Traditionally, the focus of health care is centered around a person’s symptoms and the treatment or relief of their symptoms. This is the entire basis for relief care. Today Chiropractic care is very well known for its ability to provide relief care and
is often referred to as miraculous in its ability to provide relief where all other forms of health care have failed. However, although many chiropractors specialize in and are extremely successful with providing relief care, this was never the intended
purpose for Chiropractic. Chiropractic from its inception over 110 years ago was designed to be a principled form of health care. The goal or objective of Chiropractic is to identify the underlying cause of a person health challenge and to correct
it. A condition of the spine known as Vertebral Subluxation interferes with the body’s natural ability to heal itself. Principled and Wellness Chiropractors locate Vertebral Subluxations, thoroughly analyze all of its components, design a specific
program of adjustments and exercises to correct Vertebral Subluxations, and most importantly to help you and your family learn how to achieve a state of optimal health and how to maintain a healthy spine into the future.

To fully appreciate and understand this difference and the importance of Principled care let’s start by looking at the difference between “symptoms” and “warning signs”. The difference is best understood through a simple comparison. If a person sprains
their ankle and they experience pain in their ankle – this is a direct relationship. The location of pain and the location of the injury are the same. This is a classic example of a symptom. However, if a person is suffering from heart disease and
is experiencing pain into their left arm – there is likely nothing wrong with the left arm! This is a classic warning sign of a problem with the heart.

It would seem quite silly – even foolish – to spend a tremendous amount of energy and resources treating a person’s arm pain when the cause of this pain is coming from the heart.

Very similarly with the spine – if vertebral subluxation is affecting the spine and causes pressure on the nerve going to your leg, over time you may begin to experience leg pain (commonly called sciatica). However, we could examine and treat the leg
and we would be doing so in vain as this was a warning sign telling us of the problem in the spine. Depending on which nerve(s) in the spine is being affected will depend on what type of warning sign we may experience. (Be sure to see the Vertebral
Subluxation Nerve Chart). Fortunately or unfortunately there is often a significant time delay between the onset of subluxation and the first warning signs. This is because of our bodies amazing ability to adapt to both it’s internal and external
environment. For example, if you have a pebble in your shoe – you don’t lean on it – you lean off of it and your body behaves very similarly in relation to Vertebral Subluxation.

Very commonly one of the first Vertebral Subluxations to occur in the spine is in the neck. This is for a variety of reasons including the fact that the vertebra, ligaments, and muscles in the neck are the smallest and the head (in particular in children)
is disproportionately heavy in comparison to our body. Small slips and falls as a child or even the birth process itself can result in the small vertebra of the neck becoming displaced or subluxated. The body behaving very intelligently will change
our posture, often shifting the head well in front of the shoulders and leaning the head to one side or the other to reduce the pressure this subluxation places on the spinal cord. As a result of the change in head posture our rib cage may bend or
shift to reduce pressure on the spinal nerves and similarly the big muscles of the lumbar spine and pelvis will compensate to further reduce the unwanted pressure on the spinal nerves. This for the body is a much better state than suffering the immediate
and devastating effects of spinal cord and spinal nerve pressure. However, this leaves the pressure on the vertebral discs imbalanced and causes them to begin wearing out at a progressive rate.

It is most often not until the discs of the spine begin to significantly wear and the body begins losing it’s ability to naturally compensate to the Vertebral Subluxations that we start seeing the intermittent warning signs related to subluxation. (Be
sure to see the Subluxation Degeneration page). Quite often the first place in the spine to begin to fail and lose its ability to compensate is the lumbar spine. This is because all of the forces of gravity within the body affect the lumbar spine
and we often use our lumbar spine to lift amounts that are no problem for a healthy spine but with Vertebral Subluxation Degeneration the spine continues to become weaker over time. Things which we used to do with ease we may start avoiding because
when we do them now it causes pain. However, this avoidance is often the result of continued degeneration as we ignore the warning signs which our body is giving us. Very similarly in this situation if we begin treating this person’s lower back pain
without thoroughly analyzing their Vertebral Subluxations and the cause was actually coming from a Vertebral Subluxation in their neck – we may be able to temporarily relieve their lower back pain but it will only be a matter of time before it returns
because the back pain was simply a warning sign.

Source: http://lifeforcevancouver.com/temporary-relief-vs-true-correction/