Wednesday

A Discussion of Wellness Chiropractic – How Chiropractic Care Can Help With More Than Just Getting You Out of Pain

I strongly encourage you to visit the following link to read an in-depth discussion by medical professionals on the benefits of chiropractic.


There is an accompanying video of their talk, if you would prefer to watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHRRS3QAxpI

As I’ve said countless times before, chiropractic care is beneficial for so many reasons other than just relieving patients of pain. If it isn’t already, chiropractic should become a part of your usual health routine.


Working to restore GOD’s perfect design in you!

The Vaccination Industry: Who Really Benefits from It?

Every successful industry begins with either the need for something or the invention of a need.  In the second option, people begin to believe they need to fill the void for that invented problem. The vaccination industry is guilty of doing this. Fear is an extremely easy way to get people to buy into something, and the vaccination industry has created fear of so many potential illnesses that people believe the threat is too real to ignore and that they must be vaccinated.  

The recent emergence of the Zika virus is a prime example. Prior to 2016, many people hadn’t even heard of the virus, and now it is being blamed for birth defects and deaths with no solid, scientific causal relationship being proven. Already, government health organizations, big pharma companies, and even wealthy businesspeople are tapping into this industry and seeking to profit from the research and creation of a Zika vaccine.

And why wouldn’t they? The vaccination industry has very little liability for any issues or fallout from vaccinations, so why wouldn’t they seek to constantly create new vaccines and make exorbitant amounts of money in the process? Even when they are proven not to work, like in the case of the mumps outbreak at Harvard this year (41 reported cases by the end of April, even among students who’d been vaccinated), people continue to believe that vaccinations are the answer.

It’s important to know—and remember—that the vaccination industry is just that: an industry, and a very profitable one at that. Regardless of its efficiency or its intentions, it will not go away until it ceases to be profitable, and it shows no signs of stopping any time soon.


Working to restore GOD’s perfect design in you!

How To Reduce Your Risk of High Blood Pressure

It is a frightening thought that approximately one in three American adults have high blood pressure (AKA hypertension), which can lead to heart attack, stroke, congestive heart failure, end-stage kidney disease, and many other health issues.[1] Fortunately, we now know that elevated insulin and leptin levels often cause hypertension, and there are ways to normalize these high levels to get healthy again.

First off, if you have high blood pressure and are overweight, you should consider intermittent fasting. This is all about “eating your calories during a specific window of the day, and choosing not to eat food during the rest.”[2] Our bodies react to eating by elevating our insulin and leptin levels, so if you’re constantly snacking on or drinking sugary foods, those levels will remain high. Intermittent fasting has been found to be a very effective way to normalize blood pressure, even though it’s not a diet in the traditional sense.

As is the case with most health problems, many issues arise as a result of an unhealthy and unbalanced diet. Those with hypertension should avoid processed food, which include sugar/fructose, processed salt, trans fats, and vegetable oils full of omega-6.

Get plenty of vitamin D through sun exposure to relax stiff arteries and to allow your blood vessels to relax. If sun exposure isn’t a viable option for you, you may take a vitamin D supplement instead (just make sure it’s D3, not D2).

Last but certainly not least, exercise regularly. When combined with a healthy diet (eaten at the right times) and a good combination of vitamins, these relatively simple and common sense lifestyle changes can prevent or decrease your risk of hypertension.

Working to restore GOD’s perfect design in you!







[1] Dr. Mercola, “Strategies to Prevent Hypertension.” June 9, 2014. <http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/06/09/hypertension-prevention-treatment.aspx?e_cid=20140609Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20140609Z1&et_cid=DM46353&et_rid=548174110>
[2] Id.

The 4 Phases of Our Spinal Restoration Care Program


So, what’s the answer to spinal subluxation and its harmful effects? Spinal Restoration Care, including adjustments and the proven techniques of Chiropractic BioPhysics we use at Living Well Family Chiropractic. Through our process of spinal restoration, we can restore your spine to its ideal position, get you out of pain, and set you on your way to a healthier, happier future.

Each time you get a spinal adjustment, the pressure on the brain, spinal cord, and nervous system is reduced. But despite this improvement, one or a few adjustments simply aren’t enough. Think about it: your spinal cord’s misalignment has resulted from a lifetime of falls, poor posture, bad sleep habits, stress, hard work, accidents, sports injuries, and endless other factors. If we adjust your spine just once, it will return to the position it held before. Your ligaments, muscles, and tendons are like elastic; they snap right back to what they’re accustomed to. It’s our job to retrain them so that they can adjust to a new, ideal spinal position and stay there.

