What Do Chiropractic Adjustments Do?

Some people ask “what is it exactly that chiropractic adjustments do?”, and we thought it was a good idea to answer this question because many people feel the benefits of getting adjusted. Contact our chiropractic team in Mansfield today to learn more or read more below. To answer this question I have to go over a little bit of anatomy.

SIMPLE ANATOMY LESSON

Your brain and your spinal cord act much like a computer and computer relay cable for the body. The spinal cord comes out of the brain and runs through the spinal joints. This system, called the central nervous system, is connected to all the different parts of your body via nerves that exit the spinal column, named the peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system regulates and controls everything your body does on a daily basis. This makes the nervous system the most important system in your body!

LACK OF RANGE OF MOTION IN A SPINAL JOINT

Here is a metaphor: your brain is like a computer or an old fashioned radio, and the spine / spinal cord is like an antennae. When your spinal joints all move through their proper range of motion, you have appropriate information being sent to the brain about what is going on with your body and where it is in space (proprioception). However, when you have a spinal joint that doesn’t move through proper range of motion, it decreases the signal strength or the quality of the information coming in from those parts of the body. Therefore, what you get is static noise.

ADJUSTMENTS IMPROVE POOR SPINAL JOINT FUNCTION

What we do as neurologically based chiropractors is locate those segments that aren’t moving and we adjust them specifically to improve joint function. Improved joint function improves the signal strength going to the brain. This is a very different approach from other healthcare modalities. Other healthcare providers are concerned with treating symptoms. Chiropractors treat the overall functional problems and as a byproduct symptoms reduce or go away.