The questions I am most frequently asked after a patient seeks my service is…“How did I get this way?”
 or  “What caused my problem?”  The purpose of this article is to provide the answer to that question.  I believe that if we know what causes our ill health then we are better equipped to prevent it in the future.

As I explain the biological cause of pain, you can refer to the diagram on the right.(You can also click on the diagram for a downloadable PDF version).

“Stress” is the #1 cause of eroding health.  Any physical, mental, or chemical stress will cause the body to release Adrenalin into the bloodstream.  Adrenalin prepares our body to deal with stress by tightening muscles to a state of “readiness”.  After three days of increased muscle tension, the joints of the spine begin to lose their normal mobility.  Most people tend to carry muscle tension in the lower back and buttock muscles and/or the muscles at the top of the neck or base of the skull; thus, the great number of people who suffer from headaches and/or lower back pain.  After three days of limited mobility in the spinal joints, the nerves (which are normally protected by the spinal vertebrae) become irritated.  This is called a vertebral subluxation.  A subluxation is a vertebra that is out of alignment (or one that doesn’t move properly) that is irritating a nerve and causing a problem.  Chiropractors are the only doctors specifically trained to find and fix subluxations.

Each spinal nerve is composed of pain fibers (sensory) and afferent fibers (motor).  It is these motor fibers which help control and coordinate much of your body’s vital functions.  Every organ, be it kidneys, liver, spleen, stomach, pancreas, gallbladder, uterus, ovaries, prostate, colon, etc., gets its message from the brain through these motor nerves.  Motor nerve irritation is why a person often develops a stomach problem (Dis-Ease) after months or years of middle back pain.  The same nerve that goes to the muscles and joints of the middle back also go to the stomach to help it function properly.  This is also why a significant portion of the patients I see are periodically checked for subluxations-to prevent potential health disorders, by relieving spinal nerve irritation.

“Stress” is a part of our every day life.  It’s part of living.  How we deal with stress influences our body’s response to it.  Your responsibility to maintaining your health should include constructive ways to manage the physical, mental, and chemical stresses that occur each day. 

My responsibility as your chiropractor is to share this basic and useful information with you about how your body responds to stress.  It is also to help you prevent and maintain optimal health through early detection and adjustments of subluxations before they cause permanent health problems.  Only the body 
has the ability to heal.  There is no pill, potion, surgery, or anything else that can heal from the outside in.  The body heals all dis-ease through its own innate power.  When life force (nerve energy) is interfered with through a subluxation, the body loses its ability to function normally.  As a chiropractor, I recognize that all healing comes from within through the innate intelligence given to the body by its Creator.  In order to maximize the health potential of the body, this innate/mental nerve impulse must not be interfered with.

I hope this has helped you understand how pain and health problems begin.  The best care I can offer my patients is routine, periodic spinal checkups and adjustments.  This is what chiropractic started out as over 110 years ago.  It is also what Thomas Edison meant when He said, “The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease”.