Our patients use their own terms to describe spinal anatomy. Hips are femurs, backs are spines, tailbones are sacrums. What they miss is that everything is connected and that bones only move and stay functionally mobile if muscles move them. Oops, one more step. Muscles only contract if neurology is firing and all of this is coordinated when the brain gets involved. As you can see, neurology is what runs the structure and stress is what challenges neurological coordination.
This diagram shows that cycle. When muscles affect joints and spinal alignment is altered the nervous system reacts to the stress FROM the spinal joints. This is the reason why the most successful practices choose to have it all. They emphasize the neurofunctional status but never dismiss structural function. These offices use INSiGHT scanning to rate, record and track the tone within the nervous system at an initial visit and then at every re-exam thereafter. They not only scan spinal neurology but look at the total adaptive reserve of the Autonomic Nervous System using the revolutionary HRV approach within the neuroPULSE. A full neurofunctional exam takes less than 7 minutes using the INSiGHT’s three instruments: neuroPULSE (HRV), neuroCORE (sEMG), and neuroTHERMAL.
A Hand In A Glove
As we see from the diagram, spinal structure must fit together with the neurology that runs and coordinates the body, like a glove fitting a hand. It has to be a perfect fit …or else! When neurology is reacting to too much stress it causes the muscles to contract and the spinal alignment to shift. The glove and hand relationship gets strained and new habits get formed to protect the neurology from further distress.
You can imagine this would be uncomfortable, like a poorly fitting glove, but the consequences go far beyond this small inconvenience. Those spinal nerves control local gland and organ function. That’s a problem for sure BUT an even larger situation is emerging. This local spinal-structural-neurofunctional situation is beaming warning signals on an ongoing basis to the brain and distracting it from performing its tasks. It’s so distracting that the brain rewires itself to avert the constant noise. This is known as Dysafferentation (more on that next month!). Dysafferentation is the root cause of neurobehavioral and neurodevelopmental shifts in children along with a myriad of changes in the adult brain.
Remember the old saying, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” We only wish that what was happening at the spinal neural level stayed there but it doesn’t. It creates a ripple effect in neurological pathways that link the spinal cord to the brain and then within the brain itself. Studies show that sensorimotor integration (from the spine) affects the brain’s Pre-Frontal Cortex’ (PFC). If you dig a bit deeper, you’ll find that the PFC is our human control center for all executive thought and processing. Don’t ever underestimate altered findings on spinal neurological assessments. That is why the INSiGHT is a critical installation in every chiropractor’s office. It is designed to identify the presence of neurological imbalances and provide a neurological map and report card to track changes.
Brain-based chiropractic has caught everyone’s attention. The great news is that by addressing the spinal structural-neurofunctional reactions, you are already a brain-based chiropractor! Indeed, you can have it all!
As a side note: The spinal-structural-neurofunctional entity that I refer to has a name. In the literature it is referred to as a Vertebral Subluxation(VS) and chiropractors have been identifying and adjusting VS for a very long time, expecting and delivering results that go far beyond a local spinal reaction.
Enhance your practice with the quick, reliable, and informative scans provided by INSiGHT scanning. Chat with our team to get started today, or click here to take our Practice Blocker Quiz to find out if scanning is right for you.
