The Basler Blog

Feb 22
0

Debunking Myth Part 3: Chiropractic Kids

By | ADHD, Allergies, Benefits of Chiropractic, Chiropractic Myths, Ear Infections | No Comments

“Truth is only harsh if you’re unable to face it.” -Stewart Stafford

We are going to continue our journey of chiropractic myths! Most people think chiropractic is just for adults, but again, that could not be further from the truth. Infants/kids not needing chiropractic care is the next myth we will discuss. Chiropractic is publicly known as the profession which focuses on back pain, but that myth is such a disservice to the wellness of every citizen. When a child is born, the contact point is the head, but with that contact point, there comes the twisting and torqueing of the neck. So, none of us stood a chance since birth because we more than likely came out of the womb subluxated (misalignment of the spine). Most people don’t think babies or children need chiropractic care. I am here to tell you with the utmost confidence that your little ones should not only have chiropractic care, they need it! When it comes to adjusting babies or toddlers, there is no thrust involved, it is simply a sustained contact on their atlas (C1) or a vibratory contact. The baby stage is so crucial since they are so new to life and development.

Adjusting the atlas on your little one will help with immune function giving their body the best chance at combating illnesses, ear infections, calming colic, brain develop as it restores that communication from the brain to the body since the atlas contributes to 35% of vital organs, increasing blood supply, and improving behavior. “The power that made the body heals the body”- BJ Palmer. We have an innate intelligence that was built into us that is always operating at 100%. Just to show how crucial this miracle segment is, I know two different true stories where children were in comas for months to years and when the chiropractor on site adjusted their atlas’s (C1), both those children woke up in the chiropractor’s arms! “Nature needs no help, just no interference.”-BJ palmer

Give your little one the best chance at thriving and developing throughout their life. They will thank you!

https://www.drchrisharlan.com/5-benefits-of-infant-chiropractic/
https://wellhealthcenters.com/7-reasons-why-chiropractic-care-benefits-infants
Apr 20
0

What is Maintenance Care?

By | ADHD, Allergies, Asthma, Benefits of Chiropractic, chiropractic adjustment, Chiropractic Myths, migraines | No Comments

What is Maintenance Care?

People go to see a chiropractor for many different reasons.1 Some go because they’re in pain, some go because they want to perform better on the sporting field, and some want to sleep better.

But did you know that almost 50% of chiropractic patients go to their chiropractor because they simply want to maintain their health and well-being?

Maintenance care is when patients go to a chiropractor even when they are not in pain or discomfort. The idea with maintenance care is that regular adjustments will help maintain your spine and nervous system function at its optimal level and help you to be your best and to prevent new episodes of pain from developing.2

It makes sense to look after your health, so you don’t get sick, right? And that often you get sick because you have been pushing yourself too hard and you’ve become run down? The research tells us that your spine can get run down too, long before you feel pain. We know that if your brain doesn’t send appropriate protective messages to your core trunk muscles, you will have a higher risk of developing low back injuries.3 This makes sense because a lack of core stability means you’re creating mini whiplash injuries to your spine each time you move around or lift your arm or leg.

If you end up in pain after bending down to tie your shoelaces your pain hasn’t just come out of the blue, it’s usually been developing for some time without you knowing about it. It’s often the thousandth straw that breaks the camel’s back.

All of life’s stressors can build up and impact the way your brain is communicating with your trunk muscles and then all that is needed is one last minor thing to go wrong, and you end up with pain. The goal of maintenance care is to help take the straws off your camel’s back before they cause symptoms or have a big impact on your life. So, the research tells us that chiropractic maintenance care makes perfect sense.

A study published by researchers from Sweden in 20184 showed the benefits of maintenance care in a group of people who suffered from low back pain. In this study, the researchers followed 328 patients with low back pain who went to 40 different Swedish chiropractic clinics. If the patients responded well when they were first adjusted they joined the study and received chiropractic maintenance care over the next year or symptom-guided care. The maintenance care patients were seen every 1 to 3 months with the intention being that they were checked before substantial pain reoccurred. Patients in the control group were told to call if and when pain recurred. 

They were then adjusted until they got better,  and they were told to call again if the pain returned. What the researchers were most interested in was the number of days of bothersome back pain suffered by each group throughout the 1-year trial period.

What they found was that the maintenance care group experienced 13 fewer days of pain over the course of the study on average compared to the symptom-guided group. The amazing thing from this study was that the maintenance care group needed less than 2 extra visits to their chiropractor over the course of a year to have 13 fewer days of pain. This suggests that patients who have had low back pain, and who respond well to care, should see their chiropractor regularly, irrespective of whether their symptoms have returned or not. This study did have some limitations of course. One limitation was that chiropractors were told not to schedule their maintenance care patients more frequently than once a month. So some patients in this group may have benefited even more if the chiropractors had been able to schedule their visits more frequently if they thought that was a good idea.

