There are many methods for treating spinal problems. But there are many points to consider when choosing the treatment method. Different atients may feel different level of pain even though the nature of the problem is the same, depending on the patient’s health condition and living environment. So their treatment method must differ.

Chiropractic comes from the Greek word-cheir, which means ‘hand’, and prattein, which means ‘treatment’. It was the word used for medical treatments that uses only the hands without surgery or the use of drugs, however, today ; the word is used for treatment for backbone correction.

It became known to the world when around 1895 ; Dr David Palmer established the principle in terms of medical science of chiropractic. At the time, it was an integrated treatment that included massage therapy,water therapy, light therapy, magnetic treatment, homeopathy and bonesetting. When the intervertebral disks get contracted, which in turn represses the 31 threads of spinal nerves from the spinal cord, causing functional problems, chiropractic is a scientific field that treats such condition by adjusting the spine by hand, helping the body to cure it self naturally. It is recognized world wide in 70countries as a formal medical practice.
Chiropractic corrects the deformed spinal regions by hands or through using equipments. If spine is deformed or crooked, the spinal nerves get squeezed and this condition causes various kinds of dysfunction of organs that are connected to the spinal nerves. Most common modern ailments such as lumbago, tinnitus, and autonomic nerves malfunction are all attributable to spinal problems, most common being crooked or deformed spine. By correcting the deformed or crooked spine, the nervous system is corrected, enhancing the organs, accelerating the lymph circulation and strengthening the immune system, the diseases are prevented and aging process is slowed down.

Thermotherapy usually uses either conduction heat or radiant heat, in terms of former, there are methods that uses sand, warm bath, paraffin wax, thermo bath and steam bath. As for radiant heat method, there are electronic light bathing, UV ray method, and high frequency method. Thermotherapy helps to improve blood circulation, stimulates the metabolism, and reduces pain, muscle tension, so it is known to help to improve the conditions of, arthritis, muscle pain and other chronic inflammation and also it helps to recover from fatigue. The main reason for applying heat to the body is to increase bloodstream by increasing the body temperature. If the body temperature drops even by 1°c, we start to suffer from various sicknesses due to chill, in contrast, if our body temperature rises even by 1°c, we start to feel lethargic and we start to become more inactive. The fact that the fatality is inevitable if our heart malfunctions and the body temperature start to drop, strongly implies the importance of thermotherapy.

Thermotherapy

① Improves the capability of tissue.

② Help to prevent solidification of joints.

③ Helps to relieve pain.

④ Helps to relieve muscle tension.

⑤ Increases the blood flow.

⑥ Reduces inflammation symptoms and edema.

Since the early times, men instinctively touched, rubbed or pressed around area of pain. And during such repetitive process, men found areas where physical stimulation relieved or effective in healing particular sickness. This developed into finger-pressure therapy. Therefore finger-pressure therapy started with the beginning of mankind. The most common form of finger-pressure therapy is actually the eastern massage therapy. Then this method developed into using other devices instead of using hands - acupuncture and moxibustion. Finger-pressure therapy is fundamentally based on the acupuncture points defined in the eastern medicine, but it also does add the western massage and chiropractic concepts.

finger-pressure therapy

① By circulating the blood and lymph glands, vitalizing the metabolism.

② By relaxing all the muscles of the body, releases tension in the stiff muscles.

③ Corrects the deformed ligaments, muscles and tendon.

④ By stimulating the acupuncture points, control the body organs.

⑤ Control the central nerve system, that is the autonomic nerve system, which is the most important system in the human body.

⑥ While controlling the endocrine disability, help to relieve fatigue.

Moxibustion is a form of thermotherapy that started from mildly burning the areas of pain.
It involves dding various kinds of medicinal herbs to the treatment.
Its theoretical background is based on meridian pathways and the acupuncture points. This method developed as a method of stimulation that provides acupunctural treatments, that is as effective as pharmaceutical treatments. Today, moxibustion is being acknowledged as a medical method that corrects the functions of body organs.

