By John-David Kato
Chiropractor and Clinical Exercise Physiologist

If you have been to a chiropractor before, you may have heard the word “subluxation.” This word often has a lot of confusion around it because it can mean two or three different things depending on who uses it.

If you dissect the word into two to find its origins, you have “sub” and “luxation”. “Luxation” is a medical term which means “a total loss of articular contact”, in other words, a “dislocation” of a joint. “Sub” in this case means “less than”. Therefore combined the word “subluxation” means a partial loss of articular contact – the two bones of the joint are still in contact, but just not as much as normal. This condition often occurs when the muscles or the connective tissue of the joint has been torn or stretched and the joint ends up being loose.

When chiropractic was first developed, chiropractors used the word subluxation to help describe their theories. One of the main premises of Chiropractic was that the joints in the spine became misaligned, and that chiropractic treatments put the joints back into place. Here the use of the word subluxation is an extension of the original meaning of a partial loss of contact of two joint surfaces. The focus of the term, however, is that as a bone loses some of its connection to the adjacent bone it will also be “out of place”. The adjustment that chiropractors developed was intended to fix these misalignments called “subluxation”. Many chiropractors still hold the philosophy that their treatments are fixing misalignments of joints.

As things in science change and evolve so have some ideas in chiropractic. Many chiropractors believe that the joint gets stuck, or fixated, and that basically much of the benefit of adjusting these joints is the restoration of motion. The adjustments here may not look any different than before and patients’ symptoms still improve or go away, that part has not changed. However the theory of how the adjustments help the joint is different. So here when a chiropractor refers to a “subluxation” of a joint, he or she is describing the lack of motion not a change in position.

As you can see, it is easy to understand why people can become confused, even those within health care. There are three different meanings for one word. One meaning refers to “excessive motion”, one is “out of place” and one means “not enough motion”. In light of this, there are a few things you might find helpful:

• If you tell your doctor that your chiropractor said you have a subluxation in your back, realize that your medical doctor and your doctor of chiropractic may use this word with opposite meanings.
• Some chiropractors may not use the term at all because of the confusion it causes.
• Whatever the definition of the word “subluxation” the chiropractor uses; keep in mind it is a benign state. No one will ever die from a subluxation.
• X-rays are not required in the treatment of every patient. An x-ray is just a picture in time and does not show motion or the ability to move.
• If you change chiropractors, you may notice that they work and explain things differently. One may just focus on treating joint subluxations of the spine, one may treat both muscles and joints together.

Whatever the case may be, if you are unsure of what your chiropractor means, just ask, I am sure he or she would be happy to explain. As for my treatment style, I treat joint restrictions and muscles problems and give exercise prescriptions so that patients do not come in week after week for ongoing care.