This Week We Are Giving You an Insight Into Your Head!

In our last email, you will have seen the goals we all set ourselves as a team, and for John, it was all about learning and in particular about the Cranial Nerves.

Our brains are fascinating places. Did you know that there are half as many neurons (nerve fibres) in your brain as there are stars in the Milky Way?! And every single one of all your bodily functions, of which there are millions per second, are controlled by the brain?! Everything from movement to digestion, individual cell repair, to the regulation of our temperature.

While some of us have bigger heads than others, size doesn’t matter, it is density that does! Something called neuroplasticity is the way nerves in our brains work. The more we do something the more nerve fibres are laid down, therefore the more our body is challenged, the denser our brain becomes, so being ‘dense’ is actually a compliment.

We all know that the brain controls the body by sending signals through the spinal cord, and we know how important that is when it comes to understanding how catastrophic a spinal cord injury can be.

BUT, what you might not know it that alongside the spinal cord are a set of very special nerves, 12 of them to be exact, that we class together to call the ‘Cranial Nerves’.

Cranial means head. These nerves originate from small holes in the base of our skull and descend into the body to control a whole array of ‘primitive’ functions. Meaning functions that keep us alive that we are not aware of.

For example, a baby’s body is not controlled much by the brain, in fact, the majority is controlled by a small part at the base of the brain called the brain stem and these 12 Cranial Nerves.

So here you go, in case you ever get asked to name them, here are the 12 cranial nerves and their functions:

1. Olfactory – smell

2. Optic – vision

3. Oculomotor – eye movement and pupil response

4. Trochlear – eye movement

5. Trigeminal – muscle movement and sensation to the face

6. Abducens – eye movement

7. Facial – muscle movement and sensation to the face

8. Vestibulocochlear – hearing and balance

9. Glossopharyngeal – swallowing and tongue movement

10. Vagus – stress response, organ function

11. Accessory – movement head and neck

12. Hypoglossal – tongue movement

And yes, doctors do have a mnemonic to remember these, but it is far too rude for me to write to you all, and my mother reads these blogs!

As you can see a lot of our primitive and innate functions are controlled by these and therefore a chiropractor can use their understanding and assessment of the cranial nerves to determine the development of a child, and potential regression or serious illness in an adult.

Cranial techniques used by chiropractors can help to restore the function of these nerves in some cases, especially in children, where there may be misalignments in the position of the skull bones as a result of birth trauma and instrument intervention.

Cranial adjustments do not cure the issues with cranial nerves but simply allow them to move and flow better. Cranial adjustments on people of all ages are gentle and relaxing and can have profound benefit.

So, there you go, our amazing body, controlled by the fascinating nervous system is more than just the brain and spinal cord. The body has a remarkable ability to function and take care of itself, as chiropractors our aim is to understand this more, work with it and remove any interference, also known as subluxations, that may be preventing you from reaching your best.

If you want to learn more about that you can check out a past blog by Tom, explaining more.

https://epochcentres.co.uk/blog/2021/01/27-whatischiropractic

With love

Sara and Tom