The main effects of moxibustion

① Activates the cells

② It helps to improve blood circulation

③ Moxibustion changes the blood constituents

④ Controls the hormone discharge

⑤ Controls the nervous system

⑥ Controls the functions of internal organs

⑦ Relieves pain

Even the grandest houses are like those built on sand if pillars are weak. Pillar determines the life of a house. Then what is the pillar of our body? It is our spine. Therefore, if we have spine problems, we start having various problems and we constantly need to fix those problems. So how does the spine actually look and what roles does it play?

Spine is the pillar of our body. Spinal cord is also in the spine, connecting to the brain, and controlling all the functions of our body. Spine supports our body weight, and protects the spinal cord, which communicates to all our body parts from the brain.

The 31 pairs of spinal nerves stemming out from the spinal cord branches out through the vertebras and get connected to the body organs, muscles, blood vessels, ligaments and skin tissues. The spinal cord and the spinal nerves control all our senses, movements, posture, body temperature, heart rate, respiration, blood sugar level and all other bodily functions

Our spine was originally in a neat S structure. By such natural curve structure, our whole body is supported effectively and is well balanced for right posture. Therefore, we are not destined to suffer from the cases of lumbago, shoulder and arm pain. They are the results of bad habits, wrong exercises, stress, accidents and genetical problems. The spinal problems along with lumbago and so many other disorders stem from the spine. So it is easy to see how important the spine is in keeping good health.

Protection

Protects the spinal cord that comes from the brain through vertebrae.

Support

Spine supports the muscles & ligaments that are connected to the spine, head, limbs,ribcage, organs and even the pelvis.

Integrate

Controls our body movement and all other physiological processes.

Link

Helps the biological process between the body and the brain.

Pillar

Helps to maintain straight and true posture.

When such stimulus as the light and sound are reached on the senses such as eyes and ears, these are transmitted in high speed to the brain and spinal cord through the peripheral nerves.This process gives us the feelings of senses. The central nerve sends to the muscles or each organ, appropriate orders to control various functions of body. So the peripheral nerve and the central nerve receive various kinds of stimulus from every corner of our body, and by responding to these stimuli, they ensure that our body acts properly. The brain, spinal cord and the peripheral nerves together are called the nervous system.

Spinal cord passes the information entering the body through peripheral nerves to the brain. It passes the brain commands to all the organs. Spinal nerves take this role because brain cannot directly send commands to the limbs.

Spinal cord plays the role of mediator because brain it self cannot send the signals all the way to the arms and legs. Therefore the brain signals are sent only to the spinal cord with super fast speed.

Largely, the nervous system is divided to central nerves and the peripheral nerves. The central nerves refer to brain and the spinal cord ; brain is in the skull and is comprised of cerebrum, midbrain, interbrain, and cerebellum. The spinal cord is the nerves inside the spine and is connected to the hindbrain.

Refers to all the nerves that branches out from the brain and the spinal cord and distributed to all the organs and tissues of the body. The peripheral nervous system is divided as the somatic nervous system (subject to the cerebrum’s rule), and the autonomic nervous system (non-subject to the cerebrum realm).

The nervous system stems out from the brain and branches out to all parts of the body. If is comes from the brain, it’s called the cerebral nerve, if it’s from the spinal cord, it’s called the spinal nerves. Usually there are 12 pairs of cerebral nerves from the brain and distributed around the face. There are 31 pairs of spinal nerves from the spinal cord and distributed to the body and the limbs.

The autonomic nerve system is distributed to the heart, blood vessels, lung and the digestive system. It is not subject to the rule of cerebrum ; it controls the functions of internal organs by its own accord. The autonomic nervous system is comprised of sympathetic nerve and the parasympathetic nerve. Usually, as shown in the following table, when one side is accelerated, then the other side is restrained. For example, if heart rate is accelerated by the sympathetic nervous system, the parasympathetic nerve slows it down.

It is said that to get healthy, drink plenty of water. There is nothing that is better than water in helping smooth blood circulation. Without blood circulation, we die. Therefore the blood is our water of life. However, if spine is crooked or out of place, then all the nerves related to blood circulation will start having problems. It is easy to know why crooked spine is the cause of all diseases.

Most of blood is made within the spine. Therefore, if spine is crooked or out of place, then the blood does not get produced properly, and the spine nerves - which are the governing nervous system for blood circulation, would be put under pressure, causing problems in every each organ, and the blood circulation gets poor.

