Is Sitting is the New Smoking?

The title of this post has made its way to being a known slogan of sorts in the health field and we at Complete Chiropractic totally agree with it!

Simply put, humans are designed not to be sedentary but, rather, in constant motion. A study from Australia concluded that sitting 8 hours a day increased death risk by 15% and 11 hours a day increased the risk by a whopping 40%!

Motion does several things that benefit the spine as well as the body. For starters,

 motion is the only way our spinal discs get its much needed nutrition and hydration. The medical term for this is called inbibition, which stems from the Latin root word "imbibere" meaning to drink. The spinal disc is an avascular structure, meaning that it doesn't have blood vessels going through it to deliver vital nutrients to keep it alive. When the body is active, it activates the spinal disc in a pump-like motion where the disc expels toxins and used up nutrients while taking in a fresh supply of water and essential nutrients to keep it functioning properly.

Motion also pumps the body’s cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and the lymphatic fluid that are absolutely essential to life in ways that you may have not known!

Have you ever heard of the 80’s rock band Spinal Tap?

 The band’s name was taken from the medical procedure where they extract the cerebrospinal fluid from the lower spine in order to diagnose several conditions such as meningitis, alcoholism, epilepsy, cerebral hemorrhages to name a few. CSF functions range from physical support & excretions, blood & fluid transport to, from and within the brain, known as intra-cerebral transport, as well as regulation of the chemical environment of the entire Central Nervous System! CSF also protects of the brain from sudden blood pressure changes (intracranial pressure).  This fluid moves throughout the spinal cord and the brain by the spine and body’s motion and stagnates when the body is motionless.

The range of motion of the spine is also reduced by a Spinal Shift, which we focus on correcting in our office by our NeuroSpinal Corrective approach. You can always find out more about NeuroSpinal Correction and spinal shifts by coming in for a complimentary consultation or our group presentations.

Tidbit: Before the discovery of the CSF by the medical field, early chiropractors discovered it and its vital role to life and dubbed it liquid light as a way of highlighting its significance.

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