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Definition
The word ‘chiropractic’ comes from Greek where ‘cheir’ means ‘hand’ and ‘praktos’ means ‘done’. When you put it together, it means ‘done by hand’. The name was chosen by Dr. D. D. Palmer, who performed the very first chiropractic adjustment back in 1895.
Chiropractic care focuses on the assessment and treatment of pain symptoms of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems.
Generally, it deals with conditions such as:
Back pain, or lumbar spine pain
Neck pain, or cervical spine pain
Joint pain
Radiating pain
Headache
Chiropractic care addresses the potential harmful effects that these conditions can have on a person’s overall health. The treatment prescribed is usually hands-on, free from invasive procedures and drug medications.
A chiropractor examines your spine, and often your limbs, jaw, and cranial bones, to see if you have any misalignments, instability, or stiffness which can disrupt the sensory feedback from the body to the brain. This disruption makes it more difficult for the brain to keep the body healthy.
A main treatment method that a chiropractor uses is called ‘adjustment’, or manual manipulation on the problematic areas. The adjustment is done using their hands by applying controlled force to your joint and guide it through a range of motion. This action reinstates your joint’s natural movement and improves its function.
Apart from seeking to reduce pain, a chiropractor can make lifestyle recommendations including dietary and exercise requirements that may help to improve your wellbeing.
Yes (the certified ones!). Chiropractors, also known as Doctors of Chiropractic and Chiropractic Physicians are highly specialized health care practitioners trained to diagnose and treat disorders related to musculoskeletal and nervous systems.
They go through similar education process as medical doctors to become licensed in this field. In fact, the educational requirements for chiropractic are among the most stringent within medical fields.
Treatment
Chiropractic can treat a lot conditions, ranging from common injuries or accidents to spine misalignment (subluxation). In fact, the most common cause of subluxation is due to the prevalence of sedentary lifestyle nowadays, which is sitting.
The conditions that can be treated include:
Acute and chronic low back pain
Neck pain
Joint, muscle, and nerve pain
Headaches arising from the neck
Migraine
Foot, knee, and hip pain
Hand, arm, and shoulder pain
Minor accident-related injuries
Disc problems
Symptoms associated with osteoarthritis
Sports injuries
Chiropractic care provides relief from pain and discomfort, helps you return to your normal active conditions, and prevents pain recurrence. You’re also assured of a treatment that is free of drugs and surgery.
The benefits for you are:
Naturally ease pain
Effective, cost effective, and safe
High levels of patient satisfaction
Directly deal with the root cause
Reduce future recurrence of pain
Assist natural healing
Quicker recovery
Stay fit and active for longer
Enjoy normal activities
Learn how to care for yourself
Chiropractic treatment is suitable for people of all ages, including children, pregnant women, and the elderly.
As children are physically active and prone to incidents of falling down and bruising that may lead to back and neck pain, stiffness, and soreness, seeing a chiropractor can help. Chiropractic care is always adapted to individual patient, so in cases of children, it will be gentle. Check out our 'Services/Treatment' page for more info about chiropractic for children.
Pregnant women can benefit from chiropractic care too. It relieves back pain, gives the baby room to grow in the womb, and brings the mother’s body back into alignment post-delivery. Check out our 'Services/Treatment' page for more info about chiropractic for pregnant women.
If you’ve had a serious accident, urgently need surgery, or currently suffering from a life threatening illness, seek proper medical attention first. But, if your conditions still haven’t improved after getting all the medical care, chiropractic can be of help.
You can still see a chiropractor even if you’re healthy. Sometimes, you wouldn’t know that you have a disorder of the joints, muscles, or nerves until it’s at an advanced, painful stage. Just like having periodic dental appointments to have your teeth checked, regular visits to your chiropractor can detect related health conditions early. This can help intercept the development of more intolerable pain episodes.
Remember, your spine is prone to wear and tear, just like other parts of your body. So, it should be accorded the same kind of attention too.
Chiropractic is safe when it’s performed by trained and licensed chiropractors. It is recognized as one of the safest drug-free, non-invasive therapies available for the treatment of nervous and muscular complaints.
However, you may have heard concerns over a type of chiropractic adjustment called high-velocity neck manipulation and its connection to a certain type of stroke. Research has proven that this stroke is more often connected with pre-existing arterial disease. Injury to the vertebral artery as a direct result of high-velocity neck manipulation is extremely rare, occurring in only 1 case out of every 5.85 million manipulations.
As with any kinds of medical treatment, you may experience side effects post treatment. Typically, you might feel some soreness at the area of treatment for up to 24 hours, a similar side effect you get when starting a new exercise program too.
However, the benefits far outweigh the side effects for your body and your mind. Contact your nearest chiropractor, you won't regret it!
The body is capable of healing itself, provided that the damage is not affecting faster than the healing process. A good chiropractor will try to identify these obstacles to your normal healing. Usually, these obstacles involve some kind of stress which can be physical, chemical, or neurological so a treatment intervention might address any of these.
It’s often found that the common cause of stress on the body is tight joints. To help cure these, adjustments are used to restore correct function, mobility, and alignment to the joints. As a result, your nerve and muscular functions can be expected to improve.
During your first appointment, your chiropractor will want to find out about your health history as well as your current complaints. You’ll be asked about your personal and work life as well as your physical activity as these have impact on your health too. Try to answer as truthfully as you can so your chiropractor has a better diagnosis of your conditions.
