Chiropractic and Your Immune System

In today’s online world there is a plethora of articles and blogs out there sharing information about what foods and herbs to use to help boost the immune system; and many offer great information. What is not so common to find is how chiropractic care can boost the immune system. Most people are aware of the benefits of chiropractic care for back and neck care however there are many other advantages that are not so common including improving the immune function. Our immune system is the body’s line of defense to fight viral and bacterial infections. The immune system relies on many factors in order to maintain optimal health including nutrition, exercise, posture, being well rested, and having a healthy spine.Our nervous system runs through the spine and it works with the immune system in order for the body to adapt to various conditions and heal appropriately when required. Spinal misalignments can cause neural dysfunctions and these are stressful to the body which that lead to a weak immune response. Chiropractic adjustments have shown to boost the immune system. Subluxation is the chiropractic term for misalignments of the spine that cause compression and irritation of nerve pathways affecting organ systems of the body. Think of each vertebra in your spine as Lego blocks; a healthy spine would have these Lego blogs ever-so-slightly sitting on one another. An unhealthy spine would have these blocks tightly pressed together; and this is the gateway to many health ailments. Inflammatory-based disease is influenced by the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. Nerve stimulation directly affects the growth and function of inflammatory cells. Researchers discovered that dysfunction along this pathway results in various inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and mental health issues such as depression. A dysfunctional nervous, endocrine, and immune response also plays a significant role in immune-compromised health ailments such as chronic infections and cancer. Every system in our body including the immune system is coordinated and controlled by the nervous system. Immune organs include the spleen, lymph nodes and the thymus are all in communication with the brain and nerves connect them all. This communication process occurs so that they all talk with one another to coordinate the body’s response to what may be happening in the body; without this process we fall ill. If our nervous system is not functioning properly then the immune system cannot function properly; this makes our body susceptible to viruses, bacteria, and other illnesses that it can normally fight off.