How does the Chiropractic adjustment work?

How Chiropractic Adjustments Heal Your Body Naturally.

If you’ve ever wondered what happens during a chiropractic adjustment—or why that “pop” can bring such incredible relief—you’re not alone. Chiropractic care has helped millions of people find natural pain relief and improved mobility, but many don’t fully understand the science behind how it works.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the fascinating mechanisms behind chiropractic adjustments, what they do to your body, and why this holistic treatment approach continues to deliver outstanding results for patients dealing with pain, reduced mobility, and decreased quality of life.

Understanding Your Spine: An Engineering Marvel

Before we dive into how adjustments work, let’s understand what chiropractors are adjusting. Your spine isn’t just a stack of bones—it’s an incredibly sophisticated system designed to support movement, protect your nervous system, and maintain your overall health.

Your spine consists of 24 movable vertebrae, along with your sacrum and coccyx. Between each vertebra are:

• Intervertebral discs that cushion and absorb shock
• Facet joints that guide and control movement
• Ligaments that provide stability and support
• Muscles that generate movement and maintain posture
• Nerves that transmit vital information between your brain and body

When all these components work together harmoniously, you move freely, feel great, and your body functions optimally. But when things go wrong—through injury, poor posture, repetitive stress, or the natural aging process—problems can develop that affect not just your spine, but your entire body.

Facet Joints: The Gliding Knuckles of Your Spine

One of the most important—yet often misunderstood—components of your spine are the facet joints. If you’ve ever experienced neck or back pain that you could pinpoint with your finger, or sharp pain when twisting or bending, your facet joints may be the culprit.

What Are Facet Joints?

Think of your facet joints as the knuckles of your spine. These are small, paired joints located on the back (posterior) side of each vertebra, connecting one vertebra to the next. Each facet joint contains:

• A joint capsule that surrounds and protects it
• Cartilage that allows smooth, frictionless movement
• Synovial fluid that lubricates the joint
• Nerve endings that provide proprioceptive feedback

How Facet Joints Enable Movement

These remarkable joints slide and glide as you move, allowing your spine to:

• Bend forward and backward (flexion and extension)
• Twist and rotate side to side
• Tilt and lean laterally
• Perform complex, combined movements

Without healthy facet joints, even simple movements like turning to look behind you while driving or bending to tie your shoes would be impossible—or at least extremely painful.

What Goes Wrong with Facet Joints?

As you go through life, your spinal discs naturally undergo an aging process. They lose height, hydration, and some of their shock-absorbing capacity. When this happens, your facet joints are forced to take on extra load and stress that they weren’t originally designed to handle.

This excess pressure can cause:

• Adhesions: Scar-like tissue that restricts normal gliding motion
• Restricted motion: Decreased range of movement in specific directions
• Inflammation: Swelling and irritation of the joint capsule
• Bone spurs (osteophytes): Bony overgrowths that develop in response to abnormal stress
• Degenerative arthritis: Progressive breakdown of the cartilage
• Pain: Both local pain at the joint and referred pain to surrounding areas

The good news? Facet joints thrive on movement. Proper movement helps them stay healthy, maintains their lubrication, nourishes the cartilage, and may even slow down the degenerative process.

How Chiropractic Adjustments Help Facet Joints

This is where chiropractic care shines. Spinal adjustments have been scientifically shown to reduce adhesions in facet joints, allowing them to move more freely with less restriction and pain. Research using MRI imaging has actually captured facet joints “gapping”—creating space—during and after adjustments.

A groundbreaking 2013 study published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics used MRI technology to observe what happens to facet joints during spinal manipulation. The researchers found measurable changes in joint space, confirming that adjustments create movement in restricted joints.

When your facet joints are moving properly, you experience:

• Reduced pain and stiffness
• Improved range of motion
• Better posture and body mechanics
• Enhanced quality of life
• Decreased likelihood of future problems

We believe that when you’re moving better, you’re feeling better—and we’re proud to help our Miami Lakes patients achieve and maintain optimal spinal function.

Disc Issues and How Chiropractic Care Helps

Disc herniations, bulges, protrusions, and extrusions are among the most common reasons people seek chiropractic care. And honestly, most people don’t just visit because they have a disc issue—they come because that disc problem has significantly impacted their quality of life, preventing them from working, exercising, playing with their children, or even sleeping comfortably.

Understanding Your Spinal Discs

Your intervertebral discs are remarkable structures. Each disc consists of:

• Nucleus pulposus: A gel-like center that acts as a shock absorber
• Annulus fibrosus: Tough, layered outer rings that contain the nucleus
• Endplates: Cartilaginous layers that connect the disc to the vertebrae above and below

These discs serve critical functions:

• Cushioning impact and distributing loads
• Allowing flexibility and movement
• Maintaining proper spacing between vertebrae
• Protecting nerve roots as they exit the spine

What Happens When Discs Go Wrong?

