Are there potential advantages to a manual, palpation-based approach to low force adjusting?
• Safety: One of the major potential risks from chiropractic adjustments is stroke from injury to the vertebral artery. Even if this is only one in 10 million, it is a perceived safety issue that may prevent patients from feeling safe going to the chiropractor. Low-force adjusting is inherently safer to apply earlier after a major trauma such as surgery or fracture. • Comfort: Many patients get to a stage where they are too old or too stiff to respond to the usual type of chiropractic manipulation. They feel traumatized or hurt more for several days after an adjustment. This is especially true for those patients who have fibromyalgia, heal slowly, or have any tendency to more than normal inflammation. These people certainly have as many clinically significant subluxations as healthier people. They desperately need manipulative care, but it must be done without trauma or substantial force. • Comfort – and longevity – for the doctor: Low-force adjusting is much easier physically for the