What is an adjustment? Is it safe?

An adjustment is a specific, controlled force by a chiropractor that is directed at a joint that has lost a normal degree of motion.  When an adjustment is performed by a trained professional, they are extremely safe.  The chances that a serious adverse event will happen from manual adjustment is 1 in 6 million.  The chance of serious adverse reaction from the activator or computerized adjusting is zero.  If we compare these statistics to the safety to that of NSAIDs (107,000 hospitalizations each year with 16,500 gastrointestinal-related NSAID deaths), we see chiropractic is a much safer alternative than even taking an aspirin.

Singh Gurkirpal, MD, “Recent Considerations in Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug Gastropathy”, The American Journal of Medicine, July 27, 1998, p. 31S