What actually happens when we adjust you? The brain knows

The brain has ‘eyes’ within the muscles which inform it of changes in muscle length. The brain uses this information to adapt movement commands. When chiropractors adjust your spine, small muscles surrounding the vertebra are stretched, activating the muscle spindles (the brain’s ‘eyes’), sending the brain real-time information about posture and movement.

Conversely, when you are subluxated and have joint dysfunction, the deep muscles of the spine don’t get stretched, which prevents the muscle spindles from activating. This leads to a lack of vital information to the brain from that part of the spine.

A lack of real-time information will cause the brain to fill in the gaps based on past experience and surrounding information. This can dramatically decrease the accuracy of the brain’s instructions which will create ongoing problems.

A great example if this is our ability to walk around our house in the dark without incident. Without seeing, our brain remembers how many steps and when to turn to safely navigate the various rooms. However, if someone (usually me) leaves boxes randomly around the house without our knowledge, we may end up falling over them as our brain would not be sensing or expecting the new obstacle.

For our bodies to operate efficiently and accurately, our brains need to be well-informed. Our sensory nervous system is responsible for feeding the brain and chiropractic adjustments are vital in ensuring that our muscle sensors are working well.

Glenn