Reaction of Secondary Causes
Once produced, however, a subluxation may not cause noticeable effect until it has been increased in degree by the reaction of forces within the body such as poisons, general fever, etc. Thus germs, dietetic errors, exposure to sudden temperature changes, waste of energy through abnormal mental activities, as hate, fear, worry, etc., or through physical excess—in fact, all the secondary causes of disease may appear to have produced a subluxation. In fact, they have merely accentuated that which already existed and have done so through the muscular contractions which they induced.
General thinning of intervertebral substance through a condition of disturbed metabolism itself produced through the agency of some one serious subluxation, may narrow all the foramina and increase impingement of nerves at any point where a slight subluxation previously existed. An irritated nerve may become swollen and the nerve impinged at the foramen.