“The power that made the body heals the body. There is no other way.”
— B. J. Palmer, Developer of Chiropractic
Subluxations
So what is a subluxation? It's a fancy medical term that literally means less than a "luxation" or gross dislocation. So it's a small dislocation, or more accurately, a misalignment. Chiropractors are very interested in these misalignments of the spine because we believe that these misalignments can have huge impacts on your overall health and wellbeing by reducing or blocking the flow of information through the nervous system. Picture it this way, and then I'll give you an actual picture in just a moment. Have you ever driven a car? I'm sure most of my patients will answer in the affirmative. Now, have you ever driven a car where the tires were out of alignment? The thumping and the shuddering of the car definitely don't make for a pleasant ride. What's more, that misalignment of the tires will wear out the tires faster than normal and wind up doing extensive damage to the overall structure of the car after a while if it isn't fixed. Same thing happens with our bodies. We like to use a simpler analogy called the safety pin cycle. Let's explore this a little further.
We know that the brain controls the body through the nervous system. It tells the heart how to beat, the lungs when to breathe, the stomach and intestines when and how to digest. It also directs and controls healing from paper cuts all the way up to broken bones and recovering from surgery. We call this the body's Innate Intelligence. So if the brain is communicating at full capacity with the rest of the body, you'd imagine the rest of the body would be able to also perform at full function. In a perfectly healthy body with no spinal misalignments, this would be represented by the closed safety pin on the left! In an unhealthy body with even just one subluxation, it is represented by the open safety pin on the right! This means that somewhere between the base of the skull and the base of the spine, there is a spinal misalignment that is stopping part of the flow of signals through the nervous system! How? Well, it's a hard bone on a soft nerve. Imagine stepping on or bending a running garden hose. Doesn't that slow down or stop the water from coming out? That's why chiropractic is so important. We can help you remove those subluxations, close the safety pin, and return to normal function.
How did I get subluxated? Why is my safety pin open?
That is a great question, but sadly there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer. Subulxations, or spinal misalignments, can happen globally from two causes: macrotrauma or microtrauma.
Macrotraumas are the big ouchies that you can definitely remember. You slipped and fell down the stairs walking out to your car in the rain, or you got illegally tackled playing kickball in your city league. When these happen, you know almost immediately that you're hurt. This is an especially great time for chiropractic care! Come in and get adjusted to speed up healing time and get you feeling great again soon.
Microtraumas are harder to pin down and they can vary from person to person. For instance, imagine a businessperson carrying a heavy back across his or her right shoulder all the time or sitting with poor posture at your desk day in and day out. Have you ever been feeling totally fine and then leaned over to pick something up and not been able to stand back up? People call it "throwing your back out," and it is generally the result of a sustained series of microtraumas. Sure picking up the dog's food bowl didn't do you in, but it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. The microtraumas are often harder to recover from than the macrotraumas because they involve not only active therapy at the chiropractic office but changes to your daily lifestyle.
The Vertebral Subluxation Complex
The Vertebral Subluxation Complex is made up traditionally of five components. These components are spinal kinesiopathology, neuropathophysiology, myopathology, histopathology, and pathophysiology.
I will delve deeper into the VSC in my blog. Please be sure to keep an eye over there for not only this exciting information but many other health-related topics.
