"He cracks my neck." "He kind of twists me until I hear a pop." "He uses this hammer thing on me." Yikes. No wonder people are confused, scared and just plain dumb about what chiropractors do on a daily basis.

So what do chiropractors do on a daily basis to hundreds of thousands people daily? What in the world is a "spinal adjustment" anyway?

First things first. Let us look at the typical first day in my chiropractic office. After the initial paperwork are health history are complete, you are escorted into a room. Here the doctor and the patient first meet.

Now it is time to start the physical exam. First, after the patient's chief complaint is recorded the chiropractor will perform orthopedic tests. These are tests that put your body through certain ranges of motion and see if certain pain or other postive indicators are present.

After that it is time for some range of motion tests. Is your neck turning more to the left? Does it hurt when you look up vs. when you look down?

How is your posture? Do you have a high shoulder or a high hip? Do you carry your neck forward of your shoulders? Does your spine curve side to side at all? Do any exercises bother you specifically?

This is usally followed by either an x-ray study or a thermal scan to detect other spinal abnormalities.

Finally, after all this hard work, the chiropractor can study the results and formulate a plan of attach on how to correct any spinal issues you may be experiencing.

Our treatment, called a spinal "adjustment", is usually nothing more then a gently nudge of the misaligned bone in the correct direction. It is not a "crack". Nothing gets fractured. The adjustment is done on a special table made specifically for the chiropractic proffession. Sometimes a piece of the table may drop about a half inch or so to help magnify the force of the doctor's hands. Now about that "crack"... The noise you hear that is sometimes associated with an adjustment is nothing more then gas escaping a joint....much like when you "crack" your knuckles. It is just carbon dioxide.

Chiropractors have all the education a medical doctor has, minus the pharmacology or "drug" education. As a whole we believe in the power of your body to heal itself, and we simply encourage your body to start healing by working on the spine to engage the nervous system.