Hello and welcome the first ever County Chiropractic Blog!Through this Blog we will be hoping to keep you all up to date with any new, exciting developments here and with what we are all up to, both inside and outside the practice. This weekend Rachael, the two Neil’s, Maddy and Lucy all travelled up to Heathrow to spend the weekend studying with none other than Dr James L. Chestnut. Dr Chestnut is one of the world’s leading experts in the science of health and wellness and is the inspiration behind our upcoming series of Eat Well – Move Well – Think Well talks.
The topic for this weekend’s seminar was the neurological basis of chiropractic or, more simply, how does movement of your spine, or lack thereof, affect your nervous system. We spent the two days looking through fascinating research that you might be interested in, so here are the basics;
- Your body is constantly sending information to your brain regarding how it is doing. When you move, that movement stimulates nerve endings in your joints and the surrounding muscles and ligaments and so movement information is sent to your brain via those nerves. This information is called “Mechanoreception” (Mechano = mechanical stimulation, Reception = reception of that information by your brain) or “Proprioception”.
- Proprioception (movement information from your body) is ESSENTIAL for normal brain function. It has been described as the windmill that provides electricity for your brain.
- Proprioception stimulates those areas of your brain associated with learning, memory, pleasure, relaxation and many more beneficial processes.
- Think about this example; imagine that you have spent all day conserving energy – you have been sitting on the couch, moving as little as possible and eating plenty of food. Would you feel energised or sluggish at the end of such a day? Now imagine that you have spent the day expending energy by being on the move. Despite the fact that you have expended more energy, are you likely to feel more energised or more tired than the day that you spent on the couch? The reason that you feel better after the day filled with movement is that you have been generating proprioception all day, which has been lighting up your brain!
- If a joint (spinal or otherwise) is unable to move properly this obviously decreases the amount of movement information that joint can send to the brain i.e. there will be a decrease in proprioception. This is bad enough, considering how important good proprioception is, but there is even more to it;
- When joints don’t move properly, not only do they provide less proprioception but they also send “stress signals” to your brain, to let it know that something is not right. These stress signals are called Nociception. This loss of joint motion allied to a change in nerve function is known as the vertebral subluxation complex, or ‘subluxation’ for short.
- Nociception stimulates areas of your brain related to stress, fear and anxiety and inhibits your ability to learn new material and to concentrate.
- The stimulation of these brain areas leads to the release of stress hormones by the adrenal glands (via what’s called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis).
- This is BIG because not only does this suppress your immune system, but the stress hormones (adrenalin and cortisol) put your body into a “state of emergency breakdown for short term survival”, otherwise known as “Fight or Flight”. This response, which if it is maintained over prolonged periods of time is DEVASTATING to your health, is covered in a fun and engaging way during the paradigm talk (See below).
- Restoring movement to the spine through Chiropractic adjustments and movement in general (i.e. exercise) restores normal proprioception and reduces nociception. This is very good news, since this is what is required to turn the stress response off again, bring your immune system back online again and to restore normal, healthy brain function. For tips on how to keep your spine moving properly click here.
- Be sure to come check out our new talk series, which is starting in January. The talks will be looking at what things are necessary to prevent subluxations (and therefore all the problems associated with ↑ Nociception and ↓ Proprioception) and what can you do to return to optimal health.
So that’s it for our first blog. Let us know what you think by emailing nataliehooton@countychiropractic.co.uk and be sure to sign up for future blogs.
Until next time,
The team at County Chiropractic.
