Hi...I'm Dr. Harlan Mittag and I'm a chiropractor, acupuncturist and nutritionist and founder of Mittag Holistic Chiropractic in Minneapolis Minnesota.

I'm asked frequently what a chiropractic adjustment is and what it does.

Let me use an example to better explain what a chiropractic adjustment is and what it does. If you've ever had neck pain, while you were hurting rubbed your neck to relieve the pain. When you did so you probably felt that the muscles were tight and sore. If you pressed harder on the back of your neck, you may have also felt some sore hard spots on your spine. What you were feeling is the inflamed joints of the spine. This was the underlying cause of your neck pain.

But how and why does a joint in the spine get inflamed? There are many causes. It can be as simple as sleeping on it wrong. If your neck gets in a strained position while youre sleeping, you dont know it. In this position the joints are pulled out of their normal alignment and become irritated or inflamed. You wake up with a sore and stiff neck.

Chiropractors learn through years of study, to identify joints that are not moving right and how with a gentle adjustment to reposition them. Chiropractors can assess the movement of all of the joints in the body, in the neck, back, shoulder, elbow, wrist and fingers, hip, knees, ankle and feet. By correcting the abnormal movement in joints and reducing the friction, the inflammation and pain is relieved. This is why patients often feel better immediately after a chiropractic adjustment.

There are many other types of treatments that chiropractors use to promote healing of painful areas so that the pain is not only relieved but resolved permanently. For instance, as a chiropractor I use acupuncture, cold laser, massage, exercise, pain relieving herbs and nutritional supplements as part of my holistic treatment plan for my patients.