• What is a subluxation?
• What causes a subluxation?
• How is a subluxation corrected?
• Does the adjustment hurt?
• How will the adjustment help me?
• Does an adjustment have to make noise to be effective?
• Should I go to a Chiropractor if I feel fine?
• Is it true that Chiropractors do not prescribe medication or perform surgery?
• Is regular chiropractic care necessary?
• How old should a person be before he or she begins chiropractic care?
• How does chiropractic care help the pregnant woman?
• Is it bad to "crack" my neck or back?
• Do Chiropractors have medical (M.D.) degrees?
• Can I tell if I have a subluxation without consulting a Chiropractor?
• Can a person who had back surgery see a Chiropractor?
• Can chiropractic prevent back surgery?
• Can a person with a broken back or neck see a Chiropractor?
• Is chiropractic safe?
• Can I go to a Chiropractor if I am under medical care?
• Do Chiropractors believe in medicine and surgery?
• What techniques do the Doctor’s use?

A subluxation is a spinal bone (vertebra) that has moved out of its normal alignment, and remains stuck out of position. Your nerves carry vital information to all your cells and organs. Eventually a subluxated bone will begin to choke or irritate the nerve roots, which branch off from the spinal cord between each of the vertebrae. The nerve passageways, which carry messages to and from the brain, may become partially blocked or excessively irritated and subsequently the energy flowing through the nerves is altered creating an imbalanced condition in your body. This interferes with the body’s inborn healing ability and lowers the body’s resistance. Lower resistance is the number one cause of all physical breakdown. Over time, the organs and glands connected to these compromised nerves begin to malfunction, creating abnormal body chemistry, disease, accelerated deterioration and degeneration!

What causes a subluxation?

A fall, injury, sudden jar, trauma or sometimes an inherited spinal weakness can displace a vertebra. Other causes include improper sleeping conditions or habits, poor posture, occupational hazards, incorrect lifting practices, obesity, and lack of rest and exercise. The birth process is a major cause of subluxation. Chemical causes of subluxation can be from a poor diet, toxic foods or drinks, or chemical interactions causing imbalances from food, drink, vitamins or prescription drugs used inappropriately. Mental causes of subluxation can be your body’s inability to adapt to sudden traumatic stressful events or even low level stress for a long period of time to which your body does not adapt.

Doctors of Chiropractic are specialists in neuromusculoskeletal conditions. They are trained to restore the misaligned vertebrae to their proper position in the spinal column. Your chiropractor, in most cases, will use his or her hands in applying corrective pressure to the spine in a specific direction and location (a procedure known as "spinal adjustment"). The manual force or thrust helps restore the alignment and mobility of the vertebrae. The Chiropractor may use instrumentation to detect subluxations and measure imbalances of your nervous system and musculoskeletal system.

Under normal circumstances, chiropractic adjustments are painless. In cases of recent trauma, such as whiplash, mild discomfort may be experienced due to inflammation. Once in a while patients with longstanding (chronic) problems may experience soreness in the muscles around the spine (something similar to what you feel after exercising for the first time). Many times, patients who enter the office in pain, report immediate relief following the adjustment. Some patients tell us they feel a sense of total and complete relaxation after the adjustment.

Anytime you have a misalignment of the spine and pressure is put on the nerve root, your nervous system is compromised, as is the body’s health potential. Therefore, if you do anything to relieve proper nerve flow you will be better off. Chiropractic adjustments are geared to move the spinal column towards a more normal position, taking away nerve interference, so that the body can heal and express itself to its true potential.

No, it is a common misconception that your joints must make a noise to be properly adjusted. However, often when your vertebrae are adjusted, the smooth articular (joint) surfaces become separated, creating and then releasing a small vacuum, making a noise. This is the sound made when you "pop" your knuckles. Your chiropractor is concerned with the position of your vertebrae, not with the noise that may occur.

Yes, everyone would benefit from Chiropractic care on a regular basis. Unfortunately, we live in a world where we associate sickness and disease with symptoms and health as a lack of symptoms. There are many that feel fine now, but unknowingly have disease processes going on, and who will die in the near future. Symptoms are not nature’s early warning signs, but come only after damage is done. Spinal misalignments cause subtle changes that you don’t feel early on. If not treated these misalignments lead to injury to the cells and soft tissues and can develop into more serious problems later on, like abnormal body chemistry, disease, accelerated deterioration and degeneration. By receiving regular chiropractic care, you’ll help your body stay healthy for years to come. Regular Chiropractic adjustments are your body’s line of defense against illness, disease, and pain.

