The early pioneers of Chiropractic learned that the body is the greatest healer, and that the root of many diseases can be traced back to the spine.  Hippocrates stated, "Get knowledge of the spine, for this is the requisite for many diseases." 

Chiropractic philosophy is based on the body’s inborn wisdom (we call this “innate intelligence).  Health is the optimum expression of your body’s innate intelligence, or ability to properly adapt.  This inborn wisdom is transmitted through the nervous system.  The nervous system is the master system, and conveys all electric signals throughout your body.  From touch, to smell, to movement of muscles, to the digestion of food, it is all controlled by your nervous system.  This is the first system to form in your body and controls the development and function of all other systems from cradle to coffin.  In order to protect it, the body  encases it in bone (your brain and spinal cord are encased in your skull and vertebral column respectively).  There is an extremely intricate connection of the Central Nervous System (CNS) to the bones that surround it, and it is not completely understood.  When a vertebra is subluxated, or out of functional alignment, even minimally, it affects how signals are transmitted by the nerves around it.  This can be due to impingement of soft tissue onto the nerve, by distortion of blood flow to the nerve, by compression of the nerve by disc material, or, in severe cases, caused by compression of the nerve by boney prominences due to degeneration in the spine (arthritis).  Degeneration of the spine is the long term effects of trauma and resulting subluxation.  Correction of subluxation by the adjustment, and thus optimum ability of the nervous system to convey your body’s inborn wisdom, is the main principle behind Chiropractic.

Unlike modern medicine, Chiropractic predominately focuses on the electrical aspects of the human body instead of the chemical.  Since the nervous system controls your entire body, electrical controls chemical.  It is because of this fact that no drug can ever cure the cause of the disease, but only mask the symptoms.  It is for this reason that chronic problems are often managed with medication for life despite the sometimes terrible side effects. 

Example:  A fast acting inhaler opens your airways when you have an asthma attack by applying a chemical stimulus to the smooth muscle and glandular tissue inside of the lungs.  This relieves the symptoms you were experiencing at that moment, but eventually you will have the same problem as the cause was not addressed.  Why did your body react the way it did?  Why was your body’s ability to adapt impaired? 

Chiropractic looks to the spine and the nerves that control the function of organs, in this case the lungs, as the source of the problem.   Much like how an asthma attack is not due to a defficiency of a bronchodilator, migraines are not caused by being deficient in pain relievers.  The problem must be taken care of at its root:  the cause.  Chiropractic believes that disease is the failure of the body to adapt to the stressor that is causing the dis-ease.  This is why Chiropractic treats no specific disease or symptom; the body is what does the healing.  This is how adjusting the spinal bones into proper alignment and motion can have profound effects on other organ system of the body.