What Is Chiropractic?
Ten Important Facts About Chiropractic
1. There are 24 flexible and moveable bones, which make up your spinal column. This flexibility allows you to bend, turn and twist etc, thus giving your body movement. These individual bones (vertebrae) encase and protect your spinal cord (the central nervous system), which runs the whole length of your spine from your brain to your bottom - acting as the main and only "highway" for distributing and collecting messages to and from your brain, to every conceivable area of your body and organs.
2. The spinal cord carries thousands of nerves, which are attached to all the different areas and organs of your body, finding their way to them all through the joints between the 24 segments of your spinal column.
3. The spinal nerves spread from your spinal cord like thousands of tentacles connecting, transmitting and receiving information from your kidneys, heart, liver, eyes, ears, nose, ankles, feet and toes - there is nothing in your body which is not connected back to your brain in this manner. This is why a broken neck (severing of the spinal cord) usually results in death and when it does not the communication from the brain to all its working bodily joints simply no longer exists, causing paralysis.
4. After a normal birth, we all start off in life with our central nervous systems and spinal health working to its optimum (just like a new car out of the showroom). From birth onwards, we are all prone to accidents including work, home and sporting injuries, in addition of years of bad posture.
5. Accidents and prolonged work or sports-related stress on your body results in segments of your spinal column becoming disjointed, which can lead to trapped nerves - preventing communication from the brain being received or transmitted (this is what Chiropractors call a " Subluxation "). This is what causes problems throughout the body - Chiropractic can remedy this, helping the body improve its overall health and essentially heal itself. If unchecked, through years without correction, some segments of your vertebrae will fuse together, resulting in a lack of flexibility and movement. This is followed by degeneration of the affected segments of the spine - causing dysfunction, disfigurement and eventually pain to the affected body parts.
6. Your Chiropractic doctor is a specialist in understanding exactly how your spinal column and central nervous system works. They will concentrate on freeing trapped nerves to allow your body parts to communicate with your brain and giving you the maximum movement possible by manipulating your spinal joints back into their correct position in your spinal column. Your body will then regain its own normal ability to heal itself.
7. Chiropractic treatment is a truly effective way of assisting the body's natural method of healing but the results and benefits of Chiropractic can only be gained through a course of regular adjustments. The process of assisting the body to regenerate and heal itself does take weeks, and in severe cases, months, before you see the real results of Chiropractic care. Just like a stitched external wound, after the removal of the stitches, the internal repair of your body cannot be physically seen, but it is happening just the same.
8. To keep healthy and have your spine and nervous system working to its optimum, your body needs adjustments on a regular basis. Our Doctors and Assistants have weekly adjustments, which is the luxury (also code and practice for all Doctors and Chiropractic Assistants worldwide), as many people find that one adjustment per fortnight is ideal. Our Doctors recommend at least once a month as a necessity. Our Chiropractic clinics are Well-being-based clinics, which means that we do not simply concentrate on dealing with accidents and believe that "prevention is better than cure".
9. As you have read from newspaper reports and our advertisements, it is an established fact that Chiropractic is the world's third largest form of healthcare, after your GP and Dentist. Tens of millions of people throughout the world now benefit from having discovered that your own body, free of spinal nervous subluxations , is one of the most effective healing devices known to man. You can read about this in our 'Patients Comments' section.
10. Your Chiropractic Doctor's education: Chiropractors and Medical Doctors study very similar courses but Chiropractic degrees have more emphasis on X-rays, neuroscience and anatomy, with an estimated 237 more hours than a standard Medical degree. All Chiropractors in the UK are now required to be approved by the General Chiropractic Council (GCC) and conform to the Medical Act 1983.
If you have any questions about Chiro UK or Chiropractic care, please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions page.
