There are so many things happening at once in your body that you’re just not aware of. Your heart is beating and pumping blood, your lungs are filling up with air, and your muscles are working to keep you standing upright. You’re not consciously aware of any of these things that are happening. It is your body automatically taking care of it for you. Every second your body goes through 60 million chemical reactions. There are approximately 640 muscles in the human body. Your body does so much for you, so it’s your job to take care of it. One of the ways you can do this is through chiropractic maintenance care.

 

How Does This Help with Homeostasis:

Homeostasis is your body’s ability to maintain balance and regulate its internal environment to make sure everything is running smoothly. If everything is balanced, your body is functioning at its optimal state and you’re healthy. An unbalanced body leads to many different problems.

Chiropractors help you maintain homeostasis by aiding your nervous system. Your nervous system consists of your brain, your spinal cord, and your peripheral nerves. Your nervous system is responsible for maintaining homeostasis. Let’s use a safety pin as an analogy. The top of the safety pin can be thought of as the brain. The bottom of the safety pin can be thought of as your body. The two lines connecting the top and the bottom can be thought of as the rest of your nervous system. When the pin is connected, the top is able to communicate with the bottom. When the pin is opened that line of communication is disrupted, so your brain and body are not able to communicate properly with each other. This is called nerve interference when your nervous system is impaired. Nerve interference is caused by misalignment of the spine.

 

How Does This Help Your Nervous System:

Your spine is made up of many bones called vertebrae and in between every vertebrae there is a small hole where your nerves come out of called the foramen. When your vertebrae are perfectly aligned there is no nerve interference. When they become misaligned, it puts pressure on your nerve roots and causes nerve interference. That is what we call a misalignment or restriction. When a segment of your spine is not moving correctly, it is causing that disconnection in your nervous system. This interferes with your body’s ability to maintain homeostasis.

As chiropractors, it is our job to find and correct vertebral misalignments to prevent nerve interference. For example, imagine if you had the pressure of a coin on one of your nerves for 15 minutes, the weight of that coin will decrease nerve conduction to your brain by 50%. This why chiropractic maintenance is so important in your regular care.

 

Chiropractic Maintenance Care Versus Pain Care:

Most people think they should only get treatment when they feel pain. Although, pain is the last symptom to appear and the first one to go away. A very small percentage of our nervous system is dedicated to detecting pain. That being said, you could have a problem for a long time before it causes you any symptoms. That is why preventative/ maintenance care is so important, so you don’t end up feeling that pain in the first place.

 

I hope this helped answer some questions you may have had and if you or anyone you know are experiencing pain and would like to take the first steps toward getting relief, just call Atlas Chiropractic in Boulder at (303) 442-5911 and we’ll gladly get you scheduled for an appointment or feel free to fill out a web form here on our website. We look forward to helping you heal and get moving!

Dr. Cort Musolf, DC