Each of your adjustments will be timed and scheduled in such a way that your spine will not have the opportunity to go back to its prior bad habits, so it’s important that our schedule is followed as closely as possible. Think of each adjustment as building on the last. Between your home exercises, our traction system, and regular adjustments, you will be feeling better before you know it, and you will also be increasing the quality and longevity of your life.

Restoring the spine is a long-term process that varies from one patient to another. Your care plan will depend upon the level of correction that is needed and previous traumas, as well as our findings from your x-rays.

  • First is the Intensive Care Phase. In this phase, our main priority is relaxing your muscles, getting all of your joints moving again, and getting you out of pain. 
  • Remodeling Phase. During this phase you will be provided with Mirror Image Exercises to do at home on a daily basis, which strengthen your weakened back muscles. In our office, you will receive Mirror Image Adjustments for neuromuscular re-education—essentially, to teach your muscles to go back to their ideal position. You will also do Mirror Image Traction while you’re in the office, which lengthens your soft tissue.  Think of the Remodeling Phase like braces; we are gradually aligning your spine to reach its ideal position, even when you are no longer necessarily in pain. This is also when we begin to focus on restoring the ideal shape of your spine using our E.A.T. program.
  • Stabilization Phase (e.g. retainer). The Stabilization Phase is analogous to wearing a retainer after braces. It lasts the same duration of time as the Remodeling Phase but your office visits are reduced to once per week.
  • Maintenance Phase. Finally, the Maintenance Phase comes after everything else. It’s important to remember that, as great as you might feel, you’re not Superman. We are still living in a world that has changed more quickly than we have changed genetically; thus, we were not designed for it. As such, we need to make a conscious effort to maintain all the positive changes we’ve made during the prior phases of your chiropractic care. This is where the Maintenance Phase comes into play.
The frequency of visits during the Maintenance Phase can be once a week or once every few months depending on many factors, including your activity levels. If you experience any macro or micro traumas during this time, we will immediately start a new Intensive Care Phase but should not require a new Remodeling Phase if corrected right away.

Please feel free to ask questions if you’re a new patient or are considering treatment with us, and remember: these are our recommendations, not the only treatment possible. And some chiropractic care is better than none at all!

Working to Restore God’s Perfect Design in You!

Using Physiological Laws to Remodel Your Spine

The body responds to the forces placed on it. There are anatomical laws that support this statement. Wolff’s law, for instance, states that “bone in a healthy person or animal will adapt to the loads under which it is placed. If loading on a particular bone increases, the bone will remodel itself over time to become stronger to resist that sort of loading.”[1] Davis’ law refers instead to soft tissue and says that if tension is placed on ligaments or soft tissue, the tissue will elongate. If soft tissue remains in a relaxed state for a long enough time, it will shorten. Our techniques at Living Well Family Chiropractic, which include a traction system, act to stretch damaged (shortened) soft tissue and maintain proper function. Lastly, the Hueter-Volkmann Law states that “compression forces inhibit growth and tensile forces stimulate growth [of cartilage].”[2]

Keeping these laws in mind, it is easy to see how spinal degeneration can occur when the biomechanics of your body are faulty. And the longer you live with an unhealthy spine, the worse your overall health may become.

Our proprietary E.A.T. Program, which stands for “Exercise, Adjust, and Traction,” makes use of these physiological laws to remodel your spine. Exercise, of course, strengthens your muscles. Chiropractic adjustments reset muscle spindles, sensory organs found within your muscles. Muscle spindles are the only sensory organ in the body that can be reset. Adjustments also relieve muscle tension. Traction stretches your soft tissue by “creep,” a property of our tissue that allows it to be lengthened if force is kept on it over time.

Traction’s—and the entire E.A.T. Program’s—goal “is to create a deformation force that will return the spine and spinal tissues to normal alignment and resting length.”[3] Because of the elasticity of your ligaments, “a sustained force is necessary to get past the elastic range and into the permanent deformation range of plasticity.”[4] In other words, it takes a certain length of time in traction to undo the abnormal posture your body has gotten used to over months, years, or even decades.

