What Makes Chiropractic Different From Medicine?

While chiropractic is the world's second largest health care profession, there are many who have never sought the care of a chiropractor.  Interestingly, most of whom have never been to a chiropractor or know little about chiropractic have some form of negative opinion about its practitioners and/or its practices.

Chiropractic is a natural form of health care, in that it uses no medications or surgery in its application. Chiropractors are trained in traditional medical diagnosis of the human body; however, their approach to treatment is not in chemically altering the body to minimize symptoms or eradicate pathogens (bacteria or viruses). Instead, chiropactic aims at acquired or traumatically induced structural faults in the body (subluxations) and how they inhibit normal function.

In order to practice in the United States, Chiropractors must complete a four year college graduate program including a chiropractic internship, and must successfully test in several national and state board examinations. While chiropractic is different from medicine in its application, chiropractors are not prohibited from working within our health care system.

The subluxation complex, as defined by chiropractic science, is the condition in which altered body mechanics (positioning of the bones, muscles, and ligaments) can create irritation to surrounding nervous tissue. When nerve tissue is disrupted, pain, loss of function, and even disease can result.

Chiropractors are trained to diagnose and treat subluxation related conditions. They do so via structural corrective procedures called adjustments.  An adjustment can be described as a gentle re-positioning of misaligned bones in a specific 3-dimensional direction, affecting the function and structure of the adjoining disc.  The overall goal of chiropractic care is to reduce the subluxation complex and ultimately, improving the function and health of the body.

Chiropractic (D.C.) vs. Medical (M.D.)

Education
Basic Science & Diagnosis

(minimum classroom hours required in order to attain degree)

• Classroom hours based on the review of curriculum catalogs from eleven chiropractic colleges and twenty-two medical schools in the United States.(1996)

• A similar review was based on the 1988-89 Association of American Medical Colleges Curriculum Directory (Vickie Ahari, Editor) and the 1988-89 Chiropractic College Admissions and Curriculum Directory (K. Magarian and K. McNamee, Editors). It found that the minimum Chiropractic college hours were 2,419, while the minimum Medical school hours were 2,047.
•  Palmer College of Chiropractic Curriculum

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Send questions or comments to Dr. Bryce Koelling, D.C.; Koelling Family Chiropractic, PC     doc@drbryce.com