SUBLUXATION – The Big Chiropractic Word!

May 17, 2023

Dr Sarah DC, discusses the word Subluxation in Chiropractic..

If you’ve seen a chiropractor before or if you are visiting our clinic, you may have heard the word Subluxation before. Many of my clients get overwhelmed by this term as it is mainly associated to its meaning in the medical profession – I wouldn’t blame you. However, it is important to specify that when used in the context of chiropractic it has no correlation to the definition of “partial dislocation”. On the other hand it has been used since the establishment of chiropractic to define the profession itself and what its scope is.

-Get ready for the big words-

As you may know in chiropractic we act on the health of the spine and nervous system and we do so through what we call Adjustments. In order to do this, we need to identify the areas that DO (and don’t) need adjusting. That requires us to find the primary area in the spine which is causing a succession of mal-adaptions within it, which result in common symptoms that we see every day in clinic. And THAT spinal segment that we identify, is affected by a subluxation.

-Now hold on tight as we are getting into chiropractic philosophy-

The most well-known definition of subluxation (Stephenson, 1927) states as follows:

“A subluxation is the condition of a vertebra that has lost its proper juxtaposition with the one above or the one below or both; to an extent less than a luxation; which occludes an opening, impinges nerves and interferes with the transmission of mental impulses”

Let me try and simplify this for you: it is finding that vertebra that is somehow misaligned (I don’t love this word as most people believe that spines have to be aligned, but we all have different spines and different curves, that’s just how are bodies are and how they are made to be) in a way that it reduces the space where nerves exit the spine, therefore creating pressure around it and ultimately having a negative effect on the transmission of neural signals (the messages that our brain and every single tissue in our body exchange between each other in order to LIVE and FUNCTION).

I hope that from that explanation, you can understand that a subluxation, which interferes with neural communication, not only does it cause local symptoms such as your back pain, sciatica, neck pain etc. but also has an effect on all other tissues that those nerves go to.

And that my friends, is what distinguishes an ADJUSTMENT from a MANIPULATION ….. or a “crack” (this word makes me cringe every time, please don’t ever use it in front of your chiropractor 😉 ). It is the specificity of it, it is not a manipulation to a random area of your spine that is giving you bother, but it is the adjustment of the specific segment that is interfering with the ability to use your nervous system at its full potential.

Some of you may find this boring or complex to understand but that’s okay, I’m writing this blog for those of you who are interested in knowing more about what we REALLY do and why we love it. Because we know that the only thing that allows us to be alive is the function of the nervous system, which is composed of the brain, spinal cord (protected by the spine) and ultimately nerves, which control every single mechanism, system and cell in our body; and let me ask you this… what do you think might happen if the most important system in our body fails to function correctly?

By the way….. this is all philosophy talk, but for those who like evidence there is a whole lot of that on the subject as well!!

If you want to know more about it, get in touch or ask me next time you see me in our beautiful Top Chiro clinic 🙂

https://www.topchiro.co.uk/contact/