The Nervous System and Chiropractic: What You Need to Know Part 1 What are subluxations?
Your nervous system is the master control center of your entire body. Every thought, movement, and organ function depends on clear communication between your brain and body. But what happens when that communication gets interrupted? That’s where chiropractic comes in.
This blog series, The Nervous System and Chiropractic: What You Need to Know, will guide you through how your spine, nerves, and brain all work together—and how chiropractic adjustments can keep them running smoothly. Over seven blogs, we’ll explore topics like spinal misalignments (subluxations), your body’s motion and alarm sensors, the stress response, central sensitization, neuroplasticity, and ultimately, how chiropractic supports whole-body health.
Let’s start with the foundation: What are subluxations, and why do they matter?
Part 1: What Are Subluxations?
Most people think of the spine as just a stack of bones, but it’s much more than that. Your spine is a dynamic structure designed to move, protect your spinal cord, and allow clear communication between your brain and body. When the spine is moving properly, your nervous system works at its best. But when it doesn’t, problems can begin.
A Simple Definition
A subluxation happens when a spinal joint becomes misaligned or stuck. This doesn’t mean the bone is dislocated—it means the joint isn’t moving as it should. Even small restrictions in spinal movement can irritate nerves and reduce the quality of signals traveling between your brain and body. Think of it like a weak cell phone signal on a phone call. The message still gets through, but not as clearly.
How Subluxations Interfere with Brain-Body Communication
Think of your nervous system like a high-speed internet connection running through your body. Every second, it’s sending millions of messages between your brain and body—telling muscles when to move, your heart how fast to beat, your stomach when to digest, and even helping your immune system fight off threats. For your body to work at its best, those signals need a clear, uninterrupted path.
A subluxation—a misaligned or stuck spinal joint—can disrupt that flow. When a joint isn’t moving correctly, the nerves nearby can become irritated. This interference can scramble, delay, or weaken the messages traveling between your brain and body.
This miscommunication can show up in many ways:
Muscle problems – tightness, spasms, or weakness because the brain isn’t receiving accurate feedback.
Coordination issues – feeling clumsy or unbalanced because your body awareness is off.
Organ stress – slowed digestion, shallow breathing, or changes in blood pressure when nerve signals aren’t clear.
Energy dips – your body uses extra energy trying to compensate for the interference, leaving you feeling fatigued.
Altered immune function – your nervous system regulates immune responses, so interference can make it harder for your body to fight off illness.
Cognition – miscommunication can affect focus, memory, and mental clarity.
Sleep disturbances – improper nerve signaling can make it harder to fall asleep, stay asleep, or reach restorative sleep stages.
Overall adaptability – when nerve signals are scrambled, your body may respond slower or less effectively to stress, movement, or environmental changes.
An easy way to picture it is like an electrical circuit. When all the wires are connected properly, the lights shine bright. But if there’s a kink or short in the wire, the light flickers, dims, or doesn’t turn on at all. A subluxation acts like that kink—blocking the flow of energy and information. Because sleep, focus, energy, immunity, and overall adaptability rely on clear communication, even small misalignments can affect your entire body and daily life.
The longer a subluxation persists, the more your nervous system adapts to the interference, which can make it harder for your body to function efficiently. That’s why chiropractors focus on restoring clear communication between your brain and body—helping your entire system work at its best, day and night.
Everyday Causes of Subluxations
Subluxations don’t always happen from dramatic injuries like car accidents or falls. In fact, most develop slowly over time from common, everyday stressors. These stresses can pull joints out of alignment, irritate nerves, and interfere with the vital communication between your brain and body.
Physical Stress
Your posture, movement habits, and activity levels all affect spinal health. Long hours hunched over a computer or phone, carrying heavy bags, repetitive motions at work, or improper exercise form can gradually cause spinal joints to “lock up” or move less efficiently. Even simple habits like sleeping on a mattress that doesn’t support your spine can contribute. Over time, this physical stress leads to restricted joint movement and altered nerve signals, which your body must constantly compensate for—often creating muscle tension, stiffness, or pain.
Chemical Stress
What you put in your body also affects spinal and nervous system function. Poor nutrition, dehydration, caffeine or alcohol overuse, exposure to toxins, or even certain medications can stress your nervous system. When the body is chemically overloaded, muscles may tighten, inflammation can increase, and spinal joints may shift or lose mobility. The result? Communication between the brain and body becomes less efficient, energy dips, sleep suffers, and recovery slows.
Emotional Stress
Your mental and emotional state has a profound impact on your spine. Anxiety, frustration, grief, or ongoing worry can trigger the fight-or-flight response, causing muscles to tighten and joints to shift. This creates a chain reaction: tight muscles restrict joint motion, restricted joints interfere with nerve signaling, and your body enters a state of heightened stress. Over time, chronic emotional stress can make subluxations more persistent, affecting sleep, focus, energy, and your ability to adapt to daily challenges.
Lifestyle Habits
Even small, repeated habits can contribute to subluxations. Poor ergonomics, inconsistent exercise, lack of sleep, carrying stress physically in your shoulders or neck, or not taking time to move and stretch can slowly accumulate. These micro-stresses may seem minor individually, but together they can disrupt spinal alignment and nerve communication.
In short, subluxations are rarely caused by just one thing—they’re usually the result of multiple stressors building up over time. Physical, chemical, and emotional stress all interact to affect your spine, nervous system, and overall health. The good news? Chiropractic care, combined with mindful lifestyle choices, can help restore proper joint motion, calm nerve signaling, and improve your body’s ability to function and adapt.
Why Chiropractors Detect and Correct Subluxations
Chiropractic care focuses on more than just relieving discomfort—it’s about restoring proper movement, alignment, and communication within your nervous system. Detecting and correcting subluxations is a key part of that process. When a joint is misaligned or restricted, it can interfere with nerve signals, muscle function, organ systems, sleep, energy, and even mood. By addressing these subluxations, chiropractors help your body function at its best.
The Big Picture
Subluxations may be small, but their effects on the nervous system are big. By detecting and correcting them, chiropractic care helps restore the body’s ability to heal, adapt, and function at its best.
In the next blog, we’ll dive into the body’s motion sensors—mechanoreceptors—and how they play a vital role in brain-body communication.
Wellness Within Chiropractic is your local chiropractor in Hoschton, Braselton, and Jackson County, GA. From improving posture and mobility to supporting overall wellness, Dr. Carrillo provides personalized care to help you thrive. If you’re looking for chiropractic care close to home, book your visit today and start your journey to better health.