What Causes Subluxations?
You may have heard the fancy-sounding term “subluxations.” Whether you’ve been to a chiropractor and heard the phrase, or you’re Dr. Googling your back pain, chances are you’ve come across the term.
A subluxation is a misalignment of one or more of the vertebrae in your spine, causing discomfort and pain.
These subluxations can cause nerve interference, which can lead to sleep disruption, pain, difficulty moving, and a whole host of other issues.
But what exactly causes subluxations?
The 3 T’s
If you suffer from subluxations of the spine, your problems have been caused by one or more of what’s called “the 3 T’s”: Trauma, Toxins, and Thoughts.
This is the most well-known and usually obvious of the 3 T’s.
If you suffer from a neck injury following a car accident, or back pain from a sports injury, you’ve been the victim of trauma.
Trauma is any injury to your spinal column, sometimes caused by great force. However, not all traumas are the result of a fall or crash; some “micro traumas” happen little by little every day, building you up to pain and discomfort.
Daily habits such as carrying a too-heavy purse on one shoulder, sleeping in the wrong position, or slouching in your desk chair during the work day can cause smaller injuries to your vertebrae. Over time, the damage done by these micro traumas collects, leading to disruptive subluxations.
This cause of subluxations doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve lived next to a nuclear power plant for years; instead, it means that the build-up of toxins in your body as the result of some of your daily choices may be causing you pain.
Your body is full of chemicals (Remember, water is a chemical, too!), and when the chemicals in your body are in proper balance, you’re healthy. But if they’re imbalanced, you can experience pain, illness, and discomfort.
Toxins can come from a variety of everyday sources, including highly processed foods, air pollution, water pollution, and dangerous chemicals in the products you use to clean your home.
While one use may not cause you to notice a difference, the slow accumulation over time of these toxins can cause muscle contraction or change the length of your muscle fibers, leading to subluxations.
While your thoughts don’t directly contribute to whether or not you have back and neck pain, stress can.
Stress is the top cause of subluxations, and with more and more American adults reporting feeling stressed because of their obligations at work and home, more people will experience back and neck pain related to stress.
When you’re stressed, you tighten the muscles of your neck and upper back. This tension, over time, can lead to muscle changes and damage which can pull your vertebrae out of alignment.
Experienced Chiropractic Care in Frederick, MD
One of the main goals of chiropractic care is correcting any subluxations that may exist in your back and shoulders that could be causing pain. Thanks to the compassionate, experienced chiropractic team at Lipinski Chiropractic, you can get relief from your back, neck, and shoulder pain caused by subluxations, giving you back your normal life.