Revisiting Nociception!

From time to time, folks get to Confirm the neurologic concepts we discuss in office,
such as the concept of NOCICEPTION.

This signal of NOXIOUS (or “Noci”, pronounced /NO-see/ ) state percEPTION is produced whenever our body encounters something noxious, harmful, or irritating. For example: A strong chemical smell can make one gag (“OH Yeah… I was SUPPOSED to NOT inhale THAT Cleaner!”) or a “tag” on a shirt can irritate one’s neck (and be annoying!) over time.

These noxious signals do not NECESSARILY create the signal of “PAIN” in our Brains (at least often not right away), but they ARE “annoying” or “irritating” and DO consume some of our brain’s “processing power” (or occupy some of our Spinal Cord’s signalling “band width”). The problem with this – despite the fact that it does not “hurt” (has not reached “threshold” in our Brain) is that – in taking up some of our “Processing Power” – it leaves LESS for US to use in our daily LIVES – to process, THINK, PLAN, and ACT with. So a chap leaves his home seemingly “not hurting” but forgets to take the ID cards he’ll need to do “that” thing AND forgets to bring the framed poster he went out to have corrected, and… And… Despite not “hurting,” he’s functioning at less than 100% you see? Maybe 87%? or less? Now, if we REDUCE the “noise” (nociception) hitting his spinal CORD from his Spinal JOINTS, he would be enabled to better process his environment and his ACTIONS. This ALONE should be a significant reason to get CHECKED for subluxations (and if necessary, have them Corrected) on a regular basis!
Don’t be that Chap – it’s not fun – and it’s not efficient!
See you at your next visit! 🙂
“ADIO” – “DrC”

Auto-what?

The part of your Nerve System that handles stuff you don’t have much control over (automatic stuff), is called the autonomic (auto-NAH-mick) nerve system.  It has 2 parts: the Sympathetic, which controls your Stress Response, and the Para-Sympathetic which is in charge of your recovering, calming, resting, and digesting functions.

Unfortunately, one of the parts that regulates our Autonomic Nerve System is the part of our brain called the Cortex, and it is related to abstract reasoning and long-term memories. Think about animals or children in pain, about how your job is at risk, or your mortality, and you’ll likely turn on the “stress response,” your brain and nerve system reacting to these imagined threats as though they were real in this very moment.

This is important to understand, because the influence of our subconscious – compared to the influence of our conscious thought – is as your desk (conscious thinking)  is to the rest of your entire home or office (subconscious) – and you are likely not choosing all your thoughts consciously! Stressful internalized situations can then change the output from the motor (movement, muscle) part of your brain (the “motor cortex”). As a result, abnormal muscular forces are generated along your spine, which can easily irritate the delicate Sympathetic Nerves that lie along your spine – triggering a stress response in an ongoing manner. This sets us up for modern diseases of slow accumulation of damage. Restoring function to your spinal joints resets your sympathetic nerve system to a more ideal state. How soon should you want to begin this process?

What kinds of changes
can Adjustments make?

Dr. Heidi Haavik is an award winning scientist, speaker and author. She has a PhD in Human Neurophysiology from the University of Auckland and is the Director of Research at the New Zealand College of Chiropractic where she has established the Centre for Chiropractic Research. Much of her research interest lies in exploring how the human central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) adapts (or fails to adapt) to its environment, a process known as “neural plasticity.”
She recently gave a lecture and followed up with some Q & A:

I got some great questions from a Chiropractic student the other day and I thought I’d share this [reply as] more may be wondering about these kinds of details.

Q: ‘Do [Chiropractors] move the bone?
A: …Yes we do move the bones when we thrust or apply our adjustment. There are studies showing that when we thrust on the spine it causes gapping of the facet joints and there is increased intersegmental range of motion after the adjustment. So we do move bones when we adjust, but it’s NOT like we are ‘putting them back in place’. We are not ‘re-aligning’ the spine [with a SINGLE adjustment], we are simply bombarding the BRAIN with information about what is going on at this part of your spine. Other studies have shown that we activate specific mechano-receptors (sense organs) in the skin and muscles. For instance:

– We fast stretch the intersegmental paraspinal muscles when we thrust,
this activates receptors called “muscle spindles.”
– we compress the tissue where we are applying our force,
so we activate pressure sensitive mechano-receptors in the skin and tissues
(pacinian corpuscles)
– we stretch other muscles slowly with our setup (activating Golgi Tendon Organs)
– When we move the head and neck, we also activate the vestibular system
[in charge of reflexive movement and balance] – all these things will be happening
when we adjust someone.

