About Chiropractic

What is Chiropractic?

Chiropractic is a system of healthcare which promotes the normal function of the spine and nervous system.

How does chiropractic work?

In order to understand how chiropractic works you must first understand how the spine itself works. In addition to supporting your weight and protecting your spinal cord, your spine must allow for you to move in six directions, bending forward, backward, right and left, and turning right and left.

Normally there are 24 freely moveable bones in a fully functional spine. Each time we bend or twist, each of the bones of the spine (vertebrae) should move a little bit to contribute to the overall movement of the body. For example, when we turn to the right, each of the vertebrae should turn a little to the right.

However, very often there are some vertebrae that don't contribute because they have lost the ability to move in that direction. We call these vertebrae that have lost normal motion “subluxated” or “fixated”. Since some vertebrae don't contribute, the remaining vertebrae must move more than normal to compensate. The most overworked joints eventually become injured and painful causing back pain or neck pain. Also, because they are overworked they wear out sooner. This wearing out process is known as degenerative joint disease or osteoarthritis. As the joints wear they may pinch the nerves exiting the spine. This may cause pain or dysfunction in whatever body parts are controlled by that nerve. The most common example of this is sciatica. This is pain in the leg due to a pinched nerve in the lower back.

Chiropractors check each of the joints and bones of the spine for normal movement and position. If a joint is found to be fixated, chiropractic adjustments are given to restore the normal motion. Each adjustment provides the patient with the opportunity to use the previously fixated joint and provides the overused joints an opportunity to rest and heal.

With time and repetition, freedom of movement is restored throughout the spine and the workload of the spine is equally distributed among all the joints.

While the locations and severity of symptoms are different for each patient the goal of treatment is the same:

Restore the movement of the spine to as high a level as possible and encourage the damaged tissues to heal.

Chiropractic Education

Currently, the educational requirements to become a chiropractor are a University Bachelor of Science degree followed by satisfactory completion of five academic years of Chiropractic College . Upon completion of the academic requirements each doctor must pass national and provincial licensing examinations to obtain a license to practice in Ontario .

In this province, Doctors of Chiropractic are registered under the Chiropractic Act and are board certified and governed by the College of Chiropractors of Ontario .