Understanding The Pain

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Blog brought to you by Dr. Heidi Haavik, Did you know that pain is created by your brain?4-9

The interesting thing is that you don’t actually have to have any actual tissue damage to feel pain.10 If your brain is not aware of tissue damage, you may not feel any pain at all, even if you’ve injured yourself.4,6

Experiencing pain is normal

Everyone experiences pain now and then.1 Pain is supposed to be protective to make you stop doing things that may be dangerous.2 Chronic pain that has persisted for more than 3 months is no longer protective, nor informative.3 So, what is chronic pain and what can you do about it if you suffer from it?

What does the research show?

More than one-third of people with chronic pain become disabled by their pain to some degree.12 13. The pain can be from headaches, joint pain, neck pain, back pain or pain from an injury. Other kinds of chronic pain include tendinitis, sinus pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and pain affecting specific parts of your body. The common thing with all these types of pain is that the actual feeling of pain is always, 100% of the time, created in your brain.5 8 14 15

This does not mean it’s not real – but understanding that the pain itself is created in your brain is really important for how you can get rid of it. And because pain depends so much on what you think and feel about the pain,2 it’s very important you understand pain properly. Your pain experience depends on why your brain has decided you need to be protected – why it’s creating the feeling of pain for you in the first place.5 We know that the brain can be retrained,16 so you need to use all the tools available to you to retrain your brain to be out of pain.16 Some of the keys to retraining your brain are staying active,17-19 staying positive,20 eating well,21 22 and sleeping well.23

One important way that you can help yourself if you are in chronic pain is to stay active.17-19 Your posture and how you move plays an important role in how you feel and how you experience pain.18 19 If there are movements you cannot do because of your pain you can still help by imagining these movements.24 We know from neuroscience research that imagining a movement influences the brain in a very similar way to actually doing the movement.24 25 This can help retrain your brain to understand that the movement is not dangerous – because imagining doing the movement will not hurt.

You can basically trick your brain into giving you back pain-free movement.24 The movement of your spine is also very important.26 Yoga or simple spinal exercises can be great for this and chiropractic care may be really important to help you move too.27-29 The main focus of chiropractic care is to improve the movement and function of your spine.30-32 This is so important because proper movement of your spine helps your brain know more accurately what is going on, not only just in your spine, but also elsewhere in your body.33 34

Research tells us that chiropractic care can help people who suffer from back pain,38 39 and headaches.40 This is most likely because chiropractic care helps your brain know more accurately what is going on in your spine and body33 41 and may help your brain to switch off feelings of pain, when they are no longer needed. So if you suffer from chronic pain do your best to stay positive,20 move often,18 19 eat well,21 22 sleep well,23 and go see your family chiropractor to help retrain your brain to be out of pain.38 39

