What is Holistic Chiropractic Care?
Find out on this page what a holistic chiropractor does and the considerations we take into account when practicing chiropractic. From your nervous system to the stresses placed on your body, from how we approach diagnostic imaging to identifying spinal degeneration, this page should give you a great overview of the work we do here at Chirolife.
What is Chiropractic Care?
Chiropractic is a health care discipline based on the scientific premise that the body is a self-regulating, self-healing organism. It is a holistic approach that takes into account many different bodily functions and processes.
The practice of chiropractic focuses on the relationship between structure (primarily the spine, and pelvis) and function (as coordinated by the nervous system) and how that relationship affects the preservation and restoration of health. Chiropractors want to keep you in the best health possible, while offering you a holistic and natural approach to health.
In short, chiropractic care focuses on disorders of the musculoskeletal, and nervous systems, and commonly helps back pain, neck pain, pain in the joints of the arms or legs, and headaches. Many people often search for 'holistic care' but what does that really mean?
As your local chiropractor, my focus is to:
- Identify spinal misalignments (subluxations) and correct them
- Improve the functioning of your nervous system
- Help your spine to achieve normal alignment
- Restore more normal function in your body and ultimately, keep you at optimal health
- I promise to do my best to serve you and your family
What is a Doctor of Chiropractic?
In Australia, chiropractors are five-year university trained, and are government registered and government regulated primary healthcare practitioners.
To become a registered chiropractor in Australia you must have studied an accredited 5-year chiropractic program conducted at a University within Australia.
Chiropractors are the spinal health professionals, and use a hands-on, drug-free approach to health care that includes patient examination, diagnosis and treatment.
Your Nervous System
One of your most vital bodily systems is your nervous system, consisting of your brain, spinal cord and complex network of nerves. Its purpose is to carry messages to and from your brain and spinal cord to various parts of your body. Some key functions of your nervous system include:
- Regulating digestion
- Communicating with the immune system
- Stimulating muscles
- Sensations of pain and discomfort
- Management of respiration, heart rate, stress hormones
- Higher functions such as language, creativity, expression, emotions, and personality
Your nervous system controls every cell, tissue, organ and system of your body.
If your nervous system were to be impaired, interfered with or compromised so nerve messages to or from your brain were distorted, parts of your body may not work as intended.
Your spine serves to protect significant parts of your nervous system, with your spinal cord running through the vertebrae that make up your spinal column.
Yet, even with this protection, interferences to the nervous system can happen. Some of these interferences can be helped by chiropractic care.
Common Stressors
Stress factors - in the form of physical, chemical and mental/emotional changes in your environment - create stress in your body, affecting your posture and spine and contribute to the state of subluxation.
Subluxation results when your spine moves out of its optimal, healthy alignment. This places pressure - or stress - on your nervous system.
The result? A potentially harmful interruption of the nerve impulses that run your entire body, contributing to many of the unwanted health challenges that people battle with everyday: back pain, neck pain and headaches can be attributed to subluxation.
What is Spinal Degeneration?
Over time, and compounded by factors such as poor posture, injury, disease and subluxation, your spinal vertebrae may begin to degenerate. Signs and symptoms of spinal degeneration may include: vertebral misalignment, restriction in joint movement, calcification and bone spurs and fusion of vertebrae. This degeneration may contribute to issues such as:
- Reduced joint motion
- Nerve interference
- Inflammation
- Muscle tightness
- Bulging or herniated discs
- Pain
- Sensations of numbness and/or pins and needles
- Other health issues
