Chiropractic is the art and science of treating pain and disease and maintaining your health without the use of drugs or surgery.

Chiropractic care is based on the scientific fact that your nerve system, consisting of your brain, spinal cord, and all the n

Your spinal column consists of 24 moveable bones, the vertebrae. Between the moveable vertebrae are your discs, which are soft, flexible "shock absorbers" that are made up of an outer cartilage portion and an inner "liquid" center. (Think of a jelly bismark with the dough as the cartilage and the jelly as the inner liquid.) Your vertebrae need to move in order to stay healthy. But, sometimes some of the individual bones of your spine become "stuck" and don’t move like they’re supposed to move. This can be caused by emotional or psychological stress (worry, negative thoughts, a hectic schedule, etc.), physical trauma (slips, falls, sports injuries, injuries at work, car accidents, repetitive motion, chronic poor posture, etc.) or chemical imbalances (drugs, alcohol, pollution, toxins, allergies, etc.)

The signals and messages from your brain pass down through your spinal cord. The signals then pass through your spinal nerves as those nerves exit from your spinal cord through small openings formed by your discs and the moveable vertebrae of your spinal column. Because of the anatomical arrangement of your spinal column and your spinal nerves, the spinal nerves can get rubbed, pinched, irritated or choked when the vertebrae in your spinal column get "stuck" and don’t move properly. This is called a "subluxation" or a "fixation". When this happens your nerves don’t function as they should.

This abnormal functioning of your nerve system can affect the tissues, organs, and organ systems of your body. This can increase your susceptibility to pain, disease and ill health.

A "subluxation" is a term that refers to an abnormal position or abnormal motion of some of the bones of your spine. This condition is also known as a "fixation".

The word "subluxation" is an older term that comes from the medical word "luxation". A luxation is a dislocation of a bone. The prefix "sub" means "almost" or something less than. In other words, a subluxation is an abnormal position of a bone but is less than a complete dislocation.

Back in 1895 two major things occurred. One was the discovery in Germany of x-rays by Professor Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen. For the first time in history doctors were able to see the bones inside a living person. What an amazing technology this must have been at that time!

The second major thing that happened in 1895 was the "discovery" of chiropractic. Actually it was not so much a discovery as it was a renaming. You see, what chiropractors do can be traced back about 5000 years. There is archeological evidence from the ancient Greeks, Romans, Chinese and many other cultures that spinal adjustments were used not only to reduce pain and other symptoms but also to promote and maintain overall health.

So the early chiropractors, who had a very good knowledge of human anatomy, were able to see the spine of a living person. They had already made the link between diseases in certain organs and the spinal level of the nerves that supplied those organs. When they looked at the x-rays of people who had health problems, these early chiropractors noticed that in many cases it appeared that the vertebrae at these spinal levels were "out of place" or had minor dislocations. They termed the condition of a spinal bone being "out of place" a "subluxation". The bones looked out of place but were not completely dislocated.

A fixation is essentially the same as a subluxation. While the term "subluxation" refers to the abnormal position of the vertebrae, the term "fixation" refers to abnormal movement or lack of movement of the vertebrae in your spine. The detrimental effects to your health are the same regardless of the term used to describe this condition.

Sometimes. When the subluxation is not too severe or hasn’t been there for too long your body has the ability to self-correct these malpositions or improper movements. Generally, chiropractic adjustments are the only remedy for subluxations.

Like the early stages of heart disease or tooth decay, subluxations can be present before warning signs or symptoms appear. You can have subluxations and not even know it. Since a subluxation or fixation is a decrease or absence of normal joint movement, chiropractors can detect this abnormal movement by using their hands to palpate or test the movement (or lack of it) in your joints during your examination. X-rays may also provide critical information about your spine’s structure, any degenerative processes that might be present, abnormal curves, and other spinal conditions that can affect your well being.

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Your body has an inborn ability to be healthy and, under normal conditions, your nerve system controls all the cells, tissues, and organs of your body, thus allowing your inborn healing ability to resist disease and ill health. The chiropractic approach is to locate interferences (a subluxation or fixation) to your proper nerve function and correct them (the spinal adjustment).

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An adjustment is the art of applying a specific thrust in a precise direction to the joints in your body that are out of position or are not moving properly. This adds motion to your joints and helps the bones gradually return to a more normal position and motion. This time tested and safe procedure helps to improve your spinal function, improve your nerve system function and improve your health.

