I was thinking this morning about how often I hear people complaining about how the medicine they take causes other problems in their body, or how it seems like taking medications only lead to taking more medications, or how the medicines they take don't really fix any problems but just address symptoms. Then it hit me - we are all insane.
Why do I say this? What could I possibly be talking about?
A definition of "insane" is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. This means you cannot take the same approach with a situation and expect anything other than the same end result.
So what does this have to do with medicine?
I had a patient tell me that they were tired of taking their child to the doctor every time they got sick because all they did was talk for a couple of minutes, look in their nose, look in their ear, and write a prescription for an antibiotic. So I immediately respond with "Well what did you expect him to do?" I think this kind of surprised them because they looked surprised. I wasn't trying to be rude, but I did want to raise their awareness to their approach. Even though this parent did not want more meds for their child, they still sought the advice from someone who is only trained to give more meds.
Medical doctors are trained in sickness and how to treat conditions with medications. That's it. They aren't trained in nutrition, they aren't trained in vitamins and herbs, and they aren't trained to strengthen immune systems or improve wellness. A few doctors do take the initiative to learn independently on these topics, but as a whole they are not taught this in school.
So, back to the question I asked before. Why do we expect something different when we visit the MD? If your back hurts or you have headaches, why would you go to see an MD if you really don't want to take drugs or have surgery? That is all they have to offer. If a conservative approach is what you seek, then a conservative practitioner is where you must go.
I get it all the time when someone says they have been having back problems and it's really starting to get worse. They don't want drugs or surgery but they want to go see their MD before they do anything else. Guess what I find out next time I talk to them? They were only offered the solution of drugs or surgery and occasionally physical therapy.
Now I am not telling you that your family physician is the devil and you should run away from him/her. MDs are very important when they are needed. Medicine is very important when it is used properly. For the general population however, most problems we experience can be handled conservatively. And by that, I mean without drugs and surgery.
Take my nutritional counseling program I offer for instance. I use blood tests to see exactly what is out of balance in your body nutritionally. The panel I run is more comprehensive than anything I have seen brought in by my patients that their MD ran. The reason is because, as a chiropractor, I know that everything is connected, which means problems in one area can cause problems in another or just because one area looks good doesn't mean the whole is good. I want to see pretty much the entire picture of your body. Based on the findings, we come up with a specific regimen of supplements for about 2 months, then we retest and compare. You wouldn't believe the results we see when we just give the body what it needs and see what it can do with it. I encourage you to check out some of the case studies on my website at http://www.back2healthwellness.com/.
If you live in the Dallas area, then I would love to be your portal to more conservative treatment. If not, I am willing to at least help you find someone in your area that can help you. More than likely you are going to have to take the initiative to go a conservative route because MDs aren't trained conservatively so they simply don't know how to refer you properly.
Sorry, I got off track there for a second.
I think part of the problem is that we have been brainwashed to think that most of the body's normal immune responses to sickness or infections are bad. If you get a fever, you better kill it. If you start coughing, you better stop it. If your nose starts making a bunch of snot, you better dry it up. These are all normal healthy responses to fighting, killing, and removing infections from your body. It drives me up the wall how some parents stop their child's immune system from killing an infection normally and then wonder why they are sick all the time.
For this I use the analogy of a weight lifter. When a child is born, his/her immune system is a scrawny, weak little thing. In order for it to get stronger, it has to work out (fight infections). Which leads to a very crazy thought that IT'S OK FOR YOUR KIDS TO GET SICK! That is the only way for their immune system to get stronger so they don't keep getting sick. Back to the analogy. Let's say you are going to start working out to get stronger. You start with very light weights to warm up. Now it's time to start adding more weight to build those muscles. As soon as the weight feels a little bit heavy, Mr. Universe comes running in and grabs the weight and does the reps for you. Every single time it even gets the least bit heavy, he comes running in.
Now how strong do you think you are going to get if your muscles never get stressed? If someone is always lifting the bar for you, don't you see how this does nothing for building stronger muscles. They have to be stressed and broken down in order to build more muscle and get stronger. The exact same thing is true for your immune system. If every time your immune system is stressed you start drinking NyQuil or popping pills to break fevers, then you are not allowing your immune system to complete its workout. You are preventing it from getting stronger, or at least delaying its ability to get stronger.
I say all this to raise your awareness. I am guilty of all the same things as you. I have to fight the same tendencies as you. Most of us consider ourselves "healthy" because we minimize our problems probably as a natural coping mechanism. Use a little sanity next time your health is stressed. At minimum, don't tell yourself you don't want to take medicine or have surgery and only consult a physician who can offer those solutions.
I look forward to reading your comments....
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Part 4: This is the big finally!
Good morning ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! I know you have been eagerly awaiting my final installment on "What is Chiropractic?" and why it is so important for you. So here we are. I must admit I have really enjoyed writing on this subject. I think it's always good to refresh yourself on why you do what you do and how you are able to impact others. So without further delay, here we go!
A very quick recap on what we have already talked about:
1. We were designed to be self-healing and self-regulating organisms
2. We have an innate intelligence within our body to tell it what to do and when to do it
3. The nervous system is the master system within the body through which our life is expressed
This brings us all the way down to 4 which is there is a condition known as a subluxation, or misalignment, which puts pressure on the nerves and interferes with your nervous system diminishing your body's ability to express life. So what does that mean?
As I explained in an earlier post, every single cell, tissue, and organ within the body is hooked up to the nervous system in some form or fashion. Your brain is in constant communication with these areas or at least it should be. I like to think of the nerves as telephone lines or computer wires used to transfer information back and forth. Some of you may have heard it described as the brain/body connection. It is absolutely essential for this connection to be maintained in order for you to live a normal healthy life.