This study shows that it’s important to keep your spine working well, even if you don’t have pain or symptoms.

So, if you want to function at your optimal potential consider chiropractic maintenance care because the research suggests your spine will love you for it!

References

  1. Adams J, et al. Spine (Phila Pa 1976) 2017;42(23):1810-16.
  2. Leboeuf-Yde C, Hestbæk L. Chiropractic & Osteopathy 2008;16:3-3.
  3. Cholewicki J, et al. Spine (Phila Pa 1976) 2005;30(23):2614-20.
  4. Eklund, et al. PLoS One 2018;13(9):e0203029.

Acknowledgments

  • Dr. Heidi Haavik – BSc(Physiol) BSc(Chiro) PhD
  • Dr. Kelly Holt – BSc, BSc(Chiro), PGDipHSc, PhD
  • Dr. Jenna Duehr – BChiro, BHSC (Nursing), MHSc
Nov 05
0

The Importance Of Muscle Memory

By | Benefits of Chiropractic, chiropractic adjustment, Chiropractic Myths, inflammation, kids chiropractic | No Comments

Why do Chiropractors specialize in the Central Nerve System (CNS)? EASY! The CNS is the master controller within your entire body. Every tissue cell that you had, have, and will make is processed and controlled via your CNS. It’s no wonder that there is a specific field (Chiropractic) dedicated to managing the overall function of how your CNS operates on a day to day basis.

Did you know that your brain weighs only 3 lbs and has to coordinate all internal and external functions every second that you are alive!? Specifically, it coordinates external responses via your sensory organs, eyes, ears, nose, etc.

Did you know that your muscles are also organs? Not just your muscles that you workout at the gym, but also the tiny intrical muscles that surround your spine. When a subluxation (misalignment within the spinal column) occurs, the information that the muscles are supposed to send to the brain become dysfunctional. Your brain can still function when a subluxation is present due to muscle memory based on past experiences that you have encountered before.

When a subluxation exists for an extended period of time, your brain is not fully aware of its surroundings. Overtime, this leads to a slow breakdown in the communication between brain and body.

In order to correct the communication breakdown, this is where your Chiropractor comes into play. Positive muscle memory is established when your Chiropractor properly locates the subluxation, and adjusts the dysfunctional segment so that your brain can “wake up” and correct the spinal segment. Doing so will restore the spinal column to its proper positioning, and allow the body to properly adapt overtime.

Time is key. Just like correcting a bad habit, you need to stay on top of it, and require patience while you are breaking the cycle that your body has created. If you accelerate the process and do not give the body ample time to heal, you rush the experience and never fully heal. It takes time to make a problem, and it requires time to make the change. Choose wisely!

Jul 23
0

Be The Huck!

By | Benefits of Chiropractic, chiropractic adjustment, Chiropractic Myths | No Comments

The elusive huckleberry plant! The season is upon us to start harvesting, so find your favorite patch, and start picking some hucks! One of the interesting things about huckleberries is they are very very BERRY hard to domesticate and grow yourself. People have tried in many different ways, with many different variables, to create their own “huck” patch. The fact remains that current research states it is almost impossible to domesticate the wild huckleberry species.

Attempting to alter the natural state of “wild huckleberries,” and domesticating them for farming, personal, or other use, seems incongruent with what they are: wild. Consider the fact that if you want some hucks, you’ve gotta’ get out, hike up, climb down, and pick away. There’s no shortcut. Too often, we try a shortcut with our health, trying to find something else that will make it easier. In reality, the health game, much like the pursuit of the wild huckleberry, cannot be domesticated and made any easier that it actually is.

Chasing the newest and latest health trends will not change, capitalism allows such things to flourish. When it comes to your health, look no farther than your central nerve system (CNS). The fact remains that your CNS made every organ, cell, tissue, and gland in your body. Without the proper functioning of the CNS, your body would be in a constant state of disease.

The good news it that Chiropractic care is specifically and solely health based. Chiropractors focus on health, and what causes someone to be and stay healthy. It just so happens this is directly associated with your CNS! You cannot have abundant health in life, and neglect your CNS. This is fact.  

If you want to earn some huckleberries you must work for them and put the effort in, fact. If you want a balanced CNS that promotes vitality in every system of your body, you must also put some effort in. Health will disappear if you do not take care of it! So get out, hike up, climb down, and pick away! While doing so, you will continue to prove facts that have survived the test of time. 

May 17
0

‘Attitude’ Adjustment

By | Benefits of Chiropractic, Chiropractic Myths, kids chiropractic | No Comments

“Is there an attitude adjustment that you can do to change their behavior? “asks the loving mother. This question is jokingly put forth more often than not in the office.  Not just in the Chiropractic office, this is a popular pop phrase used in our day to day lives.  More often than not though, this phrase is often associated towards a child who is “having an off day.”  In reality the science does support the “concept” of such a thing.  Lets dive in and see how the brain influences the spinal column and visa versa when it comes to emotions.


