Your Nervous System & The Effect of Chiropractic Care

Although chiropractic care is well-known for its effects on the muscular and skeletal systems, it is actually a form of neuromusculoskeletal care. This means that chiropractic care addresses the nervous system in addition to muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments, and joints of the body. Expert chiropractic care delivers a powerful regulating effect to the nervous system, helping to reduce tension, inflammation, pain, and dysfunction in the body. If you’re interested in learning more about your nervous system and the effect of chiropractic care on your body, read on.

The Central Nervous System

What It Is:

Your Central Nervous System (CNS) is the part of your body that processes most of the functions in your body and your mind. The CNS is made up of the brain and spinal cord. When people think of chiropractic care, they often think of the central nervous system—specifically, the spine. What most people don’t realize, however, is that the CNS is just one of the many components that chiropractic care affects.

What it Does:

The CNS is like the computer of your body. It helps the inside of your body process information from outside of your body—mainly through your senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch).

Using the spinal cord and the brain, the CNS interprets sensory information and then allows the body to respond to it. The CNS controls voluntary movements like talking and walking. It also controls involuntary movements like breathing and blinking. The CNS is also the core of the personality—it allows thoughts, emotions, and perceptions to be created and expressed.

When your Central Nervous System is working properly, cognition (thinking) is clear, all senses receive information effectively, and the body is coordinated and free of pain.

The Peripheral Nervous System

What It Is:

Your Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) is the part of your body that transmits signals from the outside world to your CNS (Central Nervous System). The PNS is made up of all the nerves in the body, aside from the brain and spinal cord. This includes all the nerve bundles throughout the body.

What it Does:

Without the PNS, there would be no information available to be delivered to the CNS for processing.

The PNS is responsible for transmitting information back and forth from the CNS (brain and spinal cord) to the PNS (rest of the body), which means carrying signals back and forth in the form of electrical impulses and current.

When the PNS is functioning optimally, the body is strong, there is no weakness, numbness, or pain present, and digestion and circulation are occurring efficiently.

The Enteric Nervous System

What It Is:

The Enteric Nervous System (ENS) is a branch of the peripheral nervous system responsible for controlling signals to the digestive system. It is made up of a large bundle of nerves that stretch across the entire gastrointestinal tract.

What it Does:

The ENS allows the nervous system to communicate with the digestive tract and regulate its activity. If the body is under stress or strain, the ENS can stop the digestive process (common in “fight or flight”). When the body is under perpetual stress, this can create dysfunction in the digestive system. Inflammation and stress can cause the enteric nervous system to disrupt digestive function.

Chiropractic Care & The Nervous System

Chiropractic care has a therapeutic effect on the nervous system. Whether spinal decompression, traction, soft tissue manipulation, or another form of chiropractic treatment is being employed, the hands-on manipulation of the neuromusculoskeletal system helps to regulate and restore the function of the nervous system.

The nervous system is highly responsive to chiropractic care because of the focus that chiropractic places on the spine. Because the spinal cord (which contains a large portion of the central nervous system) is the focus of chiropractic care, it has multiple functions in restoring and rejuvenating the nervous system. For example, chiropractic care:

• Can improve cognition (thinking) and clarity
• Can lower heart-rate and regulate respiration
• Can improve digestive function
• Can reduce or eliminate pain
• Can increase flexibility and mobility in the extremities and spine
• Can reduce or eliminate headaches and migraines
• Can increase energy
• Can improve quality of sleep
• Can improve balance and coordination

Chiropractic Care & Pain Relief

Pain in the body suggests that there is an imbalance in the nervous system. Pain often occurs in the neuromusculoskeletal system as a result of misalignment in the spine and skeletal structure. Any time there is misalignment in the body, whether it results from trauma, accident, injury, or postural imbalances, subluxations (misalignment) can create pain and discomfort in the neuromusculoskeletal system.

When misalignment occurs in the body, the joints and misaligned bones compress and inflame surrounding nerves and tissue, resulting in pain. Additionally, misalignment can force the muscular system to compensate for the lack of quality support being provided by the skeletal structure.

As your expert chiropractor helps to realign your spinal structure, the pressure is removed from the nerves, tissues, muscles, ligaments, and tendons that were being compressed. This is often accompanied by a significant reduction in pain, and in some cases, a complete elimination of pain.

If you’re experiencing sharp pain, shooting pain, aching pain, dull pain, hot or cold-feeling pain, or any other type of discomfort in your body, chiropractic care can help move you toward a state of more comfort in your body. Whether you are seeking chiropractic care in Eagle, Idaho, or are located in another state, our Chiropractor Directory will help you find a chiropractor who is licensed in Chiropractic BioPhysics®.

(Click here for more information on Chiropractic BioPhysics®).

If you’re looking to find a pain relief chiropractor in Eagle, Idaho, CBP® specialists are equipped and standing by to deliver the highest quality of chiropractic care available. Get started today on your journey toward the best health of your life!