Chiropractic Care

Chiropractice is a system of healing which arose at the end of the 19th century in the American Midwest. Because the spine and associated elements (cranium, sacrum, central and peripheral nervous systems) are emphasized in treatment methods, much of the public holds the impression that chiropractic physicians are “back doctors.” This is an unfortunately limiting view of the uses and advantages of the chiropractic approach. The spine is the housing for a nervous system which controls all functions of the organism. So chiropractic is aimed not only at “alignment” in the biomechanical sense, but also (and perhaps more importantly) is concerned with optimizing operations of the nerves. While drug medicine takes the approach of putting substances into the bloodstream in order to normalize specific processes in the body, chiropractic medicine focuses on removing obstructions to nerve functions. This in turn leads to better performance on many levels, including organ processes, musculoskeletal abilities, and so forth. In the state of Oregon, chiropractic physicians are considered primary care doctors and are licensed to perform a wide variety of procedures. Chiropractors can be the first-line choice for treatment of workplace injuries, motor vehicle accidents, discomforts of normal pregnancy, headache syndromes, back or extremity pain… in other words, a wide variety of problems. The treatments can be given in a gentle and completely pain-free manner. Chiropractic uses relatively simple tools–the practitioners’ hands, primarily–and it continues as the world’s second largest healing profession because of its track record of effectiveness.