Now before I go on, I feel I need to restate that the definition of health is NOT the absence of sickness. If you are assuming you are healthy because you are not sick right now, then you are on a very slippery slope down that will lead to bigger problems later on. Not doing anything to always improve your health is like a couple who never communicates or does things to improve their marriage and assume things are OK because no one is complaining right now. How long will that relationship last, and how good do you think that marriage would be? Your health is the exact same way. The definition of health is your body functioning at its optimal level physically, nutritionally, and psychologically/emotionally and not the absence of symptoms or sickness. That means health is trying to reach as close to 100% function in all 3 of those areas.
Your health is equal to how well your body/organs/tissues/cells are functioning. Your symptoms are merely a warning sign that things have gotten so bad your body wants to bring it to your attention.
So back to the subluxation....
How do we get these subluxations? Well, there are 3 stressors that can cause a subluxation within the body. These are physical, chemical, and emotional stressors. Most people only focus on the physical aspect with regards to chiropractic but the other two are equally important as well. This falls in line with the "everything is connected" concept. Nothing in your body is in its own little box so if something bad happens to it, no other part of the body is affected. Any stress in any part of the body causes stress in another part of the body.
The most common physical stresses we think of is car accidents or major sports injuries. Yes these are very stressful to the body but I think they are less than the years of small physical stresses built up over time. Things like sitting in front of a computer all day, everyday, sleeping on your stomach, carrying a backpack full of books or a purse on one shoulder, or poor posture. It's the little things that we do everyday that we don't think about that add up over time that get most of us. Sure some people have been in major car accidents or whatever but most people have not.
I find it funny when patients come in the office because probably 70% of the time the space for previous car accidents is left blank. In my consultation, about 90% of those people have been in car accidents they just didn't think it was a big deal. According to research, a 5 mph fender bender can be enough of an impact to cause problems in the spine. Just think about two 2500 pound vehicles colliding. Your body has to absorb some of that impact because of inertia if nothing else. Research has also shown that it only takes pressure equal to the weight of a dime to impede neurological impulses, or messages being sent through the nerves. It doesn't take much.
I've also been told, "Well, I went to the hospital, they took X-rays, and they said I was fine." First off, they aren't looking for alignment at the hospital. The "you're fine" can be translated into "We didn't see any broken bones or tumors." Secondly, X-rays can only show bones and not soft tissue damage. Lastly, the rad techs and even doctors at the hospital are not trained in chiropractic and assessing alignment of the spine and its importance.
A very important physical stressor that is almost always overlooked is the birthing process. Yes being forced through the birth canal is stressful on the baby and not just the mommy. Not only is the process stressful, but you have some guy waiting to pull and twist your head and neck as soon as it's visible. This is done to an infant that doesn't even have the strength to hold up its own head. The big reason we don't think about this is because the baby doesn't come out yelling "I hate you!" or "See what you've done to me!" or "Let me pull and twist your neck around doc and see how you like it!" To help you make the connection here, yes I do suggest children get checked for misalignments regularly.
So let's move on to chemical stressors. This can mean a lot of things. How about not drinking enough water and too much of everything else. When I say drinking water, I mean only water and not tea, Propel, or whatever else you substitute for water. In Texas, you should be drinking about a quart for every 50 pounds everyday. Water is required for cells to carry out their normal functions and dehydration causes them to be sick and eventually die. Eating processed foods is another in the negative column. If you read the ingredients and can't pronounce the words, then it's probably synthetic and not good for your body.
Another poison for our body is medicine. This includes both perscription and OTC meds. Yep, that's right. None of it is good for your body. That is why they are taken in dosages and come with a very long list of side effects. There is NO such thing as safe medication. Do a little digging and you'll find out that more people die from adverse reactions to Tylenol than AIDS each year in the US. We're talking thousands of people taking Tylenol the way it is meant to be taken and end up dead. We don't get headaches because God didn't put enough aspirin in us when we were created, and we don't get acid reflux because we were born with a deficiency in the purple pill.
The last stressor I would like to talk about is psychological or emotional stressors. As you are sitting there reading this take a second and think of someone or something that ticks you off for a second. Just thinking about it you can start to feel your blood pressure rise and your muscles tense up. Now I want you to stop and think of something that makes you very happy. Almost immediately you can feel your body start to calm down and relax. This very quick exercise is a very good method to see how what you think about can affect your overall body. In fact, one of the newest areas of research is called psychoneuroimmunology. That is a fancy word that means your immune system is intertwined with your ability to function neurologically (brain & nerves) and psychologically. So that means if something negative is hurting one area, then the other areas are affected negatively as well.
Sometimes you hear chiros claiming to heal or cure everything under the sun. This simply is not true. We don't heal or cure anything. Only your body can heal itself the way God designed it to. However, chiropractic adjustments do promote healing because we improve the body's ability to function neurologically. The adjustments act as a facilitator. Again, I am not claiming to cure anything. All I'm saying is we help the body function better which allows it to take care of itself the better the way it was designed to. There are special circumstances where too much damage has been done and the body requires help. A sneeze or cough does not fall under that category by the way.
Anywho. I hope you have learned something from my 4 part series and understand a little better what we chiropractors are about. If you're wondering whether or not you and your whole family need to see a chiropractor, then the answer is "Yes!" Taking care of your spine is more important than brushing your teeth because teeth can be replaced. It's also just as important as eating healthy or exercising regularly.
A very quick recap on what we have already talked about:
1. We were designed to be self-healing and self-regulating organisms
2. We have an innate intelligence within our body to tell it what to do and when to do it
3. The nervous system is the master system within the body through which our life is expressed
This brings us all the way down to 4 which is there is a condition known as a subluxation, or misalignment, which puts pressure on the nerves and interferes with your nervous system diminishing your body's ability to express life. So what does that mean?
