Specht Jason Chiropractor

Information may not be reliable

Chiropractic was discovered in 1895, by D.D. Palmer, in Davenport, Iowa. It was discovered when a man, who had been deaf for 17 years, got his hearing back following an experimental chiropractic adjustment to a vertebrae in his spine.
This discovery led forward thinkers of the day to look well to the spine for the cause of disease (Hippocrates). Chiropractic, which means done by hand, was born. The Palmer School of Chiropractic was founded, and thus launched 113 years of science, philosophy, and art. Many techniques, or methods, of how to identify problem areas in the spine and to correct them cropped up over the next 40 years. One pioneer named Clarence Gonstead developed a technique that became world renowned in only a couple of decades. The Gonstead technique allowed chiropractors a method to identify objectively, at each level of the spine, the activity of the nervous system. Additionally, Dr. Gonstead developed an x-ray analysis method that allowed doctors to tailor the type and direction of adjustments to the individual and to the joint involved. He also created a method to adjust vertebra without rotating (twisting) the patients spine.
Dr. Gonsteads new technique made it easier to find what needed adjusted and to know how it had to be adjusted in order to get well. Dr. Gonstead was so successful in his practice in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, a town of only a few hundred people, that he had to build a hotel with over 200 rooms to hold patients that would come from all over the country and the world. Soon doctors of chiropractic from every state and every chiropractic college in the country came clamoring to Dr. Gonstead to teach his system to the profession at large. The Gonstead seminars boomed for over 20 years and changed the face of the entire profession including, and especially, the profession's fountain head: Palmer College of Chiropractic.
One of Dr. Gonsteads many students was Dr. Don Specht. Dr. Specht left his practice in Kansas to study under Dr. Gonstead in the early 1970s. Dr. Don Specht excelled in the practice of the Gonstead technique and was quickly hired by Palmer College of Chiropractic to teach the Gonstead method to the profession. Dr. Jason and Dr. Jared Specht, the sons of Dr. Don Specht are now carrying on the excellence of Chiropractic in Abilene, Texas. Jason Specht, D.C. opened the practice in 1997 and his brother Jared Specht, D.C. joined him in 1999. Don Specht, D.C. moved to the area in 2007 and joined the practice on a limited basis. The Specht's are the only Palmer College of Chiropractic graduates in the Big Country who exclusively utilize the Gonstead technique.

Health is the harmonious function of all body processes. Disease is a result of discord within the body. It follows that a damaged body process leads to discord and disease. The body is its own master healer, it produces every drug known to man in exactly the right location, within its own completely unique bodily systems and circumstances. The body also has a powerful innate program of homeostasis. This means it really wants to be healthy and gears itself to heal when damaged. More often then not, the healthy body has no obstacles to a full and speedy recovery over an injury or infection. Yet, there are often times that the body just needs a helping hand.
With this outlook, based on the resilience of the human body, chiropractors have developed their healing method. This is - trusting the body to naturally do most of the work. Chiropractors intervene only if and where the bodys ability to function or properly heal has been obstructed due to neuromuskuloskeletal lesions that we call the vertebral subluxation complex.
This conservative approach has proven to be significantly more effective, than drug therapy, physical therapy, and surgery, for many common bodily ailments.

The vertebral subluxation complex is the process of a diminished or restricted range of motion in a spinal joint that leads to an inflammatory process in the cartilage and capsules of the joint.

This directly, or indirectly, alters the nervous system function at the spinal or cord level of the subluxation.
Whether the subluxation is complicated by a gross misalignment at the vertebrae, or a subtle fixation only, the local problem spreads rapidly to other body processes through the impaired function of the nervous system at that level.
The subluxation is very limited in its ability to heal by itself. The nature of cartilage requires that it be mostly avascular (very limited blood supply); yet cartilage is still living, breathing, eating, excreting, tissue and must be provided nourishment. This nourishment is provided by the pumping action of the joint in its surrounding interstitial fluid. When a joint is subluxated, this pumping action is disabled by the nature of the subluxation (fixation) itself; and the bodys ability to heal itself is blocked.
Chiropractors aid the bodys recovery by restoring the proper motion and/or alignment of the affected joint, thus allowing the proper cellular transport required for healing. As healing occurs, inflammation subsides and normal nervous system function is restored.

Chiropractors are nervous system doctors. Whether it is the pain of a pinched nerve, numbness or tingling, muscle weakness, headache, or heartburn, everything in the body has a nervous system component. The nervous system masters every other cell, and system, in the body. This is how chiropractors have succeeded in helping people recover from an exhaustive and wide range of ailments for over 113 years.

The spine has many duties, which include: allowing the body to be weight bearing, allowing the body to be locomotive (move around), joining the body together as one, etc. It also has several primary duties relating to the nervous system, such as: housing and protecting the central nervous system, allowing dispersion of the peripheral nervous system, and providing kinesiopropreoception (body/joint position information) to the brain and spinal cord. It is in these later duties where spinal function or dysfunction influences the nervous system. Swelling of joint tissues in the spine from acute injury or degenerative conditions, such as degenerated discs, or herniated or ruptured discs, can lead to direct pressure at the spinal nerve root or cord. This nerve pressure translates to the brain as pain, numbness, and weakness or paralysis in muscles. This is a common result of subluxation in the spine, affecting the nervous system. It is also a common condition, readily corrected by chiropractic care.
There is another form of nerve stress that is less demonstrable on the MRI than the first but just as serious, and even more common. This is the influence that the subluxation has on joint mechanoreceptors and proprioceptors which causes facilitation (hyperactivity) in the sympathetic nervous system on the same level of the spinal cord. This stimulus bombardment alters the activity of the spinal cord associated with every function at the cord level. The sympathetic nervous system especially, is spun into a hyperactive, discordant, and confused cycle that not only did the brain not initiate, but cannot even interpret. This subluxation-induced nerve disturbance goes unchecked in the body and causes malfunction in any related body system. It also most frequently goes undiagnosed by the field of medicine. Chiropractors, however, are specialists in diagnosing and correcting this form of subluxation-induced nerve interference.

