What is Spinal Hygiene?

Spinal hygiene is similar to dental hygiene whereby it is necessary to brush and floss your teeth daily as well as have regular dental checkups. In regards to spinal hygiene, it is necessary to stretch daily, do spinal moulding (using an orthotic to support your natural spinal curves) daily as well as regularly see a chiropractor for checkups. In the instance that your dental hygiene has been affected and there is a cavity, no brushing and flossing can fix it, only seeing a dentist will. The same goes for if you have a subluxation, only a chiropractor will be able to analyse, detect and remove the subluxation.

If you have good spinal hygiene – you have good posture, alignment, and function. If not, you may have a subluxation. Later, I will explain what subluxation is, why this is relevant to spinal hygiene, and in fact, why it’s relevant for you, your health wellbeing.

What is Subluxation?

The Australian Spinal Research Foundation defines a vertebral subluxation as a diminished state of being, comprising of a state of reduced coherence, altered biomechanical function, altered neurological function and altered adaptability.

What this means is that we know that subluxation influences a person’s state of being, that is, the health, wellbeing and ability to perform and function in the world. Subluxation also alters a persons coherence, how they actually and objectively relate and interact with the world. Most people think of a subluxation as an altered biomechanical function where there may be spinal alignment issues, postural issues, or “back out of place” issues. We also know that it affects neurological function because when you have altered curves in the spine, it affects your brain, nervous system and how your body expresses healing. Ultimately, subluxation affects adaptability as when you are under stress your body no longer adapts the way it should adapt. When you have pain or structural dysfunction, you can’t move and function the way you would like to. This is how you adapt to your environment. If you had somebody throw a ball at you and you can’t catch it, then you have diminished adaptation. If you try to lift something and hurt your back, then your lack of strength, tone and condition to your back means you can’t adapt to the challenges your environment has for you. All of these factors, influence how you live your life, how you heal and how you function. A chiropractic subluxation and its impact on spinal hygiene are all factors that influence these elements. We can summarise by simply saying…

Good Spinal Hygiene = Correct Spinal Alignment

Correct spinal alignment can be seen both inside and outside. On the outside, it is a posture that determines correct alignment whereby you should have an invisible plumb line straight down the side of the body from the ear, to the shoulder, to the hip, to the knee, and to the ankle.

Correct spinal alignment on the inside of your body can be seen via x-rays. At the front, there should be a plumb line straight down the middle of all vertebrates. On the side of a spinal x-ray, correct alignment will show even curvatures – a curve going in (lordosis) in the neck and low back as well as a curve going out (kyphosis) in the midback.

Simple takeaways for good spinal hygiene:

1. Stand tall
2. Sit correctly at your desk and don’t slump
3. Don’t look all the way down when using your phone
4. Keep your back straight when lifting

These simple things are obvious and important for spinal hygiene because otherwise, they could lead to postural changes, structural changes, and that could lead to tiredness, soreness and even symptoms. Ultimately, it leads to all those factors of subluxation and changes your health and wellbeing. It changes how you respond to your environment, alters your spine and nervous system and therefore influences your ability to live life fully and completely.

If you have any postural distortions, discomfort or pain, or are not functioning the way you would like to function, then there may be a spinal hygiene issue.

At Provolution Health, we check your posture, the function of the whole body and spine which allows us to uncover or not there are spinal hygiene issues at play. If there is, we can give you the right recommendations and actions to have the health that you need.

Feel free to give us a call on 6299 2660 to book your spinal hygiene check. If you have any questions, please reach out, we would love to be able to help you.