02.Origins of chiropractic
As any doctor will tell you, an orthopaedic subluxation is a real thing – a painful partial dislocation or misalignment of a vertebra that can be seen on an X-ray image.
Chiropractic has its origins in a quasi-religious system of healing invented by American bonesetter and magnetic healer, Daniel Palmer, in the late 19th century.
At its core was the belief that the body possessed an innate intelligence, defined as an energy or vital force that enabled the body to heal itself, but whose functioning could be impeded by subluxations (displacements). The chiropractor’s remit, then, was to detect and correct these subluxations.
As any doctor will tell you, an orthopaedic subluxation is a real thing – a painful partial dislocation or misalignment of a vertebra that can be seen on an X-ray image.
They rarely affect nerves and don’t cause disease. But a chiropractic subluxation refers to a functional entity, and can’t necessarily be detected via X-ray or modern medical imaging. According to neurophysiology professor, Marcello Costa, “The elusive ‘subluxation’, the one chiropractors postulate as causing diseases, simply does not exist.” Even chiropractors themselves have never successfully proven subluxations actually exist, let alone cause myriad health problems.