Our Own Personal Chemical Wizard

The entire multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry cannot compare with the human body’s own chemical wizardry in formulating the chemicals it needs for its well-being. Each day your body is prompted and guided by its own nervous system to concoct, produce, assemble, and combine thousands upon thousands of vital chemicals. Yes, the mastermind of this entire operation is your nervous system. Your body produces its own antibodies, digestive enzymes, hormones, and neurotransmitters to name only a few. Scientists estimate that your brain alone creates many hundreds of different chemicals. Your liver and glands carry out hundreds of chemical functions which contribute to the body’s bio-chemical symphony. If you have a problem with your body’s chemical mastermind (your nervous system) due to choked, irritated nerves which originate from your spine, a chiropractor can find and treat the cause through an adjustment thus unchoking the nerve(s). Your body will take over from here. It will “write its own prescription” to help bring its own chemistry into balance. A chiropractic adjustment therefore is more than just moving misaligned or abnormally motioned joints back into alignment. Your spine contains something that no other part of your body contains – Opium sites. When an adjustment is made to your spine these opium sites release enkephalons and encephalons which are natural pain killers and helps reduce swelling, edema, and muscle spasms. All from a simple specific chiropractic adjustment. The chiropractic way is to help your body by removing nervous system irritation which interferes with the symphony of your body – after that we allow the body to take over and do its wonders.

We have all had problems haunt us from the get go. Most of us enter our world crying. We are taken from a dark, wholesome womb and thrown into a room with fluorescent lights, strange noises, and people we do not know. If you think it’s hard to accept change in your lives now, can you imagine how a baby feels when they are forced to accept a radical change this quickly. It’s not pleasant even when there is no seemable complications. But when you add the difficult births into the picture, we must paint a worse scenario. They are twisted, torqued, and pulled to bring them into this world. No care, however, is given to the infant’s twisted spine, as they often suffer spinal injuries. Birth is the most traumatic experience you will ever experience in your life, yet no care is given to address vulnerable infant spinal problems. If only we could speak at that point – we could let people know what we are experiencing.

Make Your Nervous System Happy – Make Your Body Happy

Spinal nerves are involved directly or indirectly via nerve impulses to virtually every body cell in every part of the body. But because 95% of our body’s nerves travel through your spinal column and exit between the vertebrae to supply all areas and parts of your body, your chiropractor focuses on bringing your spine and thus normal nervous function in order. It makes sense then when a person has their spine adjusted for back pain, reports a resolution to their digestive problems as their problematic choked nerves serving the digestive system was helped. I’ve had many patients thank me for a number of ailments being resolved – none of which they initially came in for. “I would like to thank you for helping my urinary problem that I didn’t tell you about.”, “Thanks for allowing me to eat spicy foods again doc.”, “Thanks for relieving my headaches and oh, by the way my arms don’t tingle and fall asleep anymore.”, are just some of the statments I hear from my patients. Oh the wonders of a properly functioning nervous system.

What are the Dangers of a Chiropractic Adjustment?

Chiropractic adjustment, when performed properly, are among the safest in the healing professions. This is why malpractice insurance premiums are very low. You know what would happen to your car insurance premiums if you had a major car accident every year? At some point you would be uninsurable. Chiropractic care is much safer than drug therapy. In an October 14, 1996 article on the front page of USA Today it reports: “Researchers estimate about 120,000 preventable deaths and 1 million injuries occur during the course of medical treatment each year.” Now assuming there are approximately 600,000 MDs, this boils down to the average MD being involved one preventable death every five years, and almost 2 unnecessary injuries every year. Chiropractic care is incredibly safe when compared with other forms of treament. In fact you have a better chance of getting skin cancer from staying out in the sun too long, having a commercial airplane mishap, being injured in a car accident, or even being struck by lightning than having a negative reaction to a chiropractic treatment.

What Brings the Patients In?

