You know your joint or back pain feels better after a visit to the chiropractor, but have you ever noticed other things improving as well? Some people find their digestion improves, headaches go away or notice it becomes easier to breathe. How does it all work and why are there 'unexpected' benefits of chiropractic care?

What makes chiropractic effective is that chiropractors look at the body as a whole; examining your posture, mobility, symmetry of movement and assess your spinal joint and nervous system function.   The nervous system is a key ingredient to your to optimal health and healing. It controls the function of virtually every cell, tissue, organ and bodily system. If the nervous system is compromised or over-taxed, pain and dysfunction can result not only in the spine but in other parts of the body as well. 

The most common problems that chiropractors encounter are little issues that have become worse over time. Our bodies are very adaptable and will often adapt to injuries. When the body can no longer adapt or compensate, that is when pain occurs. What that means in the body is that with an injury or misalignment, the muscles around the injury are recruited to immobilize and protect the area.  

There are nerve receptors in all the joints and muscles that tell your brain where you are in space.(This is called proprioception) Based on the incoming information from the nerves, the brain sends a message back down and informs the muscles how to move. When there is an immobilized area, the brain can not get updated information, so the muscles or area remains tight and the brain starts to run the 'injury' program- a pattern of muscle spasms to protect the area.
 
Another way to look at the nervous system and the role our brain plays in our health and ability to heal is to think of when learning a new sport or activity. Often it can be quite challenging at first and after some time it becomes easier. This is because your brain will develop what is called a motor memory for any activity your repeat enough times. So just as easily as you can memorize a golf swing or song on the piano, your body can memorize a back problem, or neck ache.

This is where chiropractic intervenes and is able to put motion back into the injured joint. Once you move the area, it gets proper nervous system function happening again.   This is why there are the 'unexpected' benefits of chiropractic care, because when you address the spine and nervous system, you create a healthy feedback loop between the brain and wherever that nerve is going to in the body. Good health depends largely on a properly functioning nervous system.