The concept of thinking, background with brain: ramcreations, Shutterstock.com

We all know that the central nervous system (CNS) controls the functions of the entire body. Our posture, muscle coordination, joint movement, and our perception of pain are all within the domain of this master system.

Most people put too much attention on the local symptoms, such as pain, joint stiffness, and muscles tightness and weakness, and neglect the entirety of the problem. Understand the parts and do not recognize the whole, they casually blame the consequential phenomena as the cause, and mistakenly direct their treatments to that end.

Viewing from a wide perspective, the patient's current health problem is just a component of an ongoing process. The current complaints together with the other forgotten, unrecognized, seemingly unrelated symptoms and disorders demonstrate how the body has been trying hard to keep itself balance and accumulates the wear and tear of gravity with compensatory functional and structural changes, some of which can be maladaptive and cause pain, functional disability, altered brain circuitry and abnormal behavior. The mistake of not focusing on the primary level of control but trying to modify the secondary changes would make the treatment difficult or ineffective.

Thanks to the balance system of the body, we are able to stand, walk, run, and move without falling. Our balance is controlled through signals to the brain from our eyes, the inner ear, and the sensory systems of the body (such as the skin, muscles, and joints). It is also known as the vestibular system.

The common pains and postural faults are not derived from functional or structural defect of the brain. Rather, it is the result of error of incoming signals for equilibrium. The analogy of "garbage in, garbage out" neatly fits into the way the brain controls the body. Thus, the quality of input signals is critical for the presence or absence of health.

The CNS relies on input from sensors to maintain equilibrium of the body.

The main source of sensory information comes from:

• Inner ears - detect the verticality of the head in reference to an absolute standard, the gravity,


• Eyes - vision and the tension of the small muscles that move the eyeballs provide the head position in reference to external objects,


• Spine - the sensors in joints and muscles provide relative positions of vertebrae upon subjacent structures, from the head down to the pelvis,


• Soles - the skin monitors the projection of centre of mass of the body on the ground.

Since these signals complement each other to provide the brain with a complete picture for precise adjustment of muscle tone to counter the effect of gravity, disorder of any sensory channels can disturb body balance. For example: viral infection of inner ear, eye muscle imbalance, neck trauma, hard callous...

But the most common imbalance happens frequently under normal circumstances: when the head tilts mildly sideways upon the upper neck, it produces errors in sensory signal from the inner ears, eyes and the upper neck causing a series of colossal reactions. This is called the "upper cervical misalignment."

This disproportionate cause and effort relationship is a "nonlinear" natural response. It also demonstrates the "butterfly effect" in which a minute change in the original condition can result in large difference in a later state.

Cascading effect (Cascade effect) is an inevitable and sometimes unforeseen chain of events initiated by an act onto a system. The derrangement of sensory signals for equilibrium exerted this effect in causing the appearance of many seemingly unrelated physical problems.

Asymmetrical muscle tone of the spine causes it to tilt sideways, twist into side-to-side curves, and flatten or exaggerate its normal curves.The vertebrae are all misaligned to different degrees. All the joints are subjected to different degree of torque, of which the mobility of some greatly decrease.They are called subluxations.

This phenomenon can also be found at the limbs and the jaw, producing angulation of the corresponding body parts,like uneven shoulders, knock-knee, bow-leg, short-leg, short-arm, flat feet, toe-out, toe-in, and uneven mouth...

Because of postural imbalance, the centre of gravity and fulcrum of movement are displaced.Some muscles are continually exerting, some are lay aside. Even minor incorrect posture or movement,and mild physical and mental stress is able to cause injury, pains and other conditions.