Having good spine health is crucial to a long, healthy life. To keep your spine healthy, you need to maintain good alignment of the vertebrae, good posture, healthy discs, and functioning nerves. If the vertebrae are out of alignment, there will be extra pressure on the disc, which can inhibit mobility and cause irritation. In addition, the nerves begin to atrophy—or get weak and small—which can cause serious discomfort and disease. The longer the spine is left out of alignment, the more severe the impact on the bones, discs, and nerves.

We use the examples of phase one, two, and three here at the office. As you can see at the far left, there is an example of a textbook perfect spine—the vertebrae are healthy and strong, the nerves are free of compression and functioning, the disc is thick and even all the way around. As you move right, you have examples of what happens to the spine the longer a subluxation is left untreated. You can see the bone start to degenerate and create bone spurs to support itself, the nerves become more and more compressed and smaller, and the discs have more and more pressure on them causing irritation and cutting off the flow of nutrients. Eventually, at the last phase, you see the bone has fused together completely to create stability and completely cutting off mobility, the nerves are extremely impinged and poorly functioning, and the disc has flattened, providing no support for the bones and could have possibly blown out in some cases.

So what can you do to keep your spine healthy? We have included a list of great habits to practice for just that.

• First and foremost, get adjusted on a regular basis to keep your spine aligned!
• Do back and shoulder exercises to help maintain good posture and support for the spine—particularly working those rear deltoids to bring the shoulders back for more support in the neck and shoulder area.
• Use a dynadisc! These are great for building your core muscles, giving your back support. Sit on a dynadic and swivel your hips for bed effect. This can also help to hydrate your discs by giving your spine healthy movement.
• Eat calcium rich foods to strengthen your spine bones!
• Stretch at the end of the day to keep the muscles from tightening up and pulling your bones out of place.
• Maintain a healthy weight.

Let us know what you do to keep your spine healthy!