Subluxation
At Chiropractic Plus, we are specialists in subluxation diagnosis, prevention and repair.
Simply put, Subluxation is a misalignment in your vertebrae. This may not seem very serious, but that cannot be further from the truth.
Unfortunately the way our medical system is set up currently allows medical doctors to prescribe drugs to mask symptoms if a patient has not been diagnosed with a disease. At Chiropractic Plus we understand that symptoms are warning signs from our body letting us know that something is not right. Just because our stomach is having a hard time digesting food and causes discomfort, does not mean our stomach is the problem. More than likely, the nerve that controls how the stomach functions has some interference caused by subluxation in the corresponding vertebrae.
Why is Subluxation so serious?
If a spine is out of alignment, the consequence to the disc (The shock absorber of the spine) and the facets are devastating.
Having a spine out of alignment can be compared to having the steering in your car misaligned. The consequence to your tires is huge. If your car’s wheels are out of alignment, then you may notice some pulling or vibration in your steering. (Just like you may notice some mild symptoms in your spine). The car can still drive, and the driver decides to ignore the problem in the hope that the symptoms of the pulling or the vibration will away, and as you drive they may seem to occasionally go away (just like in your spine, you say to yourself, “maybe it will go away” and sometimes it does).
The consequences of ignoring the problem are obvious. Further wear and tear, and bigger problems down the road. Ignoring subluxation in your spine only leads to more and more damage to your body until you cannot “drive” without serious problems.?
Why do the tire symptoms go away?
Because the tires begin to accommodate the new alignment of the wheels and front end, they begin to wear out in an unnatural way and eventually the pulling or vibration stops (In the spine the discs begin to degenerate and your body experiences neural fatigue. Just like you get used to wearing glasses on your face or a watch on your wrist, the body gets used to having Subluxation. Once the body gets used to Subluxation, the symptoms often will be less noticeable, or seem to cease altogether without treatment).
You could choose to ignore the problem or get the problem fixed.
So, you chose not to fix the problem, the tire continues to wear and now more problems begin to occur like front end problems, shock problems and this becomes even more expensive. If you ignore Subluxation, your vertebrae and discs will continue to degenerate and you will end up with what is called Subluxation Degeneration which is commonly known as Degenerative Joint Disease or if symptomatic, is called Degenerative Arthritis, now the problem is even more expensive to introduce repair.
What about the more complex and potentially even more devastating effects?
The primary purpose of the spine is to protect the most vital and most critical system of the body, the Central Nervous System (The brain and spinal cord). The brain sends electrical messages down the spine, through the spinal cord to the nerves, which connects and controls every function of the body. If this is hard to believe, think of Christopher Reeves. If you recall he severed his spinal cord and through the miracles of modern medicine he did not die, but without a complete nerve system, he only survived 9 years and his body could not control any of his organs.
Symptoms or not, the spine will degenerate (Do you get shorter or taller as we get older? This is due to the degeneration of the discs which is common with Subluxation and ultimately affect the output of the nerves. A common symptom caused by Subluxation would be numbness in the arms, hands, legs or feet.
The nerve system is quite complex, one nerve does not control only one thing.
This is commonly seen when a patient has a heart attack, and they experience pain down their arm. Why; because they use the same nerve for dual function, that of the heart and arm. Make sense? So if Subluxation is left uncorrected over time, what do you think will happen? Will the organs of the nerve connection become more or less healthy? So because the nerve system is involved in all functions of the body, they can have an impact on anything and everything inside your body.
There are two critical questions that we must address before the end of our discussion of Subluxation.
- How do you know you have a Subluxation?
- How do you know your Subluxation is corrected?
There are quite a few tests that are used to determine the presence or absence of Subluxation but none as accurate as a “Structural X-ray”.
Why an x-ray?
Only an X-ray can definitively show whether or not there is subluxation in the spine. After you have been under care for 3 months with our office we will get a second set of X-rays and this is when you will be able to see the changes in the films, hence the name Corrective Chiropractic Care.
What are structural x-rays?
These are films used to strategically place the patient in a way that removes any artificial way of seeing a spine out of alignment. An example would be to take an x-ray standing or sitting? If the x-ray is taken standing how do you now if the problem you are seeing on the spinal x-ray is related to a problem in the spine or a problem of mechanics in the feet? In other words, do you need a spinal correction or a foot correction by way of orthotics? If you take a spinal x-ray seated, you remove the feet from the equation. So structural x-rays are needed to make structural changes, and you will need follow up x-rays to see the changes.
Although Subluxation correction is crucial to success in the return of health, at Chiropractic Plus we deal with all aspects of your health including Nutrition programs, Fitness programs, Stress management programs, and Detoxification programs. The goal of our office is not to treat any particular condition, but simply to ensure your body is as healthy as it can possibly be.
Keep in mind when researching chiropractors
- Our office uses manual corrective techniques
- X-rays show changes over time and not every chiropractor takes follow up X-rays like our office does.
- We provide home exercises to speed up recovery time and gain long term benefits