“One of the greatest breakthroughs in the practice of chiropractic, during its 103 year history, has come about by the decision to define chiropractic by its objective.” —Joe Strauss

How many times have you heard a story about your friend or a friend of a friend say they went to the chiropractor and had x, y, and z done to them. 

Or another example would be you have a friend and you want them to experience the same great benefits you do from your chiropractor and you’re trying to lead them in the right direction towards visiting your chiropractor’s practice but they say they don’t want to because they’ve been to a chiropractor before where they received x, y and z and they don’t have time or money for that right now.

The fact is there are thousands of chiropractors practicing chiropractic across the country and all of them with a goal of helping their community experience more health and well-being through hundreds of different ways of getting there.

Because there are so many ways of practicing chiropractic, this can become confusing to the consumer who wants to know, what can a chiropractor do for me?

I understand if the process of practicing chiropractic may be wide spread, but the objective to what’s being practiced within the profession is pretty straightforward.

Professional objectives unify the practicing profession together for many purposes. For example, the medical objective is to treat or prevent disease. Lots of different ways to do this, but across the board they share that objective.

What can a chiropractor do for me can be answered when looking at the objective of chiropractic. Before we dive into the chiropractic objective, let’s clarify the chiropractor’s viewpoint on health and well-being so we are all on the same page.

A Chiropractor’s Viewpoint on Well-being…

Chiropractic was founded in 1895 with a professional viewpoint that health and well-being are a self-sustaining process governed by an inner recuperative power self heal. This viewpoint is known as vitalism and it is differentiated from the viewpoint that health and healing are completely chemical and biological processes without an underlying principle of self-coordination.

The chiropractic viewpoint to self healing and vitalism is referred to “ADIO” which stands for Above-Down, Inside-Out. ADIO is principle that applies to how the body functions in a complete state of wellbeing from above-down, inside-out. 

The viewpoint recognizes that the inner recuperative power of the body utilizes the brain and neurological system as the control and coordinating center of the body that sits “Above” the rest of the body as the commanding station. 

The control and coordination from “Above-Down ” then travels through your neurological system on the “Inside” of your body to the “Outside” through neurological/mental impulses. 

The Above-Down, Inside-Out process of coordination and control of the trillions of cells and their respected tissues, glands and organs for the overall complete state of function and well-being is a principle that breakdowns and simplifies the complex processes of physiology and body function.

This viewpoint is important to understand as it’s the foundation to the chiropractic objective. But before we state our objective, let’s look at one more key element and factor to what the chiropractor can do for you!

A Chiropractor’s Viewpoint on Stress…

Stress and demands have been taking a toll on the human body and physiology for thousands and thousands of years and a chiropractor’s viewpoint on stress correlates to the professional objective. 

Chiropractic identifies three forms of stress that can negatively affect your body if adaptation to these stressors are insufficient:

1. Physical Stress. Physical stress can be defined as external invasive forces that outweigh the internal resistive forces of the body to be in a state of balance.
2. Chemical Stress. Chemical stress can be defined as external or internal chemicals that trigger physical reactions throughout the body, offsetting the chemical equilibrium or body chemistry balance. 
3. Emotional Stress. Emotional stress can be defined as internal emotional tension or mental strain that can produce physical responses throughout the body offsetting the chemical equilibrium or physical state of balance. 

When stress outweighs our body’s inner recuperative power that we just discussed as the foundation to the chiropractic objective, it can create an environment for more physical stress to develop within the spine.

Physical, chemical and emotional forms of stress can create a perfective environment for vertebral subluxation to develop. 

Let’s quickly define what vertebral subluxation is through R.W. Stephenson’s Chiropractic Textbook that was used early in the professions development at Palmer Chiropractic College in Davenport, IA.

“Vertebral subluxation is a condition of a vertebra that has lost its proper juxtaposition with the one above or the one below or both; to an extent less than luxation; which occludes an opening, impinges nerves and interferes with the transmission of mental impulses.” —R.W. Stephenson, DC 

Due to the ability of vertebrae to move, loss of juxtaposition can and does occur within the spine.  

When a loss of juxtaposition has occurred in relationship to the vertebra above, below or both and an occlusion or narrowing of either the neurological foramina or canal results in impingement of the neurological tissue that interferes with transmission of mental impulses through the nerves you have what chiropractors are trained at locating and facilitating the correction of; vertebral subluxation.

A Chiropractor’s Viewpoint on the Adjustment…

The position of chiropractic is that “there is an inherent recuperative power within the body to heal itself.” Your body has an innate characteristic of restoring wholeness and utilizes the neurological system to coordinate and direct the trillions of cells working together towards an optimal state of well-being and wholeness. 

Your highest quality of well-being is directed by the neurological system through communication of mental impulses from the brain to the body and the body back to the brain through the nerves. 

This process of neurological communication from brain to body and body to brain needs to be free of any interference in the spine to influence an optimal state of coordination and well-being to occur.

The correction of vertebral subluxation through a chiropractic adjustment for the better expression of well-being is the shared objective within the profession. 

This shared objective is what can be the answer to what a chiropractor can do for me. 

The chiropractor can facilitate chiropractic adjustments to restore proper structural alignment within the spine to allow the relationship between the spine and the neurological system to have less interference or impingement due to malfunctioning spinal integrity. 

Better structure within your spine means better function within the neurological system. Better function within the neurological system allows for the opportunity for a more optimal well-being within.

Vertebral subluxation can occur in all ages and stages of life regardless of symptoms due to physical, chemical and emotional stress and our viewpoint on benefit from chiropractic is that regular visits to your chiropractor promote a proactive approach to your well-being.