A subluxation causes the body to be out of balance, harmony, and ease.
Modern living creates ever increasing stresses that cause subluxation, which in turn creates imbalance, dis-harmony, and dis-ease in your body and mind.
The Association of Chiropractic Colleges Position Paper states:
"Chiropractic is concerned with the preservation and restoration of health, and focuses particular attention on the subluxation." "A subluxation is a complex of functional and /or structural and/or pathological articular changes that compromise neural integrity and may influence organ system function and general health."
Specifically, a vertebral subluxation is when the spine loses it's normal range of motion and/or alignment at any segmental level. This loss of motion and/or alignment in the spine is a stressor and causes a 'stress response' physiology. This 'stress response' physiology causes the body to break down at an increased rate. Overall there is: 1) a decrease in health promoting signals to the brain (proprioception) 2) An increase in stress signals to the brain (nocioception) 3) An increase in adaptive stress physiology to the brain and body.
Chiropractors are interested in helping you replace this stress and subluxation with balance, harmony and ease in your body and mind.
The Association of Chiropractic Colleges Position Paper states:
"Chiropractic is concerned with the preservation and restoration of health, and focuses particular attention on the subluxation." "A subluxation is a complex of functional and /or structural and/or pathological articular changes that compromise neural integrity and may influence organ system function and general health."
Specifically, a vertebral subluxation is when the spine loses it's normal range of motion and/or alignment at any segmental level. This loss of motion and/or alignment in the spine is a stressor and causes a 'stress response' physiology. This 'stress response' physiology causes the body to break down at an increased rate. Overall there is: 1) a decrease in health promoting signals to the brain (proprioception) 2) An increase in stress signals to the brain (nocioception) 3) An increase in adaptive stress physiology to the brain and body.
Simply put, a vertebral subluxation is when the spine is not working right which causes the brain and body to not work right, ultimately causing the body and brain to break down at a faster rate than normal.
When a person is subluxated, the spine is out of balance and breaks down faster. The spine will move too much in some areas and too little in other areas, resulting in chronic inflamation and atrophy. Scar tissue is laid down as a protective measure in the case of atrophy, which in turn restricts motion more. Calcification is a normal process in areas that move too much for the purpose of stabilization and or resistance. Calcification also occurs in these areas due to the chronic inflamation. Calcification over time leads to bone spur formation.
Motion restriction of the spine causes a stress response in a person, a subluxation is a stressor to the body-mind as a whole. Motion Restriction of the vertebral motor unit causes decreased mechanoreception, which causes changes in afferent nerve activity. Decreased mechanorection to the cerebellar-cortical loops results in a decrease in function in many areas, including but not limited to: immune, endocrine, organ, vestibular, and limbic. The stress response causes catecholamines, cortisol, and a whole array of cascading events that create destruction and break down in the body.
Increased stress hormone levels cause: (catecholamine response) a down regulation of insulin receptors, a liberation of free fatty acids, sharpened signal detection at the cost of concentration, increased heart rate, increased cardiac output and increased blood pressure, vasoconstriction (such as vessels for organs) and vasodialation (muscles used for body movement) of blood vessels, Anxiety (which uses up serotonin substrate), and increased craving for sugar and fat...(cortisol response) increased blood sugar, down regulation of insulin receptors, down regulation of the expression of the gene for increased HDL, down regulation of the gene for the uptake of LDL, down regulated cell mediated immunity, increased heart rate (cardiac output) and blood pressure, decrease in sex hormone binding globulin. How are we looking for Heart Disease? Cancer? Diabetes? Obesity? Anxiety and Depression? ADD and ADHD?
To make it simple, remember this: not only does the spine physically degenerate and break down much faster when subluxated, a subluxated spine causes vast neurological changes in a persons physiology that also cause the body-mind as a whole to degenerate and break down much faster than normal...in short, when the spine is functioning poorly, you break down faster. Adjustments restore function in the spine, therefore restore function in you as a whole.
all references to this article can be found in James Chestnut's book The 14 Foundational PremisesTM for the Scientific and Philosophical Validation of the Chiropractic Wellness Paradigm
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