Chiropractic is a conservative and natural healing art and science that concentrates on keeping people well. While chiropractic is an American science over 100 years old, its wellness practices have stood the test of time-dating back to spinal adjustments first used by Hippocrates, the Father of Healing, in the 4th Century.

Doctors of Chiropractic attempt to get to the root cause of a health problem rather than just treat the symptoms. They seek to maximize the natural strengths of the body and its capacity to heal itself without the use of drugs or surgery. The primary focus of chiropractic is the detection, reduction and correction of spinal misalignments and nervous system dysfunction.

Chiropractic is a branch of healthcare that is based upon the understanding that optimal health depends, in part, upon a normally functioning nervous system (especially the spine and the nerves extending from the spine to all parts of the body). "Chiropractic" comes from the Greek word Chiropraktikos, meaning "effective treatment by hand."

Chiropractic stresses the idea that the cause of many disease processes begins with the body's inability to adapt to its environment. It looks to address these diseases not by the use of drugs and chemicals, but by locating and adjusting a musculoskeletal area of the body which is functioning improperly.

The conditions which doctors of chiropractic address are as varied and vast as the nervous system itself. Chiropractors use a standard procedure of examination to diagnose a patient's condition and arrive at a course of care. As doctors of chiropractic, they use the same time-honored methods of consultation, case history, physical examination, laboratory analysis and x-ray examination as any other doctor. In addition, they provide a careful chiropractic structural examination, paying particular attention to the spine.

The Spine

The examination of the spine to evaluate structure and function is what makes chiropractic different from other health care procedures. Your spinal column is a series of movable bones (vertebra), which begin at the base of your skull and end at the center of your hips. Thirty-one pairs of spinal nerves extend down the spine from the brain and exit through a series of openings. The nerves leave the spine and form a complicated network that influences every organ, tissue and cell of your body. When a spinal vertebra shifts out of alignment, it may put damaging pressure on the spinal nerves causing interruption to the vital nerve flow within your body. This condition is referred to as Vertebral Subluxation and is the cause of most of the unwanted conditions people suffer from every day.

When the vertebrae are subluxated, the nerve passageway is blocked, and the life energy flowing through the nerve can be choked off. Any spinal imbalance will cause areas of the spinal column to work harder in order to compensate for the area that is out of balance. This interferes with your body's innate healing ability and lowers your resistance. Chiropractors specialize in vertebral subluxation and are the only licensed health care professionals with the ability diagnose and correct it in the spinal column.

Vertebral Subluxation is the result of not properly maintaining the spine. The most current research shows that the spine should be maintained throughout life, from the beginning. Properly maintained, the model spine can easily last 120-150 years with minimal degeneration or arthritis. The ideal shape of the spine represents an amazing balance between all the forces of nature that constantly challenge us- such as compression, tension and shear. How efficient we are at resisting these forces is directly related to our health.

Unfortunately, distortion of the spine is epidemic today. Due to overwhelming and repetitive forces of modern life coupled with physical traumas, motor vehicle accidents, poor posture and stress, the spine becomes subluxated and malformed. The resulting vertebral subluxation complex has been found to be the underlying cause of many health problems. When the spine is misaligned or subluxated it will wear down or degenerate at a much more rapid rate, just as a car tire will wear down when not properly aligned.

It is important to understand that chiropractic is not based on pain. It is incorrect to rely on how we feel to determine how healthy we are. By the time you have a symptom it means that the problem or abnormal function has been there for a long time. For instance:

• In 40% of people having heart disease, the first symptom is death from a heart attack.
• Many terminal cancer patients have no pain or symptom until the late stages.
• Significant degeneration of the spine can occur without symptoms.

The technique the doctors' use at Align For Life Chiropractic is called Chiropractic Biophysics. This technique is extremely researched and thorough. The purpose is to reacquaint the body with normal structural dynamics for which it was designed. Correction of the postural distortion and subluxation involves reforming the spine, as close to possible, to the normal model through a series of specific adjustments and exercises. When the vertebrae and supporting muscles are brought into balance, normal function is restored and further degeneration is prevented. The full force of nerve energy is returned.