As I explained in an earlier post, every single cell, tissue, and organ within the body is hooked up to the nervous system in some form or fashion. Your brain is in constant communication with these areas or at least it should be. I like to think of the nerves as telephone lines or computer wires used to transfer information back and forth. Some of you may have heard it described as the brain/body connection. It is absolutely essential for this connection to be maintained in order for you to live a normal healthy life.
Now before I go on, I feel I need to restate that the definition of health is NOT the absence of sickness. If you are assuming you are healthy because you are not sick right now, then you are on a very slippery slope down that will lead to bigger problems later on. Not doing anything to always improve your health is like a couple who never communicates or does things to improve their marriage and assume things are OK because no one is complaining right now. How long will that relationship last, and how good do you think that marriage would be? Your health is the exact same way. The definition of health is your body functioning at its optimal level physically, nutritionally, and psychologically/emotionally and not the absence of symptoms or sickness. That means health is trying to reach as close to 100% function in all 3 of those areas.
Your health is equal to how well your body/organs/tissues/cells are functioning. Your symptoms are merely a warning sign that things have gotten so bad your body wants to bring it to your attention.
So back to the subluxation....
How do we get these subluxations? Well, there are 3 stressors that can cause a subluxation within the body. These are physical, chemical, and emotional stressors. Most people only focus on the physical aspect with regards to chiropractic but the other two are equally important as well. This falls in line with the "everything is connected" concept. Nothing in your body is in its own little box so if something bad happens to it, no other part of the body is affected. Any stress in any part of the body causes stress in another part of the body.
The most common physical stresses we think of is car accidents or major sports injuries. Yes these are very stressful to the body but I think they are less than the years of small physical stresses built up over time. Things like sitting in front of a computer all day, everyday, sleeping on your stomach, carrying a backpack full of books or a purse on one shoulder, or poor posture. It's the little things that we do everyday that we don't think about that add up over time that get most of us. Sure some people have been in major car accidents or whatever but most people have not.
I find it funny when patients come in the office because probably 70% of the time the space for previous car accidents is left blank. In my consultation, about 90% of those people have been in car accidents they just didn't think it was a big deal. According to research, a 5 mph fender bender can be enough of an impact to cause problems in the spine. Just think about two 2500 pound vehicles colliding. Your body has to absorb some of that impact because of inertia if nothing else. Research has also shown that it only takes pressure equal to the weight of a dime to impede neurological impulses, or messages being sent through the nerves. It doesn't take much.
I've also been told, "Well, I went to the hospital, they took X-rays, and they said I was fine." First off, they aren't looking for alignment at the hospital. The "you're fine" can be translated into "We didn't see any broken bones or tumors." Secondly, X-rays can only show bones and not soft tissue damage. Lastly, the rad techs and even doctors at the hospital are not trained in chiropractic and assessing alignment of the spine and its importance.
A very important physical stressor that is almost always overlooked is the birthing process. Yes being forced through the birth canal is stressful on the baby and not just the mommy. Not only is the process stressful, but you have some guy waiting to pull and twist your head and neck as soon as it's visible. This is done to an infant that doesn't even have the strength to hold up its own head. The big reason we don't think about this is because the baby doesn't come out yelling "I hate you!" or "See what you've done to me!" or "Let me pull and twist your neck around doc and see how you like it!" To help you make the connection here, yes I do suggest children get checked for misalignments regularly.
So let's move on to chemical stressors. This can mean a lot of things. How about not drinking enough water and too much of everything else. When I say drinking water, I mean only water and not tea, Propel, or whatever else you substitute for water. In Texas, you should be drinking about a quart for every 50 pounds everyday. Water is required for cells to carry out their normal functions and dehydration causes them to be sick and eventually die. Eating processed foods is another in the negative column. If you read the ingredients and can't pronounce the words, then it's probably synthetic and not good for your body.
Another poison for our body is medicine. This includes both perscription and OTC meds. Yep, that's right. None of it is good for your body. That is why they are taken in dosages and come with a very long list of side effects. There is NO such thing as safe medication. Do a little digging and you'll find out that more people die from adverse reactions to Tylenol than AIDS each year in the US. We're talking thousands of people taking Tylenol the way it is meant to be taken and end up dead. We don't get headaches because God didn't put enough aspirin in us when we were created, and we don't get acid reflux because we were born with a deficiency in the purple pill.
The last stressor I would like to talk about is psychological or emotional stressors. As you are sitting there reading this take a second and think of someone or something that ticks you off for a second. Just thinking about it you can start to feel your blood pressure rise and your muscles tense up. Now I want you to stop and think of something that makes you very happy. Almost immediately you can feel your body start to calm down and relax. This very quick exercise is a very good method to see how what you think about can affect your overall body. In fact, one of the newest areas of research is called psychoneuroimmunology. That is a fancy word that means your immune system is intertwined with your ability to function neurologically (brain & nerves) and psychologically. So that means if something negative is hurting one area, then the other areas are affected negatively as well.
Sometimes you hear chiros claiming to heal or cure everything under the sun. This simply is not true. We don't heal or cure anything. Only your body can heal itself the way God designed it to. However, chiropractic adjustments do promote healing because we improve the body's ability to function neurologically. The adjustments act as a facilitator. Again, I am not claiming to cure anything. All I'm saying is we help the body function better which allows it to take care of itself the better the way it was designed to. There are special circumstances where too much damage has been done and the body requires help. A sneeze or cough does not fall under that category by the way.
Anywho. I hope you have learned something from my 4 part series and understand a little better what we chiropractors are about. If you're wondering whether or not you and your whole family need to see a chiropractor, then the answer is "Yes!" Taking care of your spine is more important than brushing your teeth because teeth can be replaced. It's also just as important as eating healthy or exercising regularly.
Friday, January 16, 2009
This Is HUGE!!!!