Disc problems occur on a spectrum:

• Disc degeneration: Loss of disc height and hydration
• Disc bulge: The disc extends beyond its normal boundary but the outer layers remain intact
• Disc herniation: The outer layers tear, and inner material pushes out
• Disc protrusion: A specific type of herniation where the nucleus extends through the annulus
• Disc extrusion: Severe herniation where disc material breaks away from the disc entirely

When disc material presses on nerve roots, you can experience:

• Radiating pain down your arms or legs
• Numbness and tingling
• Muscle weakness
• Loss of reflexes
• Severe local pain and muscle spasm

The Chiropractic Approach to Disc Problems

Exciting new research has begun to showcase what chiropractors have witnessed for years: specific chiropractic techniques can influence the pressure inside your spinal discs and provide outstanding results for people with disc issues.

How Adjustments Help Discs:

1. Reducing Intra-Discal Pressure: Specific adjustment techniques can create negative pressure within the disc, potentially drawing herniated material back toward the center
2. Opening Neural Passages: Adjustments can increase the space where nerves exit the spine (the intervertebral foramen), reducing nerve compression
3. Improving Movement: Restoring proper motion to restricted spinal segments enhances nutrient flow to the discs and facilitates healing
4. Decreasing Inflammation: Adjustments can reduce local inflammation around the disc and nerve roots

The Research Is Clear

A landmark 2013 study published in JMPT compared chiropractic adjustments to imaging-guided lumbar nerve root injections for patients with MRI-confirmed disc herniations. The results were remarkable:

Patients who received chiropractic adjustments experienced better outcomes than those who received spinal injections.

This research demonstrates that if you have an MRI showing a disc issue, surgery or injections are NOT your only options. Your body has an incredible ability to heal naturally, even from disc herniations—especially when supported by appropriate chiropractic care.

Core Strength Matters

Prevention is always better than treatment. Keeping your core muscles strong and flexible can significantly decrease your likelihood of suffering a disc bulge or herniation. Your core muscles—including your abdominals, obliques, lower back muscles, and deep stabilizers—act as a natural back brace, reducing stress on your discs during daily activities.

If you have a disc issue slowing you down, don’t assume surgery is inevitable. Contact us today to discover a natural way to find relief and support your body’s healing process.

The Brain-Spine Connection: Where the Magic Happens

Here’s where chiropractic care gets truly fascinating. The effects of an adjustment go far beyond just “cracking” your back. Every adjustment has the potential to influence your brain itself—and emerging research is revealing just how profound this connection really is.

Your Central Command Center

Every single thought you have and every movement you make occurs through your brain or spinal cord—collectively known as your central nervous system (CNS). Your spinal column serves as both protection and pathway for your spinal cord, which extends down from your brain and then branches into nerves that reach every cell, tissue, and organ in your body.

At any given moment, millions of messages are traveling along your spinal cord at speeds exceeding 250 miles per hour, maintaining the delicate balance between your brain and body. This constant communication regulates:

• Movement and coordination
• Sensation and perception
• Organ function and metabolism
• Immune system responses
• Hormone production and balance
• Pain perception and modulation
• Healing and tissue repair

How Adjustments Change Your Brain Chemistry

Groundbreaking research has shown that chiropractic adjustments can actually alter biochemical markers in your brain. The specific type of movement that occurs during an adjustment triggers neurological responses that cascade throughout your entire nervous system.

What happens in your brain during and after an adjustment:

1. Endorphin Release: Your brain releases endorphins—natural “feel-good” hormones that act as your body’s own pain relievers. This is why many patients feel immediate relief and even a sense of euphoria after an adjustment.
2. Pain Signal Modulation: The adjustment stimulates mechanoreceptors (sensors that detect movement and pressure) which can override pain signals traveling to your brain. This “gate control” mechanism helps reduce your perception of pain.
3. Reduced Stress Markers: Research published in the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy in 2014 found that spinal manipulation changes biochemical markers associated with pain perception and stress response, including reductions in cortisol and inflammatory markers.
4. Increased Cortical Drive: Perhaps most exciting, recent studies have shown that adjustments can increase “cortical drive”—essentially the strength of signals your brain sends to your muscles. This can result in improved strength, coordination, and athletic performance.
5. Improved Proprioception: Adjustments enhance your brain’s awareness of where your body is in space, improving balance, coordination, and movement quality.

The Implications Are Profound

Think about what this means: a chiropractic adjustment isn’t just moving bones—it’s communicating with your brain, influencing your nervous system, and affecting how your entire body functions and heals.

This helps explain why patients often report improvements that go beyond just pain relief:

• Better sleep quality
• Improved mood and mental clarity
• Enhanced athletic performance
• Reduced stress and anxiety
• Better digestive function
• Improved immune system response
• Increased energy levels

Over the past 100 years, scientists and doctors have learned much about the brain-body connection, but we still have a long way to go. What we do know is that aging, healing, and your entire life experience happen through the communication and coordination between your brain and body.

