Medical Treatment Versus Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic is different. Always has been. Chiropractors and medical practitioners share a few things in common. Both receive many years of education and training. Both have practices. And both care deeply about their patients. But that’s pretty much where the similarity ends.
Medicine and chiropractic have different operating philosophies. They have different ways of assessing a patient’s problem. And they have different types of interventions. If you visit our practice with medical expectations you might be pleasantly surprised. If you saw a medical doctor but expected a chiropractic experience, there could be disappointment.
Here are some of the most common distinctions. It doesn’t make one better than the other. Just different.
Blood Versus Nerves
Medicine relies heavily on the results of blood tests. Blood chemistry can detect a variety of metabolic diseases. Chiropractic is based on the condition of the nervous system. Chiropractors focus on nervous system integrity because nerve interference is the underlying cause of many types of health problems… even those that may eventually lead to findings in blood work!
Treatment Versus Care
A medical doctor has three treatment options. The most common are drugs to change blood chemistry. Then, there’s surgery to remove or modify tissues. And more recently, radiation to burn tissues. These treatment options are primarily designed to treat an immediate symptom, not to address the underlying cause or the frequent complications caused by the treatments.
The primary form of chiropractic care is the adjustment. There are dozens of chiropractic techniques. Adjustments don’t treat disease. Instead, their intent is to permit more normal brain-to-body nerve communications. As nerve interference is reduced, the body is able to function as designed. Then, as health improves, symptoms usually subside.
Side Effects Versus Positive Effects
Drug intervention always produces side effects. Or more accurately, unwanted effects. It gets even dicier when you contemplate the interactions caused when two or more drugs are prescribed at the same time.
The side effects of chiropractic care are almost always positive effects. In other words, a patient often begins chiropractic care for Problem A. And later reports that Problem B, which they didn’t even mention, is improving too.
The Body Part Versus The Whole Person
Because of the complexity of the human body, it has spawned dozens of medical specialties. These are experts who know a lot about a small aspect of the body. Thank goodness for specialists.
Chiropractors see the person as a whole. We’re generalists. Our focus on the spine is because it is the most common source of nerve interference. Problems along the spinal column can produce obvious spinal problems as well as problems to organs and tissues controlled at that segmental, but even more importantly, feedback and feed-forward errors produced by spinal problems affect every aspect of the body because they affect how the brain processes data and how all systems relate to each other.
Broadly speaking, medical doctors are experts at lifesaving. If you’re bleeding, have broken bones or your heart has stopped, see a medical doctor. Immediately! And hopefully those situations aren’t regular occurrences! But when you are looking for a partner to help you be your best and experience life to the fullest, regardless of what other conditions you may have, see a chiropractor. That’s where we shine!