Chiropractic Care - Health and Pain Relief

Wiki Article

Specific gentle scientific chiropractic adjustment for newborns and up.

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What is an adjustment?
An adjustment is a highly skilled and precise movement usually applied by hand to a joint of the body. Adjustments loosen the joint to restore proper movement and optimize function.

When a joint is adjusted, a gas bubble may escape causing the popping noise you may have heard about.

Chiropractic adjustment techniques have been researched extensively. Complications are rare and side effects, such as temporary soreness, are usually minor. Chiropractors are well-trained to determine if your problem will respond to chiropractic care or if you require referral to another health care provider.

When should I see a chiropractor?
Eight out of ten Canadians will experience back pain at some point in their life, and at least one-third of people in Ontario will have back pain at any given time. For many people, the pain can keep them away from work, school or even their day-to-day activities. If pain causes interruptions and restrictions in the activities of your daily life, then you should consult a health care provider.

Chiropractors are regulated primary care professionals, and they are one of only five classes of health care professionals in Ontario that are able to use the title Doctor, with its accompanying rights and obligations.

Chiropractors are highly educated and extensively trained to assess, diagnose, treat and prevent conditions and disorders of the spine, joints, muscle and nervous systems. These disorders may include back pain, neck pain, headaches, referring pain in your arms and legs, etc.

Many patients seek chiropractic care as part of their wellness plan to achieve optimal spine and nerve function resulting in optimal health. Pain should never become a way of life, especially when there is qualified help available.

There are many reasons to seek chiropractic care: Work, accidents, sports injuries, household chores, and even the stress of daily living can cause painful joint and spinal problems. Even if you do not have painful symptoms, chiropractic care can help you maintain a healthy spine and joint function.

Here are some of the most common reasons why more than 4 million Canadians visit a chiropractor each year:

Restricted movement in the back


What are some of the benefits of chiropractic care?

Chiropractic care can:

Improve movement in your neck, shoulders, back and torso
Improve your posture
Provide relief from headaches, neck and back pain
Help prevent work-related muscle and joint injuries
Lead to enhanced athletic performance
Improve your flexibility and range of motion
Relieve pregnancy-related backache
Correct gait and foot problems

Is chiropractic adjustment safe?
Chiropractic is widely recognized as one of the safest, drug-free, non-invasive therapies available for the treatment of headaches, and neck and back pain. It has an excellent safety record. However, no health treatment is completely free of potential adverse effects. Even common over-the-counter medicines carry a risk.

Most patients experience immediate relief following an adjustment, however, some may experience temporary pain, stiffness or slight swelling. Some patients may also experience temporary dizziness, local numbness, or radiating pain. However, adverse effects associated with spinal adjustment are typically minor and short-lived.

Informed consent
Prior to starting treatment, all health professionals are required by law to obtain informed consent to treatment from their patients. Health care consumers must receive adequate and accurate information to assist them in evaluating their health care choices, and in balancing the relative risks of treatment options with the benefits. The chiropractic profession takes this responsibility seriously and has been a leader in obtaining informed consent.

Ontario’s chiropractors are required in their Standards of Practice to obtain written informed consent prior to treating a patient.

Neck adjustment
Neck adjustment, particularly of the top two vertebrae of the spine, has on rare occasions been associated with stroke and stroke-like symptoms. This risk is considerably lower than those serious adverse events associated with many common health treatments such as long-term use of non-prescription pain relievers or birth control pills. While estimates vary, a range of one to two events per million neck adjustments is the ratio generally accepted by the research community.

An extensive commentary on chiropractic care, published in the February 2002 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, which is the journal of the American College of Physicians, reviewed more than 160 reports and studies on chiropractic. It states the following with regard to the safety of neck adjustment: “The apparent rarity of these accidental events has made it difficult to assess the magnitude of the complication risk. No serious complication has been noted in more than 73 controlled clinical trials or in any prospectively evaluated case series to date.”

A Canadian study, published in 2001 in the medical journal Stroke, also concluded that stroke associated with neck adjustment is so rare that it is difficult to calculate an accurate risk ratio. The study was conducted by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and the authors have stated: “The evidence to date indicates that the risk associated with chiropractic manipulation of the neck is both small and inaccurately estimated. The estimated level of risk is smaller than that associated with many commonly used diagnostic tests or prescription drugs.”

The most recent research into the association between neck adjustment and stroke is biomechanical studies to assess what strain if any, neck adjustment may place on the vertebral arteries. The preliminary findings of this ongoing work indicate that neck adjustment is done well within the normal range of motion and that neck adjustment is “very unlikely to mechanically disrupt the VA [vertebral artery].”

There are many risk factors for stroke including blood clotting problems, hypertension, smoking, high cholesterol, birth control pills, heart problems and trauma such as blows to the head from car accidents, sports injuries or falls. Some strokes happen spontaneously with no obvious cause during activities of daily living such as backing up a car. A patient’s health history and activities have to be examined very carefully in order to determine the most probable cause of a stroke.

Does chiropractic care require a referral from an MD?
Chiropractors are legislated as primary care professionals in every province in Canada. This means that patients can consult them directly. However, chiropractors often work closely with medical doctors, many of whom refer to chiropractors when they believe chiropractic adjustments will help alleviate a patient’s condition. Similarly, chiropractors frequently refer to medical doctors when necessary.

Can chiropractic care cure other ailments besides back pain?
Chiropractic care cannot “cure” every ailment, but there is some evidence to indicate that adjustments may have a beneficial effect on a variety of conditions. Adjustment may alleviate some of the secondary or referred pain, arising from the response of the musculoskeletal structures to the primary cause.

What is chiropractic?
The word “chiropractic” comes from ancient Greek and means “done by hand.”

Adjustment of the joints of the body has been used in health care for many centuries and is at the heart of modern chiropractic care.

Chiropractors are specialists in manual adjustment of the vertebrae of the spine and other joints. Adjustment helps relieve pain and restore normal functioning to the spine, joints and supporting structures of the body – so you can enjoy your everyday activities again as quickly as possible.