By: Dr. Sten Ekberg
Most people and most chiropractors believe that chiropractors move bones to relieve pressure from nerves. This has never been shown, does not fit any verifiable model, and is very unlikely to happen. Let me explain why.
If you try to move a bone against the body’s will the muscles will hold it in place so strongly that you would have to break the bone before anything moves. If you surprise the body with a sudden thrust, you can shift the position, but it will bounce right back like a rubber band.
Most people will agree that the brain regulates everything in the body. There are somewhere around 50-100 trillion cells in the body and every one of them depends on the brain for their function. Muscle, which holds bones in place most definitely depend 100% on brain signals for their actions.
The only conclusion to the above facts is that the only way to change the alignment of bones is by somehow influencing the brain to hold the bones in a different position. The broader conclusion is that any change in body function must be due to somehow changing the way the brain and nervous system operates.
Today we know a lot more than chiropractors knew 100 years ago when they tried to explain how they achieved their “miracles”, because as chiropractors we do see things that most people would call miracles on a regular basis.
We know that chiropractors do not take pressure off nerves, they put pressure on receptors, and alter and interrupt feedback patterns that they brain depends on to regulate function. Just like the famous computer slogan GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out), the brain depends entirely and exclusively on feedback and input (afferent nerve transmissions) from the body and the environment to regulate and make decisions.
If the feedback is distorted the output will be distorted. If you can normalize the incoming information you will normalize the outgoing information – the function of the body.
The most unique thing about chiropractors is not the adjustment, the trigger point, the activator, the adjusting instrument or the “magic touch”. The most unique thing about (most) chiropractors is that they check some aspect of your physiology – ROM, pupil dilation, muscle function, leg length, heart rate etc – then they make their adjustment, and then they re-check to see if and how the observed parameter has changed or improved.
That is the most unique thing about chiropractors. Observe – Stimulate – Re-check. The thing we are stimulating is the brain and the results we observe are due to changes in brain.
If you agree that the brain and nervous system regulates everything in your physical body, which you will if you study it at all, you will see that any improvement in health or function is due to an improvement in brain regulation.
Any alternative health practitioner who assist you in improvements, does so by improving brain function; they may or may not know it, and if they don’t have a way of checking pre and post, their results may be somewhat random.
And finally, a drug - of course, makes no improvement whatsoever to your nervous system. It simply interferes, and blocks function, pushing your body further out of balance while you are, in best case scenario, blissfully ignorant of the problem.
So in conclusion, do chiropractors change the position of bones? Yes, but only if we can successful assist the brain and nervous system to see a better alternative. Then the brain will “decide” to move the bone.
Does this seem mostly like semantics? Not really. It takes us from a mechanical, Newtonian based view of the body into a neurologically, information based, quantum physics view of the body. Most of the suffering and expenses in our current health care system are due to the fact that we are basing our care on the wrong out dated model.
Get the model right and then we can really start making progress.
Sten Ekberg D.C., Chiropractor
Wellness For Life Chiropractic
Cumming Chiropractor
http://www.drekberg.com
678-638-0898