Everyone experiences pain. Pain is simply your body telling you something is damaged. And it tells you this by sending messages through your nerves to your brain.

You have nerves all over your body—extending from your brain and spinal cord to your skin, muscles, and internal organs. Your nerves communicate with your brain by sending electrical signals. All sensations, good and bad, travel from different parts of your body to your brain through these electrical signals in your nerves, protected by your spine.

Spinal nerve stress (also referred to as vertebral subluxations, the subluxation complex, or “pinched nerves”) is a misalignment or distortion of the spinal column, skull, hips, and related tissues (the structural system) that irritate, stretch, impinge or otherwise interfere with the proper function of the nerve system (brain stem, spinal cord, spinal nerves and outlying or peripheral nerves). Since the nerve system controls the function of the body, any interference to it can have wide-ranging effects.

When a chiropractor frees the nerve system from spinal stress, the healing power of the body is unleashed: the immune system functions more efficiently, resistance to disease increases, and your body functions more efficiently. You can respond to internal and external environmental stresses more efficiently. And often pain is reduced or eliminated.

Pain may last just a few seconds. Or a few days. This is known as acute pain. Pain that persists is called chronic pain. It could last a few months or even years.