There are plenty of ways we can explain the subluxation. And due to the fact that both Vasilis and I have worked in different countries explaining the subluxation in different languages we have found a way to make it more fun. Who knows all the anatomical terms regarding the spine and the nervous system? We would be lying if we didn’t say that we have to look some stuff up every once in a while. Especially now in Greek, my anatomical vocabulary isn’t 100%. So, we had to figure out a way to explain this in a simple language so that I can pronounce it and so that even a 7-year old gets it. A fun way of doing that is with analogies. With an analogy you compare something that is complicated and difficult to understand with something that we all know and use every day. It’s important to remember that an analogy is used to get a rough idea, not to give an in-depth explanation. The analogy will always have its shortcomings when it comes to explaining the actual phenomenon. Let’s see what you think of my favourite analogy for the subluxation.
Imagine that your spine and nervous system are like a guitar. The strings of the guitar are your nerves and the wooden frame of the guitar is your spine. The guitar strings are attached at the top and at the bottom of the guitar just as your nerves are connected to the top bones of the spine and to the lowest bones of the spine. The tension of the strings can be regulated by those little tuning pegs at the top. The tension of the strings is very important because it determines how well the notes sounds when you play the guitar. Sounds are vibrations of air that have specific frequencies and when these frequencies match, we are listening to music and if not, well to something we call noise. (I know, music taste determines greatly whether we call something music or noise but let’s not focus on this now.) When you play the guitar and you place your fingers on specific areas called “frets,” you alter the length of part of the strings that vibrates, hence you change its vibration. You now create a melody of vibrations that, assuming you know what you’re doing, starts to sound like a song.
The nerves, just like those guitar strings, require to be “in tune” for the body to “play in harmony.” Here it’s the position of the individual bones and the overall curvatures in the spine that regulate the tension of the nerves. The curves in the spine help us absorb shocks, but when we lose them, they alter the length of the nerves and, just like in the guitar, this changes their tension and vibration. The same happens when individual bones in the spine are impinging nerves just like playing specific frets. We know that the nerves are the medium of communication between the brain and the body and that if the tension is anything else than “just right,” the messages or instructions from the brain to the body are altered. The body loses its harmony because some organ is not playing in melody. Just like the song being “off” when a string is not properly tuned or when you make a mistake playing the chords. The bottom line is that when our nerves are properly tuned and the body’s melody in harmony, we are healthy. Chiropractic adjustments “tune” the nervous system by addressing subluxations that create pressure on the nerves changing their tension.
Tom
