How to Find a Great Chiropractor

Chiropractic treatments can be helpful with healing injuries and keeping your muscles and joints healthy.

When you find a great chiropractor they can help resolve pain that MDs only mask with pain medications. It’s worth the time it takes to do the research and find a chiropractor you can trust.

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What Do Chiropractors Do?

Chiropractors use manipulation of joints, bones, and soft tissue to treat issues with muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and the nervous system. Different chiropractors focus on specific specialties, or they might have two or three focuses in their practice:

Types of Chiropractic Care:

  • Acute injury care
  • Rehabilitation of injuries
  • Soft-tissue chiropractors focus on massage, stretch, and joint mobilization
  • Symptom-relief chiropractors focus mostly on manipulation to reduce pain
  • Wellness chiropractors focus on overall health maintenance and are also known as mixed-care chiropractors who may use many modalities besides chiropractic adjustments
  • Non-Therapeutic Objective Straight Chiropractors (NTOCS) only treat vertebral subluxations and do not use other modalities

What to Expect When You Visit a Chiropractor

When you first visit a chiropractor they will take an assessment of your issues and often will have X-rays taken of your spine if they feel it is necessary. It will depend on the type of chiropractor you go to.

Often Chiropractors will work with a massage therapist to make sure your muscles are warmed up and relaxed before adjusting your spinal alignment. They may also use hot packs or infrared treatments before or after your adjustment.

They may work only on the area where your pain or complaint is, or they may want to check your whole body and make sure there are no issues in other areas of the body that need adjustment.

Chiropractors who focus on joint manipulations or adjustments work with heavier adjustment styles and you will hear a pop when your joints are moved.

Chiropractors who are soft tissue specialists have a much lighter technique so you may not hear or feel much when they work on you. But you might feel the benefits of this lighter technique as much as audible adjustments.

Wellness chiropractors may work with many different modalities and may refer you to a naturopathic doctor or Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner if they feel your treatment could benefit from other experts.

Do Your Research and Ask Questions When You Book A Chiropractor

It can be tricky to find a chiropractor who has the right style for you. Make sure you work with someone who does not over prescribe adjustments or sell a lot of supplements and products you don’t need.

Decide if you want a long-term wellness chiropractor to deal with overall wellness or if you just want to deal with a sports injury or some kind of injury rehabilitation program short term.

How Chiropractic Medicine Started

To understand why chiropractors can be so varied and why there are so many different philosophies and approaches we need to know a little bit of the history of how medicine developed in the west.

Chiropractic technique has its roots in natural healing and has kept a firm standing in the use of herbs, supplements, and alternative treatments like heat, massage, and lifestyle changes along with spinal manipulations that are at the heart of this type of treatment.

Daniel David Palmer coined the name “chiropractic” in 1896 when allopathic or mainstream medicine was beginning to gain a foothold in the western mind as the authority on how to treat disease and discomfort. The American Medical Association (AMA) was started in 1848 and they took a dim view of Palmer calling himself a doctor.

Palmer opened a school of chiropractic or actually added it to his magnetic healing center, after helping a patient regain his hearing through adjusting a spinal vertebra that was out of alignment.

Science vs. Vitalism

Palmer was not a medical doctor, but a teacher turned healer. Palmer was a big fan of vitalism, mentalism, and spiritualism. Palmer was, well (how do I put this nicely) a little woo-woo in his beliefs and ideas about science and medicine.

Chiropractors have been battling the American Medical Association for legitimacy ever since its origins because of Palmer’s proclivity to be “airy-fairy” and mix his science with his not so scientific ideas.

Chiropractic and other complementary modalities have come a long way in the past 30 years. Chiropractors are now licensed practitioners, but they are not medical doctors.

Traditional Chinese Medicine has gained accreditation and naturopathic doctors are able to practice legally in most states.

The Difference Between Osteopaths and Chiropractors

At the same time that chiropractic was coming into existence, osteopathy was becoming an established medical field. Osteopathic doctors became licensed physicians under the AMA rules and were considered part of the allopathic mainstream.

Osteopaths considered chiropractors to be quacks or second-rate osteopaths in the early days. Palmer and other chiropractors were jailed for practicing medicine without a license.

A lot of what the AMA was doing by regulating medicine was to try and weed out the riff-raff. There were many people selling harmful concoctions just to make a profit and take advantage of sick people.

But the AMA also developed ties to the newly founded pharmaceutical companies. Business and politics were big motivators for the need to stifle any alternative medicine.

Because of the way business and science developed in the US, we have a confusing, bureaucratic medical system that can be difficult to maneuver to get your needs met. But many types of medical insurance cover chiropractic care.

The Difference Between Western Medicine and Holistic Modalities

Chiropractic, naturopathic medicine, Ayurvedic, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and other holistic medicine traditions look at the human body as a single system that needs to be treated as a whole.

Mainstream medicine is much more fragmented into specialties and driven by pharmaceuticals in the US. In other countries like the UK and India, traditional cultural folk medicine herbs, Ayurveda, and allopathic treatments are more integrated and are often used together.

Pillows and Tools to Help Keep Your Back and Neck Healthy Between Chiropractic Visits

Check out our buckwheat and memory foam pillow for a softer feeling adjustable pillow. It has shredded memory foam mixed with buckwheat hulls for the perfect neck therapy.

Our buckwheat and latex hybrid pillow has a mixture of the traditional Japanese Buckwheat style pillow with the bouncier natural latex mixed in to give you the best of both worlds.

Our Buckwheat Neck Roll Pillow has a firm but adjustable profile to help your spine stay healthy.

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