I was browsing the health and fitness section of MSN this morning when I noticed this title on the front page: "Cholesterol Levels May Not Measure Cardiac Risk." When I read that, I assumed it was some article being sarcastic. Surely no one actually paid for a study that would discredit a multi-billion dollar industry like lowering cholesterol. By golly, that's exactly what someone has done.
Before I get into this, I would just like to state that I and many of my chiropractor colleagues across this nation have been making that statement for a long time. Not in those exact words, but I tell my patients that no one has ever died of high cholesterol. Many people who I treat for peripheral neuropathy are on cholesterol lowering medications because they don't fit into the box that "Mr. Pharmaceutical" has created. Obviously having very high levels of the "bad" cholesterol is not healthy and there are natural ways to lower cholesterol.
These guidelines they keep coming out with to give doctors on who should be on cholesterol meds is almost a joke. Basically, if you are over 40 and have blood they are recommending the meds. Even if you are normal and anyone in your family has suffered from heart disease, then you are likely to receive a script for it for "prevention". Taking medicine is not prevention! Do not be mistaken. All medicine is toxic to our bodies. Prevention is eating healthy, exercising, getting adjusted regularly, drinking water, anything that helps your body achieve optimal health by functioning at it's highest level physically, nutritionally, and emotionally.
If you're thinking, "But what about in emergencies or crisises?" Yes, in those emergency situations medicine is super because it prevents the alternative. That is what medicine was designed for. I'm talking about chronic conditions. If you take medicine for anything you have 2 problems instead of 1. First, you still have the problem you are taking the medication for because it doesn't fix problems, it only covers up symptoms. Second, you get a very long list of side effects to come along with it. Which by the way, will lead to more medication later on down the road.
Back to the article! This is not just some obscure article in an unknown journal. This article is appearing in the current issue of the American Heart Journal. It says that in their nationwide study (not the insurance company) they found that nearly 75% of those individuals treated for heart attacks had cholesterol levels that would suggest they were not at high risk for cardiovascular trouble. It goes on to say that this information might require doctors to reevaluate their current recommendations for prescribing statins.
I just had a scary thought. What if instead of using common sense and saying, "Hey, maybe we were wrong and cholesterol levels aren't as important as we thought," they did the complete opposite and decided that there box to fit people in is even smaller. So instead of recommending cholesterol lowering medications for those with LDL 130 and above, they change their guidelines to say now we think everyone with LDL 100 and above should take it.
I am very interested to see what comes of this. Will it get swept under the rug? Will it lower the amount of statins prescribed? Will guidelines get changed? Will nothing change? Only time will tell. Until then, I'll just keep on caring for my patients and try to make this world a little healthier one body at a time.
Before I get into this, I would just like to state that I and many of my chiropractor colleagues across this nation have been making that statement for a long time. Not in those exact words, but I tell my patients that no one has ever died of high cholesterol. Many people who I treat for peripheral neuropathy are on cholesterol lowering medications because they don't fit into the box that "Mr. Pharmaceutical" has created. Obviously having very high levels of the "bad" cholesterol is not healthy and there are natural ways to lower cholesterol.
These guidelines they keep coming out with to give doctors on who should be on cholesterol meds is almost a joke. Basically, if you are over 40 and have blood they are recommending the meds. Even if you are normal and anyone in your family has suffered from heart disease, then you are likely to receive a script for it for "prevention". Taking medicine is not prevention! Do not be mistaken. All medicine is toxic to our bodies. Prevention is eating healthy, exercising, getting adjusted regularly, drinking water, anything that helps your body achieve optimal health by functioning at it's highest level physically, nutritionally, and emotionally.
If you're thinking, "But what about in emergencies or crisises?" Yes, in those emergency situations medicine is super because it prevents the alternative. That is what medicine was designed for. I'm talking about chronic conditions. If you take medicine for anything you have 2 problems instead of 1. First, you still have the problem you are taking the medication for because it doesn't fix problems, it only covers up symptoms. Second, you get a very long list of side effects to come along with it. Which by the way, will lead to more medication later on down the road.
Back to the article! This is not just some obscure article in an unknown journal. This article is appearing in the current issue of the American Heart Journal. It says that in their nationwide study (not the insurance company) they found that nearly 75% of those individuals treated for heart attacks had cholesterol levels that would suggest they were not at high risk for cardiovascular trouble. It goes on to say that this information might require doctors to reevaluate their current recommendations for prescribing statins.
I just had a scary thought. What if instead of using common sense and saying, "Hey, maybe we were wrong and cholesterol levels aren't as important as we thought," they did the complete opposite and decided that there box to fit people in is even smaller. So instead of recommending cholesterol lowering medications for those with LDL 130 and above, they change their guidelines to say now we think everyone with LDL 100 and above should take it.
I am very interested to see what comes of this. Will it get swept under the rug? Will it lower the amount of statins prescribed? Will guidelines get changed? Will nothing change? Only time will tell. Until then, I'll just keep on caring for my patients and try to make this world a little healthier one body at a time.
Monday, January 5, 2009
It's Electric! Boogie woogie, woogie!
Now, today I will teach you about the "Electric Slide." This is a super fun line dance that can be used at almost any party to break the ice and get people on the dance floor. If you aren't a good dancer, that's even better. Learning these few steps can quickly raise your dance floor cred to a higher level.
Just Kidding!!!! Haha
I'm not really going to be teaching you a dance move. I am using this title because today I will be talking about the most important system in our body, the Nervous System. Now that is one thing that chiropractors and RDs (regular doctors) can absolutely agree on. Remember we first talked about how we were designed to be self-healing, self-regulating organisms. Then I taught you that our bodies were also created with an innate intelligence so it knew what to do and when to do it without us telling it to. Now we are moving on to how we are able to express life and how this innate intelligence tells our cells, tissues, and organs what to do.
