The word Chiropractic comes from the Greek language which means “done by hand”. In the use of Chiropractic, it would translate into the “treatment that is manually performed by hand.”
In chiropractic, subluxation (a.k.a. Vertebral Subluxation) is when one or more of the bones of your spine (vertebrae) move out of position and create pressure on, or irritate spinal nerves. Spinal nerves are the nerves that come out from between each of the bones in your spine. This pressure or irritation on the nerves then causes them to malfunction and interfere with the signals traveling over the nerves. More than misaligning, these bones in the spine jam into one another and stick together. This usually limits range of motion, can lead to swelling and pain, and if left untreated can accelerate arthritis. The main effect of subluxation is nerve pressure. The nerve can actually be irritated and choked off. Whatever is on the other end of a pinched nerve cannot possibly work 100%. Sometimes, but not always, pain may be associated with a subluxation. (An example of nerve pain would be hitting your funny bone on a table.) Sometimes a nerve may accelerate its activity and result in severe muscle spasm and twitching.

Studies have shown that the weight of a quarter on a nerve can diminish the flow through the nerve by 60%. Pain, as mentioned before, is a common side effect of a subluxation and unfortunately is the last thing to surface. This is the reason it is most important for people to be checked regularly for subluxations.
Since nerves travel to every single part of the body, subluxations can directly cause problems to every organ system. Common symptoms that arise from subluxations consist of low-back pain, neck pain, headaches, arm/shoulder pain, hip/leg pain, sciatica, dizziness, and fatigue.
Surprisingly to patients, but not chiropractors, other very common symptoms, such as constipation, menstrual cramps, repetitive ear infections, asthma, and kidney infections may be caused by subluxations, which rob the associated organs of their vital nerve supply.
What causes these subluxations? These subluxations are caused by one of two things: (1) macrotrauma or (2) microtrauma. Macrotrauma deals with large, one-time traumatic incidents. Examples include work injuries, automobile accidents, and athletic injuries. A specific example would be someone who falls off the roof of a house. Microtrauma consists of smaller, repetitive actions that occur over time. Long distance driving, constant phone usage, working on the computer, and improper sleep positions are several examples of microtrauma. Mainly due to the fact that society does not know how to care for their spines, microtrauma is the leading cause of subluxations.