What is Chiropractic?

Chiropractic is a fast-growing independent health care profession in the United Kingdom and it is regulated by the General Chiropractic Council (GCC). In little over 100 years chiropractic has grown from a tiny profession to become the third largest independent healthcare profession in the Western world.

Chiropractors provide care for patients of all ages, who present with a range of acute and chronic conditions. As well as advice about self-help, exercise, diet and lifestyle, chiropractors often provide support for pain management, sports injuries and active rehabilitation.

"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity"

(World Health Organisation Constitution 1948).

Chiropractors take an integrated and holistic approach to the health needs of their patients, considering physical, psychological and social factors. They provide care and support by reducing pain and disability and by restoring normal function to people with neuro-musculoskeletal disorders. The word ‘Chiropractic’ is actually derived from classical Greek and its literal translation means ‘done by hand’.

The benefit therefore is that at the Milton Keynes Chiropractic clinic, you have 5 year fully trained Doctors of chiropractic, skilled in Neurological examination as well as Orthopaedic examination and capable of taking and reading x-rays, if necessary, who diagnose your problem medically but who treat the problem holistically. We bridge the gap between medical training and alternative therapy. We take a safe and thorough approach to diagnosing your problem with our medical training but do not use drugs or surgery as an approach; instead we utilise our more holistic treatment based upon a sound medical rationale.

Chiropractic is concerned with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system and the effects of these disorders on the function of the nervous system and general health. There is an emphasis on manual treatments including spinal manipulation or adjustment (World Federation of Chiropractic, 1999).

A Medical Research Council clinical trial and its follow-up, reported in the British Medical Journal in 1990 and 1995, found that chiropractic treatment of back pain was more effective than hospital outpatient treatment. The European Commission Acute Low Back Pain Guidelines includes manipulation as an effective treatment for low back pain.