Now let's all close our eyes and go back to biology class in middle school or high school, depending on how good your memory is, and remember sex ed. class. For most of us, we start out with 1 mama cell and 1 daddy cell which come together and form the baby cell. That baby cell immediately begins to divide. The 1 becomes 2, the 2 becomes 4, the 4 becomes 8, and so on and so on. After a couple of weeks of cellular division, the body is ready to start creating it's systems. The very first system formed during the development of the baby is your central nervous system (CNS). So what's the big deal with that???
Well, it's only THE most important system within the entire however many trillions of cells that make up our body. Your CNS acts as the computer system for the body. In fact, every single cell, tissue, and organ in the body is connected to the CNS. It is estimated that our brain receives and processes about 28 billion messages a day. Now that is a lot of email! My tiny consciousness can't even begin to comprehend sending and receiving that many messages at all, let alone in a single day.
Once your CNS is formed then the rest of your ogan and tissue systems are formed under its control. It is so important that it is the only system almost entirely enclosed in bone. The skull protects the brain, and the vertebrae (spine) protect the spinal cord. I hope you are beginning to get a sense of how important your CNS is to life.
I often here about the necessities in life being food, air, water, and shelter, but we can't stop there. Your nervous system is a requirement for life as well. You can survive weeks without food, days without water, and minutes without a heart. However, the instant your brain is dead, so goes you. In coma patients, there is always hope for life until the brain is dead. Once your nervous system goes, that's it. I often wonder why biology classes and the medical community in general does not try to educate the public more on a healthy nervous system. Especially with information we now have from research.
Did you know that your immune system is now considered to be a circulating extension of your nervous sytem? About 50 years ago, doctors said there is no connection between the immune system and the nervous system. In the 70's, they came back with new research and changed their stance to say there MIGHT be a connection between the immune system and the nervous system. Again in the late 80'2 or early 90's, they changed their mind again and said that there IS a connection between the immune system and the nervous system. Finally, around the year 2000 they stated that research shows there is no distinction between where the nervous system ends and the immune system begins because the two are intertwined.
This is what chiropractors have been saying since 1895 when the first patient was adjusted because of hearing loss. Did you catch that I said hearing loss and not neck pain??? If you have a healthy nervous system, then you are giving your body the best chance at being healthy as well. Granted you need more than that as true health comes in a trinity: physical, nutritional, and emotional/psychological. We'll talk about that later.
Everything that makes you who you are is because of the nervous system. All five of your senses and the reaction you make to those senses being stimulated are governed by your CNS. Your thoughts and feelings, the ability to love and laugh, and the ability to wave a finger at someone who just cut you off on the highway is all made possible through the CNS. A poorly functioning nervous system, leads to poorly functioning tissues, which leads to sickness and disease of those tissues, which leads to symptoms.
Here's a big clue to your health and I bet most of you just read through it without even noticing. Your symptoms are always the last to show up, and they only show up after tissue(s) have become damaged or are functioning poorly. I am VERY confused why we choose to govern our health by the presence or absence of symptoms. Maybe because the multibillion dollar pharmaceutical industry only has the ability to patent and affect that. Living this way is like deciding whether or not you are wealthy because you aren't just poor. Or you are filled with joy because you are just not sad. Or you are a 10 because you are just not ugly.
The only reason we have symptoms is because we allow our bodies to lose its ability to function to the point it loses its ability to compensate and has no other choice but to send us a signal to let you know what your are doing ain't working or the stress is more than it can handle. If you stimulate the nervous system and improve its ability to function, then these tissues can start healing. The first sign of the healing process is the reduction or the resolution of the symptoms because functioning of that area is being improved. But the healing doesn't stop there, that's when it is just beginning! The more regularly you work on it, the more "in shape" it becomes, and the higher your potential for health goes up.
There was actually an MD by the name of Henry Windsor who tried to disprove our theory in chiropractic. He wanted to show the world that these crazy quacks didn't know what they were talking about. He decided to get 200 cadavers and perform autopsies on them. First, he found the diseased organ in the body. Second, he found the nerve that was innervating that organ and traced it all the way back to the spine so he could, once and for all, show that the health of the spine had no connection to the diseased organ. Much to his surprise, we were RIGHT! Not only did degeneration of the spines corrolate with the diseased organs, but he also found that the more diseased the spine was, the more the organ was as well.
The earlier you can switch your thinking from "health = # of symptoms" to "health = how well I am functioning," the better off you will be. The number of medications we consume increases each year. If medications helped us get healthy, then wouldn't we be the healthiest nation in the world??? Do some of your own research, and you will find that is very far from the truth. I often here people complain about having to spend $50 or $60 a month on basic vitamins to improve their health. Go ask senior citizens how much they spend on perscriptions every month and doctor bills total. That can easily top $400 to $500 per month.
What about quality of life? Who do you think has a higher quality of life? Someone taking 4 or 5 different vitamins everyday or someone who has to take 4 or 5 medications? Obviously there are some conditions which do require medication. But a vast majority of these chronic conditions could be prevented with attention to a healthy body.
So what's my point??? A healthy body starts with a healthy CNS that tells the cells, tissues, and organs how to work, AND directs any nutrients/vitamins you take where to go.
I realize this post was pretty long, but I have not even begun to scratch the surface on the nervous system, how important it is, what it does for us, and a wider range of other topics that could be addressed in more detail at a later date and time. Today I will leave you with the wise words of a man most people know. His name is Thomas Jefferson. One of his most famous quotes is as follows:
"The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease."
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Premis #2: The Body is One Smart Fellar!
