Chiropractic – treatment without drugs
At the end of May in St. Elizabeth’s hospital there was International Symposium on Chiropractic. Chiropractic for our specialists is a new concept, but in the West chiropractic treatments are widely used and are popular among people. In the USA, the doctor of chiropractic is as widespread a profession as a stomatologist (dentist) is here. American chiropractors Michel Tetrault, Sherry Durrett, Clifton Bethel, Dwight Whynot, DCs, participating in this symposium told our medics about the profession of chiropractic, it’s global perspectives, about the main techniques of this profession, and about the diagnostic and treatments of diseases with chiropractic methods.
What is chiropractic? As the chiropractic specialists say themselves chiropractic is an art, science and philosophy. Approach in treatment of the patients is carried out through its effect on the spine. Chiropractic has existed since 1895. Its founder – Canadian doctor D.D. Palmer, who lived in the 19th century, understood that impingement of the nerves can be corrected by an adjustment of the spine. Pinched nerves weaken our immune system; bring about disorganization of the processes in the organism and consequently disease. Very often displacement of the spine exists imperceptibly and slowly breaks down our health. The goal of chiropractic is the correction of the spine and removal the impingement of the nerves by the safe and effective method known as “treatment by hands” without the usage of drugs and surgery. After adjustment the displaced vertebra returns to its correct position and provides for normal neural processes. This allows one to reach the maximum effect of recovery because it is the nervous system that governs all the functions of our organism. Thus, specialist chiropractors remove the cause of disease, not just the symptoms, and the foundation of chiropractic is the utilization of inner resources of the organism of the person. Objectivity of the methods of chiropractic is confirmed by many researches. With chiropractic methods, different diseases can be treated especially related to weakened immunity including flu and other infections, allergy, epilepsy, heart pain, gastrointestinal upset, etc. As the chiropractic specialists state it is one of the most powerful and effective methods nowadays.
Chiropractic also works with children. They consider that a full examination of the spine is necessary for every newborn baby. Children who are under chiropractic treatment tend to be sick less and bear illness easily, less often are behind in emotional and mental development. Even elderly people need chiropractic monitoring. When chiropractic removes or lessens pinched nerves, all life-support resources increase that then helps one to cope with illness.
Education of chiropractic doctors is as thorough as any other medical education. When entering college, students of chiropractic undergo a 4 year course of education that is a bit longer than in other medical colleges. They study disorders of adults and pediatrics as well. After the students acquire necessary knowledge in early stage, they then start learning specialized subjects. These include: theory and practice, chiropractic diagnosis, different techniques of correction that are not taught in other medical fields. Before getting the diploma students have to get 900 hours of practice in clinics. As they do not need to spend time on studying pharmacology or surgery, they are given additional training on anatomy, nutrition, diagnostics, including palpation, x-rays diagnostics, labs and different techniques of correction. After the completion of studies, including boards, they have to pass exams on practice and have an interview which is held by the Council of Chiropractors of the State in this particular state where he wants to get a license.
This profession exists in 104 countries. All over the world 75 thousand licensed chiropractors work. In 3 countries -USA, Canada, Australia- this profession has steadily occupied its niche, is very popular and is of great demand among population. In the USA, there is a tendency among people with higher education, adherents of less aggressive methods of treatment, to first turn to chiropractors (without the referral of the doctor) instead of buying the drugs. The majority of Russian medical doctors of traditional medicine do not know anything about chiropractic. The goal of symposium is to bring the information of this new profession to our doctors. Who knows? maybe in the future in Russia patients will be able to be treated without drugs.
(article below was translated above by Elena Bethel from June 2005 Russian Medical Publication out of St. Petersburg, Russia)
