More than 200 million Americans alone suffer back pain, and chronic pain makes daily tasks difficult to accomplish. A chiropractic adjustment can get to the root of your problem if it's physically related. A correct adjustment to your frame, and not surgery, may be the best way to relieve your back pain.

Chiropractic Care Instead of Surgery
Your pain-sensing nerves of your spine are in the facet joints, within the two interlocking Magnetic Resonance Imaging "fingers" at the back of each spinal bone. The normally smooth surfaces where these joints glide can become rough, and inflamed. Surgery removes these facet joints, and exposes the spinal cord.

Another cause of lower back pain are bulging discs, which put pressure on the spinal cord or a nerve root. The result is numbness, tingling, or pain down the leg. Cutting away the bulging disc tissue can alter its ability to separate and cushion the adjacent bones. This rarely addresses the underlying root cause of the problem.

The chiropractic approach helps restore normal motion and position of affected spinal bones with chiropractic adjustments. The simplicity of this approach has been documented in numerous research projects and has helped many patients avoid risky surgery.

Activator Method
One of the most notable chiropractic techniques in spinal adjustments is the Activator Method. The Activator Method uses the Activator Adjusting Instrument (instead of hand adjustments) to give consistent mechanical low-force, high-speed clicks to the body.

The goal of the Activator Method is to restore your spinal balance by use of adjustments that allow for a high level of comfort and safety. The Activator Method delivers the proper correction without the need for hands-on thrusting movements.

When a patient experiences an adjustment without the Activator Method, surrounding muscles of that target area involuntarily contract and provides a sort of "protection" for the body, but will then require a higher-velocity thrust by the chiropractor.
The advantage of the Activator Method is that the device is faster than a manual adjustment. The body doesn't have time to react, so a less-powerful force can be used.

Conclusion
Chiropractors are experts in the care of the bones, nerves, muscles and connective tissues that make up about 60% of your body. All of the joints in your body are part of this musculo-skeletal system and its optimal function is necessary for overall good health.