Vertebral subluxation

Vertebral subluxation, as used in chiropractic, refers to an alleged spinal misalignment said to cause nerve pressure and abnormal body function, a concept originally defined by chiropractic's founders D.D. Palmer and B.J. Palmer. Chiropractors who hold this view maintain that such subluxations may not be visible on X-rays. The concept is distinct from the term's precise medical usage, which considers only the anatomical relationships of the vertebrae, and the World Health Organization treats the chiropractic subluxation as a joint dysfunction rather than the structural displacement visible on imaging that medicine requires for the diagnosis. Most medical experts, and some chiropractors who describe themselves as mixers, consider the broad chiropractic version of the concept to be pseudoscientific, stating there is no scientific evidence that chiropractic subluxations exist or that treating them affects health. The idea still divides the chiropractic profession: so-called straight chiropractors continue to hold the Palmers' original view of subluxation's wide-ranging health effects, while mixer chiropractors and regulatory bodies such as the United Kingdom's General Chiropractic Council reject it as an unsupported historical concept.