Patient Education
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The more you understand your body and how it functions, the better equipped you'll be at taking care of yourself to achieve optimal health. Our team of chiropractic professionals empower patients to take charge of your own health and future, educating you about your condition to decrease your need for future care. We've included the Patient Education section on our website to provide you with valuable, practical wellness information which you can incorporate into your lifestyle to improve the quality of your life. We hope you will turn to these pages whenever you have a question about health related issues and urge you to contact our practice at any time to make an appointment with one of our chiropractors.
The purpose of chiropractic is to improve and sustain quality of life.
This is achieved by awakening the body's natural healing ability through treatment of the musculoskeletal system, the healing power of touch and guidance in proper nutrition and exercise.
On Health
Many People think that health is how you feel. But lack of symptoms doesn't mean you're healthy. If you look good and feel great but have undetected cancer - you're sick.
True health is how well your body works mentally, physically and socially. If something isn't working right, then you're sick.
It is the purpose of your brain and nervous system to control the function of every cell, tissue, organ and system of your body. A properly working nervous system in concert with musculoskeletal integrity, proper nutrition and exercise is the key to good health.
We believe in the body's ability to heal itself. We believe healthy people are happy people.
On Chiropractic
Besides medicine and dentistry, chiropractic is the third largest doctoral health profession in the United States.
The typical applicant at a chiropractic college has already acquired four years of pre-medical undergraduate college education including course in biology, inorganic and organic chemistry, physics, psychology and related lab work. Intensive studies include course in anatomy, physiology, rehabilitation, nutrition and public health.
The curriculum includes no less than four years of classroom, laboratory and clinic experience - all aimed at preparing the doctor of chiropractic to be a portal-of-entry healthcare provider. The course of study is approved by an accrediting agency which is fully recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. This has been the case for 25 years.
Chiropractic involves the study of philosophy, science and art. Philosophy considers the fundamental nature of the existence of human beings and their interaction with the environment. The sciences deal with aspects of the universe related to human biology, and especially the relationship between spinal segments and the nerve system. Chiropractic's art is the expression of its philosophy and the concern with locating and correcting vertebral subluxations.
Instead of treating your symptoms, your Doctor of Chiropractic is primarily interested in detecting, reducing, and preventing the Subluxation.
How Chiropractic Works
To understand chiropractic, one must have a basic understanding about how the body functions. From the time you were born, an "inner wisdom" has known exactly how to keep you healthy and alive. It knows how fast your heart should beat, how often your lungs need to breathe, how to digest food and how to eliminate waste. There are millions of details controlled by this inner wisdom that keep this marvelous machine in prime functioning condition.
Every living organism in our world possesses what chiropractors call Innate Intelligence. The body machine comes out of the "factory" fully able to function, as long as it has regular fuel and adequate maintenance, thanks to this Innate Intelligence.
Innate Intelligence sends instructions to every organ and cell in your body through the nervous system housed and protected by the vertebrae. However, if these vertebrae are misaligned, even a little, those instructions can be interrupted. The result is "dis-ease" and dysfunction.
The word disease is a combination of 'dis' and 'ease'. 'Dis' is a prefix meaning "apart from" and ease meaning a "state of balance." It follows then that dis-ease is a lack of comfort, a loss in harmony in the system. When there is a lack of harmony in music, the musician adjusts the notes to complement each other. That's exactly what a chiropractic adjustment strives to do, restore body harmony, thus restore health.
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"Health is worth more than learning."
-- Thomas Jefferson
The spinal column is an intricate framework of interlocking bones that, when viewed from the side, form a gentle "S" shape. The spine is a sophisticated system—both fragile and sturdy—of muscles, bones, joints, ligaments, discs, a spinal cord, and nerves.
Daily activities, such as lifting and exercise, or traumatic experiences, such as automobile accidents, can sometimes cause obvious, and at other times, subtle, problems with your spinal cord. The most common problem involves a misalignment of the small bones in your spinal cord.
We call these misalignments "subluxations." Often, these misalignments create pressure or irritation on the various nerves in your spine, and can cause a wide variety of symptoms throughout your body, such as localized pain, soreness, irregularity, and weakness. When pressure is applied on a nerve in your spine, the nerve energy is interrupted, and sometimes this can profoundly affect the function of other systems or organs in your body.
The vertebral subluxation complex is medical terminology for the ways chiropractors categorize the various locations, or "components," where subluxations are known to occur. The five components of the vertebral subluxation complex:
- Chemical component – Biochemical abnormalities can sometimes occur when one or more of the other vertebral subluxation components occur.
- Muscle component – Problems that occur when impinged nerves cause vertebral muscles to malfunction.
- Nerve component – "Neuropathology" is another term for this, which essentially refers to undue pressure on a spinal nerve.
- Osseous (bone) component – This occurs when one or more vertebrae are either not in correct position or moving improperly. Degeneration of the vertebral bones can cause this sometimes.
- Soft tissue component – When subluxations occur, they can affect the soft tissues, including ligaments and veins, surrounding your spinal cord.
Symptoms That May Indicate a Subluxation
If it weren't for our remarkable nervous system, we might never know about most serious problems or be able to correct them before they get worse.
You may benefit from chiropractic care and treatment if:
- You have developed any kind of pain in your joints or skeletal structures, such as your neck, back, shoulder blades, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, or ankles.
- You have developed problems walking, such as erratic movement, loss of rhythm or difficulty with your balance; this may be a sign of muscle weakness or other problem.
- You have developed sensory problems, such as numbness, tingling, burning, or localized pain. Nerves in your spinal cord branch off into sensory and motor nerves. A good example of this, and one that is common among people with back problems, is sciatica pain. Sciatica pain usually radiates down one leg or another. These types of sensory symptoms are not normal and may indicate a problem with the nerves in your spine. In some cases, these sensory problems radiate from one area to another.
- Your reflexes are diminished or absent. Reflex reactions are normal if you bump part of your body, such as a physician tapping your kneecap with an instrument. If no reflex reaction occurs in this instance, it could be a sign that you have incurred some kind of damage to your spinal cord, nerve root, peripheral nerve, or muscle.
Here are some common symptoms that may indicate a subluxation or other spinal-related disorder:
- Blurred vision
- Bowel or bladder problems
- Dizziness (also vertigo)
- Earaches or ringing in ears
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Irritability
- Leg cramps
- Muscle twitching
- Nausea
- Numbness and/or tingling
- Stiffness
- Swallowing difficulty
- Walking or gait problems
- Weakness in your arms or legs
- Pain
- Low back pain and/or stiffness
- Neck pain and/or stiffness
- Pain between the shoulder blades
- Pain in the arms, legs, feet, and hands
- Pain in the jaw or face
- Shoulder pain