Chiropractic is becoming a more popular natural method of pain relief every year. As holistic methods of health care have gained in credibility and look toward the future, it’s interesting to learn about its origins and roots. This is the story of how chiropractic care began.
The legendary tale of the world’s first chiropractic adjustment took place in 1895, in the town of Davenport, Iowa. David Daniel Palmer was a teacher and magnetic healer who had opened a small office 8 years prior. The building’s janitor, Harvey Lillard, had been suffering from partial deafness for a full 17 years. Lillard told Palmer that he had been this way ever since he strained his back and heard a popping noise.
After feeling a bump on the janitor’s spine, Palmer concluded that the out of place vertebrae could be causing the deafness. With a swift thrusting motion, Palmer put the vertebrae back into its proper place and Lillard’s deafness was greatly improved! A new healing technique was born that day. D.D Palmer began to work on developing this methodology and called it chiropractic, which means “done by hand.”
His central theory was that pain and other ailments were caused by a disruption in the proper flow in the body and pressure on nerves. If the spine could be adjusted to relieve the pressure, the body would be able to function better and any associated pain would lessen or disappear altogether.
Two years after helping the janitor Harvey Lillard, Palmer opened a school of chiropractic; within 5 years, it boasted its first graduates, including Palmer’s own son B.J. Although David Daniel Palmer is recognized as the founder of chiropractic, it was B.J who dedicated his entire life to developing and legitimizing the practice. Because it was considered an art, and not a science, chiropractic was immediately met with suspicion from the regular medical community.
Today, chiropractic has bloomed into a thriving industry, whose professional practitioners help to relieve sufferers’ pain all over the world. Palmer’s original technique of adjustment is now in the company of a host of different techniques used to ease pressure on the spine. Which techniques a good chiropractor use are highly individualized to a patient’s particular situation. The invention and regular use of X-ray make it easier than ever for practitioners to find the causes of pain and even catch life threatening situations before it’s too late.
Chiropractor care uses no drugs and no risky surgical techniques, and so has become a favorite method of pain relief for people who prefer taking care of themselves in more natural ways. After more than a hundred years, D.D Palmer’s theories and practices are still going strong, and just keep getting better all the time.