Reflection

Both water and the spine have the capacity to mirror. The tone and tension of the spine reflects the tone and tension of how someone is living their life. A tense spine reveals bound energy, which is often the precursor to dis-ease. Like flowing water sustains the earth, a spine that is free to move - to transmit information and energy that organizes and heals - can nourish the body.

The fascial covering of the brain is called the meninges. The outer layer is called the tough mother (dura mater). The meninges protect, contain, and guide fluid within and around the brain. The places where the dura folds are called reflections. These areas create anatomic regions, “separating” the right and left hemispheres and the cerebrum from the cerebellum. I say “separating” because everything in the body is connected and any division we recognize is one imposed by the mind, not one that exists in the continuity of the living body.

The dura covers the brain and the spinal cord, creating a sleeve around tail of the brain as it exits the skull. The dura anchors into the tailbone (coccyx). When we talk about tension in the spine, we are talking about tension in the dural sleeve. This tension can be seen, palpated, and measured in chiropractic analysis. The tension on the spinal cord is transmitted to the dura. The muscles, joints, and posture of the spinal system reflect this deeper tension on the tissues of the central nervous system.

Adverse tension in the spine alters nerve signal and blood flow. Our ability to express health, maintain balance, and adapt to challenge requires clear and effective communication between the brain and the body. Chiropractic looks to identify where communication is being impeded and adjust the local conditions so that information, energy, and ease can flow into and through the body.

Yoga and Chiropractic

I often connect yoga with chiropractic as examples of disciplines that are often narrowly understood. Is yoga a form of exercise? Yes. Is it therapeutic? Yes. Do you need special clothing to practice it? Not really. But, here’s the thing - the purpose of yoga is not physical fitness. You can use asana as an exercise, but that is not its sole or primary function.

Similarly, the purpose of chiropractic is not relief of neck and back pain. It is certainly effective in addressing these and other musculoskeletal issues, but this is not and never has been its sole or primary function.

Like yoga, there is a science, philosophy, and art that informs the practice of chiropractic. Simply, the energy of life that sustains and coordinates health and harmony in the body transits the nervous system. When there is interference with the conversation between the brain and any part of the body, we experience dis-ease/dis-order. Chiropractic identifies where and how this interference is affecting the nervous system (often in the spine), and offers a specific signal in the form of an adjustment to help reestablish equilibrium.

This perspective means chiropractic is not a treatment for a condition any more than yoga is a marketing vehicle for stretchy pants. When we acknowledge that freedom, clarity, sanity, coherence - the expression and experience of intelligence in matter - is the objective, we can see that the therapeutic aspects are a natural and downstream effect from starting closer to the Source.

(More) Heart Rate Variability

Heart rate variability (HRV) measures the time intervals between adjacent heart beats. When you sit down for the 3 minute reading in our office, the HRV instrument reads your pulse and the skin temperature of your hand. From this data, the computer is able analyze how your autonomic nervous system is functioning. By looking at both resilience and the balance between sympathetic (fight/flight) and parasympathetic (rest/digest) tone, this reliable, non-invasive, and quick scan provides some really important information about how you have been and are currently able to adapt to stress.

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) coordinates the vital functions of your body, such as heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, and sweating. The ANS has three branches, two of which are easily mapped to the spine: sympathetic and parasympathetic. The sympathetic nervous system is activated when we encounter actual or perceived danger - this is the fight/flight response we feel when distressed. This part of the ANS originates in the thoracic spine (where your ribs are). The parasympathetic nervous system regulates rest and repair and originates in the upper neck and lower back (sacrum).

HRV measures the balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic tone. Like the gas and brake pedals in your car, both are important and neither should be activated all of the time. We often consider stress as having a negative connotation. What may be stressful for one person is energizing for another. I think it depends on the person and the context. Running for exercise because you want to is different than running for exercise because you are forced to, which is also different than running away from a bear. Eustress refers to “good stress” - activities which are taxing to the body and mind, but that contribute to health. Whether we consider an event or activity as eustress or distress depends largely on how well balanced the ANS is and how much energy is available to adapt.

When talking about the ANS, the energy available to adapt to stress is called resilience.

Resilience is the reserve energy in our bodies that allows us to prepare for, recover from, and adapt in the face of stress, adversity, trauma, and challenge.

Resilience varies based on the the environment and how adaptive and flexible your nervous system is. HRV measures the resilience of the ANS, which is why it is such a useful tool for chiropractic. Chiropractic facilitates the flexibility, adaptive capacity, and resilience in nervous system by directly addressing areas in the spine that are limiting the flow of energy between the brain and the body. Chiropractic is one of the ways you can positively influence your HRV. My 2021 blog post about HRV contains references and goes into more detail about this technology, as well as six ways to support the nervous system.

Two years and many scans later the most important things I have found both professionally and personally to improve HRV are meditation/contemplative practice, regular chiropractic care, and time in Nature. Our ability to adapt to the inevitable and increasing stressors that life presents depends on the tone and tension of the nervous system. HRV reflects our capacity to adapt to stress. Being able to measure this capacity is an invaluable tool. It provides a window into health and a way to track progress over time.

To learn more about this technology and how it relates to the work we do in the practice, click here.