Subluxation
Chiropractic Approach to Correcting Obstructed Nerve Flow
The Importance of Maintaining Spinal Health
Below is the chapter on Subluxation, taken from Dr. Sean Woods’ book, “The Healing Vibe.”
A subluxation, the cornerstone of the chiropractic profession, is defined as a misalignment to a vertebra that causes obstruction to nerve flow. This decrease in nerve flow leads to dis-ease and the inability of the body to heal itself. Subluxations are a common occurrence of everyday life. Poor posture, repetitive movements, or injuries can cause misalignment of the vertebra. When there is a misalignment to a spinal bone with nerve interference, it is not long before there is diminished function to the organs, glands, and tissues associated with that nerve.
Vertebra that are misaligned can cause both organ dysfunction and spinal degeneration. These subluxations start to show signs of degeneration in less than two weeks of them occurring and organ dysfunction can start happening immediately. When you take an x-ray and see spinal degeneration on a black and white image, the degenerated bones have been stuck for years and decades. Physical stressors are easy to understand when contemplating how a misalignment could happen. The harder concept to grasp is how our body’s chemistry can also create these same misalignments and degeneration.
The philosophy of chiropractic is that the body has an innate intelligence and the ability to heal itself from any health condition. The body is a self-regulating, self-repairing system and it cannot repair itself when it is not getting the nerve message or signal that there is a problem. The job of the chiropractor is to find where the misalignment is, and through a variety of methods, correct it, and rebalance the body so it can function properly. In 1890 it was somewhat easier to have healing miracles in chiropractic because the health of the body was generally better than it is today. After generations of a decline in the quality of food and an increase in toxicity, people are weaker than ever. A simple adjustment doesn’t always render the same effect as it did in 1890. Miracles do, however, continue to happen every day with chiropractic adjustments. In today’s highly toxic environment, it is often the case that more is needed to be done on the chemistry front to get better and longer lasting results.
Having a chiropractor who helps maintain your spinal health can be one of the smartest things you do for yourself. Chiropractors have gotten a bad rap at times; in some cases, rightfully so. When I talk to or treat patients who have formed a negative belief around chiropractic, I find that they were never truly educated on what chiropractic is. Understanding a few basic principles is all that is needed to see the beauty in its philosophy.
Chiropractic care works to restore motion to all the joints of body including the cranium, spine, and pelvis. This spinal system needs to be balanced and moving freely to allow the brain and spinal cord to function normally. The nervous system is a major carrier of electrical energy through your body. Restoring motion to locked vertebra in someone who has been stuck for years can create a seemingly magical healing response. Chiropractors open the area and the body’s own wisdom does the rest. I tell people that I would have been satisfied with my chiropractic education and how much it cost me even if I could have only practiced it on my family. I have saved myself thousands of dollars and dozens of trips to the doctor by just knowing what I know.
When we find the areas of misalignment the next question commonly asked is “how did that happen?” Well, the body can subluxate in several ways. The most obvious is through physical injuries and poor posture. The body also subluxates through chemical imbalances and emotional stressors. This process happens as organs stress, the body’s chemistry imbalances, and the tightened fascia pulls the spine out of its normal alignment. Restoring a nerve system that has been damaged requires the removal of the subluxation, correcting digestion problems, and making healthy bile again. It does not matter your opinion of chiropractic, subluxations create dis-ease in the body, and perfect health will never be achieved when they are present.