When your smoke alarm goes off in your house, do you take out the batteries or find the source of the smoke? When your car engine light comes on, do you cover it with tape or take your car in to get checked out? When your body is experiencing pain, do you take an ibuprofen or try to figure out why?
Pain is the alarm system of the body. It doesn’t exist to be annoying, but to alert our conscious brain that there is an issue that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, western culture has been conditioned to ignore this alarm system, distrust it, and take medicine to make it stop.
And it’s leading to more issues.
People are ignoring their smoke alarms (pain) and wondering why their house (body) is burning down (not functioning properly and getting sick).
If ignoring these important systems by merely taking drugs is getting people into trouble, why would taking more drugs be the right answer?
This is for you to decide, as it is your body, but perhaps your answer is “it’s not the right answer”. We would agree.
Chiropractic is a wonderful way to honor your body’s natural intelligence and aid in true healing, as opposed to covering up symptoms. Next time you experience pain, listen to what it’s saying. You might learn something new!
Referred Pain
Sometimes the source of the pain is not where you feel the pain. This is called “Referred Pain”. It means the problem is sending the pain to a different part of your body. This might seem weird, but it has to do with the pathways of millions of nerves throughout your body. And luckily, people have been able to map common referred pain patterns to make it much easier to get to the root of the problem. (This is why we ask so many questions when you say something hurts -- we are trying to understand it from all sides to eliminate the possibility of hidden problems).
Some common referred pain patterns:
Gall bladder refers pain under the shoulder blade
Sciatic nerve entrapment in the glute refers pain down the back of the leg
The arm has 4 common areas of nerve entrapment (muscles/tissue pressing on the nerves) that cause pain/numbness in the hand or wrist
Lower neck subluxation (misalignments) can cause headaches
Emotional Pain Manifesting as Physical Symptoms
Because of the way emotions are carried throughout the body, they can cause pain anywhere, especially weakened areas. Over thousands of years, healers have mapped the body and found correlations between specific emotions and areas they are likely to affect, namely organs, spinal levels, muscles, and joints. I often refer to my “Master Chart” in my office to determine where your pain is originating from and the type of stress causing the pain. Some common connections we see in our office are stomach pains/digestive upset from feelings of worry, nervousness, or a lack of control over events, and knee pain stemming from unresolved resentment and frustration.
Joint pain from Misalignment
If one of your bike tires were crooked, you can imagine that it would wear down faster and probably make for a bumpy bike ride. Your musculoskeletal frame is the same -- if the joints aren’t aligned properly, the discs, ligaments, and tendons will wear down faster because they aren’t moving in the way they were meant to. They might be overstretched, rubbing over bones, or becoming weakened through overuse. This is why I might check out your ankles, knees, or shoulders, in addition to your spine. Joints can become misaligned through so many ways, such as poor posture, improperly sleeping posture or a bad mattress or pillow, or injury, to name a few. With regular adjustments, you can be sure your joints are always properly aligned and working optimally.
How adjustments Reduce Pain
There are many little joints in the spine that send information to the brain when they are moving properly. If they get stuck and aren’t moving, the brain isn’t getting accurate information and is unable to fix the problem on its own. This is where your amazing pain system kicks in!
It alerts You (your conscious mind) to let you know, “Hey! We don’t feel right, can you get this looked at so we can go about our business?”
Because these little spinal joints are so close to the spinal cord, the direct pathway to your Big Boss Brain, they are the last checkpoint before messages are sent up to the brain. If the joints are stuck, that important info doesn’t make it to the brain and it can’t give out proper orders because it doesn’t know what the problem even is! Chiropractic adjustments are specific, meaning we find the stuck, problem areas, and get the joint moving again so it can send all that important info and allow your brain and body to work in sync in maintaining your health.
Your body is so amazing! And so smart! Don’t ignore your pain -- you (and your body) deserve so much better. If you experience pain and want to know why so you can make lasting change towards true health, give us a call and schedule a consultation. We’re here for your health.
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