According to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control, at least six million women in the United States are infertile and more than nine million employ some form or other of fertility service. According to research papers published in the JVSR (Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research, http://www.j

vsr.com), chiropractic adjustment, targeting nerve interference caused by spinal distortions, has proven useful in combating the infertility problem.

The twelve studies in the series found chiropractic care an effective treatment for infertile women regardless of age, medical history, or how long they’ve been experiencing infertility.

One of the most surprising cases involved a thirty two year old woman who had gone twelve years without menstruating. She had undergone several medical treatments meant to solve her infertility and nothing proved effective. Finally, after just two months of chiropractic care targeting her lumbar region, her menstrual period corrected itself and she became pregnant shortly thereafter.

All of the women studied were found to be suffering from vertebral subluxation. The causes for these subluxations included scoliosis, vehicular accidents, normal childhood injuries and everyday physical stress. Other causes of infertility included mental stress at work or home and blocked fallopian tubes.

Chiropractic care primarily affects fertility by correcting these subluxations and allowing for better communication for the nervous system. A subluxation can prevent the nervous system from keeping the brain up to date on the body’s condition, making it harder for the various areas of the body to get what they need, or as the study’s director, JSVR editor Madeline Behrendt, D.C.

says “Essential to all processes of life is the nervous system, which perceives the environment and coordinates the cellular community’s biological response to the impinging environmental stimuli. It is reasonable to consider that a system that is properly functioning to its potential may resist destructive forces more successfully and with less damage.”

Even without this study, though, improved fertility would come as no surprise to chiropractic care professionals and patients.

The nervous system, being dependent on the musculoskeletal system, almost invariably sees improvement after a person has received chiropractic care from a trained professional. As the nervous system improves, blood flow and communication to various parts of the body improves.

Besides the obvious direct effects that chiropractic care can have on the body, the method can also, by improving blood flow, digestion and several other basic everyday body functions, decrease mental and physical stress.

Stress can actually prevent menstruation all on its own and chiropractic care can improve fertility by something as simple as helping the hopeful mother to be to relax.

Surgery for any reason is more than enough to invoke a great fear in the patient even though medical science is at a pinnacle. Spinal surgery is, perhaps, one of the scariest procedures to undergo despite the multiple benefits.

And since spinal surgery involves a very important area of the body, rehabilitation and recovery will be at the forefront of concern post-spinal surgery. Chiropractic care following spinal surgery can greatly help the patient in regaining full mobility and reduction of pain along the back.

While the necessity of most spine surgery has found itself under scrutiny, those that have already undergone procedures derive great benefits from seeking chiropractic care.

The chiropractor will not be focusing directly on the area of the operation, but on the area above and below. Such care can help reduce the pain associated with post-surgery and any stiffness that could result. The chiropractor will manipulate the spine in such a way to increase mobility to the area.

The spinal surgery was more than likey performed to prevent or to reduce damage down. Other areas of the skeletal frame, joints, and even tissue may have been negatively affected. Chiropractic care focuses on such areas and, in conjunction with the surgery, will increase the effectiveness of which these areas are used.

The greatest benefit of chiropractic care following spine surgery is the rate of recovery and the achievement of normalcy that patients enjoy. It is important after any major operation to ease back into the normal use of the area operated upon. Since the spine is an integral part of our framework, the concern of chiropractic care is all that more important.

Help from a chiropractor will greatly improve the speed of recovery and how well one will be able to function and move.

Common treatments that are employed for the chiropractic care following spine surgery can include any number of procedures. Depending upon the type and severity of the operation the procedures can be as simple manipulation of the area; massages and adjustments, to the more intensive care.

Only the chiropractor can determine which treatment will be more beneficial as such determination is made on a case by case basis. No matter the treatment the primary focus is how it will improve and compliment the surgery. Any chiropractic care following spine surgery should be discussed extensively not only with the doctor but also with chiropractic professional as to what the positive and even negative aspects of such care might be.

Chiropractic care following spine surgery is an important step in the recovery process. This care is used in tangent with the care of the physician overseeing the surgery. The primary focus of this care is to enable and hasten the recovery process and is in an important tool in rehabilitation.

The Webster technique is perhaps the most well known of pediatric chiropractic techniques. It has been featured on television shows like The Learning Channel’s A Baby Story, as well as in numerous magazines like Midwife Today and Mothering.

This technique was developed in 1978 by Dr. Larry Webster, the well known pediatrician and chiropractor who founded the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association, or ICPA. The technique’s goal is to relieve physical and mental stress on the mother and unborn child by targeting the causes of intrauterine constraint.

It has been practiced throughout the United States for nearly thirty years and has proven very successful in relieving constraint and helping to convert breech presentations to cephalic presentation.

Intrauterine constraint is defined as any external force adversely affecting the developing fetus by constraining the natural movement of said fetus. Intrauterine constraint can result in such abnormal development as the fetus resisting the head-down position, which can lead to later complications in birth and possibly throughout the child’s life.

By dealing with the potential for complications early on, the labor and birthing process become easier and the child may find it easier to live a productive, happy life by allowing the chiropractor to provide a foil for possible birth defects as their potential for development becomes apparent.

The Webster Technique and pediatric chiropractic care in general are not without their detractors, of course. Critics doubt that chiropractic care can do anything to affect the physical position of the fetus during pregnancy or remove any constraints.

Furthermore, they maintain that chiropractic care during pregnancy in the final weeks can actually be detrimental. These critics protest the application of chiropractic care for either pregnant mothers or newborn children. One can easily imagine what provokes this criticism, as when you imagine the loud pops and cracks that go along with chiropractic care being applied to the sensitive body of a newly born baby, it’s hard not to cringe.

Of course, pediatric chiropractic care is a very gentle method of light pushing to correct spinal misalignments that can occur during even the easiest of childbirths. This gentle realignment isn’t generally accompanied by the same loud noises that adult chiropractic care results in and might prove necessary to prevent scoliosis and other back and nervous system problems later in life, however, even these critics will admit that breech deliveries are the last thing a mother to be wants and that some preventative measure should be taken. Not all of these criticisms are completely unfounded, though, so a mother to be is advised to discuss their pregnancy with their primary doctor first and resist the temptation to go straight to the chiropractor.

The Webster Technique does have a definite weakness in that it’s only proven effective against the problem of breech pregnancy. Breech presentation isn’t the only possible incorrect position for a fetus to take during pregnancy, so other methods should be looked into as much as possible, as well.