WHAT ISN’T CHIROPRACTIC?
Chiropractic Isn’t Masking Symptoms
Chiropractors do not prescribe medication. While some medications save lives in emergency situations, that is not the major use of pharmaceuticals today. Long-term drug use does not make a person healthy and the side effects can lead to additional prescriptions. Medications mask symptoms and symptoms are your body’s way of telling you something isn’t right. These symptoms usually indicate that there is stress on your nervous system.
A chiropractor’s focus is to remove interference to your nervous system to allow your body to heal naturally. This is not done to address specific symptoms; however, by addressing areas of interference (subluxation), symptoms typically decrease or resolve completely. This can greatly decrease or eliminate a person’s need for long-term medication.
Chiropractic Isn’t Cutting Out the Problem
Surgery can be life-saving. It is also a serious, invasive option that takes a toll on the body. In many cases, surgery can “fix” one problem, but be the source of other health challenges. The diagnosis “Failed Back Surgery Syndrome” has been added to the medical field because of the common side effects of such procedures.
Patients who have had surgery in the past often visit the chiropractor for pain relief. Many say that they wish they had tried chiropractic first because it is a safe, non-invasive option. Chiropractic care isn’t the answer to every health challenge, but may be a good place to start in order to avoid or delay the need for more intensive care.
Chiropractic Isn’t Emergency Care
There are many events in life that make seeing a chiropractor seem like an emergency – slips and falls, whiplash from car accidents, sports injuries. Others, like broken bones, serious accidents, and heart attacks, require Emergency Medicine. In a complete health system, emergency medicine and chiropractic can work hand in hand to help your body heal after trauma situations.
Imagine your body is a house. If your house catches on fire, who do you call? You call the fire department and with their tools – hoses and axes – they save your house. This is emergency medicine; they save the life of your house with their tools – drugs and surgery. But the next day, when your house smells like smoke and is covered in soot, when you are recovering and need to be rebuild, who do you call? Not the fire department – their hoses and axes are not the right tool for this job. You call a contractor to help you organize and rebuild; you call someone with the tools to help you heal.
Both Emergency Medicine and Chiropractic can play an important role in health. But they do not play the same role. They are complimentary to one another and both are necessary for a healthy life.