The vertebral subluxation is the result of emotional, chemical or physical trauma on the body. Our body has the amazing ability to heal. When you fall and scrape a knee, you do not bleed out and die. When you burn your tongue on dinner, the burn does not scar the same way the scrape on your knee may scar. In the womb, we start as a "morula", which looks much like a blackberry. From those cells we derive a stomach, a brain, and a toe nail. Those tissues differentiate by signals. Similarly our brains send signals throughout our bodies to achieve necessary tasks; like enzyme release for digestion, the feeling that you need to use the bathroom, all the way to conception of your children. The vertebral subluxation is when that signal from the brain to the body, or the body to the brain is altered. Most often, we have a little interference and that leads to the brain sending too much of a signal. This leads to problems like anxiety, difficulty digesting food, or even headaches. So, we know what the brain needs to do, we know what the body needs to do, and we know that the body and the brain need to communicate. If a vertebral subluxation alters the communication, we should find out what the cause of vertebral subluxation is, how it happens, and how chiropractic affects brain-body communication.
Vertebral subluxations are caused by trauma to the body. This can present in emotional, chemical or physical trauma. Emotional subluxations are often times repetitive in nature. For instance, lets say a child is told they are stupid at a very early age and over time poor grades are a reflection of the child's "stupidity". At a certain point rationality begs the question, is the child actually delayed? Or is the child propagating what was placed on them years before. These are subluxations in that they prevent the child from reaching their highest level of function. Chemical subluxations don't necessarily mean chemicals under the kitchen sink. Keep in mind that water is considered the most corrosive chemical on the planet. Chemical subluxations can be from subclinical allergies as well. Finally, physical trauma is the easiest connection to make to vertebral subluxation. There are two types of physical trauma; macro and micro. Macro trauma is the traditional means that brought a patient to the chiropractic waiting room; the car accident, the fall on the pavement, the major accident that led to immediate pain and discomfort. Micro trauma is the general wear and tear of every day life; the poor posture of someone who works in a chair all day, the long term effects of a runner who ran on sidewalks with driveways super imposed upon them.
Regardless as to the initial cause, there is one key factor of all subluxation and that is inflammation. Inflammation is very popular right now in the context of nutrition. People as a whole are becoming more and more aware of inflammatory foods in their diet and now science is catching up, and letting us know what the long term effects of inflammatory foods. For centuries opera singers have been told to avoid milk before singing, and to sip lemon juice to clear the vocal cords before a performance. We now know that milk is a mucus stimulating food. On top of that, many people have milk allergies that not only increases mucus in the oral pharynx area of the body but also the mucosal cells of the lower digestive tract. When the body perceives a foreign body the body will attempt to one of 3 things; the body will attempt to flush it out (diarrhea, mucus, vomitting), the body will attempt to isolate the object (the body will round up the substance, and attack it with immune cells), or the body accepts it (this is rare without immune compromising medications: this is why people have to take immune suppressing drugs when they have an organ transplant.)
The final note is that previously I've said, "when the body perceives...". This is significant because, while inflammation in digestion and in trauma is a fairly easy topic to understand, emotional trauma/stress is more difficult to grasp. The dominant hormone of emotional trauma is cortisol. This is our body's hormone that "keeps things rolling", as in, when your brain is trying to run away from a lion, cortisol is what gives you that boost of energy (adrenaline) to run away (feelings of fear, stress, anxiety increase the production of cortisol). Cortisol makes our body more sensitive to inflammation in the long term. Thus, the every day wear and tear on our bodies receives a similar inflammation response as a major accident. This "over response" leads to chronic inflammation which leads to dysfunction and ailment. The adjustment helps reduce inflammation, and stimulate hormone production that combats cortisol secretion.
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