The Importance of Maintaining Motion in the Spine

Coming to a chiropractor is one of the best decisions you can make for your health, bringing your family is one of the best decisions you can make for them, and telling your friends is one of the best things you can do for your community.

But why? Why is chiropractic so important? If it was just about feeling better, why not take a few painkillers and drink some whiskey?

It is all to do with motion in the spine. Your spine is a beautifully complex yet simple structure with two main functions:

1. To protect your spinal cord.
2. To allow movement and motion in your back.

Without either of these functions, your life would be dramatically limited, if not impossible.

Protection of the spinal cord is arguably the most crucial thing to the health of our body. We all understand how catastrophic a spinal cord injury can be, yet we don’t stop to think about the daily importance of our spinal cord. The thing that sends all the messages from our brain to our body to control and coordinate all our functioning, from our movement to thought, from digestion to breathing, and our immune system and natural defence mechanisms. All of this must travel through the spine.

While protecting that soft spinal cord, the spine must also allow motion and movement. This helps you get around and perform simple and complex daily functions.

Lack of movement in the spine can have two significant effects. The first is quite simple; it will prevent you from carrying out simple and complex functions. Secondly, lack of motion in the spine can cause a lack of signalling in the spinal cord. This means with less motion in the spine, less signals can pass between the brain and the body, and those signals will also move slower.

What does this mean? Well, it could be if you want to take a step to avoid danger, that signal from brain to foot might be too slow…If you wish to digest the food just eaten, that might not be coordinated properly leading to subsequent digestive issues…If your body wants to mount an immune response, the signalling from brain to body might be a little slow or inappropriate.

Therefore, maintaining good motion in our spine, consistently throughout life is important for our overall health, and seeing a chiropractor is the best way to ensure that is done effectively.

With Love,
Tom