Following an adjustment, there will be increased intersegmental range of motion [joints will move better] and more stretching of the small intersegmental paraspinal muscles,
so there will then be ongoing differences in muscle spindle afferent information [information being sent IN to the nervous system – UP the spinal CORD to the BRAIN from those receptors] also happening AFTER the adjustment.”

It has long been held that it is these effects that then result in the creation of neuroplastic CHANGES in a person’s brain, changes that can then affect not only their brain and other organ systems – but their thinking, and well–being as well! Why wait? Book in below!

Where do you really live?

What do you use to see with?
If you answered your eyes, you’re partially right. What about hearing?
You don’t see with you eyes, and you don’t hear with your ears. Those are just “end organs” for collecting light and sound waves. You receive those waves through nerves, and interpret them in your brain. These together are called your Nerve System.

In reality, you LIVE in your Nerve System. Everything you experience in life is processed through it, what you see, what you hear, what you feel… That’s why your Chiropractor is so careful about keeping it healthy. If you Nerve System is stressed, your ability to interpret your world is affected, and there goes your ability to ideally navigate life.

Regular Adjustments keep your Nerve System clear, so you can respond to life’s challenges in a positive way. If you’re feeling a little “foggy” or just disconnected from the world, maybe it’s time for some Nerve System house cleaning. Set up an appointment with your Chiropractor and get Adjusted and reconnected to Life!

“Nothing happens until something moves. When something vibrates, the electrons of the entire universe resonate with it. Everything is connected.”
– (Attributed to) Albert Einstein

Motion is life… Lack of motion is death. This is a foundational reason Why Chiropractors Adjust spines – to restore normal motion – and ideal motion – to joints. When this happens, the signals to and from the brain related to those joints are restored, and consequently, better output travels through your nerve system. This leads to a more accurately experienced LIFE throughout your entire body. When you become “connected” in this way, the LIFE inside you resonates positively with and to your loved ones, your community, and your planet.  The “small” act of Adjusting a spine causes that individual, their loved ones and the world around them to resonate with Life and Well-being. Why wouldn’t someone want to reap the benefits of that? Get Adjusted, and experience more ❤ this Valentine’s season!

A Special Wish for You…

What are we thankful for?

Don’t Let Your Cord Burn Out!

The mechanical massager stopped working.
It had been “on the fritz” for several days before it finally quit.

A sharp, engineering-minded practice member offered to look at it, and found that the wiring at the junction between the cord and the motor housing had not only frayed, it had melted! Generously donating his time and using his tools, he repaired the wire. Later, he patiently explained to me that not only had the twisting of the cord placed strain on the wire within the cord, but when the massager was used with increased pressure, the increased resistance translated into increased demand on the motor which led to the wire’s overheating.

Much like the cord on the massager, we can stand certain levels of demand on our (spinal) ”cords.” However, as postural faults, strain, and stress take their toll on our spinal-neural interface (or spinal “cord”) we can begin to overwork, overheat, melt (subluxate) and eventually stop working as we should. Remember that regular Chiropractic helps keep your “cord” free of undue-stress – don’t wait for it to melt!

Lying On The Sand…

…not a cloud in the sky… Vacations are a great time to decompress,
spend time with family and friends, and reconnect.
What could possibly stress your body?

How about several days sleeping on a poor mattress? Or that game of touch football after so many months of not playing? Water skiing, anyone? Plus, the enless Mojito’s and repeat trips to the buffet… You see, stress does not take time off! Your nerve system must still react and adapt to those hidden stressors even during “relaxing” times, that are also prime opportunities for subluxations to occur.
If you’ve been vacationing for a while, we hope you’ve enjoyed! Perhaps now is the ideal time to get back on track and back into a healthy regimen, especially getting your spine checked and cleared of subluxations. When you feel like you need to recover from your vacation – put Chiropractic on the top of your list!

What does the latest neurologic research say about Chiropractic?

New research studies in neuroscience suggest chiropractic care affects much more than back and neck pain.

“There is so much more to chiropractic care than back and neck pain, and headaches,” enthuses Dr Haavik, who studied neuroscience after graduating from the New Zealand College of Chiropractic and is now focusing on research.

