Chiropractic N8 Intelligence & the N8 Endocannabinoid System in 2018

Years of research on the human endocannabinoid system (ECS) and its role in maintaining homeostasis in the body is well documented. Practically every cell, tissue, and organ in the human body has cannabinoid and cannabinoid-like receptors. The ECS will signal intracellular functions such as protein and enzyme formation, DNA transcription, gene expression, and energy production, as well as cross-talk communication in adjacent and distal tissues.  In chiropractic practice, we utilize the term, innate (N8) intelligence, to describe the unseen life force that govern the human body. This is best illustrated by the facts that one sperm and one egg cell met to form 37.2 trillion harmoniously functioning cells within the body’s organ systems, and the body’s inborn characteristic of knowing to what extent to intricately adapt to the dynamic environment and maintaining homeostasis. These inborn, innate mechanisms of endocannabinoid signalling to modulate homeostasis seems to be congruent to what chiropractors have described as innate intelligence, and may have important clinical implications in facilitating the body’s N8 healing processes.

In the nervous system, endocannabinoids function similar to regular neurotransmitters, except the ECS works retrograde from normal neurotransmission, where endogenous cannabinoids, anandamide and 2-AG, are produced in the secondary neuron and are released back into the synaptic cleft to attach to CB1 receptors on the primary neuron. This retrograde neurophysiology seems to act as an N8 mechanism in the body to regulate the release of other neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, glutamate, GABA, and others. Additionally, CB2 receptors of astrocytes and microglial cells maintain the immune health and integrity of the nerve cells, combating neuroinflammation, and directly affecting autoimmune inflammation with activation of the CB1 receptors in the CNS. The growing body of research on endocannabinoid system receptors and the influence of exogenous cannabinoids such as CBD, has uncovered an irrefutable role of the human endocannabinoid system in maximal immune function.

Parallel to research on the N8 physiology of cannabinoids, there have been breakthroughs in chiropractic research. Chiropractic has long been thought of by popular opinion, as “back cracking” and a treatment for “back pain”. It has also taken a backseat to medical doctors and other health professionals due to the decades of false accusations the American Medical Association has made against chiropractic. Cannabinoids have also gotten false stigmas fueled by racial propaganda in the 1930s by former commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger, and since the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, has no longer been used as apart of the US Pharmacopeia of available medicines. Since the turn of the millenium, many grassroots movements have made portions of the general American public increasingly more health conscious in a country that now ranks last among well-developed countries in healthcare quality, affordability, access, and factors such as infant mortality rate. The movement has revived both chiropractic and cannabis, which both are now popularly researched topics because of their time-tested efficacy with benign side effects.   

A study published in 2007 studied over 800 people over 7 years, and noted that of two groups, the group that saw a chiropractor as their primary care physician had 60% less hospital admissions, 59% fewer days in the hospital, 62% few outpatient surgeries and procedures, 85% less in pharmaceutical costs. Research also shows patients who saw a medical doctor received spinal surgery 42.7% of the time, whereas only 1.5% of chiropractic patients had surgery. Additionally, a staggering 91.8 million (1 in 3) American adults used prescription opioid drugs in 2015 and of those, 11.5 million users MISUSED there drugs. 63.4% of opioid users reported their abuse of opioids started from a need to relieve pain and inflammation in the body. In a world where Americans continue to perform at the bottom of the list in quality, affordability, and infant mortality rates, there are viable, natural options to restore our health.

There is indisputable evidence demonstrating that chiropractic is able to directly affect the brain and central nervous system, and subsequently affecting structural, emotional, and chemical pathways that are harmoniously functioning at all times. Neuroscientists have shown without a shadow of a doubt that there is an intimate connection between the health of the spine and the health of the central nervous system (brain). The brain is the “master control” center of the body and regulates the interactions of all body systems. The spine houses and protects the spinal cord and nerves exiting through each vertebra. Neurologists often refer to the spine as the neuro-spinal organ as movement of the spine causes motility of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that nourishes and has newly discovered roles in influencing homeostatic balance.  The joint capsules, discs, ligaments, tendons, and stabilization muscles contain tiny neurons densely located in and around each individual vertebral segment. Scientists have agreed that normal spinal movement activates the body’s awareness of position in space and creates 3D proprioception and mechanoreception that is nutritious to the brain. The lack of movement and afferent information can be severely detrimental and lead to chronic hypersensitization of pain receptors and pain pathways. A maximally functioning spine allows the brain to get uninterrupted feedback from the body’s different types of sensory receptors, so that the brain has the appropriate messages and can be delivered to all organs on a regular basis.

Researchers have looked into how chiropractic adjustments affect changes in the brain. One study demonstrated patients experienced changes in sensorimotor processing in the prefrontal cortex following a single session of chiropractic adjustments. Past studies have shown that the brain’s prefrontal cortex plays an important role in reacting to stress and integration of cognitive behavior and regulating autonomic and neuroendocrine functions. This directly influences the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, a key full body modulator of homeostatic adaptations in a dynamic environment.

There is evidence to show that chiropractic adjustments influence glucose metabolism following a reduction in sympathetic tone and decreases in pain symptoms. Multiple studies have demonstrated the parasympathetic influence of the vagus nerve on modulating heart rate variability, increasing the parasympathetic control mechanisms, and decreasing sympathetic tone. Researchers have demonstrated that chiropractic adjustments to the upper cervical spine (occipital, atlas C1, axis C2) enhance the dominance of parasympathetic tone, while lower cervical adjustments have a greater impact on sympathetic dominance. Scientists published in the Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2013 that subluxation and adjustments of subluxation in the upper cervical spine have direct influence on the activity of the vagus nerve, a cranial nerve that exits the base of the skull that modulates parasympathetic function of most of the organs and tissues in the thorax, abdomen and pelvis.

In addition to specific factors modulating heart rate variability, parasympathetic dominance can significantly reduce uncontrolled, chronic inflammation and increase the functionality of immune cells. Teodorczyk-Injeyan et al 2010 determined that following a single chiropractic adjustment, the body’s N8 intelligence within the immune and nervous systems began to activate a “priming” mechanism on immune effector cells signalling them to perform certain immunoregulatory functions. By decreasing sympathetic tone chronically and boosting the body’s N8 healing through parasympathetic dominance, it seems that the combination of chiropractic adjustments and phytocannabinoid supplementation could have potent therapeutic benefits.

Researchers have yet to study the effects of chiropractic adjustments on endocannabinoid system modulation and homeostasis via cannabinoid signalling. There is clearly an interplay between the central nervous system and neuroimmunity, and suggests that more research ought to be done to discover chiropractic, CBD, and other cannabinoids to have cumulative therapeutic potential in a variety of immune system and nervous system pathology. This will also give doctors and patients better insight into how cannabinoid nutrition and supplementation can work on the body’s N8 physiology and mechanisms for healing.