“Crack Me Like a Glowstick!” Whilst hilarious, this phrase should make any chiropractor cringe, even just a little. The cracking doesn’t mean a whole bunch and isn’t what we’re actually after when we adjust. So here I’m busting that myth, a few others, and clearing up some things!
We Move Bones
Chiropractors adjust the spine, right? So they find bones that are out of line, and shove them back in, right? That’s what the cracking sound is!! Right?
Fortunately, NO! The cracking is just air in a joint, discussed below, and what actually happens is we put an impulse into the body, the body does the rest. We just…ask it nicely and put some energy into a joint.
The body is clever, adaptive and responsive. Sometimes it just need guidance, which is what we do. The body heals itself up, works better, hurts less.
A Good Adjustment Needs a Crack
If you’re after a pop, get some bubblewrap. Alright, I’ll admit that when I get your spine to do the “popopop” thing, I think it sounds cool, but that’s about it. Those videos where a chiro gets allllll those loud cracks? Sorry to say, but a lot of the sounds are added on at a later date. Weird how the patients in the videos are always gorgeous young women too, isn’t it? Almost like it’s just a bit of showmanship for the camera….
It sounds good, I think, and is just gas being released from inside a joint. The form of chiropractic I use never gets any pops or cracks, but is incredibly effective, just boring to watch. The gas escaping from a joint sometimes happens when you adjust, sometimes it doesn’t – it has absolutely no bearing on how good an adjustment has been. Sometimes you can even get a cavitation before you’ve adjusted!
If you get them when being adjusted, awesome. If you don’t, don’t worry, you’re still getting a great treatment!
We Think we can Cure Cancer
Some chiros think we can, most aren’t so daft as to disregard chemotherapy. There is no proof that we can cure cancer, so let’s just get that out in the open. However, I believe that chiropractic will give your body the best chance of getting well again – alongside well proven treatments like chemo- and radiotherapy.
Every day our bodies hunt down, find and kill many many cells that would otherwise mutate out of control and become cancerous. When something goes wrong in the body, a cell isn’t picked up in the early stages of mutation and you get issues. Chiropractic is all about helping the body to communicate with itself better and work better, healing itself naturally. The theory is that this helps prevent your body becoming sick and developing things like cancer in the first place. At least, that’s the theory!
We Aren’t Doctors
- 1.
a person who is qualified to treat people who are ill.
We are most definitely qualified to treat people who are ill. If we weren’t, then what’s the point of us?
OK then, fine, I hear you. That’s semantics isn’t it? Well, the training we go through is just as rigorous, just as in-depth and covers a lot of the same things: pharmacology, anatomy, infection, biomedical sciences. We do have a different emphasis, musculo-skeletal and neurology, but to say our training isn’t every bit as tough and thorough is nonsense.
There’s no Research
Well, this is the most commonly thrown around argument against chiropractors. But it just isn’t true. Heidi Haavik has a great resource on chiropractic research, as does Dan Murphy to name just a few. There is plenty, but these are some of the most accessible, but going into tonnes of depth is way beyond the scope of this article.
Difference Between a Chiropractor and a Physiotherapist
This is a common question I get, and it’s a fair one. What is the difference? Plenty of physios manipulate, same as we do. Plenty of chiros offer corrective exercises, same as they do. However, we are specialists in the spine and manipulations and adjusting, physios are specialists in corrective exercises and rehab. The two professions should be working together, coming at things from different angles and at different points in the rehab process. Put simply, if you get hit by a bus and need to learn to walk again, go and see a physio. When you’re ready for your body to feel good again and start working at its optimum, see a chiropractor.
Another main difference between the two professions is the philosophy. Chiropractic care has a very different philosophy to most other healthcare providers. We believe that the body is more than capable of healing itself and working at the best level it possibly can, which is all controlled through the central nervous system, which we access through the spine.
6 chiropractic myths! Cleared up now, hopefully. Any more questions about chiropractic, email me! and talking of emails, if you like what I’ve written here, then sign up in the form below! And if you’re looking for high quality supplements that are good for the planet too, then check out Arbonne.
