Greenwood Chiropractic - The True Purpose of Chiropractic

The True Purpose of Chiropractic

Along with about 5 million other Americans each year, you may considering going to a chiropractor to care for a headache, neck or back pain or some other condition such as asthma or a digestion problem. Or maybe you've seen one in the past. No matter what you are suffering from, the purpose of chiropractic is to determine the central cause or interference in your body that is resulting in that condition. In about 95% of cases of health problems there is corresponding

Think of the spine like the circuit breaker of the body. When a vertebrae is Subluxated it produces interference to the flow of information that controls specific functions in the body. For example, a Subluxation at the fifth or sixth thoracic vertebrae (between the shoulder blades) can interfere with nerve transmission to and from the stomach. So while the stomach may be healthy at first, after getting poor nerve supply it begins to malfunction which may result in too much or too little acid production, poor motility and poor healing of the stomach lining. A subluxation at the second thoracic vertebra can affect the heart, and so on. (There a link to a chart at the bottom of this article).

For many years medical doctors have scoffed at the idea that the central nervous system could impact the body in so many ways. But there is ever growing evidence to support what chiropractors and their patients have been saying for over 100 years. Problems in the body most often arise from interference in the nervous system - especially in the spine.

In the Journal "Medical Hypotheses" the statement was made that, "Every malfunction in the periphery must be sensed by the central nervous system in order that corrective measures be taken. The general central nervous system principle states; the central nervous system is universally involved in all diseases, regardless of whether they originally arise in the periphery or whether indigenous to the central nervous system; whether initiated by various infective agents be it viral, bacterial, rickettsial or parasitical in nature or resulted from exposure to toxins, radiation, physical injury or emotional upheavals" [Lee TN: "Thalamic neuron theory; theoretical basis for the role played by the central nervous system in the causes and cures of all diseases" Medical Hypotheses 1994, 43:285-302.]

I'll put that in simple language. No matter what the problem, correcting the interference to the nervous system so that the body can heal itself. This is what the founder of Chiropractic said over 100 years ago, and it's what science is confirming today. In fact, Hippocrates, the father of medicine (whose name we derive the Hippocratic Oath taken by all doctors) said, "Look first to the spine for the cause of disease." This is not a new or even unusual idea. It's common sense when you consider the biology of the human body.

Chiropractic is a decidedly different approach to health than medicine. Medicine has had its triumphs, but at the same time, the population is as sick as ever. And the heroic measures that medicine tends to focus on are often implemented at the later stages of disease.

Chiropractic did not start with backache. It began with Dr. D. D. Palmer, who studied the relationship of the structure of the body to the function of the body. Harvey Lillard was a janitor who worked in his building. Harvey had been totally deaf for seventeen years. When Dr. Palmer inquired how this had happened Harvey said that he had hurt his back and after that his hearing slowly faded away. Dr. Palmer check Harvey's spine, found the area of the problem and adjusted his spine to restore the alignment.

Harvey was able to hear the trolley cars down on Brady Street in Davenport, Iowa for the first time in 17 years. That was September 18th, 1895. It wasn't a whiplash case or a low back pain. It started with deaf man who regained his hearing. These are the kind of miracles that chiropractic became known for and the kind of miracles that doctor's today - that have the courage to practice real Chiropractic - still see.

In my own two decades of practice, I've seen people get well from many things - migraines, high blood pressure, ulcers, thyroid disease, diabetes, major depression, severe insomnia, chronic pain, hormonal problems, vertigo, chronic constipation, asthma, and chronic bladder infections just to name a few.

Early in the development of Chiropractic, D.D. Palmer suggested that the body has within it an Innate Intelligence which produces the proper Mental Impulses allowing the body to adapt and thrive against the threat of all kinds of stress, trauma and illness. However, the flow of Mental Impulses must find a clear path between the brain and the body. Otherwise, the body will be hampered and ultimately fall ill without the ongoing connection to Innate Intelligence.

While this might sound fanciful, the fact is, nobody can explain how your body produces the correct "mental impulses" that maintain the function of every system and cell in the body. Your body is a vast collection of chemical reactions and biological processes, but each of those processes must be under the control of the central nervous system in order to maintain order and health in the body.

When you cut your finger, it heals, whether you happen to understand the highly complex chemistry of clotting and healing, or not. If you cut the finger of a dead person nothing happens. Why? Because the flow of Innate Intelligence must be present to heal. The same is true of an infection. If you treat an infected corpse with antibiotics the infection will not go away. The body, more than anything, needs a full and constant flow of Innate Intelligence to remain healthy. The old time chiropractors would say, "Healing comes from above down, and from the inside out." Anything less is just playing games with symptoms.

The nervous system is the Master System of the body because it is the conduit for Innate Intelligence. The spine protects the spinal cord and ensures the safe passage of Innate Intelligence to the body. However, these bones can lose their normal motion and alignment and can interfere with the Mental Impulses travelling through the delicate nerves of the spinal cord and the spinal nerves. This is what is called the Vertebral Subluxation Complex (VSC). The detection and correction of the Vertebral Subluxation Complex by means of adjustment is the purpose of chiropractic.

The purpose of chiropractic is not to diagnose or treat any particular disease or condition. It is not to cure anything. The chiropractor is not a "healer." The chiropractor's role is to remove the cause of interference, allowing the body to heal itself and to function at an ever higher level - physically, mentally and socially - expressing the full potential of the person, be it a man, woman or child.

Dr. Philip Greenwood, D.C.
Murrieta, California