Disclaimer and References This information is provided for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be professional advice of any kind. Haavik Research Ltd encourages you to make your own health care decisions based on your own research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. chiroshub.com © Haavik Research 2021 1. Katz WA.1998;105(1, Supplement 2.:2S-7S. 2. Seymour B.2019;101(6):1029-41. 3. Holt K, Russell D, Cooperstein R, et al. Aust 2018;46(1):101-17. 4. Fenton BW, Shih E, Zolton J. 2015;5(4):297-317. 5. Koyama T, McHaffie JG, Laurienti PJ, et al. 2005;102(36):12950-55. 6. Mitsi V, Zachariou V. 2016;338:81-92. 7. Ploghaus A. 1999;284(5422):1979-81. 8. Wager TD. 2004;303(5661):1162-67. 9. Wiech K. 2016;354(6312):584-87. 10. Costigan M, Scholz J, Woolf CJ. 2009;32(1):1-32. 11. St Sauver JL, Warner DO, Yawn BP, et al. 2013;88(1):56-67. 12. Webb R, Brammah T, Lunt M, et al. 2003;28(11):1195-202. 13. Mallen C, Peat G, Thomas E, et al. 2005;6(1):42. 14. Apkarian AV, Hashmi JA, Baliki MN. 2011;152(3 Suppl):S49. 15. Atlas LY, Bolger N, Lindquist MA, et al. 2010;30(39):12964-77. 16. deCharms RC, Maeda F, Glover GH, et al. 2005;102(51):18626-31. 17. Geneen LJ, Moore RA, Clarke C, et al. 2017;4:Cd011279. 18. Booth J, Moseley GL, Schiltenwolf M, et al. 2017;15(4):413-21. 19. O’Connor SR, Tully MA, Ryan B, et al. 2015;96(4):724-34.e3. 20. Schutze R, Rees C, Slater H, et al. 2017;22(3):463-80. 21. Masino SA, Ruskin DN. 2013;28(8):993-1001. 22. Silva AR, Bernardo A, Costa J, et al. 2019:1-29. 23. Burgess HJ, Burns JW, Buvanendran A, et al. 2019. 24. Bowering KJ, O’Connell NE, Tabor A, et al. 2013;14(1):3-13. 25. Mulder T. 2007;114(10):1265-78. 26. Laird RA, Keating JL, Ussing K, et al. 2019;20(1):28. 27. Eliks M, Zgorzalewicz-Stachowiak M, Zenczak-Praga K. 2019;95(1119):41-45. 28. Li Y, Li S, Jiang J, et al. 2019;98(8):e14649. 29. Galindez-Ibarbengoetxea X, Setuain I, Andersen LL, et al. 2017;23(9):667-75. 30. Brown RA. 2016;23(1):22-28. 31. Hart J. 2016;23(1):46-52. 32. The Rubicon Group. 2017:4. 33. Haavik H, Murphy B. 2011;34(2):88-97. 34. Korakakis V, Giakas G, Sideris V, et al. 2017;31:9-20. 35. Gross A, Langevin P, Burnie SJ, et al. Syst Rev 2015(9):Cd004249. 36. Gross A, Miller J, D’Sylva J, et al. 2010;15(4):315-33. 37. Bryans R, Decina P, Descarreaux M, et al. 2014;37(1):42-63. 38. Goertz CM, Pohlman KA, V

• Dr. Heidi Haavik BSc(Physiol) BSc(Chiro) PhD • Dr. Kelly Holt BSc, BSc(Chiro), PGDipHSc, PhD • Dr. Jenna Duehr BChiro, BHSc(Nursing), MHSc

The Tale Of The Young Man

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The tale of the young man starts with a common thread that everyone has to either fight with or control…time.  Time to start a family, time to make a career, and time to take care of his health. There are three variables that are typically at the top of the list.  Too often, though, we become sidetracked and focus our time on just one.

Seeing that we are a Chiropractic office we will focus on the health topic.  Some examples of repetitive sayings we hear are; “it’s time to start taking my health back” or ” I have waited long enough”.  Regardless of the tale, we often see the same story but with different characters.  

Old proverb – ‘A healthy man wants many things, a sick man wants only one thing.’  We cannot stress the importance of actively taking care of your health on a daily basis. The adage “if you don’t use it you lose it” is not far off the mark.  Your body is a vehicle that you must care for and its entirety, trading in for a newer model doesnt work here.  

Whether it’s sooner rather than later to start taking care of your health, we are ready for you.  Just as you work on bettering your family and career everyday, prioritizing your health should not take a back seat.  
Why Chiropractic care?  Just think of a health paradigm that is not involved in feeding your body pills, lotions, oils and other external variables.  Chiropractic is a salutogenic (an approach to wellness focusing on health and not on disease)  paradigm that is at the foundational level for health based on the tenants of Chiropractic dealing with the central nerve system.  For without a healthy functioning central nerve system, your health would cease to exist.

The tale of the young person to make the right choices with their time is left to them and themselves alone.  Making an old person wise starts with their approach in their youth.   I will leave you with this age old adage: “A young man in the pursuit of wealth will often neglect his health, the old man he becomes will spend his wealth to acquire his health.”

Get Busy Living Or Get Busy Dying

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“The only reason for time is so that everything does not happen at once,” stated Albert Einstein. What the heck does this mean, and what does it have to do with our health? A society trained for immediate satisfaction may have difficulty understanding this. You see, Einstein understood that there is
no process that does not require time. A baby developing in the womb, a home project, a flower growing in the garden, and yes, even regaining our health. To address this idea in terms of our health, let’s talk about momentum. 
Momentum is the product of Mass multiplied by Velocity. Like a chubby kid on a swing set (myself when I was young) we must build momentum and sustain it to get a desired result.