While physical therapy is excellent for dealing with issues in extremity joints, muscles in the spine span across a range of greater than one or two vertebrae. Because of this structure, it is impossible to target the specific joint that’s causing issues through exercise alone. This is why physical therapy or physiotherapy alone is not the most effective approach when dealing with the spine; these therapies don’t remove the fixation or subluxation, but only create ways for the body to compensate.

Peer-reviewed protocols suggest that trying to perform a spinal correction with exercise alone or with chiropractic adjustments alone has a lower success rate than with 36 visits of our E.A.T. program. We want you, your spine, and the quality of your treatment to be above average, which is why we continue to use this program.

Check back next time for the 4 phases of spinal restoration we use at Living Well Family Chiropractic!

Working to Restore God’s Perfect Design In Yo




[1] Wolff J. The Law of Bone Remodeling. Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer, 1986.
[2] Orthopedic Journal, Volume 11 Spring 1998, Pages 27-35
[3] Harrison DE, Harrison DD, and Haas JW. CBP Structural Rehabilitation of the Cervical Spine. Harrison Chiropractic Biophysics Seminars, Inc. 2002, Page 118
[4] Harrison DE, Harrison DD, and Haas JW. CBP Structural Rehabilitation of the Cervical Spine. Harrison Chiropractic Biophysics Seminars, Inc. 2002, Page 118

The Importance of Posture (and X-Rays)

“Posture is the key to life.” – Mark Twain

“For every inch of Forward Head Posture, it can increase the weight of the head on the spine by an additional 10 pounds.” – Kapandji, Physiology of Joints

Did you know that 90% of our brain’s energy is used for posture alone?[1] That number indicates just how important posture is for our bodies, not just in terms of the spine but also for overall health.

Understandably, poor posture greatly affects your spinal health. This includes not only poor posture while sitting, but also while standing and even while sleeping. Subluxations do not only have physical causes; they can occur as the result of emotional and psychological stress as well. At every moment of every day, you participate in a range of activities that can strain your spine and create subluxations. It is our job as chiropractors to make you more aware of these activities and how you can improve your habits to avoid pain and damage to your body.

Apart from spinal health, “Deviations in the body’s center of gravity [cause] poor posture, which result[s] in intestinal problems, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, osteoporosis, hip and foot deformities, poor health, decreased quality of life, and a shortened life span.”[2]  

These research findings were confirmed again in a 2005 study that showed “abnormal trunk deformity (posture) groups tended to score lower than the normal group with regard to subjective healthiness and life satisfaction measures, including subjective health condition, every day feeling, satisfaction with human relationship, satisfaction with economic condition and satisfaction with present life.”[3]

People with postural problems tend to be more depressed than others, experience chronic pain, may have more issues with relationships, and may even earn lower incomes. Postural distortions and a weaker spinal structure can have a major impact on a person’s overall strength and health, which can have an effect on their earning potential. These distortions can cause accelerated aging and may make you feel older than your chronological age because there is interference in the life-giving nerve supply to your organs. 

Posture is a chiropractor’s “window” to see how close you are to the ideal spine model without even using x-rays. Beyond that, good posture can increase physical attractiveness to others and reflects self-confidence—and who doesn’t want that?

Don’t forget about X-Rays!

Though posture is a fast and relatively simple method that can be used to judge a patient’s spine, chiropractors go beyond that by providing x-rays. Once we have done your x-rays, we can more easily compare your alignment to the ideal spine, which—as discussed earlier—is based on peer-reviewed research.

Spinal x-rays act as a map of your spine’s structure. Imagine you’re driving somewhere unfamiliar. Wouldn’t it be much more efficient to drive with a map versus without one? In the same way, chiropractors use x-rays to discover the area(s) of your spine in need of treatment so that we can focus on fixing your structure and getting you out of pain.

My next post will discuss the various reasons why your spine might differ from the Harrison Spinal Model, so be sure to check it out!

Working to Restore God’s Perfect Design in You!





[1] Dr. Roger Sperry (Nobel Prize recipient)
[2] Freeman JT; “Posture in the Aging and Aged Body.” JAMA 1957; 165(7): 843-846
[3] Takahashi T. Osteoporosis Int. 2005; 16: 273-279

Thursday

The Ideal Spinal Model

IDEAL SPINAL MODEL

Dr. Donald Harrison, the founder of Chiropractic BioPhysics, proposed the Harrison Spinal Model in the early 1980s.  His spinal model is based on mathematical equations that describe the anatomical design of a healthy, well-formed spine. The Harrison Spinal Model is an evidence-based model supported by peer-reviewed research by which chiropractors can evaluate their patients’ spinal alignment.