OK, so we are on part 2 of this 4 part series. Let's review what we've gone over so far shall we. First, the whole reason I am taking time out of my busy schedule to write these blogs is to enhance your understanding of chiropractic and why it is vitally important that you and everyone you know be under some form of regular care. I am not just saying that because I am a chiropractor. I tell everyone that. I don't care if you come see me or not, but please go see someone. Living your life without chiropractic is worse than living your life without a toothbrush and/or dentist. The only reason we don't feel it's that important is because we don't see on the outside the damage we are doing to our spine and nervous system on a daily basis. I love the old anti-smoking poster with the picture of the person and half of their chest looks like black, decaying tissue with the headliner, "If what happened on the inside actually happened on the outside, would you still smoke?". It's amazing the amount of compensation our body can endure for all the crud we put into it and do to it. I have come to view it as a double edged sword more and more. By that I mean, most of us, including myself, ignore taking care of it because we "feel fine." However, I will now get off my soapbox and get on with what I came here to do.
Second, we talked about premise #1, which is our bodies were created to be self-healing, self-regulating organisms. I think that statement is pretty self-explanatory. I promise I will try not to use anymore words hyphenated with "self." I also think this premise is a no brainer. If it were not true, then we would have died very early in our existence. Take a course in microbiology and you will quickly learn that you are walking around with dozens of bacteria that have the ability to kill you if not kept in check by your body. Take a cell biology course and you will learn that your body literally kills thousands of cancer cells everyday. If only one got by your body's defense and allowed to divide, then you would end up with a tumor.
So, now we are on to premise #2. Simply put, our body is created with a vital force that has an innate intelligence. This means your body was made with the ability to know what to do and when to do it without you having to tell it what to do. Have you ever stopped to ponder why you don't have to direct nutrients where to go, or when to start pumping adrenaline, or how tissues heal when we do dumb things like standing on top of a stool, on top of the toilet, to finish painting in a corner of the bathroom only to have it flip out from under you and land on your backside leaving a hefty bruise? That's totally hypothetical and I'll deny it if anyone accuses me of doing that.
How many times have you taken off your jeans or shirt to find a scrape that is in the end stages of healing and you didn't ever remember cutting yourself? I can't count the number of times that has happened to me. As soon as your skin is cut, your body immediately begins taking steps to heal that wound without your knowledge. In fact, even if you knew you cut yourself, you couldn't stop the healing process from taking place.
What about the food we eat? You don't have to choose which digestive enzymes to release to break down the food that you consume. You don't have to tell your body which cells have damage from the Aspirin you took last night so we'll send some extra vitamin C and whatever else it needs for tissue repair. And thank goodness we don't have to concentrate on making the waste products left over from what we put in our body. Could you imagine a friend calling you to go to the mall or play golf and you have to say, "Sorry but I can't. My lunch just entered the large intestine and it was a hefty meal so it's gonna take a while to turn it into poop." It's funny but it's the honest truth.
I am so glad that my body has the smarts and the "know how" to take care of all that stuff for me. Even in all my schooling and all the biology classes I've taken, I am definitely not smart enough to handle all those processes all at the same time. I am so thankful that our body is built with an inner intelligence to take care of all that for me. I would much rather spend my time hanging out with my family or one of several other pass times then worry about that stuff.
I hope you enjoyed this installment. The next premise we will be going over on "What is Chiropractic?" is the nervous system is the master system through which our innate intelligence is expressed. Now we will really be getting down to the nitty gritty of chiropractic. Have a blessed day, and feel free to leave any comments!
Second, we talked about premise #1, which is our bodies were created to be self-healing, self-regulating organisms. I think that statement is pretty self-explanatory. I promise I will try not to use anymore words hyphenated with "self." I also think this premise is a no brainer. If it were not true, then we would have died very early in our existence. Take a course in microbiology and you will quickly learn that you are walking around with dozens of bacteria that have the ability to kill you if not kept in check by your body. Take a cell biology course and you will learn that your body literally kills thousands of cancer cells everyday. If only one got by your body's defense and allowed to divide, then you would end up with a tumor.
So, now we are on to premise #2. Simply put, our body is created with a vital force that has an innate intelligence. This means your body was made with the ability to know what to do and when to do it without you having to tell it what to do. Have you ever stopped to ponder why you don't have to direct nutrients where to go, or when to start pumping adrenaline, or how tissues heal when we do dumb things like standing on top of a stool, on top of the toilet, to finish painting in a corner of the bathroom only to have it flip out from under you and land on your backside leaving a hefty bruise? That's totally hypothetical and I'll deny it if anyone accuses me of doing that.
How many times have you taken off your jeans or shirt to find a scrape that is in the end stages of healing and you didn't ever remember cutting yourself? I can't count the number of times that has happened to me. As soon as your skin is cut, your body immediately begins taking steps to heal that wound without your knowledge. In fact, even if you knew you cut yourself, you couldn't stop the healing process from taking place.
What about the food we eat? You don't have to choose which digestive enzymes to release to break down the food that you consume. You don't have to tell your body which cells have damage from the Aspirin you took last night so we'll send some extra vitamin C and whatever else it needs for tissue repair. And thank goodness we don't have to concentrate on making the waste products left over from what we put in our body. Could you imagine a friend calling you to go to the mall or play golf and you have to say, "Sorry but I can't. My lunch just entered the large intestine and it was a hefty meal so it's gonna take a while to turn it into poop." It's funny but it's the honest truth.
I am so glad that my body has the smarts and the "know how" to take care of all that stuff for me. Even in all my schooling and all the biology classes I've taken, I am definitely not smart enough to handle all those processes all at the same time. I am so thankful that our body is built with an inner intelligence to take care of all that for me. I would much rather spend my time hanging out with my family or one of several other pass times then worry about that stuff.
I hope you enjoyed this installment. The next premise we will be going over on "What is Chiropractic?" is the nervous system is the master system through which our innate intelligence is expressed. Now we will really be getting down to the nitty gritty of chiropractic. Have a blessed day, and feel free to leave any comments!
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Are muscles the secret cause of pain?
