Chiropractic is a therapy that focuses on the relationship of the spinal column to the nervous system and on its effects in maintaining good health. Chiropractic seeks to properly align the vertebrae of the spine in order to restore the normal functioning of the nervous system and thus allow the body to heal itself.

In little more than a century, chiropractic has gone from a curious cult-medicine status to an internationally recognized alternative treatment. Founded in 1895 by a Canadian-American, Donald David Palmer (1845-1913), chiropractic had its origins in Palmer's cure of a deaf janitor by putting one of his vertebrae back into its normal position. Palmer continued to refine his work and eventually based an entire medical philosophy on the notion that the vertebrae of the spine must be properly aligned in order for people to achieve and maintain health.

Misalignments, or what he called "subluxations," interfere with...