(Nov 2012) – In Good Hands
You may have thought that chiropractors practice the same consistent methodology when it comes to your spinal health.
This is not the case. When you visit a dentist for oral care, you expect a consistent approach in the treatment you receive – no matter the dentist. The chiropractic health scene does not carry this sense of consistency as practitioners can provide a wide variety of treatments based on a wide variety of practices.
There is a group of chiropractors worldwide, however, who practice a method called the Gonstead Method, a universally recognized system devised to ensure accuracy, efficiency and consistency when it comes to your spinal health. Gonstead chiropractors all around the world use the same method of analysis and identical specific adjusting procedures to correct subluxation – a disorder associated with the discs in your spine. An advantage of seeking a Gonstead Method doctor is the peace of mind you gain from dependable medical evaluations. Even if you are traveling, you can visit a Gonstead doctor anywhere in the world and be given the same consistent care you expect and are comfortable with – without a change in style or technique.
The Gonstead Method follows a principle adopted by engineers. Every engineer learns the importance of a shift in the foundation can cause a great amount of deviation in the structure of the building. The same theory applies to the spinal and overall bone structure of a human, and it’s upon this principle that the founder of the Gonstead Method – Dr. Clarence S. Gonstead – developed this widely accepted technique. From an engineering point of view, the pelvic girdle is the body’s foundation. When it leveled within anatomical limitations, maximum balance and stability is achieved in your spinal column.
The entire basis of the Gonstead methodology revolves around the inter-vertebral disc. The doctor must fully understand and negotiate the role the disc plays in the vertebral subluxation. It’s the analysis of the disc, and the changes it undergoes, that gives the most reliable information for locating the potential structural disorder. Since the disc itself cannot be seen on an X-ray film, the state of the disc must be inferred from the evaluation of the condition of the disc space. Critical analyses of the degenerative conditions of the disc and of the misalignment of the vertebral bodies are not in themselves sufficient evidence for locating a potential subluxation. Dr. Gonstead found that the most severely misaligned vertebrae are often compensatory misalignment because of actual subluxations
elsewhere.
A compensation is a vertebral misalignment, usually resulting from a subluxation elsewhere in your back and is in effect the cause of all subluxations. If your chiropractor does not take into consideration the phenomenon of a compensation within the spine, he or she may inadvertently be adjusting the gross misalignments without correcting the source of the issue, which is the subluxation. This may be a contributing factor as to why you may not be making
progress with your current chiropractor.
The Finder, November 2012
