Your spine and subluxations
Your spinal column or "backbone" is made up of 24 vertebrae: seven in your neck (cervical spine), 12 in your midback (thoracic spine) and 5 in your lower back (lumbar spine). Your spinal cord, made up of billions of nerves, lies inside your spinal column, protected on all sides by bone. Your spinal cord's nerves branch out through openings between your vertebrae and connect to your internal organs, muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons, and all other body parts. This connection is vital for your well-being - after all, it keeps you alive.
Subluxations
The vertebral subluxation complex, an often painless spinal distortion, can irritate or damage your spinal nerves, interfere with your brain-body connection and affect your spine, nerves, discs, muscles, organs, and overall health. Doctors of chiropractic specialize in the detection and correction of the vertebral subluxation complex - restoring the lines of communication within your body and improving your overall body function, healing potential, and well-being.
Five major factors associated with subluxations
When a subluxation exists (and most people have them) there are five clinical manifestations which are usually present. During the examination portion of your first visit, our objective is to determine if these five factors are present. It's always surprising for patients to discover that they have these factors which really act as a wake up call for them. Once they see what condition they've gotten themselves into, the necessity for care becomes that much more important. And with no further ado, here are the five factors:
• Pain or tenderness around the damaged area
• Tightness, tension, or muscle spasm around the damaged area
• Some degree of swelling around the damaged area
• Heat or temperature difference around the damaged area
• Fixation or misalignment of one or more vertebrae
Branches of the spinal nerves
The following list briefly describes what body parts are innervated by each branch of the nervous system. This list by no means covers all parts of the body, but is a mere example of how important having a subluxation-free body is. Remember, without a proper flow of nervous impulse to any body part results in disease in one way or another. After all, look what happens to a quadriplegic - they have the inability to move most of their body parts and have to rely on machinery to run many of their vital organ systems to remain alive. In a sense that is one of the most extreme versions of a subluxation!
The cervical spine C1: To blood supply to the head, pituitary gland, scalp, bones of the face, brain inner and middle ear, sympathetic nervous system, eyes, ears
