Think about it: when you feel healthy, you feel whole. There’s no divisive pain in the back or the stomach or the arms or legs or anywhere else. No infirmities. No vague, fleeting pains or numbness. Instead you experience an all over good feeling, a feeling of wholeness that comes when the systems of the body work in sweet harmony, like a well-tuned, well-directed orchestra. To put it another way, you feel complete rather than like an assortment of ill-fitting, badly-functioning parts.
THE MASTER SYSTEM OF NERVES
Such expansive feelings of health and well-being depend in large measure on a properly functioning nervous system, often called the master system.
Nerves go everywhere, even into the most remote areas of the body. They fan out from the spinal cord and exit between vertebras. Their distribution throughout the body is so intimate and extensive that if we could dissolve away all other tissues, we would still see the form and proportions of the body in gossamer, a phantom body made up entirely of nerves.
Through nerve impulses, the nervous system monitors, integrates, directs, modifies, and unifies the countless functions of all the other bodily systems, organs, and glands.
Ideally, nerve impulses flow smoothly, providing a feeling of health and wholeness. But when one or more vertebras become misaligned (spinal subluxation), the nerves may be pinched. This alters normal nerve impulses in the pinched nerve and may bring on pain and disease conditions, not only in the back, but also in bodily parts served by the affected nerves.
PINCHED NERVES DISRUPT HEALTH
Anything which interferes with the proper function of the nervous system – the master system – can impact any of the other systems and disrupt the body’s health momentum. So when health problems occur, chiropractic doctors examine the area of complaint as well as the spine and nerves. That’s because chiropractic doctors know that many health problems stem from spinal mis-alignments interfering with the nervous system’s pathways:
For instance, in a person suffering from indigestion, the trouble may be caused by a vertebral misalignment which is pinching nerves serving the digestive system. In that case, chiropractic adjustments would realign the vertebras, free the pinched nerves, and allow normal nerve impulses to resume. The same principle applies to countless other health problems.
CHIROPRACTIC EVALUATION OF MASTER SYSTEM
For good reason then, chiropractic doctors encourage persons with health problems to get a chiropractic evaluation of the spine and nerves to determine if there is a chiropractic problem and what can be done about it. Even persons with no immediate health complaints should get a chiropractic evaluation from time to time to be sure the spine is free of subluxations.
Take care of your master system and it will help take care of you.