Chiropractic Chiropractic Research

What is the brain-body connection?

We know how important our brains are, as the master control system for our entire body. From our brains, a complex series of signals are sent throughout the body via the nervous system, dictating the functioning of the body. Just like the air traffic controller at your nearest airport, the brain looks out for incoming and departing planes, guiding them safely to land and avoiding any potential chaos from missed signals.

In just the same way, it’s vital to ensure the communication between brain and body is functioning optimally, in order to avoid any disruptions. If your brain-body connection isn’t communicating effectively, the rest of your body will experience problems.

Dr Henry Windsor was a physician who was particularly interested in patients who become effortlessly healthy after experiencing disease, as a result of chiropractic or osteopathic care. He wanted to know more about how people were getting better, without the need for drugs or surgery.

He set about developing a study, looking for a relationship between the health of the spine and diseased organs in the body. In a series of studies, he dissected 75 human cadavers, and 22 cat cadavers. This investigation showed that of 97 subjects, 221 diseased organs were present.

Of the 221 diseased organs, 212 were seen to belong to the same nerve segments as the vertebrae in curvature. In other words, he found a 95.9% correlation between a minor misalignment in the spine and a diseased organ.

What is the significance of the brain-body connection in chiropractic?

Understanding that the brain controls every organ through nerves that leave the spine at various levels, the brain-body connection becomes essential to chiropractic care. The success of the brain-body connection is clearly linked to the health and functionality of the spinal column, housing the nervous system.

We can experience an ineffective brain-body connection through damage, misalignment (known as subluxation), altered curves and imbalance of the spine. Essentially, when vertebrae are out of alignment (or subluxated), pressure can be applied on the nerves in the area, affecting the path of communication to the body. Regardless of symptoms you may be experiencing, your brain must effectively communicate with the body, and it’s therefore essential to care for your spine.

It’s often hard for us to know how healthy our organs are; we don’t tend to have a strong sense of the relationship between our nerves and organs, and whether or not this energy is reduced for some reason. As a result, chiropractors and osteopaths have been able to assist people in recovering from their problems through vertebral subluxation, or the correction of vertebral misalignments.

Alongside chiropractic care, consider the role of exercise and your posture in the care of your spine. Exercise your core to strengthen the abs and back muscles, to ensure that these are strong and supple in supporting your spine and reliving lower back pressure. This often requires an effort, as we don’t tend to use our bodies enough in the right ways during modern life.

Any time you are sitting or standing, your posture becomes important. Long periods of awkward positions can create undue pressure, and therefore problems. Support any wider health efforts you are making by ensuring your working and living arrangements are as ergonomic as possible. Avoid slouching, leaning forward, or creating any other concerns that may stress the spine. Do your best to ensure that you don’t sit for too long in your day as well, getting up to stretch and walk once an hour. Movement is very important to the spine.

Ensure that when it does come time to rest, you are really offering your spine the opportunity to be fully relaxed, and to heal. Support your spine with a good quality mattress and maintain good sleep alignment – you can always seek personal advice on this, as part of your chiropractic care. It always helps to receive a full evaluation to begin with, in order to really discover what issues might be in play in the performance of your brain-body connection.

Chiropractic is so much more than simply a means of relieving any pain. With a holistic approach to your wellbeing, chiropractic techniques look to uncover deeper reasons for your problems, evaluating your condition in a more complete manner in order to discover any other techniques that may assist you on your journey towards wellbeing.

Ultimately, the goal of chiropractic treatment is to restore the body to a natural state of optimal health through a clear brain-body connection. Much like rewiring your home, chiropractic care aims to ensure your system is all properly connected in order to function at its most optimal, and to ensure that damage to these circuits don’t have knock on effects (or create new, unforeseen problems) in the body.



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