People go to chiropractors for many different reasons. People see them for pain.  People see them for posture. People see them for general health. People even see chiropractors for performance. But one of the best things about chiropractic care is that no matter which of these reasons someone goes to the chiropractor for, they are going to get improvements in all four of these areas. Chiropractors are best known for their ability to relieve neck pain, back pain, muscle pain, and joint pain. But did you know that having a healthy spine and joints can also affect your health?

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     This is because your spine not only creates the foundation to your body, but it also is a protective case of armor that encases your spinal cord. Your spinal cord connects to your brain stem and relays messages from the brain to the body, and from the body back to the brain. The messages are sent in and out of your spinal nerves leaving between the many vertebrae that make up your spine. These messages go to every part of your body, including your organs, muscles, and skin. The nerves are made up of thousands of wires, forming an important information highway, that are all delivering different messages, such as telling your pancreas to make insulin, or a blood vessel to expand or contract. There are also wires that allow your body to tell your brain that they are being damaged or stressed in a message we know as pain. 

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     The spine is there to protect this important highway of information, however, it is a complicated structure made out of 24 vertebrae (as an adult), all connected by a large series of joints. Joints often cause pain because they have many moving parts that allow them to function. Firstly, they have a layer of cartilage that lines their bony surface that acts as a cushion and prevents the bones from rubbing against each other. Some joints, such as the joints that are in your spine, have discs that grant the spine the ability to move fluidly. Secondly, there are muscles and ligaments that support the joints and hold them together. 

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     When the body experiences too much stress, either from a minor stress, an abrupt event (such as a fall or car accident), or over an elongated period of time from bad posture or repeated habits, these structures that create and support the joints of the spine can be damaged. Damage to the tissue causes the body to repair itself with its default repair mechanism known as "inflammation".

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     Inflammation is a task force of cells within the body that perform a huge variety of tasks in order to help your body maintain a healthy state. Some of these functions involve warning your brain when your body is being damaged by causing pain and altering the function of nervous tissue, such as a nerve.

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     A Chiropractor is able to reverse and prevent these damages from occurring by relieving mechanical pressures causing stress to the structures of the joint by performing chiropractic adjustments and therapies. An adjustment is when a Chiropractor uses a gentle force to maneuver a joint to a more optimal position. Over time, these adjustments, when combined with specific exercises, will restore the proper alignment of the spine, thus alleviating the pressure to the nerves and tissues and restoring your health and function. The great thing about chiropractic care is that these treatments can be used on any joint in the body, allowing individuals with knee, back, or shoulder pain to reap its benefits.