A Detailed Study About Gonstead Analysis and Adjustment

Backache! A pain in the neck can we say?!? Raise your hands if you have had backaches in the last couple of years. Backaches are quite common when people have the wrong posture while sleeping when they have a long walk, or when they play.  Most pregnant women have a backache constantly. They hope to get rid of it post pregnancy but many cases don’t. Backache is not limited to women. A lot of men suffer from lower back pain too. Walking and regular exercising are a few good methods people resort to. Would you like to try Gonstead?

Clarence Selmer Gonstead was a chiropractor and the creator of the Gonstead technique. Note that, the role of a chiropractor is to detect and correct spinal misalignments. These are called subluxations.

• He established a large chiropractic facility in Wisconsin, United States. How is the Gonstead technique different from a chiropractor?

• Some chiropractors talk about a spinal “manipulation”, while a Gonstead doctor takes great care to perform a specific segmental adjustment.
• The technique used by a Gonstead Chiropractor does more than an assessment. He goes beyond simple assessment by doing a thorough analysis of the spine. With the five-point check technique, the presence of a vertebral subluxation complex is detected.

The five criteria used to detect the condition are:

1. Visualization — A close and well-knit visual verifies and validates the findings from other tests. The chiropractor is adept at identifying minute changes in posture and movement, which can lead to the identification of the problem.
2. Instrumentation — Nervoscope is the preferred instrument in the Gonstead System. The Nervoscope highlights aberrations of heat along the spine. These areas of uneven distribution will be the focus of medical scrutiny for possible inflammation and nerve pressure. Nervoscope is guided down the length of your back to achieve this result.
3. Static Palpation — In this process, the spine is kept in a static position for observation. The presence of edema (swelling, in layman’s language), tenderness, feeling of unusual texture, or stiffness of muscles (& other tissues on your back) can be detected through this process.
4. Motion Palpation —involves moving and bending the spine at various angles. This way the chiropractor can assess the extent of movement of the spine in various directions.
5. X-Ray Analysis — X-ray gives the chiropractor a clear way to visualize the full length of your spine. This facilitates evaluating the problematic posture, and integrity of the disc and joint, ruling out misalignments in vertebra and all other pathologies, and fractures that are fresh and contributing to the condition. Full-spine radiographs are conducted in standing and weight-bearing positions to completely validate the findings of the examination.

Today there are many Gonstead Chiropractors throughout the world. Note, that throughout the Chiropractic profession, practitioners that practice the “complete Gonstead System” make are less than 5% of the total chiropractic practitioners. What is the “complete Gonstead System”?  It is the complete utilization of all the steps mentioned above

Gonstead Adjustment

After a thorough analysis, a Gonstead chiropractor will deliver the required adjustments. The objective of Gonstead adjustment is accuracy and precision, addressing only the pain points (which are the areas of subluxation).

Great care should be taken to achieve a bio-mechanically correct position and precision thrust. This provides highly accurate, painless adjustment possible. Restoration and maintenance of optimal health is the purpose of a Gonstead doctor. This can be achieved by locating & correcting all interference to the nervous system, that may be caused by vertebral subluxation.

“Find the subluxation, accept it where you find it, correct it, and leave it alone.” Said C.S. Gonstead.