It’s coming from the top, Jim!

Have you ever wondered how our body stays alive?

No really! The amount of work that our body does to keep going, often times in great disregard to how much abuse we put our bodies through, it keeps going. How is this possible? How is it that our heart knows to continue to pump and at various speeds and strengths depending on the demand we place upon it? How is it that our digestive tract knows to release the enzymes to break down the exact element that our body needs at any given point? The answer lies in the nervous system.

What’s more amazing is that our body is designed to protect its most vital systems with a cage of armor made of bone. And it articulates too! It’s really quite amazing, and I find myself in awe regularly. What I find even more amazing is the fact that when our spine gets “stuck”, our body begins a process called inflammation which surrounds the area that is stuck. A little anatomy lesson here is that these joints are designed to let the nerves that come off the spine to pass through on their journey to the target tissue within the body. Back to the point. This inflammation is designed to help protect the joint and inform the owner, i.e., YOU, that there is a problem.

The way a steering wheel of the car directs the path that the tires take you, our spine has a steering wheel of sorts. The steering wheel of our spine is the first bone in our spine that the skull sits right on top of. It’s called the Atlas or C1, and it protects the most important part of the entire spinal cord. As the brain stem leaves the skull and begins its journey down the spine, it passes right through the atlas. Every nerve that goes through the body will have some influence by that bone. This means that nerves that go to your toes will run pass through the corridor of the atlas.

In easier terms, the atlas bone affects every function of the body. Chronic pain, headaches, migraines any many other conditions have a direct connection to the atlas. Instead of chasing after symptoms with a pill or surgery, try taking a different approach. It’s safe, effective, and best yet, is going right to the source.