropractic care.

Source: alive #263, September 2004