Spinal Column Tonicity: Do you have it, Do you live it,

Spinal Column Tonicity: Do you have it, Do you live it,

Do you want it?

Tone to most people is interpreted as the treble and bass controls on your stereo. These affect which sound frequencies you hear. Boost the treble and the sound becomes thin, with very little detail. Boost the bass and the sound becomes muffled, losing its sparkle and focus. Too much or too little of either and the music doesn’t sound correct.

Your body has tone, too.

The dictionary defines tone as "the general condition of the body with reference to the vigorous and healthy discharge of its symptoms."

The tone of your body is connected by your nervous system. Your brain and spinal cord orchestrate the millions of details necessary to keep you alive.

Your nervous system sets the "tone" of each muscle, the amount of stomach acid produced, your blood pressure and your ability to resist a summer cold.

In 1910, Dr. D.D. Palmer, the discoverer of chiropractic health care wrote: "Life is the expression of tone. In that sentence is the basic principle of chiropractic. Tone is the normal degree of nerve tension. Tone is expressed in functions by the normal elasticity, activity, strength and excitability of the various organs, as observed in a state of health."

Chiropractic is still based on this. Since your body is self-healing, able to resist disease and fight off infection when functioning properly, when it cannot, interference to the nervous system is often involved. The most common source of interference is from abnormally moving bones covering your spinal cord. These are called vertebral subluxations.

On a typical visit to your Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.), an examination evaluating the overall tone of your body is made. Instead of conveniently labeled bass and treble controls, your doctor locates areas of the spine putting tension on your nervous system, affecting the "tone" of your body.

Drugs affect tone by chemically inducing function, such as caffeine, laxative, etc., or chemically reducing bodily functions, such as antacids, muscle relaxers, antihistamines, etc. These crude attempts ignore the regulatory role of the nervous system and merely treat symptoms.

Chiropractic care uses an entirely different approach. I have heard people say, "Once you go to a chiropractor, you have to go the rest of your life." Nonsense. Do you trim your hair, brush your teeth, cut your nails, for the same reasoning? You don’t have to – you choose to. In the same respect you may choose to attend to getting your spinal adjustment every now and then to maintain your tone and "quality" of life.

Many patients are surprised to learn that the purpose of their chiropractic adjustments is not to move bones, but to restore the nervous system to its proper tone and tension. As the tension of the spinal cord is reduced, the communication within the body improves and the body is able to function normally, restoring normal health. Without drugs or surgery. Naturally.

Dr. James Iwanoff is located in Agoura Hills and has been in practice for over 20 years. He can be reached at (818) 707-BACK or at www.ChiroExpert.com.