Structure Determines Function

Just ask any engineer this. Even try bowling with a square bowling ball. You will not be very good. Structure of the body determines everything from heart rate to hormone production.

How does working with the structure of the body help with the Nervous System?

The Spinal Column is a series of neck and back spinal bones that stack up on each other. There are extensions of the spinal cord that exit between each bone (on both sides). When the bones are misaligned (subluxated), they can create inflammation and irritate these extensions (nerve roots). These nerve roots form nerves, which power everything.

If a nerve is irritated, where ever that nerve is going to..will have decreased function. Try hitting your funny bone. You just irritated the Ulnar nerve. Now where ever that nerve goes will have decreased function. In this case..numbness and tingling to the pinky finger, and half of the ring finger.

if this subluxation happened in the mid back, one of the nerves that go to the heart could be inflammed (if this happened anywhere between the 5th and the 9th thoracic spinal bones) You might not get numbness and tingling to the heart, but you could get decreased function. This can contribute to heart conditions. Examples are tachycardia, atrial fibrillations, chest pain, and so forth.

How does Chiropractic influence your hormones and stress levels?

It is called Proprioception. Close your eyes and move your thumb around. Do you know where your thumbs are? Of course you do, that is because all joints of the body are telling your brain and spinal cord where they are at every moment.

Your brain and spinal cord need to know this information, in order to react and direct your joints and muscles where to go…in a fraction of a second…if needed…to avoid injury.

If the joints are misaligned, now they give off abnormal proprioception.

Well, the same thing happens in the spinal bones. If your spinal bones are misaligned, they give off abnormal proprioception. This goes to the Hypothalmus in the brain, which is part of the Hypothalmus-Pituitary-Adrenal axis. This abnormal proprioception causes the adrenals to release Cortisol, Adrenaline, and Noradrenaline. These are stress hormones. This is the Fight or Flight response. This is how subluxations cause the Fight or Flight response

Does Chiropractic make you relax?

Misaligned joints and spinal bones start your Fight or Flight response (the stress response). In this response, your stress hormones all increase (cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline).

Chiropractic increases your relaxation state, increasing your Seratonin and Melatonin hormones (your Parasympathetic Nervous System)

So, by restoring the proprioception (which Chiropractic does), you actually decrease the Fight or Flight state and increase your Relaxation state.

“Autonomic and Autacoid Pharmacology” 2009