Chiropractic Theory

Physical, emotional and chemical factors can cause injuries to your spine and dysfunctional patterns called Subluxations to occur. A Chiropractic Subluxation consists of a collection of elements that are controlled by the nervous system; they create a dysfunctional pattern and nerve irritation which diminishes nerve function.

These can be described as subconscious bad habits or muscle memories that are controlled by the nervous system.

The nervous system is the mediator of health and vitality to all the tissues, muscles and organs. Alterations in nervous system function can alter the functionality of motor responses (muscle contraction and function), reflexes, pain reception, and touch sensation reception.

Chiropractic Adjustments/Manipulations stimulate the nerve receptors and cause an alteration in the flow of sensory nerve information or nerve signals into the spinal cord and from there to the brain. The brain corrects the dysfunction and natural healing can occur!

Adjustments can alter the dysfunctional sensory information and induce a completely new sensory input. This corrects Subluxations!

ERGONOMICS AND POSTUER

Your posture and ergonomics can dictate your bodies normal functioning. Try these simple tasks first with good and then with bad posture:

·                     Turn your head to the left and right.

·                     With your arms straight and next to your sides raise your hands above your head as high as you can.

·                     Take a deep breath in and out.

·                     Open your mouth as wide as you can

·                     Push your stomach out and pull it in.

·                     Cough

After completing these tasks you should notice that your movement, breathing and eating are all impeded by having poor posture.

Good posture is having the Centre of Gravity of each of your body segments over each other. This allows the curves of your spine to act like a spring and provide shock absorption: Having your ear over your shoulder, your shoulder over your hip, over your knee and over your ankle.

If the centre of gravity of a body segment is forward of another it is inclined to fall forward and the back muscles of the lower segment have to work to prevent this. When these muscles become fatigued they can cause pain and injury.

Ergonomics is the discipline that deals with the understanding of the interactions among humans and other elements of a system or workplace. Good ergonomics is using the correct equipment in the correct way for a task, and maintaining good habits while completing those tasks.

Having good ergonomics of your workplace promotes good posture and good habits. Having tools close at hand and varying there positions regularly to prevent over-use injuries is also advised.

2 Thumbs Up for Posture

With your Lumbar spine supported in your chair or exercise machine. Give 2 thumbs up out in front of you at shoulder level. Now bring your hands backwards to your shoulders. Your shoulders and head should move    backwards into a perfect postural position. Drop your arms and maintain your good posture.

ANATOMY OF THE SPINE

The Vertebral Column extends from the skull to the pelvis and is made up of 33 individual bones termed vertebrae.

The vertebrae are composed of many elements that are critical to the overall function of the spine, these include:

·                     the Vertebal body that transfers the majority of the body weight through them,

·                     the Bony processes which provide attachment sites for muscles tendons and ligaments,

·                     the Intervertebral discs that provides shock absorption between the vertebrae,

·                     Facet joints that guide the movement of the spine.

The facet joints are like any of the other joints of the body. They have cartilage surfaces and a joint capsule with associated supporting ligaments nerves and blood vessels.

Facet joints can be sprained like any other joint too when excessive or unusual forces are placed on them. They are responsible for the majority of Back and Neck pain.

The muscles of the vertebral column are extremely powerful as they are responsible for both movement and the support of it.

The back muscles attach to the Boney processes of the vertebrae and the Facet joints. Excessive contraction of these muscles during an accident or due to having bad posture or ergonomics can sprain the facet joints.

 If you lift a 5kg weight with bad posture; your centre of gravity falls forwards and your back muscles have to lift the 5kg weight and the weight of your whole upper body! If this force is transmitted through your facet joints they may be sprained or                                                                                      injured.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT BACK PAIN

• Low back pain is the fifth most common reason for all physician visits.

•  Back pain is the most frequent cause of activity limitation in people younger than 45 years old

•  Second only to the common cold for absenteeism from work.

•  1 in 5 people have back pain at any one time (now).

•  Over 80% of people will have debilitating lower back pain at one time in their lives.

•  25% adults report having low back pain lasting at least a day in the past 3 months, and nearly 10% have have had severe acute low back pain within the last year.

•  5 % of people with back pain disability account for 75 % of the costs associated with low back pain. (MRI’s, Operations, etc)

•  Americans spend at least $100 Billion per year on back pain.

•  95% of back pain cases are Mechanical and can be effectively treated by Chiropractors.

These are some scary stats! Nearly everyone suffers from back pain! I went visiting some surgeons in my area and found out that their reoperatative rate is at least 30% of patients within 5 yrs. So one operation to "fix" the problem may not be your last. The postoperative healing and rehabilitation is a few months too.

The good news however is that your back does not need to reach this state! A strong, healthy, flexible back is not a painful one. Removing joint and nervous system irritations before they lead to injury and pain is routine Chiropractic care. You do not need to be in pain to begin seeing a Chiropractor. diagnosis of which vertebrae are irritated is done by simply feeling their movement and the local muscle tone, this can be corrected and rehabilitative measures and advise can be taken to prevent injury or re-injury.

Chiropractic increases the nerve stimulation from your back to your brain so that there is better control of your muscle tone and movements: This is what prevents injury and allows current injuries to heal.

WELCOME

Welcome to my Blog!

I hope that this blog complements my website and give further information about Chiropractic. It is intended to create a platform with which to communicate and share ideas.
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