Discover Chiropractic in the Liosbaun Industrial Estate has been providing people in Galway and the West with an alternative solution to all their pains and ailments for almost five years now.

The clinic's three chiropractors, Dr Tomas, Dr Tandy and Dr Annie, operate in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere, where they can answer people's questions and scepticisms about chiropractic.

Dr's Thomas Homgren, Annie Johnson and Tandy Johnson.

The layout of the clinic is simple and the relaxed nature of the staff and environment makes the entire visit and experience non-invasive and pleasurable.

Chiropractic was founded over 110 years ago and is based on the spine and nervous system. The nervous system controls the body, so when spinal bones misalign, they can often distort the signals carried by the nervous system and functions within the body get distorted. Chiropractic corrects these misalignments so that the body is then able to help and heal itself.

"People often come to the clinic looking for a cure to their pain, but the beauty of their first two visits to the clinic is that they learn not only what causes their problem and how to correct it but how prevention really is better than cure. When a patient does arrive in pain, we ease their symptoms but also try to encourage them to come in before the pain even develops to check their body's spinal alignment," says Dr Tomas Hemgren of Discover Chiropractic.

An example of prevention rather than cure lies in Tomas' own family. Tomas checked his 17-month-old daughter directly after birth. He found a spinal misalignment, corrected it and now checks her once a week. "She has never been sick! Not even once, so that just speaks for itself," he says.

"People who come to the clinic for a check-up get a complete consultation and examination and a full spine X-ray if necessary. We then analyse the X-rays and examination, so that we can give the patient a full report on their spine and overall health. During this report we discuss with the patient how their body is functioning and what can be done. If, in fact, they have a problem that we cannot deal with, we refer them elsewhere. The main goal is to find what is best for that patient.

"The people who have come to the clinic for treatment have found that in the long term the costs are much less than taking other routes and this is also why it is so important to think in terms of prevention rather than waiting until the symptoms are much more serious. Chiropractic can prevent many of the problems and pain that so many Irish people are suffering from," says Dr Tomas.

Dr Tomas says that, as with any ailment, it is best to catch things early on. A child's spinal alignment can be restructured in their early years and this can be the best prevention to any future problems that a child might encounter, he explains. "With the weight of school bags nowadays and children playing so many computer games, their postures are becoming stooped. This problem can be prevented if caught at an early age," he adds.