The Nervous System and the Immune System (Support Immunity) in Zionsville

The immune system is a huge topic of discussion this year in Zionsville

But how does it work and how can we support immunity in Zionsville?

We know activities like washing your hands, coughing/sneezing into your elbow, and keeping away from others if you are sick are important ways to decrease the spread of illness.

Another incredibly important thing to keep us from getting sick is to have an immune system that is healthy so our bodies can fight off any bacteria or viruses that may get in and potentially cause harm.

How the Immune System and Nervous System are Connected

The immune system and nervous system are in constant and direct communication. The way that your body responds to bacteria or viruses is through what the nervous system instructs the immune system to do.

The nervous system and immune system communicate so that your body can fight off any foreign invaders. The immune system acts as a signaling center for your body. It is constantly scanning your body to detect if bacteria or viruses are present then tells your brain what is going on so that your brain can coordinate with all of your different body systems to create the proper immune response. This connection between the nervous system and immune system is extremely important and if there isn't great communication between the two systems we can end up getting sick.

If your brain senses less of a threat than there already is or can't coordinate enough of an immune response against the bacteria or virus, you end up getting sick. Conversely, if our brain detects more of a threat than there actually is, our body can see even our own cells as a threat and begin attacking. When this happens, it creates an "auto-immune" response and our body may even start attacking itself.

Research has also shown that when the spine is not moving correctly it negatively affects how our body is able to communicate with our brain. When misalignments (aka subluxations) are present proper signaling does not occur through the nerves that exit through our spine to all of the different parts of our body and our body is not able to properly communicate back to our brain about what is going on around or inside of it.

How Chiropractic Care Can Help your Immune System

One of the main goals of chiropractic care is to help your body function at its full potential by allowing your nervous system uninterrupted communication with every system of your body, including the immune system.

Two recent reviews of the literature on Chiropractic showed that spinal adjustments seemed to trigger the activation of the neuro-immuno-endocrine system and help "boost the immune system".

Neuro-immuno-endocrine system is a big word, so let's break it down for better understanding. Neuro = Nervous system, immuno = immune system, and endocrine = hormone system. So the Neuro-immuno-endocrine system is when all of the systems function together so that your body creates feedback to the nervous system from the immune system, signaling that something needs to be done, and then the endocrine system works to create an appropriate hormonal response.

Another study published in 2011 examined levels of immunoglobin A (IgA) in stressed patients. IgA is an important player when it comes to the first line of defense against bacteria or viruses. Increased levels of IgA in the blood and lymph tissues boost immunity throughout the body. There were two groups of patients in this study, a group that received spinal manipulation and a group that did not. IgA levels were measured before and after spinal care was administered and it was found that there was a 139% increase in IgA in the group that had spinal adjustments compared to the group that did not.

Evidence for Boosting Immunity

These studies show that there is a connection between the nervous system and the immune system but not specifically how it all works together. We can not definitively say that an adjustment will help you fight a virus or bacteria but we do know that there is a link between receiving an adjustment and that adjustment having an effect on the immune system. More research is needed to show the specific and exact pathway.

Chiropractic focuses on the body's natural ability to fight bacteria and viruses through a proactive immune system. Our bodies have been helping protect us from these foreign bugs for thousands of years. Our bodies are incredibly strong and if our nervous system can communicate with our body effectively we have a much greater chance of effectively protecting our bodies against foreign invaders with a proper immune response.

Resources

• Chiropractic and the Immune System
• The Effects Induced by Spinal Manipulative Therapy on the Immune and Endocrine Systems
• Changes in biochemical markers following spinal manipulation-a systematic review and meta-analysis
• British Society for Immunology
• Saggio G, Docimo S, Pilc J, Norton J, Gilliar W. Impact of osteopathic manipulative treatment on secretory immunoglobulin a levels in a stressed population. J Am Osteopath Assoc. 2011 Mar;111(3):143-7. PMID: 21464262.