How many times have you heard about that “healthy man” who went for a check up because he was having some unusual pain?
Doctors’ examination lead to the clean bill of health (everything fine), only for him to peel over dead within a short time thereafter.
So why am I using this example? Well, let me ask you this … is pain a good indicator to determine if you are healthy or not? Lets explore this a little bit.
Let’s look at the anatomy of the nerve.
Nerves are composed of two branches that have very specific purposes.
Now depending on how your body is distorted, twisted, deviated or contorted will determine how the nerves are affected. Also depending on the intensity of the distortions, the problem could be dealing with one, two or all three branches of the nerve.
The Two branches include:
- Motor Branch
- Sensory Branch
A combination of these branches are used by the Autonomic Nervous System which I will briefly describe below.
The Motor Branch (Nerves) carry signals from the brain (and spinal cord) into the muscles, glands and skin of your body
The Sensory Branch (Nerves) carries signals from the body’s internal and external environment into the Central Nervous System (CNS) to interpret and process for necessary responses to keep the body as healthy and vibrant as possible based on the conditions it’s presented.
The Autonomic Nervous System Control and Regulate all the internal organs without you having to think about it. It consists of both sensory and motor nerves sending and receiving information to and from the body and the environment. It further compartmentalizes into two divisions Sympathetic (responsible for getting you ready for stress related situations that require more alertness and awareness) and Parasympathetic (designed to relax and rest the body as well as digest). These two components work together to continuously regulating bodily functions such as the heart rate, digestion, respiratory rate, pupillary response, urination, and sexual arousal.
Within the sensory nerve fibers, there is a small portion of them dedicated towards pain stimuli. They are called Nociceptors. Roughly 20% of sensory nerve fiber deal with pain.
So think about it.
Is Pain A Good Indicator To Determine Whether You Are Healthy Or Not?
Most of the nerves are dedicated towards “function”.
Functional performance include but are not limited to activities such as:
- Thinking clearly
- Being sharp and alert
- Digesting well
- Fighting pathogens effectively
- Adapting to your environment swiftly
- Regulating when to exert and when to relax
- Moving agilely without considerations
- and much much more
and although nobody wants to be in pain … and when you are in pain, it most definitely needs to be addressed, but usually, by the time you reach the point of pain, many factors have already taken place that distorted your body which you were unaware of simply because the body did a good job at compensating for all the distortions, complications, misuses and so on.
Fact is a person can never really know whether his/her nervous system is healthy or not unless he/she get it checked out. Most patients come to my office saying they are doing great, and after receiving their chiropractic adjustment and getting their nervous system a little better calibrated, they always leave amazed at the difference before and after.
The paradox is the distortions occur very subtly and under your radar. You compensate and move on with your day not realizing how wound up you are. Things might irritate you or overwhelm you easier, but you blame it on the work load or the boss, the situation or so on until one day you realize you have to do something about it. After getting your nervous system adjusted, the same tasks seem more manageable. your threshold to handle stress increases. You can do things effectively and efficiently. You can debug the problems you were having at work. Truly the list is endless.
When you have a properly functioning nervous system, you simply shine brighter and function effectively.
Don’t wait for pain to show up before you decide to get your nervous system checked. Get it checked regularly so you can live a healthy, happy life where you shine bright!