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The Nervoscope

The Nervoscope is a two-pronged thermometer that compares the relative temperature of the left and right sides of the spine. Several chiropractic techniques make use of such measurements as a diagnostic tool. The technique I most rely on is the Gonstead technique, developed by Dr. Clarence Gonstead of Mt. Horeb, WI. It is one of the more widely practiced chiropractic techniques, combining biomechanics and clinical neurology.

The heat differential indirectly measures the nerve pressure caused by differing degrees of blood activity in the skin covering the spine. More active areas are supplied with more blood (heat). In an un-subluxated spine, these gradual differences cause the needle on the nervoscope to gently sway from side to side. In the presence of subluxation, however, there is a significant difference in heat, causing dramatic, sharper movement in the needle.

The Subluxation Process

Nerve impulses are mostly electrical. When a nerve is under pressure or is being acutely stretched or twisted, the impulses increase in amplitude and frequency. As you would view them on an oscilloscope like an EKG monitor, the line would go higher and lower and at a faster pace. At every vertebral level, a pair of nerve roots exit. Nerves from adjacent levels merge to supply a given tissue, organ, region or muscle, so that any given part gets its nerve supply from more than one nerve root. However, a small portion of each nerve root breaks off and returns to the spine at its level of origin. It is called the recurrent meningeal nerve. It supplies level-and side-specific innervation for: the meninges that protect and cover the spinal cord and nerve roots; the discs, joint tissues, bone, intrinsic spinal muscles, and the muscular walls of the small arteries that supply the skin locally.

If a nerve root is pressured or irritated by subluxation, in addition to the detriment suffered by the nerve's target (tissue, organ, region, muscle), the muscle wall of the small artery supplying the skin above the subluxation will contract and decrease the amount of blood activity in that spot. The brain then tries to compensate by sending a message to the opposite artery to dilate sufficiently to force blood to spread across the midline of the spine.

If the areas directly above and below the subluxation are relatively symmetrical and the level of subluxation has a significantly "hot" and "cold" side, the needle will move dramatically when passed over the subluxated nerve. This information is compared with your vertebral motion in that region and at that level. Then all of this is compared to a detailed biomechanial and neurologic analysis of your spine. Additionally, any indications that your less-than-perfect health might be associated with interference at that level is taken into account before an adjustment is made.

When all of the information supports that there is a subluxation, I deliver an adjustment.