If you’re new to chiropractic care, you have probably heard the term “spinal subluxation” and wondered what it meant. You’re not alone! In this post, I’ll explain what subluxations are, how they can hinder your health and wellness, and what we can do about them. Fortunately, here at Homberg Chiropractic, there is a lot we can do to remedy these troublesome spinal misalignments!

What is Subluxation of the Spine?

Have you ever been on the freeway, headed somewhere important, and gotten caught in a traffic jam because of a stalled car on the road? You, all of the people ahead of you, all of the people behind you, and even those in the stalled car have someplace they need to go, but they are stuck because the car is stalled. A spinal subluxation is a lot like that stalled car, and all of the other cars are like messages trying to travel along the nerves of your nervous system, but can’t properly deliver the messages they need to deliver to keep things running smoothly. Aside from being just plain annoying, spinal subluxations can cause pain and dysfunction in all sorts of ways, depending on the location of the subluxation.

So, at its most basic level, a vertebral subluxation is a situation where one or more vertebrae, or other nearby tissues, are misaligned or inflamed, and therefore impinging nerves and preventing those impulses from going where they need to go. Oftentimes, a subluxation like this starts out small and may not manifest any immediate, noticeable symptoms at first. The fact that this can be a bit of a “sleeper” problem underscores just how important regular chiropractic adjustments and a healthy lifestyle are to preventing future health problems. Keeping up with posture care now is a wise health investment for your future. But let’s talk more about what we chiropractors call “vertebral subluxation complex” so you can understand all of the different moving parts that can impact your nervous system health.

The 5 Parts of a Spinal Subluxation Complex

It is important to remember that your body is a complex system of interworking parts, and it doesn’t make sense to talk of that “stalled car” in isolation from the other things surrounding it. So let’s talk about how a vertebral subluxation complex is, indeed, very complex and how it can affect you. There are 5 basic components that I look for as a chiropractor when I am treating my patients:

1. The vertebral bones themselves are in the wrong position to some degree. They are either misaligned, degenerating or not moving the right way.

2. Nerve impingement and dysfunction occur because of vertebral misalignment or malfunction. The nerve may be pinched, stretched awkwardly or otherwise irritated, which can cause referred pain and symptoms in other areas of the body controlled by the affected nerve(s).

3. The surrounding muscles that support proper spinal alignment are strained, knotted with trigger points, inflamed or out of shape so that they pull the spine out of alignment, or are unable to support correct posture.

4. Surrounding soft tissues, such as ligaments, tendons, blood vessels, fascia and other supporting players in the spine may also suffer inflammation or strain that can also negatively impact nerves and spinal alignment.

5. When all of these other conditions are present, biochemical changes also affect the body, causing inflammation and more pain in areas connected to the impacted nerves.

This set of five circumstances is called a “vertebral subluxation complex” and it requires a combination of chiropractic adjustments and lifestyle changes to address each part so that a whole system of treatment can work together to help you heal. As a Knoxville chiropractor, I carefully examine and talk with each of my patients to understand and accurately diagnose the location and extent of the subluxation before designing a treatment plan to address and heal the spine.

Spinal Subluxation Causes

Of course, one of my biggest priorities as a chiropractor is helping people avoid and prevent injury and dysfunction, which makes it important for people to understand how subluxations occur in the first place:

Poor posture

Poor posture is probably the most common, and also the most preventable of the causes of spinal subluxation. There’s a reason that your mom always told you to sit up straight! Focusing on correct posture every day, in all types of situations, is a great way to prevent subluxations and even injuries. When you stand, sit and even sleep with correct posture, your brain’s messages can travel across your nervous system without interference, which helps your whole body, your organs and muscles, and every part of you stay healthy.

Poor posture, on the other hand, can gradually cause subluxations, muscle strains, blood flow inconsistencies, inflammation, weakness and imbalance in the spine. All of these conditions go toward creating subluxations, which will eventually lead to dysfunction and pain if not corrected through chiropractic care and attention to correct posture.

Injury

Unfortunately, injuries aren’t always predictable or avoidable. Car accident injuries, work injuries, day-to-day injuries, sports injuries and more can happen suddenly and without warning. They are also a very common cause of subluxations. The good news is that chiropractic care is an effective treatment option for the majority of musculoskeletal injuries, both of the extremities and of the spine. With these therapeutic options, we can help you overcome the immediate injury as well as any spinal subluxations that may have resulted from the injury.

Examples of Conditions Caused by Vertebral Subluxation

Of course, because most people associate the spine with the back, and most people then associate chiropractic care with back pain, it’s easy for people to assume that back pain is the main reason people come in for chiropractic care. And while it’s true that this is how many people are introduced to chiropractic care, the scope of conditions caused by subluxations and the scope of conditions that can be remedied by chiropractic care is enormous.

Let’s just take headaches and migraines, for example. Although the pain is centered in the head, it often has a vertebral subluxation connection. In so many of my patients with headaches and migraines, I frequently discovered that they had some sort of whiplash accident in the past that was never fully addressed through proper chiropractic adjustment and therapy. Whiplash is notorious for causing a delayed pain response, which often includes both neck pain and headaches, as well as other symptoms that the patient may not connect with the accident that caused the whiplash. Some people go for years with these awful headaches and don’t realize that their neck vertebrae, muscles and soft tissues are causing nerve interference that leads to their headaches.

So if you have been struggling with a painful condition for too long, and are not finding the answers and relief that you need to get back to an active lifestyle, you owe it to yourself to contact us here at Homberg Chiropractic & Wellness. Chiropractic care can provide relief for all of these conditions (and many others as well):

• Upper, mid and lower back pain

• Headaches and migraines

• Allergies

• TMJ

• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

• Golf Elbow and Tennis Elbow

• Sprains and strains

• Shoulder pain

• Hip pain

• Sciatica

• Knee pain

• Plantar Fasciitis

• Fibromyalgia

• Gastrointestinal problems

• A weakened immune system

• And so much more!

It’s important to note also that chiropractic care is safe for just about everyone in the family: from newborn infants, toddlers and children to teenagers, moms, dads and grandparents! Chiropractic care provides lasting, natural, drug-free pain relief and healing for the whole family.

Vertebral Subluxation Treatment

Here at Homberg Chiropractic & Wellness, I use a variety of chiropractic care treatment modalities designed to help restore you to excellent health and overall wellness. I get to know each patient’s needs and then develop a personalized treatment plan to address subluxations and injuries for the goal of total recovery and wellness, so that you can get back to doing the things you love to do, with the people you love to do them with! In addition to chiropractic biophysics, which helps correct your posture over time, I also teach my patients rehabilitative exercises that help build and bolster core strength to protect and maintain long-term spinal alignment. In addition to this, I also use extremity adjustments and laser therapy. Laser therapy is a comfortable, scientifically proven method of using specific infrared light waves to deeply penetrate damaged tissues. This light then stimulates healing at the cellular level to rehabilitate soft tissue injuries. Again, because your body is a whole, interconnected system, it’s important to address pain and dysfunction holistically so that all angles of the vertebral subluxation or injury can be healed.

See Homberg Chiropractic in Knoxville for Vertebral Subluxation Relief

As a Knoxville Chiropractor for more than two decades, the thing that I love so much about this job is that I get to help people feel better every day. If you have any questions about vertebral subluxations and want to know if they’re impacting your health, schedule an appointment today and we can help you achieve your optimal wellness and healing goals: 865.679.2225.