Question
Is the difference between a therapeutic chiropractor and a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor that one branch does not believe in loosing, relaxing and re-aligning the muscles surrounding the skeletal mis-alignment? Is this basically therapeutic chiropractory versus "cold snapping"?
I've always understood that skeletal adjustments without muscle conditioning would result in the alignment returning to where ever the tensed and sometimes inflamed muscle wants it to be. Isn't it also more dangerous, with a chance of permanent damage, to perform an adjustment without loosening these muscular attachments? Is this what most of the newly graduated chiropractors term "non-therapeutic straight chiropractor", or is there a missing link somewhere? I've had a lifetime of back issues and find it very difficult to find a good chiropractor who isn't just trying to sell a permanent maintenance contract without as much as an xray to confirm his diagnosis or a clue as to how to reseat a misplaced rib, for instance.

Answer
Dear Chet,

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the professional distinctions of therapeutic mixing and non-therapeutic straight within chiropractic.  

From the information in your question, you seem to have some acquaintance with the therapeutic mixed segment of the profession.  So that we're communicating clearly, you are correct that there are two very distinct branches or schools of thought in chiropractic.  I will invite you to put aside the preconceptions you have expressed in your question, though, that seem to originate from your frustrations in your search for effective therapeutic mixed chiropractic so you can understand the two viewpoints accurately.  I抦 sorry to tell you that nearly all of what you抳e written as your understanding of this is misconception.  

Briefly, therapeutic mixed chiropractic and non-therapeutic straight chiropractic are differentiated by whether they deal with the limited therapeutic approach for aches and pains (commonly termed "therapeutic mixed" chiropractic because it represents a mixture of a chiropractor with a non-chiropractic matter) or a non-therapeutic approach to optimum body performance (termed "non-therapeutic straight" chiropractic because there is no mixing of chiropractic with anything else).  My expertise is in non-therapeutic straight chiropractic.  

Therapeutic "mixed" chiropractic is the older approach based on a split from the founding principles of chiropractic about a century ago.
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Non-therapeutic "straight" chiropractic is the more modern of the two.  It deals with a particular, common situation called a vertebral subluxation. The spine is made of many bone segments which house and protect the spinal cord and the smaller spinal nerve branches that come off the spinal cord and exit between the bones.  These nerve pathways carry information or messages between the brain and the cells of the body.  These messages are essential for the life of the cells.  Without brain messages, the cells
immediately begin the process of dying; i.e., they can no longer function the way they should to maintain life.  

Because the spinal bones are moveable, they can misalign in such a way as to interfere with the messages and, ultimately, the ability of the person to function at their best or express their optimum potential.  People with vertebral subluxations are not able to get all they can out of life.

Vertebral subluxations can be caused by a wide variety of factors, what we'll generally call stresses.  These stresses can be physical (such as tripping on the curb, picking up a child, sneezing, falling down, etc.), mental / emotional (in its many forms, probably the most familiar use of the word stress), or chemical (such as pollution, drugs, etc.), which are, unfortunately, regular parts of daily living for all age groups.  In short, a vertebral subluxation can occur for a multitude of reasons.

Tragically, vertebral subluxations are rarely obvious to the individual they affect.  They usually have no symptoms.  The reason is that most of what goes on inside you happens without your awareness.  As an example, try to "feel" your liver.  What's it doing right now?  You can't know, so you can't know if it's functioning at its best or something less.  To complicate things, nerve pathways that carry messages of control (termed "motor" nerves) have no way of transmitting ache or pain messages, so your body function may be far from perfect and you'd not have any alerting signal whatsoever.  In order to know if you have a vertebral subluxation, it is necessary to have your spine checked by a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor using a method of "analysis."  When a vertebral subluxation is detected this way, it is obviously important to correct it as soon as possible.

Since vertebral subluxations are caused by so many different things, people choose to go to a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor on a regular basis to enjoy the most time free of the life-robbing effects of vertebral subluxation. There's a saying that straight chiropractic is not about your back, it's not about your pain, it's about your life.  Each person has a unique potential in life.  With vertebral subluxation, it's impossible to realize that potential.

In summary, then, a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor has the professional objective of checking the spine on a regular basis for vertebral subluxations and safely correcting those that are found so that the individual may express their optimum potential on all levels.  

It is important to discuss objectives here.  It is actually the objective that determines one profession from another.   Ask someone, 揥hat profession uses x-ray?? Consider that dentists, podiatrists, medical doctors, osteopaths and even chiropractors may employ x-ray methods in their work, yet they are not interchangeable professions.  It is the reason ?the objective ?for which the x-ray is used that determines which profession it is.

Chiropractic was founded in Davenport, Iowa, on September 18, 1895 by Daniel David (揇.D.? Palmer.  Palmer had studied the human body extensively, by nineteenth century standards, with particular focus on the relationship of the various nerve pathways to the spine.  Harvey Lillard worked as the custodian in the building where Palmer抯 office was located.  Lillard had been deaf for 17 years when he related to Palmer the story of the incident that led to his hearing loss.  He reported that he was lifting something heavy beneath a stairwell and felt something 損op?in his neck or upper back and immediately lost his hearing.  Palmer noted a 搇ump?in Lillard抯 neck and reasoned that it was a vertebra that had been 搑acked?out of position.  He further reasoned that it was this vertebra that was interfering with Lillard抯 hearing in some way by affecting the nerves of the spinal cord or spinal nerve trunks.  Palmer devised a method to 搑ack?(his word) the vertebra back toward its proper position, following which Lillard regained his hearing.

