Some of the earliest healers in the history of the world understood the relationship between health and the condition of the spine. Hippocrates said "Get knowledge of the spine, for this is the requisite for many diseases." Many village healers throughout the world moved bones to try to cure afflictions.
These treatment methods were crude, and their healing effects were still greatly misunderstood until 1895. This is the year that Daniel David Palmer (known as D.D.) discovered specific spinal adjustments while working in Davenport, Iowa. In 1887 D.D. opened the Palmer Cure & Infirmary in Davenport and was working as a magnetic healer, which was a common therapy at the time.
On September 18, 1895, D.D. Palmer was working late in his office when a janitor named Harvey Lillard, began working nearby. A noisy fire engine passed by outside the window, and D.D. was surprised that Lillard didn’t react at all. He approached the man and tried to strike up a conversation. He soon realized Lillard was deaf.
D.D. managed to communicate with the man, and learned that he had normal hearing for most of his life. One day he had been stooped over in a cramped position, and felt something "pop" in his back. When he stood up he was unable to hear. D.D. determined that the popping in Lillard’s back and his immediate loss of hearing must be connected. He ran his hand carefully down Lillard’s spine and felt one of the vertebra was not in its normal position. He decided if he put the vertebra back in place, hearing may be restored. D.D. persuaded Mr. Lillard to allow him to replace the vertebra, and soon Mr. Lillard’s hearing was restored.
Over the coming months, D.D. was visited by patients with a variety of ailments, including sciatica, the flu, migraine headaches, epilepsy, and stomach troubles. D.D. Palmer found each of these conditions responded well to the adjustments which he referred to as "hand treatments." D.D. later asked a friend and patient, Rev. Samuel Weed, to help him name it. After careful study, Rev. Weed came up with the Greek words "cheiros" (hand), and "praktikus" (action) and together the words are interpreted as "done by hand" = Chiropractic.
D.D. quickly discovered that many of his patients’ ailments were alleviated altogether after his efforts to reposition the bones. From these observations, and from his own study and knowledge of anatomy and health, D.D. concluded that good health is the normal, natural state of the body. He knew that he had found how to get the body to heal itself without the use of drugs or surgery.
In 1897, two years after the First Chiropractic Adjustment, D. D. renamed his clinic the Palmer School & Infirmary of Chiropractic and accepted his first students.
Since D.D.'s first chiropractic adjustment, the Art, Philosophy and Science of Chiropractic has grown and progressed significantly. Today, advanced chiropractic diagnostic procedures, scientific research, sophisticated equipment, and the growing acceptance among other health care professionals makes chiropractic the world's fastest growing health care profession.
At Dr. James Spencer Jr. Chiropractic Center PLC, it is our vision that every person who walks through the doors of our clinic will walk out with a positive change in their lives. When this happens we will realize the vision of creating a healthier community where everyone is functioning at their fullest potential. True health is not a lack of pain or disease, but the correction of the underlying causes. The human body has an amazing capacity for healing. Our job is to remove interference on the nervous system and allow the body to function at its full healing ability. We want to be healthcare partners with our patients, and improve the quality of their day to day lives by allowing them to experience better health through chiropractic.