Grass Valley chiropractor, chiropractor in Grass Valley, CA

What is a Subluxation?

Subluxation is a term used in the chiropractic field to describe what happens when one of the vertebrae in your spine moves out of position. The word subluxation is derived from the Latin words meaning somewhat less than (sub) and to break (luxate). A subluxation is not a vertebra that is broken. Instead it is a vertebra that has become injured and cannot move in its normal ranges of motion.

A subluxated vertebra reacts by springing out of its normal range of motion with each step, which twangs the nerves exiting from the misaligned side of that particular vertebra. The affect is like a branch slapping the power line. It sends electrical surges into the muscles or organ where that nerve is going. Power surges are very disruptive to the normal functions of your body, just as they are to the sophisticated electrical equipment in your home. As a result, your health picture goes into stress. The stress tends to worsen over time until the subluxation is resolved.

There are two main ways that you develop subluxations. One cause is physical trauma. Toxic thinking or unresolved feelings can be every bit as traumatic as taking a bad fall. The trauma can be caused by a car accident, a fall, a sudden jar or long term repetitive trauma. The other occurrence of subluxation comes from regular actions such as improper sleeping position, poor posture, or lifting incorrectly. Once you have traumatically injured a vertebra, your incorrect posture recreates the trauma with each step you take. Or, your correct posture begins working the subluxation out and healing begins.

Dr. Mayfield teaches his patients correct posture and gait, as well as going over the way you perform your acts of daily living. Those things you are doing wrong shows up when he sits you in correct posture at the beginning of your session. That is when he discusses what is causing the misalignments that diminish your life force.

You can look at the section on "Spinal Degeneration Phases" to understand how your health picture degrades when you let your posture get worse each year. That lets your subluxation continue to worsen, taking your health down in the process.

Dr. Mayfield's emphasis is on helping you to heal these problems. In the section on "First Visit Expectations" you can learn about his protocols for healing subluxated vertebrae and restoring your health in the process. He is very successful in helping his patients to realign their spine. When your primary curves come back to normal, that is a great indicator of good health.

Within his first few years of practice, he realized that a patient's spine was telling a story about the health of their thought processes, their feelings, their attitudes and their beliefs. Those are also factors that must be dealt with if you truly want to restore your spine to proper alignment.