Think of your nervous system as your body’s anti-virus software. When your body is functioning normally, your nerve impulses tell your brain that everything is okay – like an “all-clear” message from your computer’s anti-virus software. When your body has Trojans and spyware (aches and pains), nerve impulses tell your brain that all is not well. When our anti-virus software alerts us to problems, we fix those problems immediately, don’t we? So why is it that when our bodies send us an alert, we either ignore it or use a temporary fix, instead of dealing with the root of the issue?
The nervous system is composed of the brain, spinal cord and nerves. The spinal cord is made of millions of nerves that run from the brain through the spinal column. The nerves that make up the spinal cord exit the bones of the spine and go to every tissue, organ and gland of the body. In fact, the spinal cord is so valuable that it is completely protected by the spine.
The nervous system has two primary jobs. First, it records and informs the body of pain or injury. For example, if you have a pebble in your shoe, a nerve will be irritated. A nerve will send a message through the spinal cord to the brain telling it that there is an irritation, damage or pressure on a nerve. The brain interprets the message as pain to inform you that something is wrong. Without a nerve being irritated, you cannot experience pain. To eliminate the pain you either remove the irritation to the nerve through chiropractic care, deaden/numb the nerve with medication, or cut the nerve with surgery.
The second role of the nervous system plays is in coordinating and controlling all of the functions of the body. Every single function of the body depends on the nervous system to function normally. These functions can include digestion, breathing, the secretion of hormones, movement, and circulation just to name a few.
When there is pressure or irritation to a nerve of function, there is no pain to experience. What occurs, as proven in laboratory experiments, is that when a nerve that controls function is pressured or irritated, there will be a change or an alteration in the normal function of the body. This process is referred to as malfunction.
Within medicine there are different categories of disease. For example there are infectious disease and functional diseases. An example of functional diseases would be diabetes, asthma, migraines, colitis, etc. These diseases occur because the body has lost its normal function. Any form of health care that would improve function would obviously help improve the chances to recover from these problems.
One of the positive side effects of the nervous system working normally is an improved ability to deal with stress. Stress is a major contributor to most major diseases and allows the body to become more susceptible to infection. If a nervous system could handle stress properly, a person’s overall health could be greatly improved.
The World Health Organization has defined health as follows: "Health is a state of optimal physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."
To be healthy, you need more than the lack of symptoms. Having no symptoms does not guarantee you are healthy.
If the nervous system is functioning correctly, the body can function correctly, resistance is higher, and health is improved. Unless the cause of the illness is addressed and not just the symptoms, you will not be able to maintain good health.
If a person has a headache, which is a symptom, they can take a pill to remove the symptom. The medicine can deaden or numb the ability for the nerves to register pain. This however, does not correct the cause of the problem. If the cause of the problem is not addressed, the symptoms will just return and maybe even worse. I f the cause of the headache, for example, is muscle tension caused by local irritated nerves then only by addressing the cause could you correct the problem and become a healthier person.
If you address only the symptoms, the cause remains. If you address the cause not only do the symptoms disappear but you regain normal function and improve your health.