It’s amazing to think that these small bones are holding us upright when they are able to move so freely.  How can they move like that yet support a human frame?  When we look closely at the spine we can see that there are many supportive structures surrounding it.  There are many ligaments, which are strong cable like connective tissue,  holding bones to other bones.  They appear as white strands running from all different parts of the vertebrae. There are 5 layers of muscle on top of the spine and they connect to the vertebrae with tendons.  These muscles are very unique and they give the spine the ability to move in all the different directions.  The middle of the back gets its support from ribs that wrap around and form joints with the vertebrae.
  Probably the most incredible part of the spine is that it houses the most important nerve pathway in the body, the spinal cord.  Yes it’s true, unbelievably the spinal cord runs down the spine from your neck into your lumbar spine.  The spinal cord is a direct extension of the brain and allows transmission of all your vital information to run the entire body.  Coming off the spinal cord are spinal nerve roots.  These nerve roots exit the spinal cord between the vertebrae going to the right and left sides.  This is how the brain communicates to every tissue, cell and organ in the body.

  So you can see how the spine is not only a freely movable structure, but it also protects the vital nerve pathway known as the spinal cord. Keeping the spine in proper alignment is vital as it is shown that misaligned spinal bones can cause pressure on the sensitive nerve roots exiting the spine and interferes with the transmission of information from the brain.

Use a down pillow if possible. Use enough pillows to support your head in a neutral position. Make an imaginary line from your belly button to your nose and be sure that your nose isn’t above or below that line. You don’t walk with your head leaning to one side or the other so you wouldn’t want to sleep in that position either.

Eight hours of sleep is recommended to repair and recover completely. Once the spine is properly aligned proper sleep habits help to restore muscles and tendons surrounding the spine so that long term correction is easier to obtain.

This pressure on the nerve, called subluxation, sometimes causes severe pain and many times dysfunction in the body. A chiropractor is specially trained to locate these misalignments and correct them, thus restoring normalcy and allowing the body to heal itself.

Chiropractic is very safe and extremely effective in the treatment of low back pain. Chiropractors treat patients with herniated discs, acute muscle spasm and many other conditions that cause low back pain.