You may not realise it...but your spine is amazing...
...because running through it is the spinal cord. The brain and the spinal cord make up the central nervous system (CNS) and together with the nerves that exit the spine they control every aspect of your body; messages in the form of nerve impulses are transmitted backwards and forwards along this information highway. The CNS allows you to move, to feel, to think and controls and regulates all the organs of the body.
But things can go wrong...
Because the CNS is so important it is well protected by the skull and the spinal column. However, the spine is more vulnerable to injury because it is made up of individual bones, the vertebra, that sit on top of one another; occasionally because of such things as trauma, poor postural habit and joint disease the vertebra may move out of their natural alignment and cease to move correctly. This can cause pressure on nerves that exit from the spine, thus interfering with normal nerve function and can lead to pain, numbness, restrictive movement that affects the soft tissues and may compromise organs supplied by the nerve.