So if we remove the causes, would the blood circulation improve?
Unfortunately we are living in an environment where we simply cannot remove all the hindrances to good blood circulation. Along environment pollution, food with various kinds of additives and the surrounding that is full of toxic chemicals, are them selves hindrances to good blood circulation. All these polluting substances along with stress are increasing wastes in our blood, and we become sick so easily. This can easily be seen from the fact that there are none who are completely disease free. In western medicine, the causes of diseases are bacteria, virus and genetics, but in eastern medicine, the most primary cause for disease is the disability in circulation. The extravasated blood, which is the impurities within the blood, gets accumulated in one spot, then the people start to show various symptoms. The kind of symptoms shown is different from person to person. Blisters may appear in the womb, myoma, cystitis, frigidity, prostatitis, impotency, chilled limbs, arthritis and back pain may also appear. If extravasated blood is cleansed and unblocks the blocked blood vessel, then the blood circulation becomes normal. The cause for extravasated blood is, apart from virus or bacteria, the spleen not functioning properly to treat the impurities or the liver’s dysfunction and not purifying the blood. That is the spleen and the liver are the organs that neutralize the toxins and remove extravasated blood, and the above problem starts to occur if these organs do not function properly. Then why are organs such as the spleen and the liver do not function as they should?Most importantly it’s because the spine is crooked or the passage for the spinal nerves had narrowed and putting pressure to the spinal nerves.

In alternative medicine, spleen and liver controls the blood circulation, but in western medicine, it’s the heart and the kidneys that perform this task. However, the fact that these organs are connected to the spinal nerve is not so different. Most of our body organs are connected to the autonomic nerves from the thoracic vertebrae. From the chiropractic (a form of alternative medicine) perspective, the thoracic vertebrae number 1 is connected to bronchus, no 2 to heart, 3 to lung, 4 to gall bladder, 5 to liver, 7 to pancreas, 8 to spleen, 9~11 to kidneys, and 12 is connected to small intestine. If parts of these thoracic vertebrae are crooked, then the spinal nerves get sqeezed, causing dysfunction of the corresponding organ. For example, if there is a problem with thoracic vertebrae number 3, then you would become vulnerable to such diseases as pleurisy and pneumonia. The spleen and the liver are connected to thoracic vertebrae 5 and 8, and if there are problems in these parts, then there could be problems with blood circulation. Also, from the western medicine perspective, the heart and kidneys are connected to thoracic vertebrae 9~11, therefore it can easily be seen that the blood circulation is intimately related to the spine. So in order to be free of blood circulation related disorders, the spine must be true and straight. If spine is either crooked or get out of place, the blood do not get produced properly, and the organs start to have problems due to squeezing of spinal nerves, causing bad blood circulation

Our body is an intricate network of nerves which starts from brain to the spinal nerves, then to the peripheral nerves and autonomic nervous system. If only one of these malfunction, our body begins to malfunction as a whole. In particular, if the spinal nerves, which play the central role in connecting the brain to other nerve system, start to malfunction, our body simply falls to chaos. Therefore we must always make the best effort to maintain our backs straight.

The clinical massage therapy such as chiropractic mentions about how nerves from the spine is connected to the organs, and where in the spine should be stimulated to remove dysfunction in a particular organ etc. Other therapies related to improving health through spinal care also mentions about very similar spinal treatments. It is easy to know from this that nerves are connected not only to the muscles which our body uses for movement, but to our body organs as well. Then how are our spine and organs correspond? Thr right is an excerpt from the main subject taught to the American chiropracters - the Spinal Nerves Medical Professional. This does not necessarily mean there is one to one, thread by thread connection between nerves and our internal organs. Therefore, interpretation of such therapy could be different, depending on different perspectives. However, it is very clear that the spinal nerves are interconnected with our body rgans.

Consistent spinal stretching strengthens muscles around the spine, that is, the back and abdominal muscles get stronger, distributing the load to the back or the abdominal muscles that would otherwise go to the spine. It is important to exercise regularly. Exercising about 20 minutes every morning and evening is recommended. It is not wise to exercise with high intensity from the beginning. Start with low intensity and slowly raise the intensity of the exercise. When exercising, avoid pain and be consistent. The following is the list of exercises that are good for elderly people or those who are suffering from back problems.