At first, Palmer thought he had discovered a cure for deafness.  So did others!  He had many people come to him in the next several months for this cure.  The problem was that not everyone who had hearing loss had vertebrae out of place like Lillard and those who did didn抰 always regain their hearing.  He noticed, though, that often these people experienced other changes.  Some who limped beforehand could now walk more easily; so Palmer then modified his thinking to include that it was also a cure for the lame.  Again, though, not all had the same vertebrae out of place and those who did didn抰 always experience the same changes.  Similar patterns happened with other ailments.  He had to amend his thinking again, now believing that his new method was a cure for some problems.  But the list of ailments he saw respond to his method kept growing, until he came to a new conclusion that it was a cure for all ailments.  What still puzzled him, though, was that there were others, even with vertebrae out of place, who had no problems whatsoever.  

Palmer, with his son, Bartlett Joshua (揃.J.? Palmer, and at his urging to expand the base of people who could provide this service to others, took on apprentices but were quickly overwhelmed with requests.  Many of the early apprentices of the Palmers were actually medical doctors or medical students from the colleges in the east who were interested in learning the 揷ures?they had heard about or seen for themselves.  D.D. was even invited to lecture at the medical colleges but declined.  In his response, he noted that it was not enough to simply learn the method because his new profession (by that time having been given the name chiropractic) was not intended simply as a borrowed method alone to be used for a non-chiropractic goal, it was an entire system of reasoning as well.  In fact, he stated, 揑 don抰 mix my chiropractic with anything else, I practice it straight,?which is where we get parts of today抯 terminology, as I explained above.  Ironically, the Palmers opened a school to teach the Palmer Method.  Despite D.D.抯 admonition and charge, many of the therapeutically-minded, medically-trained students and apprentices went on to mix the method with a therapeutic objective and therapeutic mixed chiropractic split away and continued in its model, going progressively further from the thinking that would ultimately lead to modern non-therapeutic straight chiropractic.

The Palmers never actually solved the problem of why vertebral subluxations and ailments didn抰 always correspond.  It wasn抰 until the 1970抯 that Reggie Gold, D.C., a chiropractor of enormous insight, brought the profession to the next and highest evolution yet.  He was the first to define chiropractic by its objective; i.e., detecting and correcting vertebral subluxations because, in and of themselves, they were a detriment to the fullest expression of life and individual potential.  Gold proposed that chiropractic dealt with every aspect of human performance.  He reasoned that it was not necessary to connect vertebral subluxation and disease at all, that health (meaning the contrast between sickness and disease) was merely one aspect of human performance.  Chiropractic, in this model, was not a treatment for anything.  This was the origin of non-therapeutic straight chiropractic.  

In non-therapeutic straight chiropractic, the process of correcting a vertebral subluxation is called an 揳djustment.? It is a method of allowing the spinal bone to return to its proper position, thereby removing the interference to the vital information transmitted over the nerves.  The difference in the core objective between non-therapeutic straight chiropractic and therapeutic mixing chiropractic makes any meaningful comparison between the two almost impossible.  Though they may both deal with the human body and, in fact, some of the procedures used appear to be similar, the goals and, therefore, technical considerations are quite different.  The procedure of manipulation used in therapeutic mixing chiropractic is not directed toward the correction of vertebral subluxation and, so, it will not be applied with the same technical considerations or evaluated based upon the same analyses.  Adjustment and manipulation are not interchangeable terms or procedures at all.

A key question to ask to address your concern about your 揵ack problems,?then, may be, Is someone with back problems better off with vertebral subluxation / nerve interference or free of subluxation / with the nerve channels open?  It is easy to see that having all the available nerve messages getting through is better than only some of them getting through, regardless of the person's situation otherwise.  It抯 not that you should see a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor FOR your back problems ?you should visit one in an effort to be free of vertebral subluxations, even WITH such complaints.  Non-therapeutic straight chiropractic is not about diagnosing and/or treating back problems or any therapeutic-model or medical condition.  It is entirely separate in its goal.  The back problem is not the reason for attending to the vertebral subluxations.  In fact, those who understand the effects of vertebral subluxations choose to have their spines checked regularly and on an ongoing basis independent of symptoms.  This is the best recommendation that anyone can give you regarding vertebral subluxations.  I have no reason to tell you otherwise.  

That said, it would be wise to have your spine checked by a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor - even if you still elect to have therapeutic attention or advice for your reported back problems.  That does not mean that this is one of the therapeutic options to consider, though.  You may have many options besides therapeutic mixed chiropractic, but that is a very separate matter.  Visiting a non-therapeutic straight chiropractic office is for a different, much larger purpose.  It is the only way to know if vertebral subluxations are present and interfering with your potential.  As I mentioned earlier, not all chiropractors adhere to this and it is important that you be able to distinguish which ones do if you're going to seek this type of service.  You need to understand very clearly that the practice objectives of therapeutic mixed chiropractic and non-therapeutic straight chiropractic are quite different, as described above.  What I can tell you must not be interpreted from the mixed viewpoint.  

If you are interested in finding out how to locate a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor in your area, please contact me at [email protected] or this site again.  There is also a wonderful text on the history of straight chiropractic, Refined By Fire, by Joseph Strauss, D.C., available at www.F-A-C-E.com, the web site of the Foundation for the Advancement of Chiropractic Education, or perhaps at your local library.

Chet, it has been my pleasure to provide you with some information.  Please feel free to contact me if there are any questions about this information.  

Sincerely,
James W. Healey, D.C.