We’ve all heard a guitar being played that is slightly out of tune. It sounds “off”. The harmonies don’t sync up, making it hard to listen to the song being played. It can be so distracting that you feel disconnected from the music. Take these same principles and apply them to what should be a finely tuned nervous system. Imagine that the firing sequences within the neural pathways are slightly off so that the tone of the actual nerve conduction is affected. Altered tone in the nervous system means just one thing: the control system needs a tune up!
The Three T’s: Traumas, Toxins and Thoughts
Chiropractic understood the relationship between the tone of the nervous system and the expression of health from the earliest days of its inception. The founder of chiropractic, D. D. Palmer initially considered that the application of force to move a spinal bone could reduce impingements on a nerve. However, as early as 1906, he concluded that those same forces could restore the “tone” within the entire functioning nervous system. His patients not only experienced symptom relief but noted that their entire body systems functioned more effectively. The working premise was that as the nervous system came out of “tune” by responding to the stressful “Three T’s: Trauma, Toxins and Thoughts”, all body systems, including the spine, reacted defensively and stayed out of “tune”. By focusing on adjusting the “tone of the nervous system” an entire profession was created to release patterns of nerve obstruction thereby restoring health from the “inside out”.
Spinal Thermography was Used in the Early Years of Chiropractic
This transformative hypothesis triggered a rush towards innovative instrumentation to identify how the nervous system was functioning and whether it was maintaining the ideal “tone”. Spinal Thermography was introduced in the Palmer clinics to observe tone in the temperature regulating neurology of the spinal nerves¹.
A vertebral subluxation was found to alter the tone of the spinal sympathetic motor nerves forcing the temperature regulation to be locked in a defensive pattern. This meant that instead of only relying on a static x-ray to observe spinal bone alignment, chiropractors could use dynamic, functional assessments of the nervous system to observe the restoration of tone.
As neurosciences evolved, so did the application of newer and more advanced technologies that could scan the tone of different parts of the nervous system. It became well known that vertebral subluxations created dis-harmony or dis-EASE far beyond the locally affected spinal nerves.
The Evolution of the Neurofunctional Scanning: The INSiGHT
In the quest to expand and enhance neurofunctional scanning, CLA created the INSiGHT suite of scanning technologies. It pioneered the use of surface electromyography (sEMG) with its neuroCORE instrument which measures the impact of subluxations on the body’s ability to maintain postural efficiency and balance. By scanning patients’ spines, while seated, vertebral subluxations can be detected as they distort the motor neurological tone and the ability to maintain healthy postures. Vertebral subluxations rob the body of its vital neurological processing efficiency. When motor neurology is affected, postures overwork and spinal alignment It is incredibly “energy-expensive” to remain out of spinal balance!
The latest instrumentation to confirm the presence of vertebral subluxation and its impact on the tone of the entire Autonomic Nervous System is Heart Rate Variability (HRV) it is well known throughout the health sciences that Vagal tone is the key to observing and calculating adaptive responsiveness and resilience. CLA’s neuroPULSE HRV scanning technology is regarded as the ideal clinical and research instrument to track a patient’s resilience throughout their care plan. The neuroPULSE is so versatile that even newborn and infants can be scanned and their adaptive reserve monitored.
Combining HRV, sEMG and Thermal scanning to create a Neural Efficiency Index
CLA’s research team understood the value of combining the data collected from Thermography as well as sEMG and HRV scanning. They determined that all three datasets could be used to observe and measure the global impact of the vertebral subluxation. HRV would define the Vagal tone and ANS balance; sEMG would confirm the spinal neuro-motor impact of the vertebral subluxation while thermography would detect and calculate the effect of the subluxation on the regional spinal autonomic tone. An overall “neural efficiency index” could be calculated using these three scan datasets and presented as a single number score, known as the CORESCORE. This valuable score was initially designed as a clinical tracking tool but soon became the foundation to educate patients on the impact that subluxations have on human health and potential.
CLA’s INSiGHT scanning technologies are regarded as the gold standard when scanning the nervous system and reporting those results to chiropractic patients. The neuroTECH combination of the neuroPULSE HRV, neuroCORE EMG and neuroTHERMAL allow clinical teams to scan their patients with absolute confidence so that their care plans are created using objective data. All three scans are performed during initial and progress exams, creating a neurological profile and report card.
Over the years, while fine-tuning the INSiGHT, CLA’s focus has been directed on reliability, reproducibility and ease of use. Today’s INSiGHT is powered by an iPad app known as Synapse which allows a comprehensive, 3 part scan examination to be completed in under 7 minutes. Synapse provides up to 20 report combinations and scans can be shared using airdrop, email or projected on a monitor.
Chiropractic adopted the principle of neurological tone long before other disciplines even thought it existed. By combining today’s INSiGHT technologies with the timeless principles upon which chiropractic is founded, practitioners can deliver thoughtful and progressive care plans as they track the tone within the nervous systems of their patients.
-Dr. David
