What is Subluxation? The Little Known Truth
What is subluxation? How does it affect you? How do you treat it? Dr. Alanna answers these questions in this article.
Subluxation is an uncommon word in most people’s vocabularies. That is, of course, unless you are a chiropractor. Then the word is taken to another level.
Everyone knows what a “dislocation” is: an injury to a joint where the ends of the bones are forced from their normal positions.
Dislocations are common in shoulders and fingers, and occasionally in elbows, hips, and knees. But this “subluxation”…what is it?
If you break the word into it’s Latin roots “sub”- means less than, “lux”- means light, and “ation”- means result of an action or process.
This translates to something that results in less light than normal. So what does this have to do with chiropractic?
Everything!
Symptoms of Subluxation
Your brain controls every function of every cell in your body with electrical impulses, or messages.
These messages are sent from the brain, down the spinal cord, out the nerves, and the nerves connect to all of the trillions of cells that make up the human body.
If messages from your brain have difficulty getting to the cells in your body, the cells can’t do their job as well.
The bones that make up your spine are called vertebrae. There are 24 vertebrae that stack on top of each other. The vertebrae have a hollow portion in their center and that is where the spinal cord is found. The nerves that branch from the spinal cord leave from tiny holes in between each of the vertebrae.
Now what would happen if one of those tiny vertebrae was shifted out of place slightly and it was putting a kink in the nerve as it branched off the spinal cord? Just like water flowing out of a garden hose with a kink in it, the electrical messages traveling down that kinked nerve are going to slow down and have a much more difficult time getting to their final destination, the cells.
If the cells can’t get the messages from the brain as quickly or efficiently as they should, they can’t do their job correctly. Imagine if you’re brain was sending messages to your lungs to breath, but the lung cells weren’t getting the messages very well….Breathing would become very difficult!
What happens to the light bulbs in your home when there is a power outage? The bulbs don’t work. That would be exactly what happens in a “dislocation” of a joint. What if the power to your home just couldn’t get a full current of electricity? You would have dim bulbs. And dim bulbs are exactly like “subluxations”….less light than normal!
Now the ultimate question is this: How well do you think your body can function if the messages from the power source (your brain) can’t send full currents to the cells because subluxations are interfering with the messages? The body can’t function as well as it could with full currents!
If a person has subluxations, it’s like their body is always functioning with dim bulbs. How well can you do your job or take care of a family if you are functioning with dim bulbs? The point is, with subluxations, you will never be able to function at 100% and you will never work to your body’s fullest potential.
Where do chiropractors come into all of this?
How to Remove and Treat Subluxation
A Chiropractor’s job is to help remove subluxations from a person’s spine so the dimmed power can be restored to 100%. A person’s brain can send full messages to the body, allowing it to function its best and bring their electrical messages back to 100 watt bulbs. Chiropractors help reconnect the power source and help people’s light shine bright!
Why is chiropractic care important?
Subluxations happen every single day. By visiting your chiropractor on a regular basis, you will ensure that you are functioning at 100% more often.
Author: Alanna Ogan
Dr Alanna is a licensed Chiropractor who is passionate about impacting people's life and helping them live subluxation-free.