Of particular importance is the alignment and mobility of the spinal column. The spinal column not only houses the spinal cord, it is also the structural center or scaffolding of the human body. To the extent it is straight as it appears from the front, it will maintain the skeletal system in balance, distributing weight equally, which minimizes stress on the
system. The body functions best in the absence of significant stress, which we will talk more about later. Viewed from the side, the spine will have a series of normal curves which act as a perfect system for shock absorption and contributes to normal and symmetrical movement. The body needs shock absorption because as bipeds, or animals that walk on two legs, gravity is a constant stress and once again, Innate Intelligence is on the job, creating a perfect mechanical system to handle the stress of gravity in the most productive way.
The reason, proper mobility is critical in the spinal column in addition to being essential for simple movement is that the normal mobility of joints dissipates the stress that a joint must endure. When vertebrae lack movement, they are fixated (or stuck), and as such become targets for injury and degeneration. To the extent that any joint in the body loses normal mobility, it loses it’s ability to adapt to stress. A joint that moves too little will absorb more stresses causing further injury. A joint that moves too freely, which you might see after a tear or with certain vocations, like gymnastics and dancing, lacks the stability to protect itself. Arthritis is nothing more than the decay that occurs over time when any joint loses its ability to move properly. Think of movement and fixation as shock absorbers in an automobile that can either be well oiled and doing their job or rusty and immobile. If those shock absorbers are immobile, the car will succumb to the stress of every bump on the road, and things will start to break down.
Most importantly, these vertebral joints ideally, must be in alignment and freely mobile to allow the delicate spinal nerves to exit between them without irritation or pressure. Science has demonstrated that miniscule amounts of pressure on nerves can cause significant levels of dysfunction. Pressure (comparable to the weight of a common housefly) on a nerve as it exits the spine can reduce the function of that nerve up to 70 percent. And many people have been walking around with far more pressure on their nerves for years! I can recall far too many patients who, following an injury, or an auto accident, reported having pain for weeks or months after which the pain subsided and the patient thought they were fine. After looking at x-rays or an MRI of their spine, what became obvious is that the vertebrae and the nerves affected by the injury just became so damaged that the nerves were no longer sending out a signal of pain. They had progressed beyond that point. Naturally, the longer a person has dysfunction in their spine, the more challenging it is to effect a positive change.
Ideally, the transmission of information going from brain to the body and back again occurs without interference, so there is a healthy “dialogue” between all parts of the body simultaneously. In any given moment, the 100 billion cells of the human brain have to coordinate the function of at least 100 trillion cells in the body. That’s a huge responsibility and requires a very extensive network of wiring designed for communicating. And it all takes place while you are sitting in your easy chair reading a good book. You can imagine why you wouldn’t want that to be interfered with!
Interferences do occur, and more often that you might suspect. When one or more vertebra of the spinal column becomes either misaligned or the function of their movement is altered, it sets in motion a series of events that will disrupt the normal flow of signals necessary for healthy function. Left uncorrected over time, the body will be forced to compensate for things having become distorted, and a whole cascade of events will occur over weeks, months and years, further compromising the function of the body, resulting in diminished health and even an untimely death.
The phrase that describes an area of the spine that has become dysfunctional or misaligned, causing detrimental irritation and interference to the nerves is called a vertebral subluxation, or subluxation for short. In a healthy spine, there will either be no subluxations; or what there is, the body has learned to adapt to successfully. The human body, intelligent and adaptive also has the ability to correct subluxations on its own, provided of course that the process hasn’t gone too far and the offending stressors have been removed. It’s important to repeat that even subtle irritation to a spinal nerve can have a lasting detrimental impact on an individual’s health.