Keeping your brain and body engaged and moving each day supports a healthy, vibrant life. If you’ve struggled to stay active due to pain or limited mobility, schedule an evaluation with us today.

Your Body Is Designed to Move

Let’s return to a fundamental truth: your body is built to move. Every spinal disc and joint is specifically designed to help you sit, stand, run, twist, bend, and perform the countless movements that make up your daily life.

The Remarkable Resilience of Your Spine

Consider the engineering marvel that is your spine:

• Your discs are soft enough to flex as you bend forward and back, yet strong enough to support hundreds of pounds of pressure
• The facet joints slide smoothly as you turn and twist, providing guidance and stability
• The vertebrae are connected with ligaments that keep you supported while still allowing movement
• Muscles attach at strategic points to push and pull your spine through a wide range of motions

It’s an incredibly strong and resilient system when you stop and think about it—capable of supporting your body weight, absorbing shock, protecting your spinal cord, and enabling fluid movement all at the same time.

Why Movement Matters for Healing

New research has given us a glimpse of just how crucial movement is, not just for function, but for actual healing. Studies have shown that spine movement:

• Stimulates the healing process at the cellular level
• Enhances blood flow, delivering oxygen and nutrients to tissues
• Promotes the removal of metabolic waste products
• Maintains disc nutrition (since discs don’t have direct blood supply)
• Prevents the formation of scar tissue and adhesions
• Supports proper nerve function

Movement is so vital to the healing process that even people who undergo spine surgery are encouraged to get up and move as quickly as possible after the procedure. Without movement, tissues stiffen, muscles weaken, and the healing process slows dramatically.

What Happens When Movement Is Lost

When spinal segments lose their normal motion—whether due to injury, poor posture, repetitive stress, or degeneration—a cascade of problems can develop:

• Adjacent segments must move excessively to compensate, leading to additional wear and tear
• Muscles surrounding the restricted area become tight and weak
• Blood flow to the area decreases
• Nerve function can be compromised
• Pain and inflammation develop
• The healing process is impaired

This is why chiropractors focus so intently on restoring proper movement to restricted spinal segments. We’re not just treating symptoms—we’re addressing the underlying mechanical dysfunction that leads to pain and disability.

Blood Flow, Strength, and Flexibility

Movement enhances all three of these critical factors:

Blood Flow: Movement acts as a pump, drawing fresh, oxygenated blood into tissues and removing waste products. This is especially important for spinal discs, which rely on movement-driven diffusion for nutrition since they lack a direct blood supply.

Strength: Muscles must move against resistance to maintain and build strength. When pain or restriction limits movement, muscles quickly weaken, creating a vicious cycle of dysfunction.

Flexibility: Regular movement through your full range of motion maintains flexibility in muscles, ligaments, and joint capsules. When movement is restricted, tissues adapt by shortening and stiffening.

What Happens During a Chiropractic Adjustment?

Now that you understand the various systems involved, let’s walk through what actually happens during an adjustment:

1. Assessment

Before any adjustment, your chiropractor performs a thorough assessment:

• Identifying restricted or misaligned segments
• Evaluating muscle tone and tension
• Assessing your range of motion
• Checking for signs of inflammation or nerve involvement
• Determining the most appropriate adjustment technique

2. Positioning

You’ll be positioned in a way that allows optimal access to the area being adjusted and ensures your comfort and safety. This might be:

• Lying face down on the adjustment table
• Lying on your side
• Sitting upright
• Standing

3. The Adjustment

Using precise hand placement and a specific direction of force, your chiropractor delivers a quick, controlled thrust to the restricted segment. This thrust:

• Is typically very fast (occurring in milliseconds)
• Uses minimal force when applied correctly
• Is targeted to specific joints or segments
• Often produces an audible “pop” or “crack” (though not always)

4. What That “Pop” Actually Is

Many people wonder about—and some worry about—the popping sound. This audible release is called cavitation, and it’s completely normal and harmless. Here’s what’s happening:

Inside each joint is synovial fluid that contains dissolved gases (mainly carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and oxygen). When the joint is moved quickly, the pressure inside drops suddenly, causing these gases to form bubbles—similar to opening a bottle of carbonated soda. The pop you hear is these gas bubbles forming and collapsing.

The sound itself isn’t the therapeutic part of the adjustment—it’s simply a byproduct of the pressure change. Some highly effective adjustments produce no sound at all.

