Chiropractors

Life is full of cycles. Everything alive comes into being, grows, and eventually dies: That's the cycle of life itself. On the microscopic, molecular, and chemical levels, virtually all biological processes are cycles, from the ATP cycle (the process that releases energy stored in our muscles) to the Krebs cycle (how cells take in oxygen and use it to create energy) and the reflex mechanism in our nerves. The human body is composed of cycles within cycles, within the larger cycle of birth, growth, and death. Many of these cycles interact with one another. For instance, the Krebs cycle requires vitamin C and a number of different chemicals that are produced by other processes within the body. Most of these cycles occur in a matter of milliseconds. The science of biochemistry is based on an understanding that these chemical cycles are taking place all the time.

Injury and healing are combinations of many different cycles. While the initial injury can happen very quickly (like breaking a leg or skinning a knee), there is a cascade of biochemical responses following the incident that affect not just the injured area but virtually every system within the human body. To truly heal after an injury requires that all systems be restored to their normal levels of functioning.

There's an old truism that you can tear down a building a lot faster than you can put one up. This is equally true of the healing process. Restoring damaged tissue takes more time than it took for the effects of the injury to be felt. And just like putting up a building, certain things have to happen in a specific order for your body to withstand the forces of nature. Suppose you decided you wanted to put the roof on your building before you had dug the basement, or thought you could hang Sheetrock before you put together the wooden frame that supports the walls! Your house wouldn't stand very long, would it? In the same way, the human body has to do very specific things in a very specific order to heal completely. If it doesn't, you can end up with even more trouble than was caused by the original injury.

The processes that regulate healing are controlled by Innate Intelligence, and cycles of healing are very much a part of chiropractic philosophy. Lets take a look at a safety pin. The clasp end represents the brain, the wires represent the nerves, and the end where the wires loop around represents the organ or part of the body the brain is communicating with. As long as the body is healthy, information can flow smoothly from brain to body and back again in a cycle. But if something interferes with communicationif the safety pin is opened for any reasonthe communication cycle is broken.

A subluxation is any interference to this communication caused by problems in the vertebrae or the soft tissues that support them. However, the effect of a subluxation extends beyond a simple misalignment of bone. There is almost always injury or damage to the soft tissue around the vertebra. Subluxations also produce negative effects on the areas of the body or organs at the other end of the "safety pin" nerve connection. For example, a subluxation of a vertebra that interferes with a nerve leading to your foot might produce numbness, tingling, or pain in that foot. If left unattended for long enough, there could even be some damage to the nerve or foot itself. Because the nervous system controls tissue function, if you interfere with nerves going to a target tissue, the cells of the target tissue and the extracellular matrix the cells live in begin to become unhealthy. As a result, the cells stop repairing themselves and replicating properly. Those cells will continue to replicate themselves in an unhealthy manner, creating unhealthy and diseased tissue.