Every health professional agrees that structure and function are related. What does this mean exactly? It means that body alignment being off, does not just lead to body pain, but body ailments and sickness as well.
The connection between a bent over posture and digestive issues are rarely made for example.
Let’s continue with the example of bad digestion. Did you know that the T4-8 vertebrae (between your shoulder blades) are responsible for delivering the sympathetic nervous supply to most of your digestive organs? Also, did you know the 11th cranial nerve (Vagus) travels all the way down from your skull, through the neck, and then to your digestive organs to give them parasympathetic supply?
Now let’s think about our modern posture of sitting. Most of us bend forward a great amount in between our shoulder blades, and then make up for it by bending our neck back up to look straight
With the bending forward between our shoulder blades, we are affecting the sympathetic nerve pathway from our spine to our digestive organs. With our bending of the neck back, we are affecting the parasympathetic nerve pathway of the Vagus cranial nerve to the digestive organs.
Osteopathy is a magnificent science allowing the body to align itself, which will allow blood flow and nerve innervations to the organs. None of these matter if the nutrition in the blood is poor, or if the hormones throughout the body which work on the sympathetic and parasympathetic are altered due to poor diet, poor sleep, or poor mental health, which Naturopathy is excellent in supplying the greatest of care for their patients.
A great analogy to describe the above can be made with a description of a car. Naturopathy is great in making sure you have the best gasoline, the best oil, the best windshield fluid, the best break fluid, the best antifreeze. Osteopathy great in making sure all the pipes, the shocks, the alignment, and structure of the car are in the proper place, making sure all the screws are tight and holding everything together.
A car cannot run without the proper fluids, and it cannot move without the proper alignment.
Reference: https://open.oregonstate.education/aandp/chapter/1-1-how-structure-determines-function/
In health,
Anthony Valente, M.OMSc.