The Lydian Center for Innovative Medicine :: Cambridge, Massachusetts :: Services

WHAT IS CHIROPRACTIC?

Chiropractic is currently the most widely used form of alternative health care in the country. First developed in the United States more than 100 years ago, it has flourished into a profession that encompasses a wide variety of techniques practiced by highly trained doctors. These techniques are safe, non-invasive, and drug-free and are appropriate for children, adults, and the elderly.

The chiropractic physician views the nervous system as the key for understanding human health and disease. The brain communicates with the body via the spinal column and peripheral nerves. It controls all basic functions of the body including movement, sensation, digestion, elimination, etc. Because of its governing role, the nervous system has powerful and far-reaching possibilities for healing. Irritation to the nervous system due to physical injury or emotional stress can result in a wide variety of debilitating symptoms including pain, dizziness, muscle weakness, poor coordination, nervousness, and low immunity. The aim of chiropractic treatment is to restore proper neurological functioning of the musculoskeletal system thus reducing pain and improving overall function.

The chiropractic focus on the nervous system offers a distinctive insight into the treatment of disease that complements other health paradigms. By restoring proper functioning of the musculoskeletal system, chiropractic can significantly enhance the effectiveness of other forms of health care such as acupuncture, homeopathy, naturopathy, vision training, and conventional medicines.

WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM CHIROPRACTIC?

Everyone! Many common conditions, both chronic and acute, can be helped by chiropractic including:

headaches
back & neck pain
stiff joints
aching shoulders, arms and legs
sciatica
numbness and tingling
repetitive stress injury, poor posture
low immune functioning, chronic illness
poor balance, clumsiness
learning disabilities

CHIROPRACTIC AS LONG-TERM PREVENTIVE CARE

Even the asymptomatic person can benefit from chiropractic. Proper functioning of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems can delay and even prevent the onset of common degenerative diseases such as arthritis. Everyone should be checked for possible biomechanical dysfunction.

THE LYDIAN APPROACH

At Lydian Chiropractic, we use only precise, gentle, low-force chiropractic techniques. We never perform manual adjustments—we do not "crack joints." Our treatment is based on a synthesis of three widely recognized chiropractic techniques:

At Lydian Chiropractic, our approach differs in significant ways from common chiropractic approaches. Conventional chiropractic takes the view that pain and neuromusculoskeletal dysfunction is a product of restricted motion (hypomobility) in the skeletal system. The objective of treatment is to restore movement to joints that have become restricted, often by manipulating these joints to induce cavitations or "cracks". This approach is very successful with many patients but a common complaint is that the benefit of these treatments is short lived and must be repeated on a regular basis.

At Lydian Chiropractic we approach the problem from the opposite end.

We view the cause of pain and neuromusculoskeletal dysfunction as a problem of hypermobility, or too much motion in unstable parts of the skeletal system. When there is too much mobility the body attempts to create stability often in dysfunctional ways -- such as muscle spasms and joint restrictions, which result in pain. Our treatment seeks to stabilize these hypermobile areas, enabling the body to permanently release the areas of spasm and restriction. Often, this eliminates the need for repeated chiropractic manipulation of restricted joints.

WIDER BENEFITS:
CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES

Our chiropractic approach often has significant benefits not only for pain relief, but also for many other conditions not usually associated with musculoskeletal dysfunction—in particular, childhood development issues. Many child development issues—including behavioral problems, emotional irritability and frustration, sensory integration problems, poor balance, poor immunity and digestion, neurological delays, learning disabilities and visual problems—are exacerbated by underlying musculoskeletal instability. The techniques used at Lydian Chiropractic that restore structural stability to the body often unlock the door to major developmental advances for struggling children.

A young child's developing nervous system faces a sharp learning curve—learning that is not only emotional, social and cognitive, but also profoundly kinesthetic. While this learning is often tremendously exciting and rewarding, it can be tragically short-circuited in a child with a destabilizing biomechanical injury. When a child suffers this kind of injury, the central nervous system becomes confused about proper biomechanical function. This confusion results in chronic underlying structural instability which in turn causes a chronic drain upon the brain's circuitry, leaving less available capacity for all the other learning the child needs to be doing. Chiropractic treatment that restores stability to the body can offer a major boost to a struggling child. When the child's central nervous system is no longer constantly forced to manage the underlying kinesthetic problem, the child is often then able to make great progress overcoming developmental, physical, emotional, social and cognitive difficulties.