Life, and especially our health, must be like this kiddo building momentum. While it may take more effort at the beginning, it is an intelligent thing to desire.  Any rational person understands that health is largely a matter of attention to the good versus poor choices. The chiropractic adjustment is no
different. The vertebral subluxation is a detriment to the overall health of the body. When the lifesource of the body (Central Nerve System) becomes less than optimal, one is then susceptible to dysfunction and eventually symptoms. Here’s the interesting part: we have a choice. We can build this thing called momentum for our health in either direction. Momentum towards sickness, or
momentum towards optimal expression of life. While easier said than done, the road less traveled is worthwhile! This is your wellness-pivot point! 

Logically, Chiropractic is a key aspect in committing to a lifetime of healthy momentum. Albert Einstein was right, and we can conclude that there are processes to build health or to lose it, neither being instantaneous. So keep smiling and keep swinging!

Saving Money On Your Health

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Saving money on your health makes sense, right? Fortunately, it’s nothing new. Not a ‘quick’ sale, gimmick, fad, or trend that someone is trying to sell you. In all honesty it really comes down to your intentions that you want to make into health forming habits. Now, it just so happens that we are health care professionals – Chiropractors. Our entire basis is the study of health and what causes people to LIVE.

Chiropractic is a philosophy, a science and an art of things NATURAL; a system of adjusting the segments of the spinal column by hand only, for the correction of the cause of dis-ease. What limits health, what causes the body to be in a state of dis-ease (which means your body is not at ease)? The answer is a vertebral subluxation. This is a misalignment within the spinal column that occludes the connection between your brain and body. This hinders the TISSUE cell from adapting to the stresses of life. The tissue cell being the building blocks of everything you do!

Saving money on your health starts and ends with your central nerve system (CNS). How come? If you do not take care of your CNS it’s pretty clear to say it will not take care of you. Ponder this thought process for a while. Take the word “allergy”. Interestingly enough that a 45 year old presents to a Chiropractic office that just “developed” an allergen. Yet they have been living their entire life “allergy” free? Safe to say that something compromised the integrity of their immune system thus rendering this person more stress vulnerable to symptoms occurring.

Now, one would say that nothing is promised. You can eat all your vegetables, workout everyday, have little no body fat, take care of your CNS and still have a heart attack or develop cancer. True. Your quality of life is how you make it. Chiropractic ensures that you CNS is optimal in every season of life.

Chiropractic is premiums small and dividends large. It is health insurance to the max. If you do not take care of your health now, you will have to pay for it later.  

Kids Chiropractic Office

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Why kids Chiropractic office? The more important question is- why would we not have an office with a focus on Kids and family? Our approach is not new and it is backed by science, more importantly though its backed by common sense. Becoming aware of making healthy choices for your kids is a process that leads to a fulfilling life for them.

Unfortunately, we have this misconception of something “new”. A newborn child is something “new”. A new vehicle that you buy and drive off the lot is new, looks new, drives new, and yet still along the way will need maintenance to ensure optimal function of those smooth, “new” mechanics. If you do not take care of the necessary precautions or maintenance of a machine it will in turn break down faster.

We have been indoctrinated that kids are “new” and nothing bad can happen to anything “new”. On the contrary. The human body is, and will always be, the first “machine” ever created. Think of it, in with good air and out with bad air. In with good food and out with bad food…etc, etc. Systems (ex. respiratory) of the body are set in place for a purpose to maintain and create health in its existence starting from the minute of birth.

The first system of the body that is created to MAKE all other systems and then regulate, control, and coordinate their actions is the central nerve system (CNS). With such an important infrastructure that the CNS has to maintain on a daily basis, wouldn’t it make sense to get “it” checked to ensure optimal function for a young developing kid?

A subluxation is a misalignment that occurs within the spinal column that disrupts the communication LINK between the brain and the body. And YES, it even happens in kids. It can even happen during the birthing process or during the first time you are breast feeding your child. We are not one to speculate on how the subluxation occurred, we are here to show awareness of what needs to happen. Chiropractic check-ups to ensure optimal development from within the body. A healthy spine is foundational key for a healthy CNS which equals a healthy child.

