Cold Laser Therapy
The term chiropractic is created using two Greek words “chiro” which means hand and “practic” which means practice. Therefore, it literally means “treatment using hand”. Chiropractors generally use only their hands to manipulate different parts of the body to provide healing and wellness to the patient. This practice stresses on treating a patient without using any medicine.
Traditionally chiropractic treatment is applied on spinal column which consists of 24 vertebrae (spinal bones), 7 cervical, 12 thoracic and 5 lumber vertebral bodies. The spinal cord runs through the spine and spinal nerves go out through holes (known as intervertebral foramen) forms between adjacent vertebrae. These nerves carry messages from the central nervous system to all the muscles and tissues of the body. If these vertebrae get displaced from its normal position, which is known as ‘subluxation’, then the nervous impulse from and to the central nervous system gets interrupted. Chiropractic treatment is aimed towards treating these points of subluxation by manual adjustment or manipulation, so that the vertebrae regain the normal position and nervous impulses do not face any interruption in its transmission.
But, there are disagreements amongst the practitioners of chiropractic therapy regarding the line of treatment that should be taken.
One group of practitioners follow the principle of Daniel David Palmer, the person who introduced this therapy, and feel that most of the diseases are caused because of misalignment of spinal bones which is also known as ‘subluxation’ and these diseases could be treated by making proper spinal adjustment. These practitioners are only involved in detecting and correcting vertebral subluxation as the only therapy to restore normal health.
There are other practitioners who consider other factors like germs and hormones also in their therapy along with mechanical disturbance of nervous system. They would also diagnose medical conditions in addition to spinal abnormalities and may even refer to other medical doctors for treatment. These practitioners would also prescribe nutritional supplements, homeopathic medicines and various types of physiotherapy. Cold Laser Therapy is one such therapy which is recommended by these practitioners for the relief of acute and chronic pain.
Cold Laser Therapy is similar to the practice of acupuncture. In this therapy, laser beams are used to stimulate acupressure points instead of needles used in acupressure treatment.
Cold Laser Therapy uses low intensity or lower levels laser light for the treatment. This therapy is generally is carried out to reduce pain and inflammation. But, this method of treatment is not fully proved.
One should not confuse this therapy with conventional laser surgery which is generally used to treat some kinds of cancer.
Presently, some kind of study is going on regarding Cold Laser Therapy as a reliable treatment for pain, wounds, injuries, and other conditions. If this study provides positive results, this therapy would definitely be considered as a part of regular medical treatment.
