What Is A Subluxation?

Your Cells Are Dancing

Your body is made up of billions of little packets of life called cells. For your body to work as a living body, not just as a formless collection of cells, they must be organized. And they are! They are organized as all kinds of different tissues. Tissues are organized as organs, and a group of organs that work together is called a system (such as the digestive system which is made up of your digestive organs, stomach, intestines and the rest). When all your systems work in a harmonious, coordinated fashion they create a healthy living you.

What turns your billions of cells into a purposeful body? How is this complex dance of life orchestrated? What is it that makes all these structures come "alive"? After all, a corpse has all its parts; what is it that is missing? The answer, of course, is life! When the wisdom of nature energizes your body, you are alive!

Innate Intelligence

"Disease is a lack of co-ordination between Innate, the source of power, and its expression.

------D.D. Palmer, Discoverer of Chiropractic

"...a kind of super intelligence exists in each of us, infinitely smarter and possessed of technical know-how far beyond our present understanding."

------Lewis Thomas, M.D., The Medusa and The Snail

"Intelligence is present everywhere in our bodies...our own inner intelligence is far superior to any we can try to substitute from the outside..."

------Deepak Chopra, M.D., Quantum Healing

The wisdom of your body (also called your innate intelligence) directs your life energies that travel over your brain, spinal cord and billions of nerve fibers to your every nook and cranny. This flow of communication is necessary for breathing, digestion, heartbeat, excretion, immune system function, glands, muscles and thousands of other activities to work properly. If your nervous system is irritated, this fantastic communications system is "short-circuited," your energies are disturbed and you suffer from dis-ease or lack of harmony.

The most common cause of a "short-circuit" in your nervous system is a vertebral subluxation. (A damaged nervous system can also occur if you have a stroke, are brain-damaged or have various diseases of the nervous system.)

Vertebral Subluxation

A vertebral subluxation is a spinal abnormality that interferes with your nerves. It can create dis-ease, lowered resistance to disease, pain, imbalance, fatigue and can pave the way for ill health. It is sometimes called the "silent killer" Because it can slowly eat away at your health and vitality for years without your having the slightest awareness of it. Doctors of chiropractic specialize in locating, analyzing and correcting vertebral subluxations.

What Exactly Is A Vertebral Subluxation?

A vertebral subluxation is a misaligned vertebra causing interference with nerve messages between your brain and your body.

A vertebral subluxation includes the following:

1. Spinal Kinesiopathology----Your vertebrae are jammed and either less mobile than they should be or, conversely, too mobile ("noisy joints"). You are unable to comfortably turn, bend or twist your neck, hips or back in every direction.

2. Neuropathophysiology----Your nerves are impinged and you may feel pain, tingling, numbness and/or pins-and-needles. The impulses traveling through your nerves are altered and important chemicals that flow over your nerves may be blocked.

3. Myopathology----Your muscles are chronically tight, in spasm, weak, overly sensitive and/or sore.

4. Histopathology----You have swelling, tenderness, "trigger points" painful spots and other soft tissue changes. Ligaments, cartilage, discs, tendons and internal organs may be affected.

5. Pathophysiology----Your muscles, joints, ligaments and organs show signs of wear and tear and premature aging, fatigue, less resistance to disease and lack of physical and mental vitality.

Causes Of Subluxations

Subluxations are caused by stress: macro-stress (accidents, falls, sports injuries and other trauma) or micro-stress (repeated movements that gradually wear down your body parts, bad posture, dental work and emotional stress which can cause chronic tension). Subluxations can occur from a difficult birth and from childhood falls. It is for that reason that infants and children need spinal care; many neurological and other health problems have been traced to spinal damage at birth.

Although vertebral subluxations are the most common forms of interference with nerve messages, they are by no means the only ones. Drugs, trauma, direct pressure (when your legs or arms "go to sleep"), a stroke, broken bones, arthritis, tumors and neurological diseases such as muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, polio and cerebral palsy can also damage nerves. The most widespread and common cause of nerve irritation and interference, however, is the verebral subluxation complex.

Correcting Subluxations

Dwell as near as possible to the channel in which your life flows.

-----Henry David Thoreau

Subluxations are so common that they can be considered an epidemic--nearly everyone has them. It is sometimes said that if you suffer from neck and back pain you're lucky--you are aware of a spinal problem and will (hopefully) go to a doctor of chiropractic for a spinal checkup. The chiropractor will not only check the areas in pain, but will throw in a "bonus" and check your entire spinal column for nerve pressure, even the areas that don't hurt. Where you feel pain may not even be where the subluxation is--the pain may be referred.

Subluxations can undermine your health just as termites can undermine the foundation of your home. By the time the kitchen floor collapses, it's too late to call the exterminator; and in the same way, by the time symptoms appear a certain amount of the damage caused by long-standing subluxations may be irreversible.

For that reason periodic spinal examinations to locate and correct vertebral subluxations should be a part of every family's health routine. Correcting silent subluxations today might save you and your family from diseases that, later in life, could not possibly be ignored.

References

1. Lantz, C. The vertebral subluxation complex, part 2: The neuropathological and myopathological components. "Chiropractic Research Journal", 1990,"1"(4), pp.19-38

2. Dishman R. Static and dynamic components of the chiropractic subluxation complex: A literature review. "Journal of Manipulative and Psysiological Therapeutics". 1988,"11"(2),pp.98-107

3. Hubka, M. Another critical look at the subluxation hypothesis. "Chiropractic Technique", 1990, "2"(1), pp.27-30