The Harrison Spinal Model shows both the Ideal and the Average geometric shapes for spinal curves from the side. The neck’s (cervical spine) geometric shape should resemble a piece of a circle, the ribcage (thoracic spine) should be shaped like an oval, and the low back (lumbar spine) should be an oval-elliptical shape. The Harrison Spinal Model has been proven to identify patients in pain versus patients without pain just by looking at their spinal x-ray shapes.[1]

Why are these spinal curves so important? Because they provide:
·      Strength of Structure - The three curves of the spine work to increase stability and strength, creating a dynamic, weight-bearing column that can withstand heavy loads.
·      Shock Absorption – The spine also acts like a spring. It absorbs shock, while loss of curves leads to increased susceptibility of disc injury and vertebral fractures. Discs are NOT shock absorbers—if any doctor explains them to you as such, it’s a red flag and shows that they don’t understand basic hydrodynamics.
·      Room for Organs – The correct spinal curvature allows space for your organs to live, which is especially vital for lung capacity.
·      Balance/Stability - Spinal curves also maintain the body’s balance, helping the spine withstand great amounts of stress by providing a more even distribution of body weight.
·      Ability to Move - It enables movement so that you can reach, pull, and/or contract.
·      Protection of your Nervous System - Last, but certainly not least, a spine with the proper curves protects your spinal cord. The Lordotic curve decreases the overall length of the spinal column, the space where the CNS lives. When stretched, nerves are compromised, so the Lordotic curve is important to allow slack in the spinal cord. As Doctor Alf Breig stated, “Loss of cervical curve stretches the spinal cord 5 to 7 cm and produces pathological tension, putting the body in a state of disease.” “Spinal bone misalignment can reduce nerve impulses by 60%.”[2]

God has created a complex anatomical system that we as humans don’t fully understand; there may be other reasons for spinal curves that are yet to be discovered. Our goal at Living Well Family Chiropractic is simply to get you as close to your natural spinal structure as possible.

Read on next time for the importance of posture in reaching your best spinal structure!

Working to Restore God’s Perfect Design in You!





[1] CBP Seminars & Harrison, DE. “What is CBP?” 2014. <http://www.idealspine.com/what-is-cbp/>
[2] Chung Ha Suh, Ph.D., University of Colorado

Wednesday

The Connection Between Obesity and Prescription Drug Use

A recent study by Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health shows that more people are taking prescription medications and that many of them are taking multiple medications at once.[1] There was a 9% increase in adults who used prescription drugs in a 30-day period compared to the study results from just a decade ago (59% vs. 50%).[2] This, naturally, raises concerns about how medications can negatively interact with each other, particularly when people self-medicate or are untruthful with their doctors about what they’re taking.

One interesting conclusion made by the researchers was that “the increase in prescription use may be driven in part by the rise in obesity…because many of the widely used drugs treat conditions that can be related to obesity, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.”[3] It’s no secret that the U.S. is one of the unhealthiest and most obese countries in the world, and we don’t show many positive signs of improvement in that area.

There are various other surveys that support the fact that prescription use has increased and that Americans are spending more on medicines each year. One such survey by IMS Health, a healthcare industry information company, “found that spending on medicines increased by 10.3 percent to $374 billion in 2014 from 2013.”[4]

As I’ve written in previous blog posts, there are many alternatives to prescription medications, including (of course) chiropractic care! The next time you’re about to pop a pill as a sort of “Band-Aid approach” to your ailments, remember that adopting a healthier lifestyle can greatly reduce the need for pills. A healthy diet, exercise, attention to your emotional health, and chiropractic care can work together to make a happier, healthier you without having to ingest handfuls of harmful drugs.

Working to restore GOD’s perfect design in you!





