Happy Birthday

It was 124 years ago that D.D. Palmer of Davenport Iowa laid Harvey Lillard, the janitor of his building, on a table and placed his hand on the boney lever of Harvey’s 3^rd thoracic vertebrae and gave a thrust in hopes of restoring the bone back to its normal alignment and movement.  You see, Harvey had gone almost completely deaf 17 years earlier when he felt something pop in his back.  D.D., who at the time was titled a magnetic healer, examined Mr. Lillard and found an abnormal boney spot out of position.  The two men agreed that the bone would likely be better off if it were placed back in its normal position and in an instant what would come to be known as the first chiropractic adjustment was performed.

The story goes that Harvey sat up off the table and said for the first time in years he, “could hear the racket of the wagon wheels in the street” and his hearing was restored.  D.D. proceeded to send out letters inviting those with hearing loss from around the country to visit Davenport, Iowa.  Many came, but unfortunately no others had their hearing restored.  But many of these people had other conditions and problems in addition to hearing loss that improved with D.D.’s new discovery.  In time and with diligent study of the anatomy and physiology, Dr. Palmer learned that chiropractic wasn’t really a “treatment” for any of these conditions.  Rather, this new form of healthcare was a means of restoring balance back to the structure of the body so as to relieve tension and pressure off the nervous system allowing the body can function normally or function within what is known as homeostasis.  When the body is functioning in homeostasis, it has the ability to regulate all the different organs and systems and it has the best ability to heal and recover from different conditions or ailments.

Today we know this is true.  Health is defined as your ability to respond to physical, chemical, and emotional stresses.  So health is about adaptability.  When pressure or tension exists on the nerves and spinal cord, your ability to adapt to these stressors is diminished.  When this pressure is reduced, the nervous system functions more efficiently and your ability to respond and adapt to stress is improved.  So this Wednesday, I say Happy Birthday chiropractic and thanks Dr. Palmer for you hard work, intuition, and wisdom!