The Neck, its Relationship to the Brain and Chiropractic Care
BY: DR. MICHAEL PUTMAN
Last blog I talked about "scar tissue, degeneration and growing old". I explained how we get scar tissue, how it creates degeneration and eventually aging. If you didn’t read my last blog, please do!
Every day I palpate (feel) patient's necks. Every day, almost every patient I see has some level of scar tissue that both the patient and I can feel. This scar tissue seriously alters the mechanics and function of the neck. So you may be asking, "Why is this important?”.
So glad you asked.
THE BRAIN
Our brain is a "stimulus dependent organ". What does that mean? It means that our brain absolutely needs stimuli to function and survive. Stimuli to the brain come through all of our senses: sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste and movement. Deprived of our senses and our ability to move, the brain slowly dies.
There is a wondrous amount of stimuli to our brain, but the best stimuli, by far, for a healthy brain is the result of movement. Nerves basically are like a wire covered in insulation. The bigger the nerve, the more insulation it has thus the faster it can communicate, consequently the more information it will carry. The largest nerves in the body go to, and come from joints and tendons, and muscles.
When joints move properly they bombard the brain with information about joint position and tone and movement of muscles while the brain is immediately taking all of the input from all of our senses as well as movement related stimulus and rapidly sends messages to keep our balance, direct blood flow and adapt to circumstances as needed.
THE BRAIN AND CHIROPRACTIC CARE
That is what is so bad about scar tissue in the neck. The joints in our body with the most nerve sensors and the most input into the brain are from the neck. When a neck has scar tissue, it is no longer moving normally, and so the brain immediately suffers from a loss of excitation and stimulation.
So even though we don't notice it, scar tissue in the neck is making us old before our time and aging our brain.
That is why is it so important to get checked by a chiropractor, especially after auto accidents and whiplash injuries, because, left unchecked and unresolved, little injuries create scar tissue and adhesions in our necks that have serious long term consequences to our health.
Let’s all choose to live a more vital and meaningful life. See the chiropractor today.