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The two nervous systems of the human body

The spinal nervous system is responsible for the steering of the motion and the sensitivity.

The other part of the nervous system is the vegetative, not or only hardly steerable by will.

The vegetative nervous system

The function of the vegetative nervous system is not only the steering of vital functions like hunger, thirst, heartbeat and so on, but at the same time the steering of all organic functions and their balancing among each other.

The two parts of the vegetative nervous system

The vegetative nervous system consists of two parts, the vagus nerve (also called parasympathetic nervous system) and the Sympathetic nervous system.

The vagus nerve emerges from three brain nuclei and runs in front of the esophagus through the thorax down to the abdominal and pelvic organs. The vagus nerve is not within the reach of the SMT® and is so of no direct importance for it.

The other part of the vegetative nervous system, the sympathetic nerve, does not succumb to the same segmental division like the spinal cord and is, via spine, easy of access for the therapist.

The spinal nerves, emerging at the right and the left from the spinal segments, are connected via the Ramii communicantes to the sympathetic chain = the central structure of the Sympathetic nerve, and therefore is linked to the, for the SMT® important, part of the vegetative nervous system.

The anatomic structures of the vegetative nervous system

The perivascular plexus emerges from the sympathetic chain, which consists of a net-like coat around the arterial vessels. The perivascular plexus and with it the fibres of the sympathetic nerve, reach all regions of the human body, up into the last cell, because all cells of the body have to be provided with oxygen, which is transported to the body cells via the blood.

The perivascular plexus and the meridian are identic structures.

The Chinese foundation research for the acupuncture science has found out that a meridian is a real existing structure of our body, i.e. the perivascular plexus.

The perivascular plexus or vascular nerve cord, which is identic to the meridian, is exactly so like the chinese medical science shows it since thousands of years, here the example of the gallbladder-meridian.

Central connections of the vegetative nervous system

The vegetative nervous system surely is the oldest part of our nervous system. In which way the meridians are connected in our brain is unknown until today. I am convinced that the central perception of the information flow in the vegetative nervous system and its connections is located in the quite mysterious limbic system (as one of the developmental oldest brain areas).