Adjustment
Any chiropractic therapeutic procedure that ultimately uses controlled force, leverage, direction, amplitude and velocity, which is applied to specific joints and adjacent tissues. Chiropractors commonly use such procedures to influence joint and neurophysiological function.

Biomechanics
The study of structural, functional and mechanical aspects of human motion. It is concerned mainly with external forces of either a static or dynamic nature, dealing with human movement.

Chiropractic
A health care profession concerned with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disorders of the neuromusculoskeletal system and the effects of these disorders on general health. There is an emphasis on manual techniques, including joint adjustment and/or manipulation, with a particular focus on subluxations.

Fixation
The state whereby an articulation has become fully or partially immobilized in a certain position, restricting physiological movement.

Joint manipulation
A manual procedure involving directed thrust to move a joint past the physiological range of motion, without exceeding the anatomical limit.

Joint mobilization
A manual procedure without thrust, during which a joint normally remains within its physiological range of motion.

Neuromusculoskeletal
Pertaining to the musculoskeletal and nervous systems in relation to disorders that manifest themselves in both the musculoskeletal and nervous systems, including disorders of a biomechanical or functional nature.

Palpation
(1) The act of feeling with the hands. (2) The application of variable manual pressure through the surface of the body for the purpose of determining the shape, size, consistency, position, inherent motility and health of the tissues beneath.

Posture
(1) The attitude of the body. (2) The relative arrangement of the parts of the body. Good posture is that state of muscular and skeletal balance that protects the supporting structures of the body against injury or progressive deformity irrespective of the attitude (erect, lying, squatting, stooping) in which the structures are working or resting.

Spinal manipulative therapy

Includes all procedures where the hands or mechanical devices are used to mobilize, adjust, manipulate, apply traction, massage, stimulate or otherwise influence the spine and paraspinal tissues with the aim of influencing the patient’s health.

Subluxation
A lesion or dysfunction in a joint or motion segment in which alignment, movement integrity and/or physiological function are altered, although contact between joint surfaces remains intact. It is essentially a functional entity, which may influence biomechanical and neural integrity.

Subluxation complex (vertebral)
A theoretical model and description of the motion segment dysfunction, which incorporates the interaction of pathological changes in nerve, muscle, ligamentous, vascular and connective tissue.

Thrust
The sudden manual application of a controlled directional force upon a suitable part of the patient, the delivery of which effects an adjustment.