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How Chiropractic Treatment Works [print this page] Patients trying chiropractic treatment for the first time are usually impressed by how good their symptom relief is and how fast it takes place. In fact, many are feeling much better almost immediately after having a chiropractic treatment manipulation on a region that has been painful for weeks, months, or even years. Some patients are pleasantly surprised by improvement in other health conditions after they begin treatment by chiropractors. Problems that are reported to improve with chiropractic include fertility conditions, allergies and sinus conditions, digestive system conditions, asthma, blood pressure issues, and a variety of other everyday health issues. While the results of treatment by chiropractors for such conditions are less reliable than for musculoskeletal symptoms, they do take place for quite a few people. How is it possible for cracking spinal joints to result in such beneficial effects?
Some treatment by chiropractors skeptics claim that any symptomatic benefits from chiropractic treatment adjustments are totally due to the placebo effect in other words, because the person expects the treatment to help, the improvement they notice is "all in their minds". Yet many of the patients who report benefits from treatment by chiropractors were themselves skeptics before being treated. There was no pre-existing belief than the treatment would provide any benefit. While there may be some situations where the placebo effect is in play, there is evidently more going on than the benefits being all in the patients' minds. How is it possible for chiropractic care adjustments to change a person's symptoms so quickly and how might this type of treatment have any effect at all on organs and glands?
The nervous system monitors and regulates the whole body all the organs, glands, and tissues, as well as the musculoskeletal system. The spine houses a considerable portion of the nervous system and there are many complex associations between the mechanical function of the spinal joints and nerve functions. The spinal joint nerve receptors are the key to the various beneficial effects of chiropractic care. The nerve receptors of the spinal joints will alter the signals they produce when the spinal joints are not moving normally as a result of trauma, inflammation, and other issues. Essentially, this results in disruption in the neurological signals being sent out by the spinal nerve receptors. The disrupted nerve signals results in adjustments in the central nervous system's interpretation of disorders in the body. The central nervous system in turn may alter its regulatory signals based on the interference. The outcome of this can range from alterations in resting muscle tone to alterations in hormone production, to alterations in organ activity.
A chiropractic care adjustment changes the movement of the spinal joints and in turn alters the firing of the joint nerve receptors. When a person is in pain, this change in nerve signals within the spinal column can result in dramatic symptom changes practically instantly. Although any health problem can be caused by things not related to the spine, in situations where the spinal joint nerve receptors are involved, the associated health problem will frequently go away within a few days or weeks after having spinal function corrected.
As a consequence of these effects on the nervous system, chiropractic treatment can be helpful in the treatment of just about any health problem. Potentially treatment by chiropractors can help just about any health problem, but it is far more reliable in the treatment of musculokeletal pain than in the treatment of organ dysfunction and for this reason chiropractic will likely remain a healing art committed primarily to musculoskeletal conditions.
