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Why Adjusting Instruments?

Spinal Manipulation has been around in various forms for centuries. The Chinese have ancient tortoise shell paintings depicting manipulation and the various cultures around the world have had community members who were called the "bone setters" who passed the skill set from generation to generation. In the USA, Chiropractic and Osteopathic physicians provide the most highly skilled manipulation services for the past century, with the American Physical Therapy Association requesting their profession develop manipulation training within the last decade. Over the last 45 years, the development and research with the Activator Method has produced the protocols to identify and treat joint dysfunction or subluxation safely, while being very specific. While being introduced to the Activator Method at Palmer College in 1986, I experienced the greatest improvement in my functional health while being treated with the Activator Technique. I specifically liked the extremity treatment and the ability to identify and treat each specific spinal misalignment directions in the x, y, and z axis of rotation. In other words, I could find out if the vertebra had turned right or left, tipped upward or downward, or leaned right or left. What had first begun as a simple system to treat of the upper neck and the pelvis, had become a complete system to treat the TMJ or jaw joints to the feet and toes, and the neuro-musculoskeletal system in between.

What the instrument adjusting provides is a way to treat the various joint dysfunctions in the body without twisting or popping. For those of you who have had traditional manipulation, you are asked to relax to allow the chiropractor to passively move the neck or other joints to a point where maximum joint motion is felt, with a controlled thrust applied to stretch the joint to separate and reset the joint stabilizing mechanism, often causing a "pop" as the joint surface separates and comes back together. The Activator and Impulse instruments provide a controlled and reproducible adjusting force to move the fixated joints faster than your reflexes can work to tighten the joint to limit the motion created by the instrument. This quickness allows you to be relaxed and lay comfortably on the table without twisting or popping the joints. This is ideal for many people who have anxiety about having their neck or other joints popped, or have other complications such as herniated or degenerative discs or joint fusion surgery, or rods in their spines to correct scoliosis, for which traditional manipulation is often contra-indicated.