[1] Kodjak A. “Americans Are Using More Prescription Drugs; Is Obesity To Blame?” NPR.org, November 3, 2015. <http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/11/03/454241609/americans-are-using-more-prescription-drugs-is-obesity-to-blame>
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.; IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. “IMS Health Study: 2014 a Record-Setting Year for U.S. Medicines.” IMSHealth.com, April 14, 2015. <http://www.imshealth.com/vgn-ext-templating/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=c578dcd8474bc410VgnVCM1000000e2e2ca2RCRD&vgnextchannel=2e11e590cb4dc310VgnVCM100000a48d2ca2RCRD&vgnextfmt=default>

Tuesday

Types of Chiropractors

The leading causes of death today are heart disease, cancer, and medical doctor error. Each can cause significant irrevocable damage before discovered or felt. Because of this, it is important to inform yourself about your ailments and learn how chiropractic care can benefit you in a more natural way than traditional medicine. But it is also important to know how chiropractors differ before choosing the right one for you.

Symptom Relief Chiropractors

First, there are symptom relief chiropractors. They focus more on symptom relief than long-term skeletal correction and wellness. If you visit a symptom relief chiropractor, you will likely feel better temporarily, but these effects will ultimately wear off and result in damage and dysfunction. Though no one would argue that feeling an improvement in your condition is a bad thing, many medical experts agree that aiming only to treat symptoms once they occur is not nearly as valuable as treating the underlying causes of these symptoms. In fact, they even go so far as to say that this approach can harm patients in the long-run.

In his book, Health Revolution, Robert C. Atkins, M.D. states, “Orthodox medicine tends to treat the symptom, and once it has made the symptom go away, it tells the patient that his or her condition is cured or at least controlled. Actually, in most cases, the disease hasn’t been treated at all. Its symptoms have been masked or obliterated, but in due time the disease may well assert itself in another direction.”[1]

Traditional Chiropractors

Traditional chiropractors, on the other hand, are those who follow the traditional chiropractic philosophy of spinal subluxation and structural correction. As you read earlier, subluxations interfere with the nerve impulses that send signals from the brain to the rest of the body—so making sure that subluxations are corrected is understandably very important! But the potential problem with this form of correction is that it is often concentrated on individual segments of the spine, rather than the spine as a whole.

Living Well Family Chiropractors

The chiropractors at Living Well Family Chiropractic are different. We are what might be called spinal restoration chiropractors. We focus on improving our patients’ daily lives by helping with symptom and pain relief, but ultimately our goal is to remove subluxations and restructure the spine to create the most stable position for your body. We take the approach of traditional chiropractors and carry it a step further by focusing on global subluxations—deviations from the ideal structure of the spine. Any variation from this ideal position leads to premature spinal decay and dysfunction, so we do what we can to prevent these harmful effects before they begin.  This means that, if a patient comes in with a sore lower back, we explore the spine’s entire structure to determine how a subluxation in the neck might be affecting and even causing this pain.

We use Chiropractic BioPhysics (CBP), the technique that has been named in the most peer-reviewed journals and is one of the most scientifically validated techniques in our field.[2] The methods of CBP, including Mirror Image Adjustments, Mirror Image Exercises, and traction will significantly improve your overall wellness.

With a spinal restoration program, your symptoms may lessen or disappear completely long before your treatment comes to an end (and who doesn’t want that?). But at Living Well Family Chiropractic, even once your symptoms are gone, we will continue to rigorously correct and adjust your spine until it reaches its maximum corrected position in the shortest amount of time.

Working to Restore God’s Perfect Design in You!


[1] Atkins, R.C. (1990) Health Revolution.
[2] http://www.idealspine.com/cbp-research/

Reasons Your Spine Might Deviate from the Norm

There are a variety of reasons why your spine might deviate from the Harrison Spinal Model. First is leg length. If you have one leg shorter than the other (and this length difference is often so small you might have never noticed it!), your body becomes somewhat lopsided and certain areas of your spine must over-compensate. As we discussed before, over-compensation may allow you to function “normally,” but your structure is still compromised. Once we discover a shorter leg, we can measure and fit you for a foot lift, a small shoe insert that easily and painlessly evens out your leg length.

Next is genetics. Unfortunately, through no fault of your own, your spine may be predisposed to deviations from the norm based on hereditary factors. If your parents, grandparents, etc. had spinal issues, you are more likely to experience the same issues. The good news is that you can work to repair these deviations and share your success with other family members!

