CHIROPRACTIC THERAPY

The Rationale for Chiropractic Care.

Premise: Chiropractic therapy centers around the maintenance of appropriate movement of the spinal joints and optimizing biomechanics throughout the musculoskeletal system.

Components of the Vertebral Subluxation Complex (VSC).

• Dyskinesis (hypomobility)

• Altered biomechanics (cellular damage)

• Physiological and biochemical changes

• Altered nervous system activity

• Altered motor patterns...

Case management protocol includes…..

• Specific spinal analysis

• Physical, neurological, orthopedic examinations and consultation

• Specific restoration of normal biomechanics by means of the adjustment

• Referral for co-management if appropriate

• Appropriate attention to ergonomical considerations and other possible causes of biomechanical dysfunction.

The purpose of the chiropractic adjustment is…

Biomechanical Effects of Hypomobility

• Altered intersegmental movement patterns

• Results in compensatory changes in motor patterns, etc.

• Creates cellular damage in sites of biomechanical stresses

• “Immobilization Degeneration…”

Loss of normal motion within a joint results in changes in every structural component of the joint;subchondral bone to the synovium, from meninges to the ligamentum flavum.

• Amiel D, et al. Acta Ortho Scand, 1982

• Palmoski M, et al. Arth Rheum, 1979

• Paine & Haung. J Neurosurgery, 1972

• Lantz C. Chiro Res J, 1988

• Enneking & Horowitz. J Bone Joint Surg, 1972

• Evans EB, et al. J Bone Joint Surg, 1960

Current orthopedic literature recognizes that changes in the pattern of forces transmitted through joints, which occurs during the immobilization process, is universally recognized as contributing to connective tissue degeneration and local changes in the chemical composition of that tissue…

We also know that mechanical failure of ligaments, discs, capsules and other connective tissue can result from local variations in chemical composition.

Measurable changes within the joint complex occur within one week of the onset of hypomobility.

Effects of hypomobility on the intervertebral disc....

Lack of appropriate intersegmental spinal movement can significantly reduce the dynamic pressure gradient between the intradiscal tissues and the subchondral areas of spongiosa in the vertebral bodies...

This sacfrifices the key mechanism by which nutrients and water replenish the disc and by which metabolic waste leaves the disc..

Putting it together...

• Loss of normal movement leads to…

• Changes in how all tissues involved are stressed and replenished, which causes…

• Chemical changes within those tissues and…

• Predisposes them to mechanical failure giving us…

• A good reason justifying chiropractic therapy to restore normal movement through spinal adjustment.

To go from CHIROPRACTIC THERAPY to CHIROPRACTIC BOOKS

In grateful acknowledgement

Diplomate of the International Board of Chiropractic Neurology

Diplomate in Applied Chiropractic Sciences

Associate Professor, Diagnosis and Practice Department ofNew York Chiropractic College