Stay True To Health – Staying Normal During These Times

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Handshakes, high-fives, and hugs have all too quickly transitioned into “elbow bumps” and social distancing – which we totally respect. There is no denying that in this current situation is unpleasant. However we see this as an opportunity to flip the script, and see this as an opportunity to empower our community even more. No matter what is occurring – our health is our most valuable asset. Having an abundance of health means we can take care of those that matter most to us and simply get back to doing the things we love most.

So, what does being “Healthy” mean. Health isn’t found in blood pressure numbers, temperature ranges, or in prescription medication. Put simply, health is the body having the ability to respond correctly, accurately, and the ability to ADAPT to our ever-changing environment. Now in correlation with the hysteria of the Coronavirus, bugs find their way into those whom are already sick or mal-adaptive, not individuals with proper immune resiliency. BJ Palmer said it best, “If the ‘germ theory of disease’ were correct, there’d be no one living to believe it.” You can only be a host to a virus if your perfectly made neuroimmune response is not functioning well. We all touch the same door knobs, shopping carts, breathe the same air… why do some people get sick and others simply will not? It is all about how well you ADAPT to the environment around you. It’s as simple as that. This is at the foundational core of Chiropractic and its history as well as success.

This same principle and truth can be applied to an old adage about rats in a dump… If there was a huge pile of garbage and rats all over the smelly trash, what caused the infestation? Was it the rats that caused the dump to occur, or were the rats a result of a dump already there? Which in turn attracted the rats to the delicious pile of trash. The truth is germs are opportunists – looking for an easy meal or place to harbor. With an immune response that is less than optimal or weakened, rats will arrive. The same applies to our health and Nerve System response to whatever infectious antigens cross our paths. We are on a mission to keep this nation well, and it all starts with proper Nerve System adaption and maybe a solid high-five. It is more important now than ever to Get Checked.

The “Three Little Pigs” And Sustaining Your Immune System Against The Big Bad Wolf

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What can we gather from “The Three Little Pigs” fable that we were taught at a very young age? Implementing a fable into our lives allows for a learning experience. Learn from history and what you have been taught since the beginning. With the growing ‘concern’ of the Coronavirus eating away at every news media, take a step back and reflect on the importance and adaptability that the human body has when hard work is implemented on a daily routine.

When building and sustaining your immune system do not settle for the ‘instant’ gratification or the quick fix that we have been led to believe works. The first two little pigs underestimate the time and hard work it takes to build a strong foundation to keep them well and protected. The other pig as we know invested more TIME and energy on something that lasts. Understand that the body is protected when you take the time to do things right..

How do you sustain your immune system?

1.    Get your spine checked by a Chiropractor. You don’t want to handicap your central nerve system, the master control system who directly regulates and coordinates everything about your immune system. Chiropractic research performed by Dr. Ronald Pero, Ph.D., chief of cancer prevention research at New York’s Preventive Medicine Institute measured the immune systems of people under chiropractic care as compared to those in the general population and those with cancer and other serious diseases. His initial three-year study was comprised of 107 individuals who had been under chiropractic care for five years or more. The chiropractic patients were found to have a 200% greater immune competence than those people who had not received chiropractic care, and they had 400% greater immune competence than those people with cancer and other serious diseases. The immune system’s superiority of those under chiropractic care did not appear to diminish with age.

2.  Get adequate rest to sustain your bodies daily routine that we love!

3.  Don’t stop exercising.

4.  Wash your hands. For real it’s that simple, wash your hands.

5.   Being consistent and diligent with your diet.

6.  Create positive thoughts or be a positive thought. By creating positive thoughts and being around positive people you will decrease the bodies ability to produce stress hormones which will breed dis-ease and compromise your immune system. Positive like a proton.

Sustaining your immune system is a tough job. This is why you should get your spine checked regularly. If you think being well is expensive, what is the price for disease/sickness care? Time has and always will perpetuate those methods which better serve mankind. Hit the sweet spot and sustain your immune system by being consistent.

Are Safety Pins Really Safe?

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Are safety pins really safe? Without spreading to much controversy on this thought process. The obvious and only answer is YES. Safety pins are designed to be safe. Hence the amazing name they are warranted. Just like our body and how it is designed, its safe and works correctly when everything is working the way it should. In a closed circuit. We are not talking about cuts, bruises, contusions, lacerations, broken bones etc, we are talking about the inside of the body and how it controls your life.