By finding subluxations within the spinal column and adjusting them, the brain is better able to interpret data and make more sense of the body’s surroundings.  We can say this due to the literature that supports every time you receive a specific adjustment, two parts of the brain become instantly better equipped to make more accurate decisions in your health.  The left pre-frontal cortex and the cerebellum.  


Consider this – the amygdala (often called the emotional brain) during times of stress sends an alert to the right hypothalamus and then down the spinal column to trigger the adrenal glands (activating your fight or flight).  Some children (and adults :)) often use this quite frequently, making their feelings overwhelming and not fully making sense. 

By influencing how your spinal column functions through adjusting subluxations, you can override the right side brain of fight or flight and utilize the left side of the brain to better perceive your emotions and, more importantly, your response to stressors by influencing the left pre-frontal cortex.  Why?  The left pre-frontal cortex is in charge of memory, emotions, impulse control, and social interaction among other things.  Sort of bring a whole new meaning the “concept” of an “Attitude Adjustment.”

Mar 18
0

Structure Over Posture

By | Benefits of Chiropractic, chiropractic adjustment, kids chiropractic, pregnancy | No Comments

The presence of good posture is a missing trait among the growing populas today that often begins at a very young age. We can blame technology, the newest gizmos or maybe just a lack of knowledge. True to form with our society, anything that is often hard to do or misunderstood is saturated with quick fixes, gadgets, or misleading objects that are for sale to “fix your posture.” Instead of looking for the outward source, why not pay attention to what’s  inside?

Structure. The spinal column at an early age forms its outlook for life beginning with our “tummy time” and then into our crawling stages. At this time the three distinct curvatures of the spine (cervical, thoracic, and lumbar) begin to take shape, enabling  our body to be able to withstand the constant battle of gravity with biomechanical sound curvatures in the spine. The rest of the body takes shape as a result of the spinal column.

Typically when you encounter a daily event, activity, or engage in repetitive behavior over and over again, the spinal column is unable to properly adapt and overcome a spinal subluxation (misalignment within the spinal column creating nerve interference.) This ensues over time. This subluxation will create chaos in the musculoskeletal system, creating an overproduction of muscle imbalances for years.

The subluxation will create inadquecies in proper muscle firing, thus leading to a constant battle with improper posture. Over time when a subluxation is left uncorrected, the structure of the spine begins to change. This is something you can actually see and is called improper posture. The structure of the spinal column is hidden from plaint sight, yet will appear in the posture that we exhibit in our daily lives.

Maintaining good posture is a important. Why not address the reason posture is even a talking point first by focusing on your spinal column which protects the most important system in the human body, the central nerve system (CNS). With proper coordination to the CNS, the particular system—the musculoskeletal system—which is often left to blame for “bad posture,” begins to work effortlessly and with normal tone to make sure your “butt is out, back straight, and chin out” all the time.

Mar 02
0

Your Natural Response: Inflammation

By | Benefits of Chiropractic | No Comments

The topic of inflammation is interesting at best. Often times we are bombarded with the newest and latest ways to reduce chronic inflammation within the body, or we succumb to over the counter medicine that is “designed” to reduce inflammation. While exercise and diet are congruent with a healthy lifestyle, external influences will often side-step the true root cause of why the inflammation is present in the first place. Look well to your spine first and foremost.

Basically we know that inflammation is the body’s innate response to counter a response or heal tissue. Your body does this to aid recovery naturally. When the inflammation ensues for an extended period of time, the brain defends itself with alarm messages to create an awareness for action steps that the body needs to take. Think of it this way: your brain decides you should experience an alarm if it believes there is tissue damage or the potential for tissue damage.

Your brain relays these alarm messages through the spinal column, collectively the brain and spinal column, or central nerve system (CNS). This is important because if the brain perceives there is a problem, a healthy highway of information is needed so the spinal nerves transferring all the data back and fourth can constantly feed the brain information.

The tissue cell is where your inflammation occurs. The tissue cell is the smallest organ in the body and maintains the welfare of the whole body. The tissue cells make your organs, and the organs are to serve the “organism,”which is you. When the CNS perceives to generate an immune response to the tissue cell, inflammation is the catalyst/spearhead to generate a response for the tissue. Remember this is a NATURAL occurrence, the CNS is protecting you to keep the function of the body.

Too often we take for granted the CNS and the constant changes it undergoes innately to keep us healthy naturally. Keeping your brain-body communication as accurate as possible is the key to eliminating inflammation at its root. Start with Chiropractic care, for it is proven to be the most natural form of health care out there. “Give me the power to create a fever, and I will cure any disease.” – Hippocrates.

