Most people only turn to a chiropractor when it comes to an issue related directly to their neck or back. Many do not realize the vast benefits of chiropractic care, although it is becoming more sought after as people see personal results and improvements in their life without needing to go under the knife for surgery or take pills that can carry many different side effects.
Some of the most interesting research that is recent shows how these adjustments made to the spine impact the function of the prefrontal cortex in our brains. if spinal adjustments have an impact on this part of the brain, it’s possible that chiropractic can improve a lot of our higher-level functions, which can include things like behavior, decision making, memory, attention, intelligence, goal-directed tasks, processing of pain, and emotional response to it, autonomic function, motor control, organ control eye movement, and spatial awareness. The study showed that a chiropractic adjustment improves prefrontal cortex function by almost 20 percent on average.
Although research is still being done to understand exactly how much of an impact it can have on these individual processes in the brain, there is a vast amount of research showing how adjustments improve joint sense which is how our brains know how our body is positioned in space. Better proprioception (joint sense) leads to improved coordination, balance, muscle strength and therefore leading to less falls.
So, although there are great improvements in some musculoskeletal issues after a spinal adjustment, if what is true in this study, that chiropractic can improve bodily function and ultimately leading to individuals living at their highest potential.
Lelic, D, Niazi, IK, Holt, K, Jochumsen, M, Dremstrup, K, Yielder, P, Murphy, B, Drewes, A and Haavik, H (2016), “Manipulation of dysfunctional spinal joints affects sensorimotor integration in the pre-frontal cortex: A brain source localization study,” Neural Plasticity, Volume 2016 (2016).