Chiropractic and the nervous system

Your nervous system consists of your brain, spinal cord and nerves. Trillions of messages flow from nerve receptors all over your body to your brain to give your brain information about what is happening in your body and in the environment around you. Your brain processes and integrates this information. Your brain is then constantly sending signals out to your body to fine tune and alter the function of each part.

Traditionally we thought that chiropractic helped by restoring the signals flowing from the brain out to all the other parts of the body. Recent research tells us that chiropractic probably helps by allowing more normal signals from the tissues around the spine to travel to the brain. When the spine isn’t moving properly there is increased stress and strain on the muscles and ligaments around the spine. These soft tissues have lots of nerve endings called mechanoreceptors that signal into the spinal cord and brain about movement and position of the spine. Even when you are not moving your mechanoreceptors are sending signals.

When you lift incorrectly, spend too much time in bad postures, are under psychological and emotional stress or eat poorly it can cause your muscles and vertebra to stop moving properly. This causes abnormal signals into your brain, which causes abnormal signals out from your brain to your body and sets the scene for problems in how your body moves and works.

A chiropractic adjustment may help restore movement to your spine, take the stress off the surrounding muscles and ligaments and allow your nervous system get back on track.