Chiropractor Dr. Alison Bale quotes the founder of modern medicine, the Greek Physician Hippocrates, “if you want to understand the health of the body, you have to understand the health of the spine.” Sharing her expertise she explains,"Chiropractic focuses on the joints, bones, muscles and ligaments of the spine, and how the movement of the spine relates to the function of the nervous system. It isn’t a ‘treatment’ as such. Chiropractic began from an observation that if you apply specific adjustments to the bones of the spine, people’s health improves. The ‘focus’, if you like, is to facilitate a person’s own healing, and to restore and improve the body’s capacity to absorb and respond to the stresses and strains placed upon it.” Medindia delves deeper into what Chiropractic treatment has to offer. Dr. Alison Bale, one of the leading chiropractors in India answers:

Q. How is Chiropractic treatment different from other alternate medicine?

The word chiropractic means ‘done by hand’. It was given the name ‘chiropractic’ by a healer DD Palmer, working in the United States in the 1890s, however the principles on which chiropractic is based have been around for as long as there are any written records regarding healthcare.

There’s a large and growing evidence base for chiropractic. We do not fully understand how it works, but we do know that chiropractic changes the way the nervous system integrates and processes information.  The nervous system is the conduit for how we relate to our external world and control our internal one, so chiropractors believe it’s fundamental to our health.  To the best of my knowledge, chiropractic is the only ‘medicine’ to come in at this level, so to speak.

As in Ayurveda, and Traditional Chinese Medicine, we also believe that dis-ease is as individual as the person who has it, and that most attempts to label people with specific conditions can do more harm than good.

Q.  Who can avail chiropractic treatment? For what health challenges do people seek your assistance and services?

Anyone, young or old, can come to see a chiropractor. The majority of people I see come with non-specific back or neck pain, headaches, and/or dizziness. However I also see sports people who want to improve their sporting performance/minimise their chances of injury. And people who feel better after chiropractic adjustment see what I do as part of how they look after their bodies, like going to a gym or eating healthily, rather than as a ‘treatment’.

Q.        What is your approach while treating patients? Please elaborate on how the treatment is employed on a patient with a specific medical condition.

First, I take a history. This can take half an hour to an hour, depending on the situation. The history will include a ‘description of condition’, which is ‘What is happening for the person now and what has happened in the past?‘, along with collecting details about past illnesses, operations, accidents, and an overview of their more general health.

Depending on what I hear, I may refer the person for more tests or to an allopathic doctor. Or I examine them myself. The examination will include postural analysis, orthopaedic and neurological testing, and palpation (using my hands to assess the body both in movement and statically). Depending on the circumstances, I may also take their blood pressure, listen to their lungs or heart, take the pulse etc.

Then I’ll discuss with the person what I have found, what it tells me about their symptoms, and then draw up a diagnosis and a treatment plan.

For some people, chiropractic alone is appropriate. For others I might refer first to a trigger point person to relieve muscle spasm either before or in addition to the chiropractic. For other people I might recommend counselling either instead of or as an adjunct to chiropractic. For others it could be allopathy instead of or as an adjunct etc.

Q. Are there ailments that cannot be detected and treated by mainstream medical practitioners that only chiropractic treatment can do?

It’s not about whether chiropractic or allopathy is right or wrong, it’s about what’s the best approach for an individual at a given time.  What people are lacking is the knowledge to determine when they should seek allopathic treatment and when to go to alternative medicine, as there is a time and a place for both.

Let’s take back pain.  Back pain is a symptom of a problem, not a problem in its own right.  It can be a symptom of disease. For example, cancers, inflammatory arthritis, cardiovascular disease, are best handled by an allopathic physician, although in some cases a chiropractor may be part of the team. However major disease or trauma, e.g   a fracture, only account for about 5% of cases of back pain.

The other 95% are termed ‘non specific back pain’. The allopathic approach tends to assume that most non specific back pain is due to inflammation; hence it gets labelled spondylitis, which means inflammation (itis) of the spine (spondylo). This assumption may have some validity with acute problems (ie the person who’s got back pain for the first time, of less than two months’ duration). However for chronic pain, research suggests that the assumption is wrong. Research suggests that chronic pain has more to do with adaptations in the nervous system and with a person’s attitudes and behaviours. Therefore an intervention like chiropractic, which focuses on the nervous system, can be more effective.

Q.  Spinal Manipulation or Spinal adjustment is also called chiropractic adjustment. Is it because only chiropractors can offer remedial therapy? 

Chiropractic is not synonymous with manipulation. Some chiropractic techniques involve manipulation, others do not. And not everyone who manipulates is a chiropractor.

That’s why chiropractors distinguish between adjustment and manipulation. For example, I don’t manipulate, so when I work with someone, there’s no ‘cracking’ of joints.

Q. How can chiropractic treatment be infused with mainstream treatment? Are there medical practitioners who recommend chiropractic treatment? Have patients been referred to you by medical doctors?

When I worked in the UK, I frequently worked with a team of allopathic doctors. Here in India, there are occasional referrals from allopathic doctors.

Chiropractors do think differently from medical doctors, but there’s no reason why we cannot work together if both are open minded enough to appreciate the strengths of the different approaches and play to them.

I characterize it like this. I choose to look after my body. I choose not to smoke, to exercise regularly, to eat healthily, and I choose chiropractic care for myself as part of that. I do not believe you can always prevent serious illness. However I do think you can improve your chances of not becoming ill, and you can improve your chances of surviving if you do become ill. Certainly two of the biggest health problems facing all countries today - obesity and its companion Type 2 diabetes - can be prevented but not cured.