Thank you for joining me again these evening for these nightly podcasts. I perform these podcasts in the hopes that you can better educate yourself on these topics so that should a time come you can make a better informed decision about your health care. I am doctor Harrison Campbell of Restoration Health a premier sugar land chiropractors office. Previously we discussed the two chiropractic schools in Texas and which school I ended up attending. Today we will dive more in depth into the first year of chiropractic schooling.
The first year of chiropractic school is broken into three trimesters each fifteen weeks long, or at least that was the case when I attended schooling. This initial year was a deep dive into the anatomy, biochemistry, and palpatory skills and introductions to adjusting. Needless to say it was a busy year but it formed me into one of the best sugar land chiropractors in the area. Each of these trimesters averaged approximately thirty hours of education. To put that into perspective most colleges will not allow a student to take more than twenty in a given semester.
I figured the best way to break down this first year was to give a little background on each subject and the importance and if we have time show roughly how each trimester was divided class wise. To start we will first look at palpation since this is one area most people will not have heard of. Palpation is the skill sugar land chiropractors use to ascertain the anatomy of the area being inspected. We can palpate our touch the skin, the joint or the muscle. Palpation is a skill most people do not put much thought in. To them everyone has the capability of touch. This is true to an extent, but palpation goes beyond simply toughing and feeling something. To truly master this skill you have to practice constantly.
A practice technique provided to us during our schooling was to palpate a hair placed in a book. First you close your eyes then put the hair down and try to locate the hair on the page. Once found you fold a page over the hair and repeat the process until you find it. Then you fold another page over. Then another. And this will continue going for as long as possible. You will be surprised at how strong your sense of palpation can grow from this exercise. Now the goal is not just to feel the hair. It is to develop the skills of tactile sensation meaning interpreting what your fingers are feeling. Being able to feel the ripple in the page due to the hair beneath the page.
Once this technique is performed to an acceptable level you take this skill and apply it to the human body. You palpate the skin feeling for abrasions or temperature changes. You palpate muscle fibers, tendons, and ligaments to feel for abnormalities. And perhaps most famously you palpate the joint for normal free range of motion. This joint palpation is what give sugar land chiropractors the information needed on where to adjust.
Now let us move on to the biochemistry portion. Biochemistry the chemistry of our biology. What that means is the body has chemical processes it undergoes on a regular basis. These include digestion where the body turns what you eat into the compounds it needs to survive whether it be proteins for building muscle or sugar to use as energy. We study these processes to better understand the body as a whole. Remember sugar land chiropractors are experts of the neuromusculoskeletal systems and these systems require biochemistry to function.
Now anatomy is a rather important topic for sugar land chiropractors as everything we deal with is anatomy. We have several anatomy classes throughout our time at Texas Chiropractic College but we definitely start heavy with anatomy. Anatomy is the foundation for much of what is done later. Part of these anatomy classes involve dissection of a cadaver. This experience provides the absolute best possible chance to study the anatomy of the human body. Being able to actually have first hand experience of seeing a shoulder or looking at the muscles and ligaments of the hand is the reason sugar land chiropractors are as knowledgeable as they are on the human body.
Beyond the dissection we also cover the spinal anatomy with several classes. This provides a firm grasp of the anatomy of an area most often treated in our clinics, the neck or back. As more adjustments are done to these areas than any other having classes dedicated to the anatomy of these specific areas ensures we understand the intricacies of what we are palpating and adjusting.
Now lets comes full circle to the adjusting portion of the first year. Adjusting classes start at the end of the first year and will progress throughout the second year. Adjusting starts with learning the mechanics and fundamentals. I can attest that learning to adjust can be a painful experience as the students practice on each other. Thankfully when you visit a chiropractor they have years of adjusting practice under their belts and can safely and comfortably adjust you.
As for what areas of adjusting we learn in the first year that is not possible. We learn a variety of adjustments in the first year for several different joint or body areas. Adjusting classes are not broken up into body areas. Each instructor has their own set they run through. I can say however that no chiropractic school covers all adjustments. There are a multitude of different techniques out here for adjusting. Most schools will cover the diversified technique heavily and sprinkle in a few other techniques.
Thank you for joining us again. I do hope you found this break down of the first year of chiropractic college enlightening and informative. As always should you or someone you know require the services of sugar land chiropractors look no further than Restoration Health. We would love to be able to schedule you an appointment and get you on the path to better health today. I hope to see you tomorrow for another great podcast. Thank you once again and have a good night.