CSF: Is your brain and spinal cord getting the nourishment they need?

The average person doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). But it's something that's really important.

First off, what is CSF? Picture a balloon with water and a gummy worm on the inside. CSF is the water and the brain and spinal cord are the gummy worm. The balloon is something call the dura mater, which houses the brain and spinal cord. 

For years, traditional medical textbooks said the purpose of CSF was to act as a cushion for the brain and spinal cord. Osteopathy and some forms of chiropractic like Sacro-Occpital Technic ® (SOT®) believed that the CSF was essential to the health and well being of the central nervous system and the person in general. They proposed that CSF helped remove toxins from the central nervous system and bring fresh nutrients to your central nervous system. It was a way the body "cleaned shop." 

The SOT® chiropractors and osteopaths believed that part of a person being healthy was having proper flow of CSF in the body. Disease states were associated with pooling or reduced CSF flow. With CSF not moving, the brain and spinal cord could not get proper nourishment and would be stewing in a pool of toxicity leading to disease.

Now science is "discovering" what the osteopath's and SOT® chiropractors were saying all along. CSF has been shown to interact with the lymphatic system and interstital fluid, which act to both remove toxic materials from the body and bring important things like white blood cells to the body to fight infection.

Problems with CSF flow have been documented in people with problems in the spine, pelvis and head (1, 2, 3). As an SOT® chiropractor, I have been trained to not only restore function to the spine but place a special emphasis on CSF flow to maximize your potential. 

How's your "flow?" Are your spine, pelvis and head functioning properly to maximize flow of CSF and function in the body? Call my office 727-509-3760, email [email protected] or book an appointment online to have yourself checked out. ​


1. Cerebrospinal Fluid Dynamics at the Lumbosacral Level in Patients With Spinal Stenosis: A Pilot Study Se-Woong Chun,1 Hack-Jin Lee,2 Koong-Ho Nam,3 Chul-Ho Sohn,3 Kwang Dong Kim,4 Eun-Jin Jeong,2 Sun G. Chung,4 Keewon Kim,4 Dong-Joo Kim

2. Yamada, S. Cerebrospinal fluid physiology: visualization of cerebrospinal fluid dynamics using the magnetic resonance imaging Time-Spatial Inversion Pulse method Croat Med J. 2014;55:337-46

3. Head movement, an important contributor to human cerebrospinal fluid circulation Qiang Xu1,2, Sheng-Bo Yu1, Nan Zheng1, Xiao-Ying Yuan1, Yan-Yan Chi1, Cong Liu1,2, Xue-Mei Wang3, Xiang-Tao Lin4 & Hong-Jin Sui1

Influence of respiration on cerebrospinal fluid movement using magnetic resonance spin labeling Shinya Yamada1, Mitsue Miyazaki2,3*, Yuichi Yamashita3, Cheng Ouyang2, Masao Yui3, Masao Nakahashi3, Seiko Shimizu3, Ikuo Aoki3, Yukuo Morohoshi4 and James Gordon McComb5

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