What is Chiropractic?
Giving an adjustment
Chiropractic is a health care profession that focuses on disorders of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems. Chiropractic care is used most often to treat pain in the back, neck, joints, and head. Doctors of Chiropractic – often referred to as chiropractors – practice a drug-free, hands-on approach to health care, including patient examination, diagnosis, and treatment. Chiropractors have broad diagnostic skills. As a result, they’re trained to recommend therapeutic exercises and provide nutritional and lifestyle counseling.
The most common procedure performed is spinal manipulation, or chiropractic adjustment. It aims to restore joint mobility by manually applying a controlled force into joints that have become restricted in movement. This restriction in movement, called hypomobility, usually results from a tissue injury.
Tissue injury comes about in a few ways. It can be caused by a single traumatic event like improper heavy lifting. It can also occur through repetitive stresses, like sitting in an awkward position for an extended period of time. In either case, injured tissues go through changes that cause inflammation, pain, and diminished function. Adjustment restores mobility to the joint, alleviates pain, and allows tissues to heal.
Chiropractic adjustment rarely causes discomfort. However, patients may sometimes experience mild soreness following treatment (as with some forms of exercise). This usually resolves within 12 to 48 hours.
In many cases, chiropractic care is the primary method of treatment. But even when other medical conditions exist, chiropractic care may supplement medical treatment by relieving the musculoskeletal aspects.
Chiropractors assess patients through clinical examination, laboratory testing, and other methods to determine when treatment is appropriate. They refer patients to the appropriate health care provider when chiropractic care is not suitable for the patient’s condition or they require additional treatment.
Courtesy of the American Chiropractic Association.
Dr. Cooper treats a variety of conditions with gentle chiropractic techniques:
Chiropractic is suitable for the whole family
- Headaches
- Neck pain
- Whiplash (cervical sprain/strain)
- Disc disorders
- Arm/hand pain
- Low back pain
- Sciatica
- Pregnancy related low back pain
- Foot/ankle pain