What is Subluxation?
A subluxation can be likened to receiving poor radio signal while traveling in a car, it is poor signal of the messages sent from your brain telling your body what to do. The experience is not only irritating but it also restricts communication of the message. Restricted transmission has the same effect on body functionality (Mertz, 2003:24). Dr Les Whitehead claims a light pressure applied to a nerve equivalent to the touch of a finger, can reduce its ability to function correctly by around 50%. Therefore, in order to operate at optimum performance within an individual’s own ability or potential, a well-aligned spine is essential for good health. Learn more about Subluxations in our video library here.
Not unlike traditional health care, chiropractic also emphasise the importance of preventative care, such as good posture, regular exercise and eating well. A deficiency in any of these areas can induce deterioration of body performance causing a subluxation to occur.
There are three main factors that affect bodily performance, these are categorized as physical stress, chemical stress and emotion stress:
Physical stress
Physical stress is defined as stress exerted on the body that is greater than the body’s internal resistance. For example: a fall, accident or strain.
Chemical stress
Chemical stress relates to poor nutrition and exposure to pollutants that cause an internal imbalance such as drug taking, even over medication.
Emotional stress
Emotional stress is mental stress, often caused from everyday demands that create tension and anxiety.
Chiropractic claims no magical cure; it merely allows the body to heal itself. As a crinkled hose straightens to allow water to flow smoothly, so does the body’s ability to produce a self-healing energy that maintains itself. Consider that within the space of only 9 months a single cell multiplies to produce a newborn baby comprising 100 trillion cells.
The spinal cord contains 13 million cells alone that transmit electro chemical signals to all the organs. Our brain contains over 100 billion neuron cells communicating with the body at 320kmph, while the heart beats 10,000 liters of blood within a 24-hour period (Raymond, 2003. cited in Mertz, 2003:79,80).
Randall Jones, D.C (Mertz, 2003:33) asserts the body is an automatic healer. He refers to how the body shivers when it is cold in order to generate heat and sweats to stay cool. Ross, D., Rutkowski, D.C (ibid, 2003:69) suggests that the medication we take may even be disrupting this healing ability. The body vomits, providing an efficient way of expelling harmful toxins, yet we take medicine to stop this process. Fever kills viruses and harmful bacteria and again we take medication to counter this effect.
In the US, 1996 marked an important milestone. Over 100,000 people died from adverse drug reactions, all of which were FDA (Federal Drug Administration) approved (Mertz, 2003:70). Chiropractic simply asks the question: are we over-medicating, concerning ourselves with sickness when instead we should be focusing on wellness?
The body is a machine that regenerates itself, continually replacing cells. When an individual says, “they’re not the same person they were last year”, they’re right! (ibid, 2003:79-84).
According to David Palmer (ibid, 2003:284), the medical profession has been concerned with altering the environment to suit the weakened body, where chiropractic’s intension is to strengthen the body to meet the demands of the environment.
Mertz, DR CJ. (2003). The world’s best kept health secrets reveled: USA: Chiropractic press, inc.
Palmer Chiropractic University. (2004). Chiropractic family history. [online]. Available http://www.palmer.edu/PFCH/FamilyHistory.htm [2004, September 12]
Subluxation Degeneration. (2000). Understanding the ongoing process of subluxation, and the effects time plays on the subluxated spine [Online]. Available
http://www.echiropractic.net/subluxation_degeneration.htm [2005, February 22]