Chiropractic has been around for 113 years. Many methods developed in that course of time and all were directed towards identifying and correcting the sometimes elusive vertebral subluxation complex. These chiropractic techniques that have varied widely throughout Chiropractic academia, and typically have reflected the expertise of the chiropractic today, are now taught at most chiropractic institutions. They include the Gonstead, Diversified, and Thompson techniques usually in the core curriculum. Outside the core curriculum, other techniques are taught as electives such as Activator, SOT, Nimo, Grostic, B.E.S.T., etc.
Among the top three techniques taught, each one is distinguished from the other in the following ways:
Gonstead technique: The Gonstead technique is based on specificity. Specificity in chiropractic is defined by an accurate identification of the exact location of the vertebral subluxation, and designing and delivering a specific adjustment, tailored to the needs of that specific joint, appropriately and successfully. The Gonstead technique executes this specific task with several tools.

X-ray line analyses measurements that accurately define the joints position.
Specific adjusting technique that utilizes multiple specialized adjusting tables in order to isolate the subluxation, with respect to its unique malposition and the appropriate successful correction.

Thompson technique: The Thompson technique is based on the Thompson table, which is the primary tool of the Thompson practitioner. It is designed with multiple drop pieces in order to assist the doctor in his adjustment. Instrumentation and x-ray analysis are rarely ever performed by a Thompson practitioner. One of the primary diagnostic tools the Thompson doctor uses is a leg length check (unreliable for multiple reasons).
Diversified technique: The Thompson technique is based on the Thompson table, which is the primary tool of the Thompson practitioner. It is designed with multiple drop pieces in order to assist the doctor in his adjustment. Instrumentation and x-ray analysis are rarely ever performed by a Thompson practitioner. One of the primary diagnostic tools the Thompson doctor uses is a leg length check (unreliable for multiple reasons).
Other techniques such as Activator, soft touch styles like B.E.S.T., or Nuka, are the other most common types. These doctors do not adjust subluxations by manual correction at the bone/joint proper. They perform varying musculo-tendinous soft tissue stimulation either in the extremity areas or paraspinally (other than spinal) areas. These techniques rely on muscle/sinew to pull the vertebrae back into proper function. These doctors do not perform instrumentation exams, x-ray, or even adjust the spinal vertebrae. Protocol and procedure varies widely from doctor to doctor as well.
There is one more method worth discussing, though it is not a chiropractic technique. It is performed in chiropractic clinics across the technique spectrum. The use of modalities, physiotherapy, physical therapy, supervised exercises, etc. has been incorporated from the medical professions conservative approaches to muskuloskeletal problems. These treatments do not aid or correct the vertebral subluxation complex in any way, whatsoever. By definition these procedures apply to muscular conditions only. Unfortunately these therapies are routinely prescribed by many chiropractors exclusively or at least as ancillary necessity, when in fact, the only method of correction for the vertebral subluxation complex is the chiropractic adjustment.

Instrumentation is absolutely a necessity for identifying the vertebral subluxation complex with any accuracy. As we have explained, the result of the vertebral subluxation is the altered nerve. Thus, this is the main insult of the subluxation. It therefore stands to reason, that in order to identify it, you must find it through the nervous system.
The instrument called the ECS (electrical conductance scanner) measures the galvanic skin response (water density) supraspinally and paraspinally in order to detect increased sympathetic nerve activity at separate vertebral levels through the output of sweat glands, oil glands, and blood vessel dilation/constriction. These glands and vessels are segmentaly innervated, and share a connection with the vertebral joint and tissues via interneurons of the intermedio-lateral horn of the spinal cord.
The ECS is the most efficient and specific method of segmental examination of vertebral subluxation induced nerve dysfunction. It is far more specific than nerve conduction velocity tests (very painful) or surface EMG, and far more sensitive than thermal scans.
Doctors who utilize specialized instrumentation in their chiropractic examination, thereby, provide care that is more efficacious than those doctors who do not.

The x-ray is an absolute necessity for defining the parameters of the subluxation. One of the most common misunderstandings about x-ray is the idea that x-rays show you where the problem is. Most often, this is not the case. The x-ray does however display, in detail, the relative relationships of adjoining bones and their alignment. This information (called listings) is used only in order to select the appropriate chiropractic maneuver that will properly reduce the subluxation, once found. Specific directional subluxations require specific directional forces (given during the adjustment) to reduce them.
Every human being in the world has a differently shaped spine, and its own unique characteristics and circumstance. There is no normal spine, especially in those patients exhibiting symptoms of spinal dysfunction, such as those who would require a chiropractor in the first place.
Chiropractic x-rays are unique to chiropractic. Your medical doctors x-rays are not taken for structural, functional purposes (subluxation listings, weight bearing posture, full spine), but are for pathology screening purposes only. In other words, they are looking mainly for tumors or fractures. Unfortunately, in the field of chiropractic, there are those doctors who take x-rays but do not use any practical listing system or any appropriately matched chiropractic adjusting technique - thereby defeating the purpose of the x-ray, altogether. Essentially, the only value that is thereby gained is for chiropractic contraindications to the adjustment, i.e. tumor or fracture in which case, your medical films would have worked just fine.
Chiropractors who utilize chiropractic x-ray analysis thereby, provide care that is more efficacious than chiropractors who do not.