Jan 08
0

Can You Hear US Now?

By | Benefits of Chiropractic | No Comments
Healthy actions are habits that you can create for yourself by implementing the appropriate steps. Yes, we understand it’s the New Year and it seems cliché to do something NEW. Guess what? Your “health” isn’t new, and many are just becoming more aware of it based on the year 2020.

Remember the Verizon commercials where the character would ask, “Can You Hear Me Now?” Your health does the same thing when you are living in a subluxated state.

A subluxation is a misalignment within the spinal column, creating interference between the brain and body communication, thus altering your body’s ability to adapt to the external environment. One cannot function at an optimal potential when living in a subluxated state.

Specific adjustments eliminate the interference and enable the body to communicate effectively . Your body begins to tell your brain “Can You Hear US now”! You become more aware of what is happening, as well as becoming in proper tune with your surroundings.

When addressing health, look to the spine first and foremost. If you want to create new habits such as exercise and diet, yes those are fundamental truths that work. However, don’t forget your “healthcare” stems from the beginning which created all, which is the central nerve system. The expression of your central nerve system is your healthcare. “A habit is the very tiny evolutionary beginning of an instinct, and it is easy to understand that an instinct is not easily changed.”- Stephenson.

“Symptoms can then serve as a warning or a message that something needs to be explored or changed in one’s life. And because illness is a message, if we treat only its physical manifestations, it can linger on or recur until the message is heeded.”-Dennis T. Jaffe, Ph.D
Dec 24
0

If You Don’t Know About It Does It Matter?

By | Benefits of Chiropractic | No Comments

Ignorance, neglect, or just a general idea of not actually knowing. Just a few reasons a person might be unhealthy. But where  does your health “come from?” It’s like a motor vehicle that runs and does not give you any cues to check your engine, rotate your tires, change your oil, etc. If you didn’t perform these actions regularly your vehicle would stop running.  What about your health? Do we just ignore the innate wisdom of the body to keep us going on a day to day basis without any routine check-ups?

Contrary to current models, health does not come in the form of a pill, a shot, or any other external influence. Your belief system will secure your future and make you separate and distinct from others.  Your course is set based on your beliefs.  These beliefs should stand the test of time and will be challenged with the “latest and greatest.”

Take, for instance, our first president. George Washington, in his terminal state, was bled on a routine basis, which was a leading factor to his demise. This “bad blood” theory gained some initial momentum much like lobotomies, electroshock therapy, and other instant fixes.

The founder of Osteopathy (Osteopaths) A.T. Still said it best in 1899 “The brain of man was God’s drugstore and had in it all liquid, drugs, lubricating oils, opiates, acids, and anti-acids, and every quality of drugs that the wisdom of God thought necessary for human happiness and health.”

The innate wisdom of your body is the top concern to keep your body lively and well.  The chain of communication in doing this depends solely on your central nerve system.  The CNS collects, interprets, and coordinates all internal systems to keep your body  in its ideal state.  “Illness hovers constantly above us, their seeds blown by the wind, but they do not set in the terrain unless the terrain is ready to receive them.” – Claude Bernard.

Dec 01
0

I Am Always Stressing Out

By | Benefits of Chiropractic | No Comments
Are you tired of the current cycle that your health is caught up in? If so, it’s good you’re reading this because it’s not just a self-help blog that will provide you with advice and hopefully life changing experiences. Nope, we are real and this is real life!

We cannot simply tell people to stop stressing out all the time! This kind of advice is always easy to give when both the advisor and advice don’t have to lift a finger for it. The experience we offer is open to everyone. The only contradiction you may face is the will of western medicine to pull you back into their mindset and just go with the “status quo flow.” The status quo flow just to take medication(s) to mask symptoms instead of diagnosing and treating the underlying causes.

By showing up to the Chiropractic office you are involving yourself in the best kept secret of actual health care. Why? It’s no secret that most people would rather take a pill than actually begin to heal. But guess what?! We’re going to help you to invest in your health by incorporating prevention. While other professions are concerned with changing environment to suit the weakened body, Chiropractic is concerned with strengthening the body to “suit” environment.”- B.J. Palmer, D.C., P.h.C

Stress impacts all of us on a regular basis, automatically altering health. The good news is that Gonstead Chiropractors are trained to monitor and keep your Central Nerve System free of interference that you begin to build up over a weekly basis. Think of it this way, “you cannot have a nerve without a thought and you cannot have a thought without a nerve.”

The more your CNS is out of balance, the more every physiological function within the body, from breathing to hormonal production, is changed. Break the cycle by continual spinal check-ups. Remember a vertebral subluxation is not a singular episodic event. Thus the correction may be corrected but later reappear, calling for careful monitoring and may result in a wide variation in the number of adjustments required to affect a longer term correction.