Why You Need Chiropractic
This article was provided by Dr. Michael D. Nemastil, a chiropractor at LifeStyle Chiropractic in Lexington, KY. If you'd like to learn more, please visit https://www.lschiro.com/.
Many people ask me about a chiropractor's education requirements. Chiropractic is a specialty field that most people don't hear much about, until they need to go to one. Then they start asking more questions in order to be more informed. Here's the fact about the education requirements for a Doctor of Chiropractic. A Doctor of Chiropractic receives essentially the same amount of education that a medical doctor receives. That they are both doctors of their respective specialty of care, which necessitates a common amount of study. The actual amount of time required in the different areas of study will differ somewhat, however. A chiropractor will study more spinal anatomy, and radiology, perhaps, whereas, a medical doctor will study pharmacology more. A Doctor of Chiropractic is also required to pass four separate National Boards in order to be eligible to receive a Doctorate degree. In addition, after receiving a Doctor of Chiropractic degree, they must still pass a state licensure examination, in every state where they wish to practice.
The chiropractor's main focus is spinal health. In addition to the core education of spinal health, a Doctor of Chiropractic can attain further education in various subspecialties as well, i.e. pediatrics, sports, rehabilitation, radiology, etc. Let's talk about the core education of spinal health though, relative to the Doctor of Chiropractic and you.
What is spinal health, you ask?
Spinal health has to do with how well the spine functions as a whole. The various regions of the spine, the skull, the neck, the mid back, the low back, the pelvis, and the sacrum, are independent regions, yet work as a whole unit, the core structure, the spine.
Your core structure, the spine, is made up of many movable parts called vertebrae. The spine in mechanical, if you will, in its function. These vertebrae need to be able to move in various directions, as intended, because that's how we can twist and bend as humans. Normal motion between the spine's vertebral segments, allows for normal function of the body's core structure, the spine. Essentially, motion equals function! The problem lies in the fact that the spinal bones can become misaligned, and stuck. Through our activities of daily living, running, jumping, sitting, standing, bending, twisting, etc, our spinal bones can become misaligned and stuck out of place. It happens a lot, and the problem is, most of the time you don't know it has happened, because most of the time, it doesn't produce a symptom.
Consider your car if you will. Your car is mechanical in its function. It has many parts that are put together to create various subsystems, the steering assembly, the braking system, the suspension system, the engine, etc. The parts to these systems are engineered to exact specifications and tolerances. If one of these parts isn't just right, or is becomes slightly out of tolerance, it creates a problem with your car, doesn't it? In some cases, you may not know it immediately, and the problem over time degenerates into a larger problem. Eventually, the part breaks, or the part causes the car to malfunction. We've all experienced this, unfortunately!
The same thing happens with our body and our core structure. The misaligned area(s) of your spine start to wear excessively and prematurely degrade. This is because excess physical and mechanical stress is being placed on the misaligned areas. Left uncorrected, the vertebral segments and spinal discs involved, degrade and become arthritic, sometimes severely. And once arthritis sets in, it's there for life! We can't change out parts on our spine like we can on our car. So the moral of that story is to take care of your spine as well as, if not better than, how you would maintain your car. Being that your core structure is mechanical in nature, means that maintenance is necessary. Your car is mechanical in nature, and it positively requires maintenance! Anything that is mechanical in nature, requires the appropriate type of maintenance. It is what it is, and there's no changing that. You're spine is under load 24/7, and you have to live with your spine your entire life. Without doing the appropriate maintenance, You'll be broken down before your time! Who wants that? In our Golden years, we all want to feel as good as possible and be able to be as mobile as possible. So, we all have to do the maintenance in order to achieve these things in our elder years.
Chiropractic and Neurology
Now that we've addressed the mechanics of the spine, lets briefly discuss the neurology, or the communication system of our body. Our nervous system is what allows our brain's information to reach our body's parts. The information feeds our muscles and organs, and systems, and makes us WORK. Without the brain's information, we aren't alive, literally.
So, follow me here...when we incur spinal dysfunction, because we have vertebral misalignments, the malpositioned vertebral segment can put pressure on the adjacent nerve root. This is not good! If this happens, the information flowing through that nerve root is altered. When you alter the amount of information that is going through a nerve to a particular muscle, or organ, or system, bad things start to happen. The body part that is being fed the information starts to degrade, because it has lost some of its life-sustaining information. As an example, if you wrapped a rubber band around one of your fingers, how long would it take before the tissue of that finger started to degrade, because of loss of blood or life-sustaining information? Your body thrives on information, it requires it to be alive and stay alive.
This is the premise of chiropractic. Improving the mechanical function of the spine in order to improve the flow of information in the body. This elevates the wellness of the human, and it certainly improves their quality of life. So, isn't it about time that you saw a Doctor of Chiropractic, and got yourself - Back Into Life.