“The neuroskeleton, when in normal position, is a protector of the nervous system, but a nerve disturber when not properly placed.” — Daniel David Palmer, D.C.
In 1895 D.D. Palmer, using his very own spinal adjusting technique, which he had personally developed and worked out, delivered the first SPECIFIC adjustment to a vertebra in a deaf man’s spinal column and his hearing was restored. He soon named his science, art, and philosophy Chiropractic and subsequently founded the Palmer School of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa and began teaching. Interestingly some of D.D. Palmer’s earliest students were medical doctors.
In 1902 his son, B.J. Palmer, D.C. became president of the Palmer School until his death in 1961. In 1923 a young man named Clarence S. Gonstead of Wisconsin, graduated from the Palmer School of Chiropractic. While there he learned the original Palmer Technique of Chiropractic. He later, in practice, refined and developed this into his own unique methodology. He taught and practiced this methodology throughout his 50 year career.
Since that time many other manipulative techniques have developed within Chiropractic, and while many of them do help people I feel that the Gonstead System of Chiropractic is the most efficacious method to date. Reasons Why:
It begins with the engineering mindset that the skeleton, especially the pelvis and spinal column are approached with:
1) The Level Foundation Concept: Basically states that a level foundation in your spine is a key to good body function and health. Any good structure needs to be built on a firm level foundation to provide the best support.
2) The Gonstead Disc Concept: Analysis of the disc space informs us about the state of the disc and severity of the subluxation. When a vertebra becomes misaligned the nucleus (central part) of the disc underneath migrates and causes the outer portion of the disc to bulge into the nerve causing pressure on the nerve, pain or other health problems. The Gonstead adjustment sets the vertebra correctly on the disc thereby helping to return the nucleus to the correct place within the disc.
3) Use of special instrumentation
4) Precision Spinography
5) Advanced methods of palpation, i.e. assessing motion and position of one bone to another, and visual analysis of the patient and especially the spinal column, to ascertain your Chiropractic problem.
6) Specificity of Adjustments: Put simply, Gonstead Chiropractic is scientific adjusting, NOT painful goading, NOR non-specific “racking and cracking” of random joints with no rhyme or reason, and hoping that it works.