How Chiropractic Helps

What’s The Issue?

Did you know that your body is made up of about 70 trillion cells? And those cells work together miraculously to create YOU!

But how do these cells know what to do?  Something has to guide them.  Something has to give them instructions.  That something is your nervous system—brain, spinal cord, and nerves—your master control system.  Your nervous systems sends electrical signals to each and every cell of your body, essentially providing instructions on how to act, carry on, and behave.

Like any organized system, when the instructions are flowing abundantly and smoothly, the outcome is exactly what’s desired.  Your body functions at the highest level possible and you feel amazing.

But what happens when you throw a wrench into the system?  Trouble, that’s what.  Or in the case of the human body, dysfunction, wear and tear, breakdown, and eventually disease.

As human beings, our wrenches take the form of stress.  As such, stress becomes the thing that interrupts this smoothly operating master control system by interfering with the communication flow.

Three Categories of Stress

We can put stressors into 3 different buckets.  First is physical stress.  Most people think of slips and falls or car accidents.  But there is also sitting too long, exercising too much or too little, or slouching in front of the computer or TV, etc.

Second, there is chemical stress.  These are things like eating junk food, sugar, dairy, and gluten.  Smoking.  Or being exposed to off gassing chemicals after painting your home or getting new carpet.  Air freshener plugins and dryers sheets are also chemical stressors!  Even your meds are a chemical stress.

Third, we have mental and emotional stress.  These typically result from the relationships in our lives, from family to work to pets.  Losing loved ones.  Getting married.  Then we have finances or other stressful situations we encounter, like buying a new home or car.

When you are unable to adapt and respond to these stressors, they build up and cause irregular communication from or to your nervous system.  As such, you start to have symptoms.  This might be joint pain and stiffness, tight muscles, headaches, fatigue, digestive issues, poor sleep, brain fog, or even a lack of zest for life. Over time, these symptoms can turn into debilitating dysfunction or disease.

How Chiropractic Helps

When you understand that the nervous system controls and coordinates everything in your body, from the tiniest cells to the highest functions like digestion, hormones, and even thinking, then how chiropractic helps becomes pretty simple.  The chiropractic adjustment aims to restore the stress-interrupted communication flow.

When the nerve signals flow abundantly, without obstruction, the body is self-communicating, self-healing, more adaptable, and more functional. While chiropractic does not treat any specific symptoms or disease, the chiropractic adjustment helps bring your body back into a more balanced state, with more normal nervous system communication signals, better allowing you to heal, function, and repair the way you are designed to, naturally.

Dr. Kalaba is a chiropractor in Tucson, AZ, practicing gentle chiropractic care and providing health tips to help you live the best rest of your life.