Chiropractic and its Roll in the Function of the Body and Nervous System

The nervous system is composed of the brain, spinal cord, and nerves. The spinal cord is the thick cable composed of millions of nerves that runs from the bran through the spine. The nerves that comprise the spinal cord exit between the vertebra to go to all the organs, tissues, and glands of the body.

The nervous system actually has two jobs. First, it records and informs the body of pain. If you have a pebble in your shoe, a nerve will send a message through the spinal cord to the brain, informing the brain of irritation, pressure, or damage. The brain interprets the message as pain to alert you something is wrong. Without a nerve being irritated, you cannot experience pain. To eliminate pain, you either remove the irritation through chiropractic care, deaden the nerve with medication, or cut the nerve through surgery.

The second role the nervous system plays is in coordinating and controlling all the functions of the body. Every function of the body (including digestion, breathing, the secretion of hormones, movement, and circulation, just to name a few) depend of the nervous system to perform normally.

When there is pressure or irritation to a nerve of function, there is no pain. What occurs, as proven in laboratory experiments, is when a nerve that controls a function is irritated or has pressure upon it, there will be an alteration or change in the normal function. This is called malfunction.

Within medicine there are different categories of disease. For example, there are infectious diseases and functional diseases. Examples of functional diseases would be diabetes, asthma, migraines, colitis, etc. These diseases occur because the body has lost its normal function. Any form of health care that would improve function would obviously help improve the chances to recover from these problems.

One of the positive side effects of a properly functioning nervous system is improved ability to deal with stress. Stress contributes directly to most major diseases and also is a factor in lowered resistance to infection. A person’s overall health would therefore be improved by making sure their nervous system is capable of dealing with the stress of life.

Since the loss of function normally occurs before disease can develop and symptoms appear, we need to define health correctly. The World Health Organization has adopted a definition that follows: “Health is a state of optimal physical, mental, and social well being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.”

To be healthy, you need more than to be symptom free. Having no symptoms doesn’t guarantee you are healthy.

If a person has a headache, which is a symptom, they can take aspirin to remove the symptom. Aspirin deadens the ability for nerves to register pain. This however, does not correct the cause of the problem. If the cause of the problem is not addressed, symptoms return. If the cause of the headache, for example, is muscle tension caused by local irritated nerves then only by addressing the cause could you correct the problem and become a healthier person.

If you address only symptoms, the cause remains. If you address the cause, not only do symptoms disappear, but you also regain normal function and improve your health.