Why Chiropractic?

Chiropractic’s Origins

Chiropractic was founded over 120 years ago when a man named D.D. Palmer wanted to find the answer to an important question:

One question was always uppermost in my mind in my search for the cause of disease. I desired to know why one person was ailing and his associate, eating at the same table, working in the same shop, at the same bench, was not. Why? What difference was there in the two persons that caused one to have pneumonia, catarrh, typhoid or rheumatism, while his partner, similarly situated, escaped?

As it happened, he would find his answer in an encounter with a deaf man named Harvey Lillard. In his writings in 1908, D.D. Palmer recalled the event:

In 1895, when 50 years of age … his question was answered by chance. Harvey Lillard gave him the cue which opened a new field for research. Mr. Lillard was restored to hearing by two adjustments, a dorsal vertebrae was replaced in its normal position.

Harvey wrote the following testimony in 1896:

I was deaf 17 years and I expected to always remain so, for I had doctored a great deal without any benefit. I had long ago made up my mind to not take any more ear treatments, for it did me no good. Last January Dr. Palmer told me that my deafness came from an injury in my spine. This was new to me; but it is a fact that my back was injured at the time I went deaf. Dr. Palmer treated me on the spine; in two treatments I could hear quite well. That was eight months ago. My hearing remains good.

This amazing event left an indelible impression on D.D. Palmer and he developed a system to replicate the healing effect that he discovered working with Harvey. He and a friend who was a scholar of the Greek language came up with the name for his system, ‘chiropractic’; χειρο- chiro- (itself from χείρ cheir “hand”), “hand” and πρακτικός praktikos, “practical.”

Unique Benefits

At it’s core, chiropractic is different from any other form of healthcare. It seeks to restore optimal function by removing functional limitations found in the spine. When these limitations, often called ‘subluxations’, exist, dysfunction and disease follow. We believe that a person is always better off without a subluxation and that these lesions must be identified and eliminated with a chiropractic adjustment.

Most people are content to use chiropractic for short-term rehabilitation of back pain, neck pain, and headaches. There is a good amount of scientific evidence to support the efficacy of chiropractic for these conditions according to the NIH in their review of the literature. However, it’s safe to say that chiropractic has something more to offer. Beyond curing any specific ‘disease’, it maximizes your body’s healing potential and supports your overall well being.

Health, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) is “A state of complete physical, mental, and social well being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Chiropractic adjustments help you to achieve this without the use of drugs or surgery. So, chiropractic can help you whether you’re interested in using it to relieve your back pain or to optimize your health in a holistic way.