What does your spine have in common with your home?
Shelter is one of the most crucial things for survival. When constructed correctly, a home is structurally stable and can help keep you and your family safe from the outside elements. A secure roof prevents rain and snow from making its way inside, the walls block out wind, and a sound foundation keeps the whole home together. Although the spine is not going to protect your entire body from wind, rain, or snow, it does provide stability and security to the nervous system!
The bones of your skeletal system are responsible for support and protection. The spine in particular is in charge of protecting the part of the nervous system called the spinal cord. The main function of the spinal cord is to transmit nerve signals between the brain and every single muscle, organ, and cell in the body. It plays a pretty significant role in keeping us alive. Because of the strength of a healthy spinal bone, the spinal cord stays pretty safe within the walls of the spinal bones. But did you know that even with a strong spinal bone, misalignments within the spine can negatively affect the spinal cord?
The spinal cord is covered by something called dura which reminds us of saran wrap in the sense that it is a thin and flexible barrier that wraps around the spinal cord. The dura helps keep cerebral spinal fluid inside of a certain compartment in the body in the same way that saran wrap keeps your food inside of a container. What is unique about dura is that it actually attaches to some of the spinal bones; thankfully saran wrap doesn’t do that! When the spinal bones with dural attachment misalign, it pulls the dura with it, which then causes the spinal cord to shift. As you can imagine, this creates tension on the spinal cord.
With added tension on the spinal cord from the spinal misalignment, the nerve signals being sent up and down the spinal cord are unable to get to their intended destination as efficiently as they otherwise would have. Delayed nerve signals or nerve signals that never reach their endpoint can cause dysfunction in the body, specifically with whatever tissue is not receiving those nerve signals from the brain. This is why proper spinal alignment is a vital component to health!
Chiropractic adjustments are designed to properly align misaligned spinal bones. Well-aligned spinal bones keep the dura from pulling on the spinal cord, which helps the nerve signals travel throughout the spinal cord efficiently. By keeping the spinal bones in their proper alignment, stability is created within the spine. This helps the spine protect the spinal cord at a higher level, now that it is both strong and stable. Create a more structurally sound home for your spinal cord with chiropractic care!
