A speaker summarizes a 2025 narrative review from the Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association, reframing the question from whether spinal adjustments "work" to how adjustments influence the nervous system in people with chronic musculoskeletal pain. The review emphasizes central sensitization—when the nervous system becomes overly prone to producing pain—even after tissue healing.
2025 narrative review published in the Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association. And instead of asking, I'm going to say the simple question of do adjustments work? Which is kind of tired at this point in time, this paper goes one step farther, something far more interesting. The question that they're asking is how do spinal adjustments influence the nervous system, specifically with people that are struggling with chronic musculoskeletal pain? And the authors focus on one major driver of chronic pain, that is central sensitization, which in plain English means this the nervous system has become too good at producing pain, not because the tissue is still damaged, but because the pain system itself has adapted, and that adaption has not been in a good way.
