Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Chiropractors treat back pain don't they?

Yes we do treat back pain, and very well I might add, but backs do more than just hurt. Your spine also houses your spinal cord. It protects the cord and the exiting nerve roots. Amazingly, not only is it strong but flexible, allowing us to do all the things humans can do. The cord and exiting nerves are responsible for nearly all bodily functions. They tell your body how to move and your organs how to function. They also carry sensations back to the brain with information about your surroundings and physiology, so it can better give new commands to keep things working correctly. It's a constant cause and effect system


Most people are familiar with the idea that if a nerve in your neck gets pinched it may radiate to your arm. Likewise, if a nerve in your lower back is pinched, your leg may hurt. But those very same nerves also transmit information from your brain to your organs and also from the organs to your brain. For instance, if your stomach has food coming in, it will tell the brain it needs more digestive enzymes. The brain will then send a command to produce more enzymes. Once it gets enough, the stomach will tell the brain to stop, and it will stop.

If something is irritating the nerve, then when the stomach asks for enzymes, the brain may not send enough, or it may send too much. It might also not stop when told to. The person will experience symptoms of acid indigestion or bloating (too much or too little enzymes respectively).

This same scenario could happen with any number of functions; regularity, lung function, anxiety or blood flow for example.

Don't get me wrong, there are lots of reasons for organs to dysfunction besides spinal nerve irritation, but this is a cause that should be considered, especially when other treatments don't seem to be working.

In my practice, I rarely have people come to see me for organ type problems. They generally come for neck or back pain. It's interesting though how every now and then a patient will come back to see me for a follow up visit and say "could this have anything to do with...... regularity, sinus, indigestion, urogenital function etc.........?"

So you just never know. Not only does chiropractic deal with pain but it is a whole person treatment. Insuring that that all nerves are working as best possible is truly what chiropractors do best, and should be part of an overall wellness program. In a strong well maintained properly functioning person, disease and dysfunction have great difficulties existing.