Ah, Spring! The birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing, the flowers are blooming … and the people are sneezing. My brain loves Spring, but my body used to have another point of view. Between the sneezing, watery eyes, and sinus headaches, my bod was ready to call it quits & buy a hyperbaric chamber to hibernate in until the pollen count went down.

(This, BTW, is not me.) 

Fortunately, several (nope, not gonna mention how many, but know that there are people who have been born while I was an adult who have made it to adulthood since then) years ago, I started chiropractic care. My neck felt fabulous, my low back stopped screaming at me, and my knees creaked a whole lot less; but there were side effects to my adjustments. I noticed that I suffered from a lot fewer sinus headaches. And my eyes weren’t constantly tearing up. And my nose wasn’t sore & red from constant tissue usage. Could there be a connection?

Look! There it is!

Apparently, there is a direct causal relationship between the autonomic nerve centers in the spinal cord and corresponding nerves impulses in the sinus membranes. Chiropractic treatments can specifically target the bones and mucous membranes that surround the sinus cavities, joints, and muscles in other parts of the body. Say what, now? Sorry … I drifted into clinical speak. Basically, chiropractic treatments focus on correcting subluxations (what happens when you have pain in your neck &/or back & you probably say, “Ugh. I threw my back out.”). Subluxations cause pressure on the nerves that travel to every part of your body, hence pain.

Still confused? Here’s a quick breakdown of what that means. I’m going to use your knees as an example because they’re a lot easier to visualize & explain than your sinuses, but know that this also pertains to your sinuses & other hard to visualize parts of your body, like your spleen. Say your knees hurt [and you didn’t have an injury specifically inflicted upon your knee(s)], the pain can likely be traced back to your spine. The spine is the cord organizer for your nerves. (Amy, your brain is phenomenally bizarre.)

Bear with me … take a look under your desk. Are there an indeterminate number of cords leading to everything snaking all over the place? If they’re all a tangle, imagine how much nicer it would be if you straightened them all out & funneled them through a tube to keep them tidy (What? No, I don’t suffer from OCD. I don’t know what you mean. Twitch, twitch). That’s kind of what the spinal cord does. The big difference here is that if your nerves get “into a tangle” (which equates to being “pinched” by a subluxated vertebrae), you’re probably in physical (not emotional, OCD-caused) pain. The same is true for every other part of your body!  If you can feel sensations through that part of your body, there’s an active, hard-working nerve connected to it, which runs through that organizing tube known as your spine, to the brain.

So, after that insanely long (and weird … I know, it’s okay.) explanation, the basic gist is this: your sinuses, eyes, nose, knees, spleen, et cetera are all connected to your nerves, leading to your brain. The spine is meant to protect your nerves, so if it’s not aligned properly, your brain may tell you to feel pain in whatever part of the body that nerve leads to. Similarly, when an external source, like pollen, causes irritation to that part of your body, your nerves react! (Nerves: “Aaaaahh! Armageddon! Quick, tell the brain we’re miserable.”) If your spine isn’t aligned properly, the nerves have a bad connection to the brain, slowing down any messages they’re trying to send. You’ve probably all been there: you’re chatting to someone on your cell & suddenly they sound like they’re in a tunnel, with marbles in their mouth, in Tibet, and they’re in traffic similar to what one would experience in LA.

Actual LA traffic.

With all that traffic, sometimes it takes the brain a long time to broadcast that pain signal. So that means that your nerve has probably been stressed for a long time. Pain is your body’s last resort to telling you to pay attention because something is wrong! So by the time you feel pain, your muscles will have been in the wrong position for a while. Muscles are stubborn (like a toddler who missed a nap & doesn’t want to leave the grocery store). They don’t necessarily want to go back where they belong (yet another reason you may be in pain). Regular chiropractic care will help to guide those muscles back where they belong; kind of like whatever bribe you used to get the tantrumming (yes, I know it’s not a word, but ask any parent who has ever experienced one with a toddler in public, & they’ll insist it should be added to the dictionary) tornado of a toddler out of the store before they cause an apocalypse.

Wow, that was a long story (and a few run-on sentences that Ms. Houth would have circled in red in my 11^th grade English Lit class). The takeaway is this … why risk all of that pain &/or potential pain? Schedule a complimentary initial assessment with Dr. Roger (who, by the way, specializes in extremity adjustments, you know … in case your knee actually hurts). Still not so sure about chiropractic? Check out the testimonials from our patients: www.GulphMillsChiro.com/testimonials, then call 484-751-5037 or swing over to the appointment page of our website: www.GulphMillsChiro.com/appointment.    

Hyperbaric suit photo credit: https://www.durangoherald.com/articles/hyperbaric-chamber-now-offered-by-private-practice-in-durango/