Last week, we covered the five components of a vertebral subluxation, as defined by B.J. Palmer in Volume XVIII published in 1934. They are:
1.) Malposition – This simply means misalignment of a vertebra
2.) Occlusion – This refers to the closing off of an opening that a nerve passes through. In our case, we are referring to the neural canal where the spinal cord travels down.
3.) Pressure – When C1 or C2 is misaligned, this can occlude the neural canal near the brain stem. This can cause pressure or tension on the cord at this level.
4.) Interference to flow of nervous system transmission – With a misalignment, an occlusion, and pressure, there is zero chance for the nervous system to properly communicate to the rest of the body.
5.) Three-directional torqued vertebra – To achieve these four components of vertebral subluxation, the C1 and C2 vertebrae has to shift up or down, left or right, and rotated front or back.
We also covered how physical stressors are one of three components that cause vertebral subluxations. Let’s move on to the second cause of a vertebral subluxation.
Thoughts aka Emotional Stress
Emotional stress is an unavoidable part of life. Loved ones will pass away. Downsizing at the workplace will continue to happen as companies merge, fail, and outsource. Family trouble, marital troubles, routine work deadlines, bills, student loan debt… the list goes on and on and on.
Learning how to deal with these day-to-day stressors is paramount. Here’s why.
Fight or Flight
Our bodies have something called the “fight or flight” mechanism. This is an automatic response by your body in cases of extreme stress.
Some examples would be coming across a bear in the middle of the woods, getting mugged in a dark alley, or nearly getting hit by an oncoming car.
Your body responds in such a way that you are literally, in a split second’s time, equipped to fight or flee your way out of a perceived deadly situation.
Your body responds by instantly releasing adrenaline and cortisol throughout your body. These hormones cause your heart to pump faster and your breathing to increase. This allows more oxygen and blood to the muscles used for fighting or fleeing. It keeps them ready to react at the blink of an eye. Your liver releases sugar into the blood so your muscles can have that instant energy. You begin to sweat more, cooling down your body. Your metabolism speeds up, your tolerance to pain increases, and your senses are keener.
While these responses are great in a deadly situation, they are not great over long periods of time. A day to day continual fight or flight response over days, months, or years will cause your nervous system to write checks the body eventually won’t be able to cash. This will open the door for any number of disease processes to begin.
This is what chiropractors mean when they speak of a body being in dis-ease before it develops into disease.
Wearing Down
These reactions are carried out through the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is one of two parts to your autonomic nervous system. The other is the parasympathetic nervous system, which carries out bodily functions while at rest. Ideally, we always want to be in a parasympathetic state. This allows our bodily functions like digestion and peristalsis to carry on without hindrance.
When we are always in a state of stress, our sympathetic nervous system runs the show. Constant secretion of adrenaline and cortisol, tension in the muscles, increased heart rate and blood pressure, and increased sugar release into the blood wears the body down over a long period of time. Because we are in this stressed state, we don’t sleep as well. With less sleep, out bodies can’t heal properly, and our immune system can’t bear the load. We then become more susceptible to lingering effects from bacteria and viruses.
With our body in a weakened state, our Innate Intelligence can only do so much. When the matter that is your body is limited to much less than its potential, true healing and health can never be experienced. Normal external forces that our body’s Innate Intelligence usually deals with (i.e. gravity, bumpy car rides, coughing, and sneezing) become too much for our bodies to handle.
The end result? A vertebral subluxation that interferes with the nervous system’s already depleted communication to the body.
As I said last week, we can’t afford to go through life without getting our nervous systems checked on a regular basis. That takes care of the physical part, but what about the emotional?
Coping With Stress
A positive mental attitude is a good place to start. Keeping yourself from getting down about your circumstances can be difficult at times, but it is necessary. We all go through rocky times, but life is sometimes about enduring through the hardships.
Exercise is one way to keep your spirits up. It is impossible for you to feel depressed once you start moving. The body releases endorphins (natural opiates) that naturally help you feel good. Yoga is another great way to release tension brought on by emotional stress. Deep breathing, meditation, and prayer are also other good ways to settle down mentally and allow your parasympathetic nervous system to take over.
Next week, we will cover the effects of chemical stress on the body and how that can result in a vertebral subluxation.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
When you resist the flow of life( not accepting what is) your physical body becomes hard and rigid, tension arises in different parts of the body and the body as a whole contracts. The free flow of life energy through the body, which is essential for its healthy functioning, is greatly restricted. Upper cervical chiropractic helps restore this flow, but unless you surrender to the flow of life, the resistance pattern will continue and you will stay subluxated. Adapted from The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
Awesome post. I think that it is great that you are covering the 3 T’s. Keep up the great work Doc!
There is more to the emotional component of the vertebral subluxation still, however!
Dr. Bruce Lipton, http://www.BruceLipton.com, really does an amazing job of explaining it in the Biology of Belief work he has done!
But it is subconscious emotional memory override. Your body remembers, and if you were in an accident, for an example, your body has the emotional component that you described eloquently!
) However, the emotions get “stuck” so to speak. When you see a car that was the came make, model, or color as the one that hit you while driving or riding in the passanger seat, and depending on where you were seated during the accident that spot will be more emotionally charged, your body remembers instantly and you begin to tense, bracing yourself, etc.. This scenario does not have to be in relation to an event that had a physical impact on the body, it could of been simply an emotionally charged one, like you mentioned with a death, or a significant other leaving you, a parent spanking and punishing without regard to truth and communication, a reaction to your child drawing on the wall when that action was from an innocent creative and loving place but the adult only sees and reacts with I just painted that wall how could you draw on it and they yell and say we don’t do that, or that is bad, etc., and the young child now subconscious associates their action of love and creativity with something being bad, punishable, and perhaps fearful of it now, the younger the child the worse this subconscious override sticks because the brain is still running on a subconscious level. In the future for that child whenever creativity and love arise, so too do these negative feelings and now the subluxation complex can re-occur, again and again, until this subconscious emotional memory override is addressed and resolved. There are many approaches to doing just that, Neuro Emotional Technique, Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique, Emotional Freedom Technique, The Work by Byron Katie, and for some it can be done with disciplined meditation, reflection, journalling, and the practice of forgiveness, others it does require a deeper level of resolution that cannot usually be attained on the conscious level.
Anyways, I thought your post was great, I just wanted to add the OTHER side of the emotional component, the side that is often and easily overlooked because it is not commonly known how to address it. Dr. Bruce Liption’s Biology of Belief work really is fantastic at explaining this entire situation, the conscious parenting part of it is fantastic too, because it does go into more information about the child and their brain functioning levels.
Excellent post and excellent comment by Leigh Anne DuChene! Can’t wait to see how Part 3 – Chemical Stress comes out!!!
You won’t be disappointed Dr. Rosenberg!