Your bodies most intelligent system (the central nerve system) works in the same fashion as a safety pin does. It works to its best ability when its completely connected/closed. The nerve system works best when there is no interference in the connection from the brain to body and body to brain. If there is any disturbance within these pathways then is the nerve system safe… is the body? The safety pin is not considered ‘safe’ if it is not fully closed to complete the connection of ‘safety’.

When a disturbance exists in the spinal column it is called a subluxation. The subluxation is a misalignment within the spinal column placing stress upon a single nerve fiber. As a result it will disrupt the communication between the brain and body and create interference. A subluxation opens the safety pin, and as a direct result is no longer safe.

A great analogy to use with justification to explain the merits of what Chiropractic aims to accomplish. Some would ask why the ‘safety pin’ opens in the first place? In order to use it you have to expose it to the world and the external stressors that comes with using something. Just like your nerve system. In order to live life you must expose yourself to the elements that comes with LIVING. You do not prevent it by living in a bubble isolated from life. So, get your central nerve system checked for any imbalance that can exist. 

Why We Don’t Guess

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Why would you guess when you can be accurate? Guessing or jumping to conclusions will result in more consequences than positive actions. Take for instance a home inspector who found mold on some drywall in a house. When the inspector begins sampling the rest of the house for mold to find the cause, he does not put the sample strips directly on the area where the mold is exposed. Why? Just because it is the most obvious area doesn’t mean it is the source. So, the inspector begins to “inspect” other areas that are not EXPOSED.

In Gonstead Chiropractic one of the most important criteria is to eliminate guessing when it comes to your body by use of x-ray analysis. With x-ray analysis we are able to specifically locate subluxations (misalignment’s within the spine creating nerve dysfunction) and eliminate compensations. 

What’s a compensation? In Chiropractic we adopt universal laws that have sustained the test of time. Take for instance Newtons Third Law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite re-action. When a subluxation occurs it changes the normal condition of pressure, tension, shape, size and length of the surrounding structures. In other words the subluxation creates compensations elsewhere that are not the area of concern. Finding the right area to adjust becomes the name of the game. 

The body is designed to be intelligent and accurate for the sustainability of life. This is no different when you take care of your spine with Chiropractic care. You want accuracy. When you eliminate guessing, you allow the body to be intelligent and make accurate decisions when healing. If things aren’t moving the way they are supposed to move, other areas will begin to become affected as well. Remember the body is a unit altogether. It wants to be healthy. So, be accurate when making healthy choices and eliminate the guessing.

When Should A Child Begin Chiropractic Care?

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When should a child begin Chiropractic care? Right away. That just about sums up the question. Why? Do you remember what birth was like…and the answer should be no. The first AMAZING physical stressor that we ALL experience in life is birth. Making sure the nerve system is free of interference after birth can set the child up for a healthy road, opposed to a complicated road riddled with chronic illness. Unfortunately, the numbers are not adding up for our children, and now, for this generation, our kids have a lower life expectancy than us.

·  1 in 2.5 children have an allergy

·  1 in 6 children have a developmental disability

·  1 in 9 children have ADHD

The rise of autoimmune disorders is not stopping. The child’s immune system is under constant bombardment with our false intuition that we need to suppress symptoms and destroy acute illnesses. Rather than blame the immune system, focus on the central nerve system which regulates the immune systems potential. Our specialty as chiropractors is to restore the normal communication of the central nerve system through very specific adjustments over a period of time. We are removing the biggest stressor to health: a subluxated nerve system. By adjusting the spinal column, we are restoring that state of ease which allows your child to better adapt to the stressors to be dealt with in daily life.

Kids chiropractic is safe and effective and is not new! Our misconception is that Chiropractic care is for middle-aged men who “throw” their back out taking out the trash. This is the farthest thing from the truth. You wouldn’t wait to give your children healthy substantial food until their middle-ages or take them to the dentist only when their tooth hurts.

Instead of living a symptom suppressing lifestyle which is the common norm now a days, why not introduce a lifestyle of prevention and health. By focusing on the central nerve system to make sure subluxations are clear the body learns a valuable process which it builds on for the long road ahead of life. “Give me a medicine to produce a fever, and I can cure any disease” – Hippocrates.