The Sievert Clinic - Chiropractic - What Kinds of Conditions do Chiropractors Treat?

When chiropractic was first introduced to the world in 1896, it represented a new and different approach to the problems of healthcare. At that time, the approach was centered upon specific diseases, such as gastritis, headaches, ulcers, colitis and other disorders. People tended to think of a specific treatment for each known disease. One common method for the treatment of disease consists primarily of putting chemicals or drugs into the body in an attempt to bring the body back to health. On the other hand, the chiropractic profession, with its natural, drugless approach to health, maintains that the body ordinarily receives all the nutrients it needs to achieve good health through the proper balance of food, oxygen and water consumed by eating, drinking and breathing. Chiropractors suggest that when disease occurs, one cause is often related to the body's failing to digest, absorb, or metabolize food appropriately or to properly eliminate wastes from the body.

Chiropractic has given the world a different and drugless concept of health, stressing the fact that many disease processes begin with the body's inability to adapt to its environment. Chiropractic's approach to treating human ills was not to look for the cure in drugs or chemicals, but to locate an area that was deficient in nerve supply, nutrition or circulation. Without unfettered nerve supply the body is not able to perform to its full potential. If chiropractic had not embraced a different approach to health care, the profession would not have continued to expand and flourish into one of the largest drugless healthcare professions in the world. The unique benefit of chiropractic's clinical approach has restored good health to millions of people, often after other methods have failed. There may be times, however, when your body is not able to overcome a condition that has overwhelmed its defense mechanisms. Then the efforts of drugs or surgery may be warranted. When this occurs, your doctor of chiropractic will refer you to the appropriate type of health practitioner for your particular problem. Your doctor's training enables him or her to advise you in these matters, so feel free to discuss your health problems at any time.

Many people think that chiropractors treat mainly orthopedic type conditions, such as backache, sciatica, shoulder/neck/arm pain, headache, whiplash and disc problems. It is true that for these conditions one should try chiropractic first. The art of manipulation of the spine has been valued by patients and doctors since the time of Hippocrates. Other functional disorders such as those that involve organs and internal glands of the body may also, in some cases, respond to chiropractic care. The significance of the nervous system in maintaining health suggests that conditions which are not responding to conventional care, may benefit from a short- term trial of chiropractic care. Your doctor of chiropractic would be pleased to discuss your conditions with you to determine if care may be appropriate in your individual case.