Up to now, there’s been a gulf between the available published research and the practice. A handful of studies have shown that chiropractic works only modestly — yet substantially better than — drugs at nipping neck and back pain (1) may help with migraines (2), and even mysteriously lower blood pressure (3), which, for 40 years, has been linked to neck joint dysfunction in the research.

For more than a century now, Chiropractic is the most popular alternative medical treatment, used by 30 million people in the US alone, each year.

“Haavik’s research may finally explain scientifically the amazing results chiropractors have in clinical practice,” says Ross McDonald, a practicing chiropractor and President of the Scottish Chiropractic Association.

The neuroscience studies explore the underlying mechanism of those results—how the spine and central nervous system (CNS) are interconnected and ‘talk’ to each other, and how dysfunction in the spine can affect health and well-being.

One of Haavik’s studies, published this year in the journal Brain Sciences, looked at the effect of chiropractic adjustments in 28 patients with “subclinical” pain—those with a history of intermittent back or neck ache or stiffness for which they were never treated—but who were in pain the day of the experiment. On examination, all had tender spots and restricted joint movement in their spines, the totality of which they were not necessarily aware.

Compared with ‘sham’ (fake) adjustments, chiropractic spinal adjustments of these people induced significantly greater brain activity, or ‘cortical excitability,’ which has to do with neuro-electrical signals produced when the brain is stimulated. This excitation was generated and measured by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain, and can be used as well to note changes in arm and leg muscles.

Increases in muscle strength have proved to be driven by brain activity resulting from spinal adjustments (not by changes made to the spinal cord itself). What might then, chiropractic offer people suffering from nervous system injuries? Stay tuned to future posts to find out, and until then – get Adjusted!

(1) Lelic, D, Niazi, IK, Holt, K, Jochumsen, M, Dremstrup, K, Yielder, P, Murphy, B, Drewes, A and Haavik, H (2016), “Manipulation of dysfunctional spinal joints affects sensorimotor integration in the pre-frontal cortex: A brain source localization study,” Neural Plasticity, Volume 2016 (2016). Online.

(2) Haavik, H (2016), correspondence with Spinal Research via Nimrod Weiner

What do subluxations and a hotel stay
have in common?

You get your family together as you plan to receive some training while you spend a bit of time away.

As you are in the habit of planning expenses, you’ve even called the hotel to make sure you’re arrangements are timely and you’re somewhat aware of costs. However, unbeknownst to you, your hotel charges 7.5% State Tax, a 7% Hotel Room Tax and an Occupancy Fee (as though you rented a hotel room to NOT occupy it), as well as other “Fees.” Your tab now looks noticeably larger than that which you’d envisioned, and you are now somewhat 😦

Subluxations are like the hidden Fees in your bill – in that they lie along your spinal joints, out of sight to you –
waiting for the painful moment your awareness is brought to them.

Seemingly a small imperceptible thing, they inexorably add up and add stress to your neurologic system and life, which then affects your expression of joy.

Stay on top your nerve system’s wellbeing – just as you would your financial wellbeing – and get regular Chiropractic care (and Feel free to SHARE this article and link! 🙂

Why does my Posture improve
after an Adjustment?

The part of your brainstem primarily in charge of postural control is the “Ponto-Medullary Reticular Formation.” That’s a lot of letters, so let’s call it the PMRF for short.

When the information into the PMRF is accurate, the PMRF responds by inhibiting (ie, turning off”) flexion or “hunching over” of the thoracic spine. When the information into the PMRF is incorrect, the PMRF does not inhibit flexion and our posture suffers.
What alters the information going into the PMRF?
Primarily, spinal dysfunctions (subluxations) along your thoracic spine.

Why is this important?

Research performed by Mlinaryck (2007) showed that postural changes were associated with increases in “heart rate, blood pressure, plasma concentrations of noradrenaline and aldosterone, and an elevation in plasma renin activity.” This is evidence that changes in posture (along the spine) influence not only hemodynamics, but also even endocrine responses.

The neurologic system controls and coordinates all other systems of the body, and the effects of your Adjustment are more than just postural!

NECK PAIN, PAINKILLERS, and MUSCLE RELAXANTS

Q: “I had neck pain, but I went to the (medical) doctor, and they gave me muscle relaxants and pain killers. So now I’m ‘better,’ right?”

A: Sadly, no. 😦

Though the painkillers may MASK your body’s LAST effort to give you signs of your underlying problem, your problem is not pain.

