Are you putting a bone back in place?
How do adjustments work?
It’s a common misconception that adjustments (a.k.a cracking/manipulating/popping/crunching!) put misaligned joints back into place. This idea is long out of date, and the truth is way cooler!
More recent research shows that adjustments restore motion into the affected joint. When I am feeling up and down your spine, I am not feeling which one is out of place, I am comparing one lever to the next to see which ones aren’t moving as well as they could be.
The adjustment triggers sensors and nerves in your body to send signals to your brain which tells it where the joint is. This is called proprioceptive input. Proprioception is the name for the feeling where you know where your body is in space. For example, in healthy individuals, if your eyes are closed you can still touch your nose pretty easily. As a result of this input, a reflex occurs which helps to relax muscles and release pain killing chemicals. Similar effects occur with other treatments such as massage.
