Chiropractic Offers Help For More Than Backache
By Dr. Brad Steinle
The majority of people today see a chiropractor because they are suffering from back pain, neck pain or headaches. What most people don’t know is that chiropractic care can help much more than just musculoskeletal complaints caused by injury.
There have been recorded cases of chiropractic care improving symptoms in patients with a wide variety of disease processes such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, attention deficit disorder, chronic fatigue, hypertension and many more.
The basic premise behind regular chiropractic care goes as follows: A chiropractic 
vertebral subluxation is a movement (less than a dislocation) of a vertebra that affects the nervous system’s ability to transmit its normal signals to and from the brain, the biomechanics of that vertebra and the soft tissue that the nerve innervates. Vertebral subluxations can occur from minor trauma over long periods of time or a large trauma in one moment. Most people are unaware that these subluxations exist until they become symptomatic.
When learning about this model of subluxation it is easy to understand how this could be related to back pain, neck pain and headaches. How- ever, it is important to understand that when a subluxation is present, every cell that this nerve communicates with will now receive an altered neurological input.
For example, if there is a subluxation present at the level of the spine that transmits the nerves for proper lung function, the brain will receive aberrant input from the lungs thereby causing the response to the lungs to be negatively altered. In fact, it has been observed in many reviews of literature that regular chiropractic care has helped children and adults suffer- ing from asthma.
A subluxation, especially at the level of the atlas (the top vertebra in the spine), can cause a wide variety of symptoms in the body. This is due to the extensive neurology in that area. In 2006 Khorshid K., et al performed a randomized clinical trial to determine the efficacy of upper cervical chiropractic care in children with autism. The results from the trial far exceeded expectation. After five months of chiropractic care 12 of the 14 children improved significantly on their Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist. In fact, two of the children no longer met the criteria to be considered autistic!
At Advanced Chiropractic and Wellness Center, our goal is to determine the cause of our patient’s ailments and address it through a gentle and conservative approach. We strive to help our patients achieve a state of health that cannot be arrived at through the use of drugs or surgery. Call us today at (706) 738-7731 to set up an appointment!