I received an email this morning from a patient who requested a free health report on the secret cause of pain and how to get rid of it. He forwarded it to me and asked for my thoughts on the subject matter. In answering his email, it gave me the thought that he is probably just one of many people looking for any possible answer to fix problems we experience. After thinking about it for a few minutes, it occured to me that sometimes we get so wrapped up in our problems and looking under every stone for some answer that we forget to just take a step back and look at how the body works and what health really is and then approach our problems. Pardon the cliche but we tend to not see the forest for all the trees. This has motivated me to write a brief reminder of what health really is and then we can go from there. Some of the information will put the cart before the horse in my explanation of chiropractic, but I don't see why repeating important points will cause anyone harm.
Another reason for this entry has to do with those people I hear say there problem is only muscular. I won't get into the explanation here, but have patience my young grasshopper and we shall get there. The health report focused on muscle imbalance and all the negative things that muscle imbalance causes and it also listed 4 popular chronic degenerative problems in the body and very loosely tied them to muscles. What I will do is combine why it's not just "muscular" and what health is.
So here we go....
Our body's health is directly proportional to how well it is functioning. Notice I said functioning and not feeling; we will address that point later, so tuck it in your pocket and hang onto it. The article talked about how exercising muscles that weren't working properly or "out of shape" would fix all your worries with back pain. First, let me make it clear that I am saying exercising does nothing for you. Exercising is good. My disagreement why muscles are the secret cause of pain are as follows. If your body is functioning well, then all is happy. However, If an area of the body loses its ability to function normally, then it begins to break down and leads to sickness or dysfunction.
Muscles by themselves do nothing. They sit and wait until a message from the nervous system tells them to contract and then relax when the nervous system tells them to stop. Muscles are also dependent upon the joints they are connected to in their ability to function. Muscle imbalance or poor performance is more like a symptom of either bad/wrong messages carried through the nervous system or bad joint mechanics (the way the joint moves). The exception to this is a traumatic event, which damages the muscles and the joints they are attached to. However, the report is focusing on problems of the chronic nature which is what most people suffer from.
Another important point is that symptoms, such as pain, numbness, allergies, etc., are only signals to us that there is a loss of function somewhere in the body. Hopefully at this point we can all agree that tissues cannot become sick or diseased if they are functioning at 100%. These signals are given once a threshhold is crossed and your body knows it is losing its ability to compensate. In fact, research has shown that your body can lose 60% of normal function before the line is crossed and gives you the first symptom. This means you can be walking around at 45-50% functioning and never even know it. Clearly a heart functioning at 50% capacity is not nearly as healthy as one functioning close to 100%.
I hear people all the time say they "feel fine" or never had any problems before or think because there is an absense of symptoms then they are healthy. This is a fatal error in judgement because we know the body just isn't set up to give you symptoms the second you do something bad to it. If it did, most of us would never be able to get out of bed because the day before we either had a lot of emotional stress, or ate unhealthy, processed foods, or banged our knee on the ground when we fell. Living your life according to how you feel is very dangerous and will leave you in the nursing home on 15 different medications to the tune of $700 per month if you're lucky to even live that long.
So can exercising muscles help get you out of pain? Absolutely because exercising is a part of the healthy lifestyle which can elevate the functioning of the body. If you get it evelated above that line, then your body quits giving you signals that it's not happy. Is the muscle exercised the cause of the pain? I find it hard to believe in a chronic condition because of the previous two points mentioned. You can exercise a muscle all day long and if it's not connected to properly working joints and/or getting bad/wrong messages through the nervous system, then it will always break down at some point. You must get joints moving correctly, clear messages, and muscles loose for the most effective results.
Remember the key is restoring normal function to the body so it can take care of itself the way it was designed to do. Your nervous system is the master system in the body and has the biggest piece in the pie of normal function. If you and/or your children are not being checked regularly, you are robbing yourself and them of reaching a maximum health potential. It's like filling your car with oil when it's first built and never changing it or checking it. You know eventually the car will break down; it's just a matter of when not if.
I hope I have put another wrinkle in your brain. Have a very merry Christmas!
Another reason for this entry has to do with those people I hear say there problem is only muscular. I won't get into the explanation here, but have patience my young grasshopper and we shall get there. The health report focused on muscle imbalance and all the negative things that muscle imbalance causes and it also listed 4 popular chronic degenerative problems in the body and very loosely tied them to muscles. What I will do is combine why it's not just "muscular" and what health is.
So here we go....
Our body's health is directly proportional to how well it is functioning. Notice I said functioning and not feeling; we will address that point later, so tuck it in your pocket and hang onto it. The article talked about how exercising muscles that weren't working properly or "out of shape" would fix all your worries with back pain. First, let me make it clear that I am saying exercising does nothing for you. Exercising is good. My disagreement why muscles are the secret cause of pain are as follows. If your body is functioning well, then all is happy. However, If an area of the body loses its ability to function normally, then it begins to break down and leads to sickness or dysfunction.
Muscles by themselves do nothing. They sit and wait until a message from the nervous system tells them to contract and then relax when the nervous system tells them to stop. Muscles are also dependent upon the joints they are connected to in their ability to function. Muscle imbalance or poor performance is more like a symptom of either bad/wrong messages carried through the nervous system or bad joint mechanics (the way the joint moves). The exception to this is a traumatic event, which damages the muscles and the joints they are attached to. However, the report is focusing on problems of the chronic nature which is what most people suffer from.
Another important point is that symptoms, such as pain, numbness, allergies, etc., are only signals to us that there is a loss of function somewhere in the body. Hopefully at this point we can all agree that tissues cannot become sick or diseased if they are functioning at 100%. These signals are given once a threshhold is crossed and your body knows it is losing its ability to compensate. In fact, research has shown that your body can lose 60% of normal function before the line is crossed and gives you the first symptom. This means you can be walking around at 45-50% functioning and never even know it. Clearly a heart functioning at 50% capacity is not nearly as healthy as one functioning close to 100%.