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In addition to your spinal adjustments, other forms of treatment may include: electrical muscle stimulation, moist hot packs, ice packs, trigger point therapy, Flexion and Distraction treatment, acupuncture, exercise, and nutritional therapy.

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Yes! Virtually all insurance policies pay for necessary chiropractic care. This includes health insurance policies, car insurance policies, workers compensation policies and Medicare. The best way to find out exactly how much of your care will be covered by your policy is to bring your insurance card with you on your first visit. You may also fax it to our office prior to your first visit. We will be happy to check your coverage for you.

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Chiropractic care is amazingly safe! The risk of a complication from a chiropractic adjustment is so rare that it cannot be accurately measured but can only be estimated. Those estimates range from one in one million adjustments to one in 100 million adjustments. These odds are so small that they might not mean much until they are put in perspective.

If there are approximately 50,000 Americans killed each year in automobile accidents and there are approximately 250,000,000 people in the country then your odds of being killed in a car accident is 1 in 5000. How many of you will stop driving?

Let’s look at the other end of the safety spectrum.

The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that adverse reactions from prescription drugs kill between 76,000 and 137,000 Americans each year and that there are another 2,200,000 serious nonfatal reactions each year. What makes these numbers even more chilling is that the researchers in this study excluded cases where drugs were misprescribed or used wrongly. The authors of this study said that if the number of deaths was averaged prescription drugs would be the 4^th leading cause of death in the United States right behind heart disease, cancer and stroke.

Another article, this one in The New England Journal of Medicine, said there is a "silent epidemic" of aspirin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug(NSAID)-related deaths. The authors estimated that 16,500 people die each year as a result of taking NSAIDs, which include aspirin, ibuprofen and some of the ingredients in Aleve, Naprox, Voltaren, and Indocin. Here’s some more perspective – in 1997, 16,685 people died from AIDS. According to Dr. M. Michael Wolfe of Boston University School of Medicine, if the deaths from complications of NSAID use were ranked with the other major causes of death in the United States, they would rank as the 15^th leading cause of death.

Sometimes a person needs drugs to help them recover their health or to stay alive but we certainly take too many drugs in this country. There is a better way to get healthy and stay healthy.

Chiropractic care is your best and safest first choice for health care!

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Chiropractors are well educated and the education lasts 9 years after high school.

A four year undergraduate degree emphasizing biology, chemistry, physics and other sciences is required for entrance to chiropractic college. Once in chiropractic college, the five year chiropractic curriculum consists of classes in anatomy, embryology, histology, biochemistry, radiology, neuroanatomy, physiology, biomechanics, psychology, first aid, microbiology, endocrinology, neurophysiology, nutrition, public health, pathology, kinesiology, pharmacology, laboratory diagnosis, physical diagnosis, physical therapy, neurology, orthopedics, dermatology and more.

During chiropractic college there are two sets of national boards to be taken and, once graduation takes place, state exams must be passed in order to practice as a chiropractic physician. Additionally, there are several advanced study residence programs in such areas as radiology, family practice, and orthopedics. Many postgraduate courses rare offered in the areas of diagnosis (internal disorders), radiology, orthopedics, physical therapy, neurology, homeopathy, acupuncture, and sports.

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Most, if not all, of your first visit to our office is diagnostic. It is very important for Dr. Russell to determine what is causing your problem and to decide if the problem you have will respond to chiropractic care. If Dr. Russell doesn’t believe chiropractic can help you, he will help you find someone who can.

You will be asked to fill out a thorough health history form so that Dr. Russell can have a good picture of your past health. Then, after receiving your history and discussing your specific health problem with you, the necessary orthopedic, neurological, chiropractic, or other examinations are performed. X-rays may be taken to show any underlying structural or functional problems associated with your condition. These examinations help identify areas of spinal malfunction and resulting nerve system malfunction.

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Everyone is an individual and each person’s health problem is at least a little different from the next. Therefore, each treatment program, both the type and the length, is different for every patient.

For a good portion of your life, you’ve probably been taught that if you feel okay you are okay, but this is not necessarily true. Your pains and other symptoms are warning signs of something more serious going on. For example, when someone has a heart attack the chest pain and shortness of breath are a warning sign of the more serious condition (the blockage of the artery) that is underlying. The best treatment is the one that attempts to correct the underlying cause of the condition so that you don’t relapse. This takes longer than simply patching up the problem with simple pain relief.

In general, most patients are under care for several weeks in order to achieve maximum results. Of course, how long you decide to benefit from chiropractic care is always up to you.