What Exactly Goes on During a Chiropractic Adjustment
Most people know that chiropractors are doctors that people go to with physical problems. The doctor of chiropractic does something to them or for them, and they feel better after their visit to the chiropractor.
Science currently is explaining what the millions of chiropractic patients have known for over 120 years. It all revolves around a nerve ending called a mechanoreceptor. These specialized nerve endings tell the brain what’s going on with every muscle in the body. When functioning properly, the nerve endings tell the brain exactly what position every body part is in, and their activation with muscle contraction almost serves as a positive influence on several systems of the body to make them function at an increased level.
Anytime a joint loses function, whether it is injured and swollen, whether it is loose and sloppy, or whether it has lost its motion and is developing chronic degenerative changes ..... there is always neurological involvement due to the mechanoreceptors not sending signals back to the brain. This is what we call a subluxation at Reinecke Chiropractic Clinic. When the brain gets no feedback from the mechano-receptors, it has no choice but to make up what it thinks is going on. This leads to in-coordination and eventual injury.
Research is zeroing in on the effect that the chiropractic adjustment has on the mechanoreceptors. A rapid movement through the joint that the muscles serve, such as the movement found with a chiropractic adjustment, stimulates the mechano-receptors. This stimulation of the nervous system actually allows the brain to reformat processes and in so doing can relieve pain, improve pain-free range of motion, and increase strength and balance.
The body naturally has more mechanoreceptors in the tissues where they are needed. In the neck and in the region just under the skull, to improve hand-eye coordination there are tens of thousands of these receptors. That is why the effects of a whiplash injury can be so profound. The more mechanoreceptors that are shut off due to trauma, the more the brain is in the dark, and the more important chiropractic care becomes in the recovery process.
What is really cool about the effects on the body from chiropractic adjustments is that since the body is a self-regulating self-healing mechanism, the adjustment allows the body to do what it needs to do in order to return the body to optimal function. Just exactly what does this mean? For example, if you have tight forearms because of computer work, stimulation of the mechanoreceptors in your neck with a chiropractic adjustment is going to make your forearms feel relaxed. If you feel weakness in your arms, neck adjustments are going to make your arms feel strong! This is no longer conjecture—it has been proven in peer reviewed double blind studies.
Activation of these mechanoreceptors has been shown to enhance our immune system, both by increasing the number of anti-bodies produced, and also by increasing the number of specialized white blood cells called killer cells that are very important in fighting illness and infection.
Mechanoreceptor activation can reduce the effects of stress on the body. People who have been under prolonged stress can develop subluxations that can form a vicious cycle of worry, muscle tension, less blood to the brain, more worry, more tension etc. For these people, having subluxations adjusted not only makes them feel better— it makes them more enjoyable to be around.
It is stimulation of the mechanoreceptors that makes us feel better after exercise. If a spinal joint has lost its function due to a subluxation no amount of exercise will make its mechanoreceptors activate. After a few adjustments, routine exercise will produce activation of the mechanoreceptors and in turn a brain more in touch with its surroundings.
What is the next step in your learning more about subluxations that you may have and the effects they have on your bodily function? A free hands-on consultation with one of the doctors at Reinecke Chiropractic Clinic may be the beginning of a new life for you. Much like second graders who don’t know that they need glasses until their first vision screening, if somebody has never been to the chiropractor, they might not think that they need one. Call our clinic at 335-0880 and set up a time to see if a spinal subluxation maybe leaving your brain “in the dark.