I hear people all the time say they "feel fine" or never had any problems before or think because there is an absense of symptoms then they are healthy. This is a fatal error in judgement because we know the body just isn't set up to give you symptoms the second you do something bad to it. If it did, most of us would never be able to get out of bed because the day before we either had a lot of emotional stress, or ate unhealthy, processed foods, or banged our knee on the ground when we fell. Living your life according to how you feel is very dangerous and will leave you in the nursing home on 15 different medications to the tune of $700 per month if you're lucky to even live that long.
So can exercising muscles help get you out of pain? Absolutely because exercising is a part of the healthy lifestyle which can elevate the functioning of the body. If you get it evelated above that line, then your body quits giving you signals that it's not happy. Is the muscle exercised the cause of the pain? I find it hard to believe in a chronic condition because of the previous two points mentioned. You can exercise a muscle all day long and if it's not connected to properly working joints and/or getting bad/wrong messages through the nervous system, then it will always break down at some point. You must get joints moving correctly, clear messages, and muscles loose for the most effective results.
Remember the key is restoring normal function to the body so it can take care of itself the way it was designed to do. Your nervous system is the master system in the body and has the biggest piece in the pie of normal function. If you and/or your children are not being checked regularly, you are robbing yourself and them of reaching a maximum health potential. It's like filling your car with oil when it's first built and never changing it or checking it. You know eventually the car will break down; it's just a matter of when not if.
I hope I have put another wrinkle in your brain. Have a very merry Christmas!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Premise #1
Alright, so today we will be going over the basic underlying premise of chiropractic which is....
Our body is designed to be a self-healing, self-regulating organism.
This is a very basic principle but it is often overlooked. Notice the beginning of the sentence says that our bodies are designed. There is no accident that everything in the body works together. Whether you believe in God as I do or not, science and statistics make it more sensible to think there is an intelligent design behind all that is.
Self-healing means that your body is built to heal itself. Did you know that the part of your immune system that makes antibodies knows how to do so for several trillions of different bacteria and viruses. That doesn't include the possibility of a mutation happening along the way. When those are factored in, it makes it almost infinite. Your immune system can code for more antibodies than your DNA can, which is why it was set up that way. Your body is ready to fight bacteria and viruses that haven't even been discovered.
As soon as you cut your finger your body immediately begins taking measures to heal that wound. The healing process within acts independently of you and doesn't care what you think. What I mean is if you cut your finger and you concentrated on that cut and told your self and thought to yourself, "Don't heal, don't heal," it still would regardless. You can't stop your body from trying to heal itself. We can do things to slow the process down but your body will still try and heal itself.
Your body is also self-regulating. That means it was also built to take care of itself. Do you have to tell your heart how many times to beat per minute or when to speed up when you start exercising? Do you have to tell your body how to digest the food you eat and which cells, tissues, and organs need what nutrients? How about the thousands of cancer cells your body kills everyday; did you tell it where they were and to go kill them? Of course not. If we had to do all of this, we wouldn't be able to live.
Our body carries out millions of processes everyday. The majority of these are not under our control. It's amazing how harmonic all the different things in our body work together just to make it through one day. It is like a symphony orchestra with trillions of members coming together to make beautiful music.
So that's it for the first premise of chiropractic. Hopefully as we go through this I will be able to teach you more about you and that you alone are responsible for your health. Your health is a lot like your retirement. I always hear financial planners say that people don't plan to fail in their later years but that they fail to plan. Your health is the exact same way, especially in this high stress, low nutrition, and low exercise environment we live in. If you don't plan to be healthy, then you won't be healthy when you need it the most.
The next premise we will be going over is the innate intelligence that your body has. Until then, have an excellent day!
Our body is designed to be a self-healing, self-regulating organism.
This is a very basic principle but it is often overlooked. Notice the beginning of the sentence says that our bodies are designed. There is no accident that everything in the body works together. Whether you believe in God as I do or not, science and statistics make it more sensible to think there is an intelligent design behind all that is.
Self-healing means that your body is built to heal itself. Did you know that the part of your immune system that makes antibodies knows how to do so for several trillions of different bacteria and viruses. That doesn't include the possibility of a mutation happening along the way. When those are factored in, it makes it almost infinite. Your immune system can code for more antibodies than your DNA can, which is why it was set up that way. Your body is ready to fight bacteria and viruses that haven't even been discovered.
As soon as you cut your finger your body immediately begins taking measures to heal that wound. The healing process within acts independently of you and doesn't care what you think. What I mean is if you cut your finger and you concentrated on that cut and told your self and thought to yourself, "Don't heal, don't heal," it still would regardless. You can't stop your body from trying to heal itself. We can do things to slow the process down but your body will still try and heal itself.
Your body is also self-regulating. That means it was also built to take care of itself. Do you have to tell your heart how many times to beat per minute or when to speed up when you start exercising? Do you have to tell your body how to digest the food you eat and which cells, tissues, and organs need what nutrients? How about the thousands of cancer cells your body kills everyday; did you tell it where they were and to go kill them? Of course not. If we had to do all of this, we wouldn't be able to live.
Our body carries out millions of processes everyday. The majority of these are not under our control. It's amazing how harmonic all the different things in our body work together just to make it through one day. It is like a symphony orchestra with trillions of members coming together to make beautiful music.
So that's it for the first premise of chiropractic. Hopefully as we go through this I will be able to teach you more about you and that you alone are responsible for your health. Your health is a lot like your retirement. I always hear financial planners say that people don't plan to fail in their later years but that they fail to plan. Your health is the exact same way, especially in this high stress, low nutrition, and low exercise environment we live in. If you don't plan to be healthy, then you won't be healthy when you need it the most.
The next premise we will be going over is the innate intelligence that your body has. Until then, have an excellent day!
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