5. The Immediate Effects

After an adjustment, patients often experience:

• Immediate relief of pain or tension
• Increased range of motion
• A feeling of lightness or ease in the adjusted area
• Relaxation as muscles release tension
• Sometimes mild soreness (similar to post-exercise soreness) that typically resolves within 24-48 hours

6. The Ongoing Benefits

While some effects are immediate, the full benefits of chiropractic care develop over time as your body heals and adapts:

• Reduced inflammation
• Improved nerve function
• Better movement patterns
• Stronger supporting muscles
• Enhanced overall function

Different Adjustment Techniques

It’s important to know that there’s no single “chiropractic adjustment.” Chiropractors use many different techniques, and we select the most appropriate one based on your specific condition, age, comfort level, and preferences.

Common techniques include:

• Diversified: The most common hands-on technique involving quick thrusts
• Activator: Uses a small instrument to deliver gentle, precise impulses
• Drop Table: Uses a special table with sections that drop slightly during the adjustment
• Flexion-Distraction: A gentle, rhythmic pumping motion particularly effective for disc issues
• SOT (Sacro-Occipital Technique): Uses blocks and positioning to achieve gentle corrections
• Gonstead: A very specific, biomechanically-based adjustment approach

We tailor our approach to your unique needs, ensuring you receive the most effective and comfortable care possible.

The Importance of Proactive Care

Here’s an old saying that captures an essential truth: “You don’t get old then stiff; you get stiff then old.”

This wisdom highlights that loss of movement and flexibility aren’t inevitable consequences of aging—they’re often the cause of the problems we associate with getting older. When you maintain proper spinal movement and function throughout your life, you stay more active, experience less pain, and truly can age more gracefully.

Staying Young by Staying Mobile

Encouraging healthy movement and activity is a core part of our mission at Chiropractic and Rehabilitation of Miami Lakes. We want to help you stay young by keeping your spine and body moving optimally.

This includes:

• Regular chiropractic adjustments to maintain proper spinal function
• Specific stretches tailored to your needs
• Strengthening exercises to support your spine
• Posture and ergonomic guidance
• Activity modifications when needed
• Education about how to stay proactive with your health

Questions Are Always Welcome

If you have questions about stretches, exercises, or other ways to proactively maintain your health, please ask! We’re here not just to treat problems when they arise, but to help you prevent them in the first place.

The Science Continues to Evolve

The research supporting chiropractic care continues to grow and evolve. Recent studies have demonstrated:

Effectiveness for Spinal Stenosis: A 2019 study published in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation found that nonsurgical treatments including chiropractic care provided excellent clinical results for patients with lumbar spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal canal that can cause severe pain and disability.

Measurable Joint Changes: The 2013 MRI study in JMPT we mentioned earlier provided visual confirmation of how adjustments create measurable changes in joint spacing and movement.

Superior to Injections: The 2013 comparative study showed that chiropractic adjustments provided better outcomes than nerve root injections for disc herniations—offering a natural alternative to invasive procedures.

Biochemical Changes: The 2014 study in Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy documented changes in pain and stress biomarkers after spinal manipulation, providing biological evidence of how adjustments influence your body’s chemistry.

This growing body of research validates what chiropractors and patients have experienced for over a century: chiropractic adjustments work, and they work through multiple, interconnected mechanisms.

Your Next Steps

Understanding how chiropractic adjustments work is one thing—experiencing their benefits is another. If you’re dealing with:

• Chronic back or neck pain
• Limited range of motion
• Disc problems
• Headaches or migraines
• Sciatica or radiating pain
• Sports injuries
• Post-accident pain
• Or simply want to maintain optimal spinal health

We invite you to experience the difference that expert chiropractic care can make in your life.

Schedule Your Evaluation

At Chiropractic and Rehabilitation of Miami Lakes, we combine the latest research with time-tested techniques to deliver outstanding results for our patients. We’ll conduct a thorough evaluation, explain exactly what we find, and create a personalized treatment plan designed to help you achieve your health goals.

Visit us at ChiropracticandRehabilitation.com or contact our office today to schedule your appointment. Stay proactive with your health by ensuring you have your next visit scheduled!

Your spine is designed to move, your body is built to heal, and we’re here to support both processes naturally—without drugs or surgery.

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Science Sources:

Comparative Clinical Effectiveness of Nonsurgical Treatment Methods in Patients With Lumbar Spinal Stenosis: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation 2019

Magnetic resonance imaging zygapophyseal joint space changes (gapping) in low back pain patients following spinal manipulation and side-posture positioning: a randomized controlled mechanisms trial with blinding. JMPT 2013

Symptomatic magnetic resonance imaging-confirmed lumbar disk herniation patients: a comparative effectiveness prospective observational study of 2 age- and sex-matched cohorts treated with high-velocity, low-amplitude spinal manipulative therapy or imaging-guided lumbar nerve root injections. JMPT 2013

Changes in biochemical markers of pain perception and stress response after spinal manipulation. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy 2014

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Disclaimer: This blog post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider about your specific condition and treatment options.