Why do you seem so defensive? Why does it seem like the whole world is push and pulling you around? Wouldn’t it be nice to catch your breath, sit back and relax and enjoy your life? There are many reasons why life can seem to get on top of you, don’t let the shape, position, tension and tone of your spine be one of them. To paraphrase the rapper Jay Z “You got, 99 problems but your spine ain’t one of them”.
Of course, it’s easy for a Chiropractor to focus on your spine and nerve health; this is a natural bias, our passion and our vocation. There are many facets that contribute to your well-being, all of which you can learn to love deeper. Think about it: social health it’s vital, family, friends, community; personal hygiene; breathing, eating, moving, sleeping, feeling, thinking, being, meditating, laughing, crying, screaming, singing, kissing, cuddling, learning, adventure, newness and so much more.
Your spine is a keystone in your health. It is a hidden gem supporting for you everyday, aiding your every step, lifting your arms in expression and proudly holding your head into the air.
The central role of YOUR spine and NetworkSpinal
NetworkSpinal (NS) was born from these novel Chiropractic insights that focuses on healthcare that empowers people to live well. The research shows NS is a chiropractic phenomenon that reduces spinal cord tension.
Like other leaders in Chiropractic, Donald Epstein founder of NS said that at times some forces (thoughts, trauma, toxins) have a consequential impact on spinal posture and hence life expression.
With this in your mind-body, consider how maladaptation to stress causes tension pulling the spine from top to bottom (longitudinal), which often changes the tome of your nerve system. Your body’s final effect is defaulting into defensive mechanisms, which leave you little room for versatility and personal expression.
Paramount to this is the well-established model developed by Alf Brieg: neural and spinal integrity and the link to global and local long-term patterns of stress. Brieg showed that due to maladaptations caused by stress, the body creates defensive postures.
Defensive postures in your spine and nerve system lead to the storing of energy (Entropy). Entropy is a thermodynamic quantity that represents the unavailability of heat (thermal) energy for conversion into mechanical work. The bound energy is characterised as adverse mechanical spinal cord tension (AMCT). And AMCT is associated with your defence physiology and intermittent areas of relaxation and ease.
Your Defensive Spinal Curves
Any abnormal posture of your spine, such as reversed curvature of the neck or lower back; rounding of the mid-back, affects the spine and your entire body.
Specifically, the lack of spinal motion and constant postural strain on spinal tissue increases the viscosity of spinal fluids (Blood and Cerebral Spinal Fluid) and decreases its flow. As a result of AMCT, nervous system behaviour and its energy production falter. The entire body, by way of the nervous system, endocrine, circulatory, and immune system, become impeded.
Secondary to this, physiological changes can then also take place elsewhere. A known example of transformation happens in the adrenal glands triggering glucose release into circulating blood for skeletal muscles (rather than the vital organs). As a result, the tension in tendons increases and metabolism accelerates. Long term, this causes unnecessary stress, leading to adrenal exhaustion and profound postural changes, ‘a vicious cycle’. Subsequently, this often changes nerve and spine integrity, causing a narrower range of emotional, psychological, and even spiritual expression.
Connection to Your Spine
What does this all mean? The suggestion here is that your spine and nerve health is essential. If you start to lose connection to your spine, you’ll likely be feeling stressed, fatigued and defensive. Perhaps a little bit of effort on your part to love this area of yourself a bit more each day will help you very much. And Remember, Chiropractic is here for you now! The Healthpraxis is here for you now!
References
1. Senzon, A historical perspective on network spinal analysis care: A unique insight into the spine’s role in health and wellbeing, Chiropractic Journal of Australia, Volume 46, Number 4.
2. Senzon, S. A., 2016, The Network Spinal Wave as a Central Pattern Generator, The journal of alternative and complementary medicine, Volume 22 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
3. Soanes, C., Stevenson, A., Concise Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford university press, eleventh edition, revised, UK, Oxford.
4. Hruby, R, J., 2014, Osteopathic principles and philosophy
5. Harrison, D, E., Caillet, R., Harrison, D, D., Troyanovich, S, J., Harrison, S, O., 1999, A review of Biomechanics of the central nervous system – Part III: Spinal cord from postural loads and their neurologic effects, Journal of Manipulative Therapeutics, Volume 22, Number 6