In Chiropractic As In other Professions, Analysis Is The Key
How would you like a dentist to drill all 32 teeth––if you still have them all––hoping they will get the right one? How about a surgeon opening you up and removing your gallbladder, hoping he has the right problem? Of course, it’s ludicrous.
While chiropractic doesn’t seek to diagnose and treat disease, which is the practice of medicine, chiropractic does do an analysis to help determine spinal dysfunction––subluxations––to make corrective adjustments. If the spinal analysis is wrong, the correction may not be complete, but the more that it is correct, the greater the results. When I speak of results, I don’t necessarily mean just the relief of symptoms. Symptoms are merely a feedback mechanism for either a state of ill health or an indication that the body is adapting.
In the GPS world, the Trilateration principle is used to pinpoint a location. Here circles representing a certain distance intersect, identifying a specific location, as evidenced below.
The more parameters you use to give you precision, the better. Chiropractors use several different tools.
Identifying Leg Length Discrepancy
As shown below, most chiropractors use this mode of analysis.
The image shows an obvious right short leg with the patient lying face down on the table. Checking leg lengths, like many things, is an art. It needs to be done correctly. Often patients will lie down at an angle so there will be a false reading. An imaginary line between the feet needs to extend through the crease of the buttocks and up to the centre of the back of the skull.
Sometimes what looks like a short leg turns out to be the opposite. The reason is that many people have an inward turn of the ankles. So the chiropractor has to flare the feet outwards so that the heels are horizontal, as depicted in the image above.
The short leg that chiropractors are looking for is not necessarily an anatomical short leg but a functional one. The functional condition results from an imbalance transmitted through the muscles along the spine. Since muscles function according to the transmission of nerve impulses, interference can cause a leg imbalance. The imbalance doesn't tell the chiropractor exactly where the problem is but can give clues.
In the example above, if the patient turns the head to the left and the right leg balances, it tells you there is a problem in the right side of the neck region. If turning the neck doesn't affect the leg length, the primary spinal concern will likely be lower.
X-Ray Analysis
Many people don't realize that X-ray analysis has been a part of chiropractic since 1910, when B. J. Palmer, the profession's developer, introduced the procedure.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Truth Patrol to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.