A Skull, a Spine, and the Body’s Most Important Organs

By Sara Butler

Your brain and spinal cord make up your central nervous system. Without them, you wouldn’t be you. Come to think of it, you probably wouldn’t be anything. That’s because the brain and spinal cord are responsible for everything your body does, both consciously and unconsciously. Breathing, heartbeat, beating your dad at backgammon -- you can thank your brain and spinal cord for all that.

Yes, the brain and spinal cord may be your body’s unsung heroes, but they couldn’t do what they do without the help of your skeleton or the miles of nerves that connect the whole shebang! Let’s explore the wonders of your brain and spinal cord and how they connect to one another. You won’t want to miss this!

Your Central Nervous System

As previously stated, the central nervous system is made up of your brain and spinal cord. They are responsible for sending and receiving signals from the 46 miles of nerves that run through your body. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.

The brain itself is basically just a spongy mass of supportive tissue and nerve cells. Its three different parts (the cerebellum, cerebrum, and brainstem) work in unison to help you think, walk, talk, see, smell, taste, love -- everything!

The brainstem connects the brain to the spinal cord. This is where bundles of nerve fibers run down through the bones in your spine to carry signals to the body from the brain and back again. It’s all a pretty amazing process that makes you, well, you.

An Information Superhighway

Long before the internet, the human body had its very own information superhighway -- the miles and miles of nerves that run from your brain, down your spinal cord and back again.

All of this starts in the brain, where an impulse is created and then sent via nerves to a certain part of the body. For example, lifting your hand is something you can probably do without a lot of thought, but the process that occurs inside the body when you perform this action is pretty incredible. First, your brain creates the impulse to lift your arm and then it’s sent at lightning speed to your arm, where the muscles respond and lift it. It seems instantaneous to you, but a lot of work goes into it deep inside your body.

Pretty neat, huh?

The Head Bone’s Connected to the Neck Bone

Remember that whole thing about the brain being a spongy mass? Well, that spongy mass is delicate and needs protection -- otherwise, some seriously bad things can happen. The skeleton delivers that by helping protect the precious bundle of nerves inside your head and down your spine.

The skull is made up of several bones fused together. They form the world’s most important natural helmet and protect the things underneath. The same can be said of your spine, which is really a series of bones and discs linked together to form a protective tunnel for your spinal cord. Kind of helps you to see why taking care of your spine is so important, doesn’t it?

Your brain and spinal cord are the only organs fully encased in bone. That should be a strong indicator of just how important they really are to the function of the wonder that is the human body. Because they are so important, it’s vitally important you take care of them with the help of chiropractors, such as those at The Joint Chiropractic. Chiropractors help keep the spine -- which encases the all-important nervous system that controls your every action (blinking, anyone?) -- free of restrictions that might dull your body’s inner mechanisms from working correctly, quickly, and efficiently.

We protect what we love. Our body gave us a skull and spine to protect our brain and spinal cord. It’s up to you to protect the skull and spine. After all, you want to put off losing to your child at backgammon for as long as possible.

The information, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material contained on this page are for informational purposes only. The purpose of this post is to promote broad consumer understanding and knowledge of various health topics. It is not intended to provide or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your chiropractor, physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, and never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this page.