Win with Wellness- What is a Subluxation?
By Dr. Tim Fargo
If you have been a patient in our clinic for more than a day then you have doubtless heard the term “subluxation” before. This is not a new concept in healthcare as it has been used in Medicine to describe a circumstance where there is a major structural misalignment in a joint without the joint actually becoming completely dislocated, something just shy of having the ends of the bone come apart. In chiropractic the term “subluxation” has been expanded to include a range of other aspects and effects.
Chiropractors began using the term “subluxation” right around 1900; chiropractic as an art and science marks its beginning with Dr. Daniel David Palmer’s first documented adjustment in 1895. Its basic definition is that it is a misalignment or loss of normal movement of a spinal joint which then causes an alteration or interruption of the normal flow of communication through the nervous system. Subluxations are not confined to the spine, as a person could have one in his wrist or knee or any other joint, but chiropractors tend to focus on the spine because this is where the subluxation has its greatest impact.
Historically it has been thought that a subluxated spinal joint actually “puts pressure on a nerve”, but this is not actually true in most cases. Rather there are some more complex mechanisms at work that have to do with tension on the cord and the associated nerve roots and changes in the messaging coming from areas of the spine and nervous system under stress. Suffice it to say that empirically (through observation and experience) it has been consistently observed that when the spine does not function well it has an impact on health in a number of ways.
First, a subluxated joint and the tissues surrounding it become much more prone to deterioration through simple mechanical means; they become irritated, inflamed and often arthritic. Second, when a joint is subluxated it impacts the surrounding muscles causing some of them to become tighter or spasmed and others to lose strength. Third, the inflammation that often occurs causes the development of scar tissue which can impact joint movement, cause pain and accelerate deterioration. Fourth, a subluxated joint loses its normal movement which affects mobility, athletic performance and activities of daily living. Fifth, and perhaps most importantly, a subluxation can affect the way the nervous system works. Since the nervous system is a “two way street” with information flowing from the brain to the tissue and from the tissue to the brain the impact can be felt in both ways. I have often seen the functioning of organs like lungs, bladder, uterus, stomach or others be affected by adjusting a subluxation in areas of the spine related to those organs. Similarly I have seen muscles turn on and off like flipping a light switch with a simple adjustment. On the flip side, I have seen how subluxations raise stress levels through the negative body messages that they send to the brain. This can have tremendous impact on stress hormone production, blood pressure, sleep patterns, depression/anxiety, immune function and a host of other problems. The bottom line is that when you are subluxated you are not going to be as healthy as you could be and neither will your children. Make sure you get you and your children get checked for subluxation regularly.
