AK Stat § 08.20.900 (2021)
2021 Alaska Statutes|Title 8. Business and Professions|Chapter 20. Chiropractors|Article 4. General Provisions.|Sec. 08.20.900. Definitions.

In this chapter, (1) “ancillary methodology” means employing within the scope of chiropractic practice, with appropriate training and education, those methods, procedures, modalities, devices, and measures commonly used by trained and licensed health care providers and includes (A) physiological therapeutics; and (B) counseling on dietary regimen, sanitary measures, physical and mental attitudes affecting health, personal hygiene, occupational safety, lifestyle habits, posture, rest, and work habits that enhance the effects of chiropractic adjustment; (2) “board” means the Board of Chiropractic Examiners; (3) “chiropractic” is the clinical science of human health and disease that focuses on the detection, correction, and prevention of the subluxation complex and the employment of physiological therapeutic procedures preparatory to and complementary with the correction of the subluxation complex for the purpose of enhancing the body's inherent recuperative powers, without the use of surgery or prescription drugs; the primary therapeutic vehicle of chiropractic is chiropractic adjustment; (4) “chiropractic adjustment” means the application of a precisely controlled force applied by hand or by mechanical device to a specific focal point of the anatomy for the express purpose of creating a desired angular movement in skeletal joint structures in order to eliminate or decrease interference with neural transmission and correct or attempt to correct subluxation complex; “chiropractic adjustment” utilizes, as appropriate, short lever force, high velocity force, short amplitude force, or specific line-of-correction force to achieve the desired angular movement, as well as low force neuro-muscular, neuro-vascular, neuro-cranial, or neuro-lymphatic reflex technique procedures; (5) “chiropractic clinical assistant” means a person who works under the general supervision of a person licensed under this chapter and who is (A) enrolled in a nationally recognized certification program that certifies chiropractic clinical assistants; or (B) certified by a national organization that certifies chiropractic clinical assistants; (6) “chiropractic core methodology” means the treatment and prevention of subluxation complex by chiropractic adjustment as indicated by a chiropractic diagnosis and includes the determination of contra-indications to chiropractic adjustment, the normal regimen and rehabilitation of the patient, and patient education procedures; chiropractic core methodology does not incorporate the use of prescription drugs, surgery, needle acupuncture, obstetrics, or x-rays used for therapeutic purposes; (7) “chiropractic diagnosis” means a diagnosis made by a person licensed under this chapter based on a chiropractic examination; (8) “chiropractic examination” means an examination of a patient conducted by a person licensed under this chapter, or by a chiropractic clinical assistant or chiropractic intern under the supervision of a person licensed under this chapter, for the express purpose of ascertaining whether symptoms of subluxation complex exist and consisting of an analysis of the patient's health history, current health status, results of diagnostic procedures, including x-ray and other diagnostic imaging devices, and postural, thermal, physical, neuro-physical, and spinal examinations that focuses on the discovery of (A) the existence and etiology of disrelationships of skeletal joint structures; and (B) interference with normal nerve transmission and expression; (9) “chiropractic intern” means a person who is engaged in the practice of chiropractic while under the personal supervision of a person licensed under this chapter for the purpose of obtaining practical experience for licensure as a chiropractor; (10) “chiropractic preceptor” means a person who is licensed under this chapter and who participates in the instruction and training of chiropractic interns. (11) “manipulation” means an application of a resistive movement by applying a nonspecific force without the use of a thrust, that is directed into a region and not into a focal point of the anatomy for the general purpose of restoring movement and reducing fixations; (12) “physiological therapeutics” means the therapeutic application of forces that induce a physiologic response and use or allow the natural processes of the body to return to a more normal state of health; physiological therapeutics encompasses the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the body, utilizing (A) manipulation; (B) the natural healing forces associated with air, cold, heat, electricity, exercise, light, massage, water, nutrition, sound, rest, and posture; (C) thermotherapy, cryotherapy, high frequency currents, low frequency currents, interferential currents, hydrotherapy, exercise therapy, rehabilitative therapy, meridian therapy, vibratory therapy, traction and stretching, bracing and supports, trigger point therapy, and other forms of therapy; (13) “subluxation complex” means a biomechanical or other disrelation or a skeletal structural disrelationship, misalignment, or dysfunction in a part of the body resulting in aberrant nerve transmission and expression.