Although chiropractors use their hands for most treatments, they can use other techniques such as cold therapy, specialized adjusting instruments, as well as exercise programs, muscle-testing, and neurological exercises customized to your needs.
Your chiropractor can also advice and guide you on how to stay healthy through proper nutrition, general exercise, and lifestyle modifications.
Chiropractic adjustment is a procedure in which a chiropractor applies a controlled, sudden force to a spinal joint. The goal of this procedure is to improve spinal motion and your body’s physical functions.
The techniques vary from very gentle to strong, selected to your needs and comfort. Your chiropractor may use their hands, an instrument, or a special table to perform this procedure.
A joint adjustment may result in the release of a gas bubble between the joints, which makes a popping sound, much like what you hear when you ‘crack’ your knuckles. Due to the change of pressure within the joint, gas bubbles are released, causing the noise. There is usually minimal discomfort involved. Note that the sound isn’t an indicator to the quality or value of the adjustment.
Joint tension is a functional problem related to a joint and its associated structures such as the muscles, tendons, and nerves. It can manifest itself in various ways such as pain, inflammation, and restricted joint movement.
Joint tension is caused by stress, either physical, chemical, or neural. Physical stresses usually involve slips and falls, accidents, repetitive motion, and poor posture. Chemical stresses can include alcohol/drug consumption, poor diet, and poor digestion. While neural stresses consist of emotional stresses, such as grief, anger, and fear; poor balance and coordination; and pressure of work, finances, and relationships.
Oftentimes, these dysfunctions will not appear on an X-ray. However, chiropractors are trained to recognize these through the use of their manual assessments.
There are times you’d feel minor pains and aches that come and go. Sometimes, a pain may debilitate you for a few days before disappearing on its own. It’s amazing that our body has an evolved healing system to handle pain.
Unfortunately, modern lifestyle has increasingly taken its toll on our bodily functions—poor diet, sedentary condition, high stress, high-toxic food, the list goes on. So, you should have the awareness to start taking control of your wellbeing.
You can take a pragmatic approach by visiting your chiropractor before your problem gets worse, so you effectively nip it in the bud. Or, you can choose to wait until your condition gets unbearable before seeing one. Ultimately, the choice is yours.
First visit
In preparation for a chiropractic consultation, you will be asked to fill out forms that provide background information about your symptoms and condition. You will also be asked about your medical history, pre-existing conditions, and past and current medications/treatments with other health professionals.
This is followed by a chiropractic exam that includes general tests such as pulse, blood pressure, and reflexes. Specific tests are then applied to assess range of motion of the affected body parts, muscle tone and strength, and neurological integrity.
Based on the results of your medical history, assessment, and diagnostic tests, your chiropractor should be able to determine whether your condition needs chiropractic intervention. He/she will explain to you the diagnosis, personalized treatment plan, and the anticipated duration of the chiropractic care.
You only need to go for diagnostics or X-Ray tests if deemed necessary. Our chiropractor will first do a thorough history and physical examinations before deciding whether or not you need an X-ray.
In cases where it is needed, our chiropractor will ask you to fill up a form for an X-ray test at our panel clinics or centers. Or any other clinics of your own choice.
Yes, if you still have them. Showing these to your chiropractor can certainly help in establishing a clearer medical history and understanding your conditions.
Only some procedures require you to remove some pieces of clothing. If you have any questions or concerns, speak immediately with your chiropractor.
Every person’s condition is unique. Some patients experience almost instant relief. Others find that it can take weeks or months. We can give a better indication once we have assessed your case.
Having said that, many factors can affect the healing process such as how long you have the problem, how serious it is, and if there are any pre-existing conditions. It also depends on whether you adhere to the set appointments, heed the chiropractor’s advice in terms of exercise, nutrition, and lifestyle changes, as well as your own level of commitment in getting better.
Most people will feel a noticeable improvement within 6-8 treatments, and often a lot less. Further treatments are usually required to help maintain the progress. This again takes about 6-8 treatments on average, depending on the underlying problems. Your chiropractor will discuss with you on the likelihood of further treatment depending on their assessment.
No. Only the ‘locked’ or restricted spinal joints will receive adjustments. This allows weakened muscles and ligaments to stabilize and heal.
Yes. Your chiropractor will avoid the surgically-modified areas of your spine. He/she will focus on the areas above and below the affected areas as surgery often cause instability to these areas.
Chiropractors are trained to adjust using specific techniques in a very specific location and direction. As a result, it is practically impossible and downright dangerous to adjust oneself correctly. So, it’s a solid NO.
Yes. Science highly encourage mothers to undergo chiropractic care before conceiving, during pregnancy and even after the delivery of your baby(ies). Check out our 'Chiropractic Care for Pregnant Mothers' section.
Other modalities
Although the main method of treatment is spinal manipulation, some modalities (techniques) use electronics equipment. Examples are:
Ultrasound.
A form of deep heat therapy created by sound waves. The sound waves apply massaging motion to the soft tissues and joints to reduce swelling, increase blood flow, and decrease pain and muscle spasms.
Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation (TENS)
A TENS unit is a small, battery-powered, portable muscle stimulation machine. Variable intensities of electric current from this unit are used to control pain. It is recommended if you’re experiencing severe pain.
Cold Laser
It produces light without heat, unlike standard lasers. For some injuries, heat can make the situation worse. Hence, this equipment is suitable for treating injured areas and encouraging cell healing.
