Chi­ro­prac­tic is a health care pro­fes­sion that focus­es on dis­or­ders of the mus­cu­loskele­tal sys­tem and the ner­vous sys­tem, and the effects of these dis­or­ders on gen­er­al health.

Chi­ro­prac­tic care is used most often to treat neu­ro­mus­cu­loskele­tal com­plaints, includ­ing but not lim­it­ed to back pain, neck pain, jaw pain, pain in the joints of the arms or legs, and headaches. Chi­ro­prac­tors prac­tice a drug-free, hands-on approach to health care that includes patient exam­i­na­tion, diag­no­sis and treatment.

Chi­ro­prac­tors have broad diag­nos­tic skills and are also trained to rec­om­mend ther­a­peu­tic and reha­bil­i­ta­tive exer­cis­es, as well as to pro­vide nutri­tion­al, dietary and lifestyle counseling.

The most com­mon ther­a­peu­tic pro­ce­dure per­formed by chi­ro­prac­tors is known as “spinal manip­u­la­tion,” also called “chi­ro­prac­tic adjust­ment.” The pur­pose of manip­u­la­tion is to restore joint mobil­i­ty by man­u­al­ly apply­ing a con­trolled force into joints that have become hypo­mo­bile – or restrict­ed in their move­ment – as a result of a tis­sue injury. Tis­sue injury can be caused by a sin­gle trau­mat­ic event, such as improp­er lift­ing of a heavy object, or through repet­i­tive stress­es, such as sit­ting in an awk­ward posi­tion with poor spinal pos­ture for an extend­ed peri­od of time. In either case, injured tis­sues under­go phys­i­cal and chem­i­cal changes that can cause inflam­ma­tion, pain, and dimin­ished func­tion for the suf­fer­er. Manip­u­la­tion, or adjust­ment of the affect­ed joint and tis­sues, restores mobil­i­ty, there­by alle­vi­at­ing pain and mus­cle tight­ness, and allow­ing tis­sues to heal.

Chi­ro­prac­tic adjust­ment rarely caus­es dis­com­fort. How­ev­er, patients may some­times expe­ri­ence mild sore­ness or aching fol­low­ing treat­ment (as with some forms of exer­cise) that usu­al­ly resolves with­in 12 to 48 hours.

In many cas­es, such as low­er back pain, chi­ro­prac­tic care may be the pri­ma­ry method of treat­ment. When oth­er med­ical con­di­tions exist, chi­ro­prac­tic care may com­ple­ment or sup­port med­ical treat­ment by reliev­ing the mus­cu­loskele­tal aspects asso­ci­at­ed with the condition.

Doc­tors of chi­ro­prac­tic may assess patients through clin­i­cal exam­i­na­tion, lab­o­ra­to­ry test­ing, diag­nos­tic imag­ing and oth­er diag­nos­tic inter­ven­tions to deter­mine when chi­ro­prac­tic treat­ment is appro­pri­ate or when it is not appropriate.

Chi­ro­prac­tors will read­i­ly refer patients to the appro­pri­ate health care provider when chi­ro­prac­tic care is not suit­able for the patient’s con­di­tion, or the con­di­tion war­rants co-man­age­ment in con­junc­tion with oth­er mem­bers of the health care team. (www.chiropractic.co.za) (www.acatoday.org)