Hearing the phrase “nervous system” evokes in many of us the heavy eyes and daydream state that we were in the last time we heard it- back in high school. It didn’t seem relevant to me then either but I have since learned that it forms the keystone of our health and quality of life.
What is the nervous system anyway?
It is: your brain, your spinal cord and your nerves.
It’s function: communication. The brain communicates with the body through the spinal cord. Nerves branch off from the spinal cord and reach into all of your muscles and organs.
Where does the spine fit into all this?
Those bones, officially named the spinal column, protect the spinal cord and have a huge influence on the communication between your brain and body.
Now, let’s break it down, let’s say you want to bend your knee; a signal known as a “nerve impulse” is sent from the brain down the spinal cord, and out the nerve to the muscles that bend and support the knee. This impulse “tells” the muscles to bend the knee, and they do! This communication path governs many of the processes in your body; without it not only would your knee not bend, you would also see impairment in other aspects of your body. Since the most obvious effect is seen in the muscular system we will focus there.
Let’s define the “nerve impulse”- it is an electrical signal, and the power of that electrical signal to your muscles determines how well your muscles function. Imagine your body as a light bulb- to operate a 100-watt light bulb, the electrical power has to be much higher than to operate a 50-watt light bulb, but let’s say the 100-watt light bulb only receives 50-watts of power – the light would be dim at best.The same holds true for your body. When your 100-watt body is only receiving 50-watts you are under-powered. This has consequences, for example, underpowered muscles respond by: 1) shortening and tightening, 2) weakening and 3) becoming less responsive. This changes your biomechanics, lowering your performance and leaving you vulnerable to injuries such as those found in, say, running sports: IT band syndrome, patellar tracking issues, plantar fasciitis, etc..
What causes the power to diminish? Injury or stress on the nerves impairs their ability to transmit power.
What sort of injury or stress? It can be a true physical injury like a fall or an emotional or environmental stress.
A great percentage of us experience some degree of power loss, varying with the degree of injury. Was the injury at 20 mph vs 50 mph for a whiplash incident? How much force was put into the sacrum when falling from 10 feet up? One hundred pounds or 500 lbs.? Of course, it does not have to be one injury- it can be a series of smaller injuries, such as heading a soccer ball repeatedly for years or continual falls in sports like skateboarding, cycling, snow-sports, etc.
I work to restore the power that is lost to the muscles which restores length, strength and response time to those affected muscle groups allowing for biomechanics to correct. What does this do? Correcting biomechanics eliminates injuries such as tendonitis, patellar tracking issues, hip pain, IT band syndrome, etc. Simple as that. Restore the power and your body performs better.
Steve Noble, DC, CCSP
Noble Chiropractic
119 Grand Ave
Bellingham, WA 98225
(360) 671-7067