Please understand – I, like you – do not like pain! However, after more than 10 years of continued study (past the 2 years of pre-medicine and the 5 years of graduate studies), I can share that the dysfunctions causing your pain are NOT repaired by a pain “killer.”

Q: What about the muscle relaxants? Won’t those help me?

Though they won’t heal you either, they likely will dumb down the motor part of your body’s nerve system so that your muscles contract less. Too bad your body is only doing that to PROTECT the joints of your SPINE, and the drugs (because they are drugs) can only stunt your body’s best efforts to protect you while globally affecting the rest of your body, including your BRAIN and your ability to think.

(Pills do NOT know where your pain is. They don’t even know where your spine is. They go through your bloodstream and affect receptors (sense organs) all throughout your body. Some researchers have even found they affect your ability to THINK.

Yet I don’t like pain either, so I understand.
When you are mobile enough to be brought in, make an appointment (you can even make them online, from your smartphone) and we’ll help you better understand the source of most musculo-skeletal problems like back pain, neck pain, and headaches as well as others, like moodiness, “fogginess” and more.

Even if your pain “goes away” with drugs – wouldn’t it be better to make sure incidents like this do not continue to recur, and to improve your ability to be WELL in the future?

I look forward to seeing your name on the appointment book! – DrC

 Stress and Health

Most of us in the US today, are spared from classic diseases like malnutrition. Our diseases are of slow accumulation of damage (often related to TOO MUCH of the wrong types of “food”) – heart disease, diabetes, cancer – which are all either brought on or at the least made worse by, STRESS.

Consider a gazelle attacked by a lion, still needing to flee, or the starving lion who must come up with the energy to run down that prey to stay alive.

We activate the same stress response as gazelles and lions, yet we often do so because of chronic mental and sentimental stress. When this occurs frequently enough, our risk of disease increases as our stress response is not allowed to dissipate.

Neurophysiology now shows us that spinal dysfunctions (subluxations) can either bring about or play into, a  STRESS-RESPONSE. What this means is that dysfunctions along the spine that cause joint “noise” and irritation, irritate the nervous system and can create or keep a stress-response going. This is bad news for us, as chronic stress increases blood pressure, delays tissue repair and growth (healing), suppresses the immune system, can cause memory problems, increase the risk of depression and anxiety, and even speeds up brain aging (making us appear older than we should).

The good news is that is possible to eliminate these irritating dysfunctions along the spine before the damage is permanent. It’s what your Chiropractor does every day, every time you visit them, enabling your nerve system to get off the chronic stress train and detour to a more pleasant and healthful Life, all with an Adjustment!

Is “Stress” Really the Problem?

“It’s a myth that stress is your problem.” – Mark Divine, “Unbeatable Mind”

Factually, stress in itself is not a problem. It is simply a stimulus.
The term stress itself, is an acronym for an engineering language used in solving civil engineering problems, STR(uctural) E(ngineering) S(ystems) S(olver) and as a word, comes from the Latin strictus, “drawn tight.”

The real problem with stress is how our bodies habituate to react to stress that they cannot handle (initially) – by subluxating.

What this means is that stress is ALL around you, at ALL times. The pressure to get to up, get to work, (did you know cortisol and other hormonal levels spike about the time you need to get up, just to prepare you for this “fight, flight, or freeze” assault? Bet you didn’t think of your boss or work as a fiesty fiend!), get the child changed, etc. etc. is non-stop. However, you do NOT subluxate as a result of every stressor every moment, because you have a wonderful ability to ADAPT bequeathed to you by your Creator.

However, this ability CAN be exceeded, and that is how one subluxates. Nervous tension (or irritation) yields muscle tension. Muscle pulls on bone, subluxating vertebrae, and now the irritation of that subluxation (joint dysfunction with nerve irritation) further facilitates the muscle (irritates it into more tension). A vicious cycle ensues – Nervous irritation fires Muscle, Muscle pulls on Bone, subluxated Bone irritates the Nervous system… In a word, subluxation. When your Chiropractor disrupts this cycle through the Adjustment, he is addressing the problem of your exceeded ability to adapt in the most practical way.

Fortunately, how we react to stress HABITUALLY is a LEARNED (neural) pattern.
And so, it can be CHANGED. This is what the Adjustment – by disrupting the subluxation pattern -gives your nervous system (and body) a chance to do: Learn ANOTHER way to deal with your exceeded ability to adapt as it is returned to an un-subluxated and ideally functioning state. 🙂