It has been said that our senses are the most valuable abilities given to us to experience the pleasures of our world. Could you possibly imagine what life would be like without eyesight or the ability to hear? Take your imagination further and try to imagine what life would be like without any senses at all. When you do this, your mind will wonder to a place that is unimaginable. That is because you probably have lived your entire life with the ability to use all of your 5 senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.
So how exactly is it possible for your eyes to see, your ears to hear, or to feel something with your hands? The answer is simple, the Central Nervous System. In fact, you don’t exactly experience these sensations with your organs, you do so with your mind.
As an example, when you touch something that is smooth, the free nerve endings on your fingertips become excited according to amount of and duration that these nerve endings are being exposed to the texture. You then perceive the texture of smooth based on comparison of textures that are rough. The same goes for the nerve endings in your eyes, ears, nose, and tongue.
The moment a sensation is received by a nerve ending, the information is sent along the nerve pathways towards the brain. This information acts much like traffic along a highway in route to its destination. In using the sensation of touch as an example, think about what happens when you touch a hot stove.
The sensory information is received by the hand, travels up the sensory nerves in the arm, into a synapse (nerve connection) within the spinal cord, and eventually up to the brain. Once the brain processes the sensory information from the hot stove, a reflex will occur that causes you to pull away your hand before serious tissue damage occurs...usually this happens automatically without you even thinking about it.
The automatic processing of sensory information in the spinal cord will create an adaptive spinal reflex mechanism using the spinal cord and brainstem to autmomatically respond to unwanted stimulus. That same information will eventually reach the brain with a less than a second after the spinal reflex occurs. This is a time when you consciously become aware of the pain and sensations which further prompt you to take further action by squeezing the hand and running it under cold water. This example plays out in every instance of sensory processing. Both the subconscious and conscious parts of your brain receive the sensory input and will ignite a reaction in response to the stimulus.
"Our nerve systems transmit impulses of intelligence from brain to body and back to the brain. Any impairment to this transmission affects our ability to express life fully."
- Dr. Jeanne Ohm
What would happen if you touched that hot stove, heard a loud sound, or were exposed to extremely bright light and your Nervous system DID NOT respond?
You guessed it! Chances are your body would become damaged. Every second of every day your brain is processing information from all of its sensory organs. At the same time it is receiving and process information, it is also making decisions and executing countless orders along trillions of nerve endings out to every cell in your body! When sensory information is not processing properly, this could be a sign that there is neurological interference that is distorting these messages at the brainstem and Upper Cervical Spine.
Above: Upper Cervical Subluxation injury causing disruption to brainstem function and sensory processing between the brain and body.
Think about your nerve system like our highways and the traffic flowing along these highways represent the sensory information. Now think about what happens when a car accident or debris is blocking all or part of a lane. How well does traffic move when this happens? Not well at all. This is exactly what happens when the spine is not in proper alignment. All information from the body must first travel through the spine before it is able to be processed by the brain. If there is a traffic jam in the spine, sensory traffic will back up and the processing ability of the brain will slow down.
It is absolutely essential to understand this principle of sensory processing when dealing with health conditions and also in healthy individuals who want to experience life to the fullest. Many times after clients come into the office for upper cervical chiropractic care, they tell me their food tastes better, their sense of smell and ability to hear improves, balance normalizes, and even eyesight begins to change.
Not only is the sensory information to the brain interfered with, but also the information that we consciously and subconsciously send to our muscles and organs! This is why it is absolutely essential to ensure the spine is in proper alignment, so that you can interpret and adapt properly to your environment, 100% of the time.
There are several professionals such as behavior therapists, occupational therapists, and aromatherapists that try to improve the quality of neurological processing through external treatments and therapies. However, if the INTERNAL neurology and the spine is not in proper alignment, you will not receive the full benefit of what these therapies are trying to accomplish. Upper Cervical Chiropractic care restores natural processing of sensory information by removing physical interference within the body. The ultimate results being...FULL EXPRESSION OF YOUR LIFE!
Everything we experience, from our thoughts, our emotions, our 5 senses, and even that extra 6th sense many of us feel is processed via the neurological system. The spine is the door man which protects this ever so important system and it is absolutely paramount that we keep the doorman happy and protecting the experience of life. Care for your 5 Senses by getting regular Chiropractic check-ups and fueling it with proper nutrition and healthy thoughts.
Chiropractically Yours,
Dr. Josh
CEO - Transcendence Family Wellness Center
(586) 943-0584
#sensoryprocessing #chiropractic #Neurology #Children #Pediatric #FamilyWellness #ICPA #Health #UpperCervical #health
