A Chiropractic adjustment brings an impulse into the nervous system. An impulse is a product of time (touch) and Force (amplitude and acceleration) (1). Touch can be by hand, instrument, block, cushion and maybe even suggestion. The impulse can be delivered through varying combinations of time and force. Spending a few mins on the blocks reduces the need to have forces applied to your body but can still have a therapeutic effect on your body.
Impulses capable of changing your nervous system are termed intrusive, because normal operations up until the point of adjustment have been interrupted. This interruption creates a change in the flow of neural messages and hence why we call it an intrusion. To this end intrusive could be synonymised in this context to therapeutic (impulse). The change created is the output of the therapeutic impulse applied.
The outcome of a chiropractic adjustment, of any type, is to be able to notice a change in your body. This may be demonstrated to you in movement, posture, relaxation (give) and/or muscular strength. These signs of a ‘functional reset’ enable your body not to continue to hurt itself creating a shift in the balance between the rate of healing and the rate of injury.
The Chiropractic adjustment was first discovered to make changes to the nervous system over 100 years ago, and to this day advances in medical sciences enable chiropractors to interpret, adapt and apply the impulse of their chiropractic adjustments according to the issues, concerns and expectations of their customer.
Between you and me, getting the same adjustments every time from your chiropractor makes no sense to me, because dysafferentation morphs and thus so too does dysfunction. As the ability to synthesise movements within the body decreases the body stiffens and weakens.
Maintain the life in your years with Chiropractic (2)
References:
- Davies N and Van Poecke A (2010) The Neuropathological Basis of the Subluxation, in Chiropractic Pediatrics (2nd Ed, Churchill Livingstone) 265
- Eklund A et al (2018) The Nordic Maintenance Care Programme PLOS One 13(9) e0203029