Yes. Chiropractors do not include medication or surgery in their care program. Chiropractors maintain that the body has a built-in capacity to restore health, within certain limits, and base their care on this principle. Occasionally, the use of medication can interfere with the body’s healing mechanisms, produce side effects, and create a dependence and lead to drug-caused disease or complications. The first response in most illnesses and injuries should be conservative care. Chiropractic principles make it possibly the safest and most appealing of the healing arts.

Regular chiropractic care is necessary to correct spinal subluxations to help maintain sound health and fitness. Your spine is under constant strain during waking hours. Improper lifting techniques, poor posture, accidents, falls and bumps and other causes can contribute to spinal strain. Timely adjustments can help restore the integrity of the spine to normalize the body’s equilibrium and increase resistance. Regular chiropractic checkups and adjustments are necessary to maintain an optimally functioning nervous system.

Chiropractic patients range in years from birth to old age. Regardless of age, the vertebrae can become misaligned. For example, the birth process may cause trauma to the neck and spine. Left uncorrected, the vertebral subluxation may disturb the delicate spinal cord and nerves, which control the youngster’s muscles and organs. In some cases, an uncorrected subluxation may lead to a deformity of the spinal column. Chiropractic care should begin after birth and continue throughout our lives.

Because of the distribution of additional weight and stress on the framework of the body during pregnancy, chiropractic adjustments can help lower the incidence of pain in the low back and legs, and between the shoulder blades. Fewer headaches and decreased problems with nausea and elimination are common improvements. Many Chiropractors care for expectant mothers in the regular course of their daily practices.

The desire to pop the neck or back is caused by tension from a jammed or fixated vertebra, which causes another part of the spine to compensate by moving too much and "popping" a lot. The jammed part should be adjusted by a chiropractor so that the rest of the spinal column will balance and stop being so movable and noisy. Cracking or popping your neck gives relief for a while, but soon the urge to pop or crack reappears because the cause of the spinal tension hasn’t been corrected.

Chiropractors have Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) degrees granted from chiropractic colleges. Chiropractic education and medical education are similar in some respects and different in others because Chiropractors do not prescribe drugs and medical doctors do not correct the vertebral subluxation complex.

Not always, a subluxation is like a dental cavity—you may have it for a long time before symptoms appear. That’s why periodic spinal checkups are so important. Although it may be possible to know you have a subluxation, it is rarely possible to be sure that you don’t.

Yes, it is an unfortunate fact that up to half of those who have had spinal surgery discover a return of their original symptoms months or years later. They then face the prospect of additional surgery. Many of our patients have received favorable results with chiropractic care with this history of return of problems. To determine if we could help you, a thorough detailed examination would be performed to determine if you could be helped with chiropractic care.

In a majority of cases the answer is a resounding YES.

After the break heals, yes. In fact, a broken bone forms a callus or bone scar when it heals that is often stronger than the rest of the bone. This should dispel any concerns about the safety of an adjustment. People who have had broken bones need chiropractic checkups because accidents usually cause spinal subluxations due to the trauma both to the bone and the soft tissues surrounding the damaged bone.

Chiropractic is among the safest of the healing arts. As proof, one merely has to compare malpractice rates between chiropractors and other health professionals. Chiropractors’ malpractice premiums are a small fraction of those for the medical doctors, especially orthopedists and surgeons.

Yes, having your subluxations corrected is important, no matter what other type of health care you are receiving. Today many D.C.’s and M.D.’s are working together in clinics and on joint research projects. M.D.’s are quite likely to have patients who are under chiropractic care; in fact many medical doctors see a doctor of chiropractic themselves.

Yes, we do. As Chiropractors, we don’t utilize drugs or surgery in our scope of practice; however, we acknowledge that there are times when drugs and or surgery are the best course of action for that individual patient. Our philosophy is chiropractic first, drugs second, and surgery last. If you do have a subluxation, there is no other course of care that will correct the problem. Chiropractic care is the least invasive and safest of the three and has no dangerous side effects. When your body has symptoms it is telling you something needs to be changed so the symptoms don’t continually reappear. (Please see "What About Symptoms" in our Articles section). There are patients we refer to surgeons for spinal conditions; however, they are a small minority (under 5%).

At Inline Chiropractic Group, we use a combination of Gonsted, Diversified Full Spine, Thompson, Biophysics, Palmer Package, Toggle Recoil, Chrane Upper Cervical, and Torque Release Technique. We base our recommended technique on what we feel will allow you to obtain the best possible results.