Chiropractic is a natural form of health care that uses spinal adjustments to correct misalignments and restore proper function to the nervous system, helping your body to heal naturally. Chiropractic doesn't use drugs or surgery. Rather, a chiropractic spinal adjustment-the application of a precise force to a specific part of the spinal segment-corrects the misalignment, permitting normal nerve transmission and assisting your body to recuperate on its own. Nerves are like electrical wires in your home as they carry electric like impulses. These nerves go to your heart, lungs, hands, feet, eyes, and everywhere throughout your body. If a wire is bent or damaged in some way, the light that it goes to may not work. In a similar fashion, if a nerve has pressure on it, or as many people describe, “pinched”, then that body part may experience a “short circuit”. This may leave people with numbness, tingling, burning, pain, weakness or muscle atrophy for example. The spine and the nervous system are inter-related. The skull and spine house and protect the brain and spinal cord.
Spinal misalignment can cause poor health
Improper function of the spine due to slight misalignments-called subluxations, can cause poor health or function, even in areas far removed from the spine and spinal cord itself. Misalignments can also reduce the ability of your body to adapt to its ever-changing environment. Even the slightest malfunction of your spine may alter the regular transmission of nerve impulses, preventing that portion of your body from responding optimally. As a result, patients may have frequent headaches, sleep disorders, pain and discomfort, low resistance to illness for example.
How do misalignments/subluxations happen?
The birthing process can be traumatic to an undeveloped spine as muscles are contracting to push the newborn out into the world. This may be the beginnings of spinal misalignment. As a child grows, they fall down while learning to walk or play. Later as young adults, they may get involved in activities such as dance, gymnastics, contact sports, etc. As adults, we may continue physical activity or become sedentary as we sit at a computer for long hours, or on a couch watching television. All of these life activities or inactivity cause stress to the spine, leading to misalignments. This in turn may cause stress to our nervous system.
How do I correct these misalignments/subluxations for optimal health?
Dr. Ashkinazy uses different techniques depending on the needs of the patient. Hand adjustments (Diversified technique), Activator methods, and Drop table technique are just a few of the ways that he helps his patients. This is performed after a consultation, examination and x-rays to analyze and treat the cause, not just the symptoms.