Dr. Scardino's Health Blog

There are 24 moveable bones in the spine

Posted: February 23, 2011
By: Dr Gary Scardino

There are 24 moveable bones in the spine.  At times of muscular stress, the spinal bones can shift into the wrong position.  This is called vertebral subluxation.  The types of stress that can adversely affect the spinal muscles may have a physical, chemical or emotional cause. Physical stress is the stress that is caused by something that you do to your muscles or have had happen to your muscles.  For instance, job activities, posture, repetitive movements, exercise, accidents and bodily trauma are all sources of physical stress.  Chemical stress is the stress that affects your muscles when you take things into your body that are toxic, like drugs or medications, food additives and environmental pollutants.  Emotional stress affects the muscles by causing them to excessively contract when you are upset.  Most commonly the muscles affected by emotional stress are the neck and shoulder muscles.  These three stressors, physical, chemical and emotional, are the most common causes of the vertebral subluxation.

Once the vertebra (bone of the spine) has subluxated, the subluxation will affect the spinal muscle, spinal bone and spinal nerve.  The spinal muscle becomes contracted and tight, and this contraction may cause pain.  The spinal bone is no longer in the right joint position.  This creates friction on the bone itself which can very slowly wear down the bone and cause degenerative arthritis.  And finally, but most importantly, the subluxated vertebra puts pressure on the spinal nerve which disrupts the flow of nerve energy from the brain to the rest of the body.  This disruption in nerve flow interferes with the brain's ability to communicate with the rest of the body.  This breakdown in communication means whatever organ, tissue or cell that is on the other end of the nerve, will not function to the best of its ability.  The bottom line is that the human body needs all of its organs, tissues and cells to function properly for the body to be healthy.

The only way to know if you have a vertebral subluxation is to be checked by a Chiropractor.  No other health professional is licensed to locate and correct vertebral subluxations.  No other healthcare professional is even looking for vertebral subluxations.  And no other health professional would even know one if it saw one.  No drug, lotion, massage, exercise or supplement can remove a vertebral subluxation.  And you may have one or more and not even know it.  Get yourself checked today and learn more about reaching your greatest health potential.