In our chiropractic alphabet, the letter ‘N’ is for nerve.

I love the word nerve, it has so many meanings. It can be used to refer to a person’s sensitivity “Her harsh words really touched a nerve” or for her bravery “It took a lot of nerve for her to stand up to that bully” or even for rudeness “She had some nerve walking in here like she owned the place!”.

How can the same word be used to represent 3 very different emotional states?

Well, the diverse use of the word nerve in the English language quite nicely reflects the vast array of functions that nerves have in biology. It turns out we have billions of nerve cells carrying out thousands of different functions.

So although, we are most familiar with our sensory nerves (those for pain especially), by far the more important nerves are the ones working behind the scenes, carrying messages to and from the brain and each and every tissue and organ. Nothing in your body would work properly without a functioning nervous system.

Amazingly, about 30 000 miles of nerves weave through your body. If you connected them end to end, there would be a superhighway long enough to go around the planet Neptune.

Maybe ‘N’ should be for Neptune! Nerves are certainly ‘out of this world’.

And remember, be nice to your nerves... have your spine checked regularly.

Dr. Crystal