Pain, more than any other symptom, brings at least 80% of first-time chiropractic patients to chiropractic doctors offices. Unfortunately, many of these patients turn to chiropractic as a last resort type of approach. I’ve had patients who have seen upwards of 41 other doctors before consulting our clinic. Many first-time chiropractic patients had been taking pain killers, quite often for years, but had yet to experience any permanent relief from their pain. Now I’m not suggesting to live in a world where pain medication is not available. After all any good emergency room doctor will numb a deep cut before stitching it. But after the stitching is done, your body takes over and starts the healing. If you need an over the counter medication or need one prescribed for the time being to help get you through the night then by all means do it. But it would be unwise to continuously numb up your body without addressing your true problem at the same time. Pain tells us something is wrong, but merely shutting off the pain without finding and correcting the cause may destroy health.

HEALTH CYCLES

Our bodies go through cycles, we have some good days and some bad ones. When rehabilitating our body we must allow it to go through its cycles and take time to heal. When receiving chiropractic treatment it would be wise to follow a few rules: Limit physical and mental stress before and after treatment, Sleep on your back or side with adequate neck support, Try not to read in bed or in awkward positions, and keep a positive attitude. It also helps immensely to do your homework – If your chiropractor tells you to stretch, exercise, apply heat or cold to an area, or other kind of home therapy then please do it. This will help you regain your lost health quicker and make you easier to adjust. You must remember that rehabilitating spines is similiar to straightening teeth. It takes time and effort to restructure and rebuild healthy tissue. But if you do your homework, make your appointments, and keep your positive attitude you will be on your way to a better body. And since we do have our good days and bad days you must realize that this will also happen during your treatment, but hopefully your good days will be better than your previous good days and your bad days will be better than your previous bad days.

Skeptics

Many people have skeptical viewpoints about chiropractic. They just cannot fully grasp how a problem in the back can possibly affect disease processes in the body. It is however an accepted concept that when someone suffers from a broken neck they may lose function to their arms, legs and other parts of the body. All because the nervous system has been violently irritated. But when it comes to the same nerves being irritated by misaligned vertebrae, we don’t make the connection that this too can cause dysfunction of the internal organs and systems.

Take Care of Your Spine Like You Take Care of Your Teeth

If we only knew how important our nervous system is to our well-being. It is the total disregard we have to our spine that often lead to the progression of disease. If we were to take care of our teeth the same way we take care of our spine, we would have a lot of toothless people running around.

Patient with Curvature and torquing of the spine                      Same patient with a marked decrease in curvature and torquing of the spine after chiropractic treatments
X_ray2

X_ray1

 

 

If chiropractic adjustments are suppose to restore motion to joints, move joints into their correct position, and remove nerve irritation, how come it takes more than one adjustment? Yes all this is true, but you must realize that your body hates any movement that it does not perform itself. Your body tries to limit any sudden movement to it without its consent. Whether it be movement from an accident or chiropractic adjustment. Too much violent movement, even from adjusting a joint into its correct position, can cause muscle spasm and swelling. This is why chiropractors do not force movement and change all at once. Often the help of physical therapy machines, cold and hot packs allow your body to receive a better adjustment. Chiropractic adjustments are quick and specific to help prevent muscular spasm. These adjustments do not require alot of force when done correctly and can be performed in a split second. Newborn babies and senior citizens are adjusted frequently without discomfort or pain. People with very severe injuries and immobile joints may experience a “working out” soreness, but this will go away and actually feel better than before this adjustment. This happens infrequently and should be considered as natural healing symptoms. These are symptoms that your body exhibits when natural healthy function is being restored before your body’s lymphatic system and other organs have a chance to remove toxic debris that was being hidden inconspicuously before treatment. When your teeth are in dire need of braces – they to will ache when they are finally put back into place. After a series of tightenings and time, your teeth will stay in position. You understand that simply applying the braces and taking them off the following day will not do much. The teeth will simply return to their crooked position. Chiropractors play “tug-o-war”, so to speak, with your muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Eventually after a few treatments your chiropractor will win the battle and the normal function to your spine and other joints will return. Finally, your body gets used to its new, now normal position.