Chiropractic is an alternative form of medicine with treatments involving adjustments to the spine and other parts of the body.With technology developed by NASA, advances are being made in the effectiveness of treatments.

An instrument with a piezoelectric sensor, which collects data in response to applied mechanical stress, registers information faster than the body can react to the pressure, thus giving an accurate measurement of the position of the vertebra in the spine.

Darci Stotts said her practice is the only one in San Angelo with the NASA-developed adjusting instrument and is one of only a few practices in West Texas with the technology.

The equipment compiles the data into a graph. Patients get to see their own progress on the graphs, which are created instantaneously.

"Evidence of even teeny, tiny changes is right there," Stotts said.

About 95 percent of Stotts' patients are treated using the piezoelectric sensor equipment, which she says is cutting-edge technology in the chiropractic world. It can be used on people of all ages, and for the very young the hand-held device is adjusted to the most gentle setting.

"You only want to adjust the misaligned areas," Stotts said. "I think that's where we're a step ahead of other techniques in our profession."

Stotts said chiropractic realignments create a better environment for the body to heal itself and relieve nerve problems.

She spent about a year training to use the piezoelectric-sensor equipment, including many hours outside of her clinic, she said. Only certified chiropractors are allowed to use the instrument.

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