To understand how chiropractic care is beneficial, we need to understand some of the nerve, spinal cord, and brain functions. The central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) runs the physical body. All functions of the body are directed by the nervous system including healing and maintenance of health. The spinal cord is the conducting mechanism with programmed patterns embedded in the nerve tissue. The nervous system monitors and modulates all sensory input from the internal and external environments, integrates this information with older learned experiences and then responds in an electrical or chemical means to produce a response or motor output for the preservation of the organism. So consequently the central nervous system is driven by the environment. The environmental input whether internal or external into the system dictates the response needed by the organism or the species to survive and propagate.
The environment input is by receptors that convert the external or internal stimulus to an electrical impulse. For instance light is converted in the eye or sound is converted in the ear to an electrical impulse. This impulse goes centrally and diverges upon many nerves some as excitatory and some as inhibitory. The sum of all the excitatory and inhibitory stimulation on a nerve determines whether the nerve will fire or conduct the impulse or not. There may be as many as 10,000 nerves contributing to a single nerve to determine if it will fire or not. Around 95% of the input is from motion, the horse and ourselves are constantly under a force requiring motion to counteract it. That force which is a major environmental component is gravity. The organism only has two output system from the brain to ensure survival in the environment. One system is the motor output system to the muscles producing movement of the body. The other is to the autonomics system which controls organ system function like heart rate, glucose availability, or carbon dioxide elimination.
Since most injuries are due to a failure of muscles to fire at the right time and amplitude to support a joint against the forces of motion and gravity and all healing involves the immune system with each being directed by the nervous system. As a result all diseases are a breakdown in the efficiency of the nervous system to maintain homeostasis under the organism’s present genetic and environmental constraints. So it does not matter what treatment modality you are employing whether nutrition, drugs, acupuncture, manipulation therapies, we are influencing the nervous system and its output function on the organism.
Consequently since motion is the largest percent of influence on the nervous system and output function thereof, improving the movement of a joint or motion unit can offer the largest effect on the nervous system and its output function. The improvement of the nervous system function can occur in two manners. One as we have discussed, improve motion of a joint increases the sensory input into the nervous system to affect a nervous response. Also since the spinal nerve exits the spinal column through a boney tunnel, the nerve is subject to compression forces. Where do these forces come from? As the motion decreases, stasis occurs in the tissue there by allowing fluid to accumulate in the boney canal. As the fluid in the boney tunnel takes up the limited space in the tunnel other structures in that confined area are compressed. Therefore a compressed nerve has a decrease conducting ability. Consequently whatever body structure or function is directed by that particular nerve will have a decreased stimuli to direct the desired response.
So as you can see neural function modulates all of the body functions through two output system, motor and autonomic systems. The nervous system responds and is driven by the environment whether internal or external through receptor input. Motion especially motion counteracting gravity accounts for about 95% of the input into the nervous system. An improvement to the input into the nervous system along with an improvement in the outflow of the nervous system will improve the function of the organism. This desired improvement can be accomplished with a chiropractic treatment by increasing movement of the motion unit which increase input into the system and disperse the fluid accumulation allowing input and output nerve function to improve.