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The Alternative Medicine Treatment Known as Chiropractic Care

When an individual chooses chiropractic care they are asking for healing to include the practice of spinal manipulation as well as joint and soft-tissue manipulation, exercises to do at home, health and lifestyle counseling and a general over-all return to good health from the inside out. Healing takes place when vertebral subluxation or spinal joint dysfunction interferes with the body's normal ability to function and for self-healing.

Chiropractic care has over recent decades been more widely accepted by both mainstream physicians and by health care insurance plans. Those who practice Chiropractic care believe that when our vertebrae are not aligned properly it contributes to illnesses and to the experience of pain. Chiropractors apply appropriate pressure to vertebrae, which will then allow these vertebrae to put themselves back into place. They focus on diagnosing, treating and preventing mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system. Chiropractic care is popular in Australia, Canada and in the United States.

In general, chiropractic care includes the belief that health is a byproduct of the environment, along with the state of the musculoskeletal system of the individual's body. There is a central belief that the body can heal itself and was designed to do so. Health should be patient-centered instead of focused on the problem, symptom or disease. The patient is to be held responsible for the maintenance of his/her own health.

In many jurisdictions those who are licensed to practice chiropractic medicine are known as doctors of chiropractic or chiropractic physicians.

Conventional health care and international governmental organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), view chiropractic care as a complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). A chiropractor uses observational assessment, orthopedic and neurological evaluation and testing in order to evaluate the entire person's health and to access if chiropractic care can assist the individual to realize improved health and well being. Chiropractors do not have a license to write medical prescriptions or to perform major surgery. Each state has their own licensing laws pertaining to chiropractors and what they can do legally varies from state to state in the U.S.A., but generally they can conduct spinal manipulation (SM), other manual therapies that involve joints or soft tissues, rehabilitative exercises, perform electrical modalities to promote health, conduct lifestyle counseling, conducting certain laboratory tests, dispense dietary supplements.

Chiropractors are also governed regarding educational pursuits, licensing, and regulation of their profession and must obtain a professional degree in the field of chiropractic. In the United States and Canada they are required to complete a minimum of 90 semester hours of undergraduate education as a prerequisite for chiropractic school. They are then required to complete at least 4200 instructional hours (or the equivalent) of full-time chiropractic education at an accredited chiropractic program. The World Health Organization (WHO) has guidelines that suggest that they have three major full-time educational paths culminating in a DC, DCM, BSc, or MSc degree. WHO also suggests that they have a conversion program for individuals with other health care education and limited training programs for regions where no legislation governs chiropractic practices.