Traumas, both macro and micro, can also hugely impact spinal health and cause deviations. Macro traumas include injuries sustained from car accidents (e.g. whiplash), falls, sports injuries, and others. Macro traumas are bigger and more intense than micro traumas and are usually caused by one specific injurious event. Micro traumas, on the other hand, include everything from poor posture, sitting for very long periods of time, improper lifting, and even certain sleeping positions (e.g. sleeping on your stomach or on your side with your body twisted). Though you may not think of these micro examples as “traumas,” it’s important to realize how your daily activities truly do impact your spinal health.

Stress also causes differences between your spine and the ideal spine. Living with constant stress, which causes muscle tension and heightened levels of adrenaline (triggering your “fight or flight” instincts) is extremely unhealthy and affects many areas of your body, including the spine.

Last but not least is life in today’s world. The human body had not evolved very much in 10,000 years, while our modern world is constantly changing all around us. We are subjected to unnatural forces every day, as well as living conditions and habits that we were not made for. Is it any wonder that our bodies struggle to keep up with what we ask them to do?

Working to Restore God’s Perfect Design in You!

#1 Universal Truth: Structure Dictates Function

Structure dictates function not just in the human body, but also in everything in life, from engineering, physics, chemistry, anatomy, and physiology.[1] Think about how structure
determines function in the area of engineering, for example. A hammer has two functions: hammering nails in and pulling them out. The way a hammer is structured, with a long handle and a head of hard metal, allows it to function properly. The handle allows the user to easily grasp the tool and its length allows for a faster swing with more strength behind it. Its metal head “transmits the force of the swinging hammer into the nail, driving it into the wood.”[2] The claw on the other side of the hammer’s head creates a grasping mechanism to grab a nail, while the handle gives the user leverage to pull it out of the wood. This is only one of many, many examples of how structure determines function in everyday life.

Structure, of course, determines biological function as well. Just as heart valves must be shaped just right for your heart to work efficiently, so does the shape of your spine. The joints of the spine are so close together that if there is a fixation or subluxation in one of them, the surrounding joints can compensate for the damaged joint and take over the workload. Unfortunately, over-compensation is actually dysfunction and ultimately leads to early breakdown or decay of the joints.  Just because you might be moving or functioning better, it doesn’t mean your structure has improved at all.

Research has found that chiropractic adjustments affect the chemistry of biological processes on a cellular level. Chiropractic care can address not only the immediate spinal misalignments that might be causing pain, but can also address deeper dysfunction in your body. According to R. Pero, Ph.D., from New York University, “People with five years of Chiropractic care had immune systems that were 400% stronger than cancer patients and 200% stronger than those without cancer.” In the case of the human body, structure dictates biological and even chemical functioning.

Beware of medical doctors that might take a “Band-Aid approach” to treatment and focus on your symptoms rather than on issues of structure, which is the root cause of symptoms. In fact, medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States.[3] One thing that chiropractors and medical doctors do agree upon, however, is the use of established norms to judge a patient’s health. Your values are compared against “normal” values to evaluate everything from blood pressure to, in our case, spinal alignment. And that is where the Ideal Spinal Model comes into play. Be sure to check out my next blog post on the Ideal Spinal Model for more information.

Working to Restore God’s Perfect Design in You!



[1] Harrison DE, Harrison DD, and Haas JW. CBP Structural Rehabilitation of the Cervical Spine. Harrison Chiropractic Biophysics Seminars, Inc. 2002, Page 5-6.
[2] Structure Determines Function, interactive tutorial. Last updated September 27, 2014. http://www.sciencemusicvideos.com/structure-determines-function/
[3] Starfield B. “Is US health really the best in the world?” JAMA. 2000 Jul 26;284(4):483-5. The Leapfrog Group. “Hospital errors are the third leading cause of death in U.S., and new hospital safety scores show improvements are too slow.” Hospital Safety Score. October 23, 2013. <http://www.hospitalsafetyscore.org/newsroom/display/hospitalerrors-thirdleading-causeofdeathinus-improvementstooslow>. Frances A. “Why are medical mistakes our third leading cause of death?” Huffington Post. November 20, 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allen-frances/why-are-medical-mistakes-_b_5888408.html>. McCann E. “Deaths by medical mistakes hit records.” Healthcare IT News. July 18, 2014. <http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/deaths-by-medical-mistakes-hit-records>

Introduction to the Central Nervous System

“Get knowledge of the spine, for this is the requisite for many diseases.” – Hippocrates, 469-377 BC

The Central Nervous System (CNS) consists of your brain and spinal cord. According to Gray’s Anatomy, “The purpose of the nervous system is to control and coordinate the function of all tissues, organs, and systems in the body.” When you have a disorder of the CNS, you can face devastating side effects, from pain and illness to organ malfunction.

