In a developing human being, the nervous system is the most important system. It is so important that it is the first system of the body to develop in the growing fetus. The nervous system controls almost every action within the body, whether it is swinging your arm to make a golf club move, controlling your heartbeat, or controlling the cells required for growth, maintenance and healing of an injury. The brain is the central command center, sending electrical signals or nerve impulses down the spinal cord to all regions of the body. The spinal cord and related nerves are a crucial communication link between the brain and the body and without them, normal function of the body would cease to exist. The nervous system is so important to human life and development that it is the first system to form in a developing fetus, allowing for normal growth and organization of tissues to form a complete human being.

The central nervous system is composed of the brain and the spinal cord which function almost like a command center, sending nervous impulses of information down to different levels of the spine. Here the spinal cord branches off into 31 pairs of spinal nerves on each side of the spine. These nerves combine with others and then branch out to the far reaches of the body.

There are 3 types of nerves: pain nerves, autonomic nerves and motor nerves. The most important and most common are the autonomic nerves and motor nerves. Autonomics nerves sense when you are cold and will increase your body temperature, control your heart rate, your blood pressure and digest your food, to name just a few functions. They are under direct control of the brain and cannot be affected by us. Motor nerves control muscle function. Interference of either of these nerves at the site where they exit the spine is a common site for vertebral subluxations. Left unchecked, subluxations will interrupt your self-healing and self-regulating abilities, leading to poor health. Doctors of chiropractic believe that health and disease are life processes related to the function of the human nervous system and that interference of the nervous system by stress, either physical, chemical or emotional, is the cause of disease. Since all functions of the body rely on the nervous system, a reduction or blockage in nerve impulses will affect the end organ or region for which the impulse was intended.