Postural Corrective Care
Detecting and correcting or reducing subluxations will address the bone and nervous system components of the Vertebral Subluxation Complex (VSC) well, but will be limited in its effect to address the soft tissue components or degenerative changes. To adequately address all components of the VSC, we often combine chiropractic adjustments of the spine and extremities with postural corrective spinal rehabilitation. This allows us to better address the damage that a subluxation has caused to your discs, ligaments, tendons, and muscles, thus reducing VSC’s, and improving the overall function of your neuro-musculo-skeletal system and your health.
Our job as chiropractors is to find bones that don’t move well and to adjust them to improve their motion. However, your body’s overall posture will also determine how individual bones move, especially long term. It is important to simultaneously address any postural abnormalities with postural corrective exercises in addition to adjustments. This will address the focal stress points within your spine and tissues, as well as improve the stress placed on your body as a whole due to gravity.
To simplify, there are two types of tissue in your body: Red tissue and white tissue. Red tissue is your muscle. It is red because it has a blood supply. Nutrients travel into muscle through blood, and waste products leave muscle through blood. Your white tissue consists of your ligaments, tendons, and discs. These tissues are white because they have little or no blood supply. The way white tissue receives nutrients and gets rid of waste is through the exchange of water. This flow of water in and out of the tissue is due to motion, or specifically loading and unloading cycles.
When your joints fail to move well because of postural distortions and/or VSC’s, the white tissues of those joints cannot get an adequate flow of water in and out, which means they don’t get the nutrients they need, nor flush the waste as they should. As a result, your white tissues do not stay healthy, and begin to dry out and break down. Simply put, you develop degenerative changes (arthritis) in those joints.
As VSC’s and poor posture remain uncorrected, red tissues surrounding your spine become dysfunctional, and do not properly support or stabilize your spine and posture. These internal spinal core muscles become either shortened and tight, or lengthened and weak. This muscular imbalance further contributes to spinal joint dysfunction (VSC’s), abnormal postural changes, and extremity problems.
The lack of proper posture and abnormal motion of your joints causes persistent micro-damage to your white tissue. The body continuously heals this white tissue, but it often heals wrong because the damage is not properly addressed. As a result, your spine and body progressively grow into a certain posture under the continuous load of gravity. This overall posture determines how individual bones and whole regions of your body, spine, and extremities move. As your posture worsens, your white tissue takes on more damage until you make improvements.
To improve your posture, we coach you through our postural corrective exercise program. This program is designed to restore good motion into targeted white tissues of your spine and body, remodeling the tissue. In addition, the red tissues of the spine and body become balanced, and your nervous system is trained to maintain more appropriate postures, which will reduce VSC’s. As your posture improves, your movement improves, and your symptoms decrease. Your body will be better equipped to counteract the negative effects of gravity, allowing you to stay more upright as opposed to the typical slumped posture we often see as people age. This type of comprehensive care produces a longer lasting effect on your body and overall health.