A spinal subluxation is when a vertebra in your spine is misaligned and in the incorrect position. When your vertebrae become misaligned, causing intense pressure on the nerve roots within your spine, proper spine alignment is crucial. This makes it difficult for your nerves to properly function to send signals between your body and your brain. 

If subluxation of the spine goes untreated for a long time, it can cause unbalance within other parts of your body that depend on your vertebrae to work properly. 

Symptoms of Spine Subluxation

Because spinal subluxation can damage other parts of your body, it’s important you recognize its symptoms as quickly as possible so you can seek professional care. Here are some of the most common signs that indicate you could have a subluxation of the spine:

• You’re unable to move: Spinal subluxation can cause muscle inflexibility or stiffness. This could make performing ordinary everyday tasks you’re used to more difficult than normal.
• You have pain in your neck or back: Pain spreading up through your back and into your neck is one of the most common signs of spinal subluxation. Pain intensity can vary from sharp, debilitating pain to mild discomfort.
• You suffer from regular headaches: Headaches can be caused by excess pressure built up from a subluxation. The pressure builds up from your spine until it reaches your head, resulting in tension headaches that often appear suddenly.

A subluxation of the spine can also cause inflammation, muscle tenderness, numbness, pain, loss of feeling, and a burning or tingling sensation in the problem area. 

Causes Subluxation of the Spine

There are various different things that can cause spinal subluxations, but one of the most common is physical trauma. Being in a car crash, an accident at work, or injured during a sporting activity can all result in a subluxation of the spine.

It’s not just major incidents that can misalign your vertebrae. Micro-trauma from regular everyday habits, such as looking down at a phone screen for hours, carrying a heavy bag on one side of your body, and sleeping on your arm every night, can also cause spinal subluxations.

There doesn’t even need to be any physical involvement at all to push your vertebrae out of alignment. Stress is also a major cause of spinal subluxation. When you’re feeling very stressed or anxious, physical tension builds up in your body — especially in your upper back and neck. Without intervention, this can cause your muscles to tighten up and cause subluxation of the spine.

Treatment

If you think you’ve got spinal subluxation, the best thing you can do is to make an appointment with your chiropractor. Chiropractors are specialists in correcting misalignments, including subluxation of the spine and other parts of the body.

Your chiropractor will be able to restore your misaligned vertebrae, returning them to their proper position within your spinal column. To do this, they’ll carry out a treatment known as a spinal adjustment.

This non-invasive practice involves your chiropractor using their hands to apply careful and purposeful pressure to your spine in specific locations and directions. The manual force works to restore the correct alignment and mobility of your spine.

Spine alignment adjustments are usually carried out with your chiropractor’s hands alone. But they will sometimes use special instruments to detect and determine the location of a subluxation. 

Chiropractic adjustments are almost always painless treatments. If you’ve suffered a spinal subluxation as the result of a serious injury, you may experience some mild discomfort during your treatment due to increased inflammation.

This is normal and should pass shortly after your session. Some patients also experience mild discomfort in their extremities for a brief period after their adjustment. This is also normal and is caused by the sudden decompression of the problem nerve root.

At home

While you’re waiting for your appointment, there are a few things you can do to feel better. If your misalignment is minor, you may experience some relief by doing exercises that carefully stretch your back and neck, taking over-the-counter painkillers, resting as much as possible, and applying a cold compress to the affected area.

Make an appointment

Even if you feel better following the at-home approach, we still recommend you make an appointment at one of our Veeva chiropractic clinics. Your chiropractor will be able to give you a full body assessment and may be able to get to the root of the problem so you can avoid spinal subluxations in the future.

As well as giving you massage therapy and spinal adjustments, your chiropractor can give you general health and wellness advice to keep your spine in good shape. They can help you develop healthy everyday habits, such as sleeping in the proper position and balancing weight while carrying things, to take care of your spine and prevent it from becoming misaligned again.