Nerve interference can be caused by decreased disc height (disc damage), loss of normal spinal curves (global subluxations), and rotation of the spine (intra-segmental subluxations). Spinal subluxation occurs when the spine moves out of its normal position and becomes misaligned, which can result from bones pinching your nerves, as well as a variety of physical, emotional, mental, and chemical stressors. Our bodies can all handle a certain amount of stress, but any of these physical, emotional, mental, and chemical factors can overload our stress levels and cause greater health issues.

Once the spine is misaligned, it can then compress, rotate, and stretch the CNS, and if left unattended for too long, your organs can become damaged and even die. Even the small weight of a dime can alter nerve impulses. The most unfortunate fact is that symptoms of misalignment often do not appear until many years after damage to the spine or organ malfunction have occurred, largely due to the fact that less than 10% of our nerves perceive pain.

The Cervical Spine, the neck, is the primary area of your CNS. The top vertebrae in the neck protect your brain stem, so misalignment of these vertebrae naturally affects the rest of your body. When looking at a side x-ray of your neck, you can see what scientists call “The Arc of Life.” The Arc of Life is the natural forward curve in your cervical spine, through which mental life impulses are sent from your brain—and through which all your nerves pass through. If you lose your normal Arc, it will pull on the brain stem, stretch your spinal cord, and tether your nerves. Other spinal subluxations are obviously harmful to your health, but subluxation in the Cervical Spine is the most severe.

The spinal column is the switchboard to the entire nervous system, balancing the sympathetic (which triggers our “fight or flight” instincts) and the parasympathetic (which controls the rest, digest, and heal functions of your body) nervous systems. The immune system is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system, which is controlled by the autonomic nervous system, which is controlled by the mechanical nervous system, which is controlled by the way your joints move in a gravity environment. These connections are why it’s good to get a chiropractic adjustment even when you’re sick; improving your spinal alignment boosts your immune system, too!

Tune in for my next blog post to learn what the #1 universal truth—for chiropractic, overall wellness, and everything in life—is and why!


Working to Restore God’s Perfect Design in You!

Walking Your Way to Better Health

Dr. Vivek Murthy, the United States’ surgeon general since 2014, recently released a “Step It Up” call to action that highlights the health benefits of walking and will attempt to tackle “lack of access to sidewalks and safe spaces for physical activity.”[1]

Rather than focusing on gym classes or memberships for U.S. citizens, Murthy’s program is actually realistic for almost everybody, as it doesn’t cost a thing to go for a walk! And since 22 minutes of physical activity per day (including walking) can reduce your risk of heart disease and diabetes, why not try to incorporate more walking into your daily life?[2]

It is quite sad that “Three in 10 Americans don’t have access to sidewalks in their neighborhoods and too many of our neighbors have to deal with safety issues related to crime or pedestrian accidents. We know that almost 5,000 people die in pedestrian accidents each year and another 66,000 pedestrians are injured. That’s why this call to action is both about walking but also about walkable communities.”[3]

These “walkable communities” are meant to be inclusive of people with disabilities as well. For instance, even in neighborhoods with sidewalks, many don’t have a cut so that people in wheelchairs can get on and off sidewalks easily. Another example is walk signals that don’t have an audible element for people with visual impairments to cross intersections safely. Everyone should be able to be active in his or her community without safety concerns.

You may be wondering how to walk more in your neighborhood in rainy, cold weather or in the later months of the year when temperatures reach their highest. This is why Dr. Murthy believes that all sectors of a community need to participate in making our culture more walk-friendly. Local organizations like the YMCA or local schools can make their indoor facilities available for community members to exercise in a comfortable environment. Malls, as well, “can be great places for people to walk, especially the elderly and people with disabilities who may need to be in a climate-controlled setting.”[4]

Walking—especially in addition to proper diet and emotional wellbeing—is a simple, cost-effective way to become more active on a daily basis. The health benefits are many, and it is important to remember that every step you take during the day adds up! 

Working to restore GOD’s perfect design in you!





[1] Leonard K. “Walking the Walk.” U.S. News and World Report, November 5, 2015. <http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/11/05/surgeon-general-murthy-more-walking-is-a-key-to-good-health>
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.