Ancient History of Chiropractic Health Care

The first recorded manipulation was described in an ancient text dating back to 2650 B.C. by travelers to Asia. Some of these findings show that Kong Fu writings describe tissue manipulation as part of therapy In 1500 B.C., the Greeks were recording their successes in lower back treatments.

Most cultures practicing medicine have some ancient writings dealing with the spine and its effects on the body. Many cultures spoke of massaging the back or even back walking, a practice of laying a patient or family member on there belly and slowly walking bare foot up and down there back. American Indians used to have small children walk on the backs of the sick. There are even records of the South American Incas using manipulation as a form of healing.

In one of Hippocrates many writings can be found a book called Manipulation and Importance of Good Health and another work called Setting Joints By Leverage. These works were written some time in the 500 B.C.'s. He wrote: "Get knowledge of the spine, for this is the requisite for many diseases."

Another famous Greek Physician, Claudius Galen, wrote early in the second century "Look to the nervous system as the key to maximum health." Galen was made famous for treating a scholar named Eudemus. Galen adjusted Eudemus' neck which apparently cured a paralysis of the scholar's hand and arm.

Why were these great works ignored for centuries? It can be traced back to the fall of the Roman Empire and the rampant destruction of the scholastic institutes of the time. Modern medicine was set back centuries by these acts. But all was not lost. Some of the techniques were handed down from generation to generation and there are recorded cases of European "bone setters" performing amazing acts of healing.

From the 11th through 15th centuries, "back walking" was practiced in Asia and Europe. It is also believed that European gypsies used back walking as a cure for the sick.

In the Europe of the 1800's, medical doctors shunned the art of "Bone Setting." But in 1867, a famous surgeon, Sir James Paget, recognized the evolving art in his article in the British Medical Journal entitled, Cases That Bone Setting Cures. He describes the types of spinal manipulation known at the time.

Chiropractic was rediscovered in 1895 in Davenport, Iowa by a practitioner of magnetic healing, D.D. Palmer. He manipulated the spine of a janitor who had been deaf for 17 years and his hearing was restored. Shortly thereafter he adjusted the spine of a woman who had a heart arrhythmia and the arrhythmia disappeared. From these humble beginnings sprang the worlds' largest organized natural health care profession which continues to get sick people well by unlocking the persons own inborn healing power so they can heal themselves.

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Last modified: May 11, 2001, Friday.