Young As Your Spinal Column

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Do you realize the importance of the spinal column? These bones that run up and down your spine protect the most important system in the human body, the central nerve system. The spinal column allows protection while enabling proper flow of information from brain to body and visa versa. Sound important enough yet?

When a subluxation occurs, (misalignment within the spinal column placing undo stress upon the central nerve system) the brain perceives “road construction” as well as what the body needs to do to function correctly. The saying “in alignment” holds some merit when it comes to your health and well-being. Your body craves alignment, when you are properly aligned, your bones, not your muscles,  support your weight, reducing effort and strain on the spinal column.

The spinal column is specifically  designed to allow nerves to flow through and regulate your heart, lungs, thyroid, biceps, lymph. Remember every system falls under control of the central nerve system. Its communication pathway is via spinal nerves that exit out of spinal bones. Stop and think. Clap your hands together, hold your breath for 30 seconds, these maneuvers you perform originate in the brain and then are coordinated via your spinal nerves to the tissue cell of importance.

The good news: with regular spinal check-ups you can ensure optimal function out of your central nerve system. Your body’s ability to heal is greater than anyone has permitted you to believe. Your health and vitality are related to your spinal health and alignment. By receiving correct spinal adjustments the body is able to restore itself to a higher level of health. Have you ever heard of a spinal transplant? Neither have we, so take care of the one you have. 

Strengthen The Inside

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“It’s what’s on the inside that really counts.” This saying is used for many things, the main one being relationships. Just because someone looks “good” on the outside doesn’t necessarily equate to anything on the inside. Looks can be deceiving! When it comes to your health and well-being, look to the inside of the body first and foremost.

“While other professions are concerned with changing the environment to suit the weakened body, Chiropractic is concerned with strengthening the body to suit the environment”- B.J. Palmer, D.C. This text really sums up what and how Chiropractic suits your lifestyle. Chiropractors are trained to access your central nerve system (CNS) for subluxations (misalignments within the spinal column placing undo stress upon your CNS). By locating and adjusting subluxations, your body is better able to perceive its surrounding environment, thus keeping you in an ideal state of health.

You see, “bad” health has to start from within the body. You should take care of your body, it’s the only place you have to keep living! Forgo the “theory” that you have to take external “things” (drugs, medicine, lotions, oils, potions) to sustain your health. Start first and foremost by addressing your CNS and the health of the spinal column.

Your ability to perceive and sustain health is directly reflected towards the health of your CNS and spinal column. Think of efficiency. You would never buy a furnace that is only 60% efficient. So, why would you settle for a body that is? Efficacy of health is proportional to the health within the inside. Taking responsibility of health begins with proper spinal alignment, thus allowing your CNS to better able control all systems within the body.

An interesting thought is just because you’re not sick does not mean you’re healthy. Chiropractic does not keep you from getting sick, it enables your body to adequately adapt to the stressors you place upon it. The chiropractic adjustment removes spinal stress to allow optimal function. The adjustment cannot be replaced by physio, lasers, massage or medication.

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.”

The Power Of ‘Advice’

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Age old advice can be misunderstood and often times falls upon deaf ears. Too often we must deal with our own obstacles to actually learn from a life event. Advice, while it is easy to give, often requires the one giving it not to have to lift a finger to accomplish it. When it comes to your health and well-being we have a reliable truth that your body is designed to be healthy. The steps you take to accomplish this daily task of regular health often times comes from ‘advice’.

So take a grain of salt and listen to some words of encouragement, backed up with laws of truth. No advice given here!

Your body is innately designed to keep you healthy on a daily basis. Ultimately running the ‘ship’ is the central nerve system (CNS). For without your CNS daily functions would not occur, thus rendering you useless. Regular check-ups to ensure optimal function of your CNS comes throughout visiting a Chiropractor to check your spinal column for subluxations (misalignment within your spine placing undo stress upon your body).

There is no such thing as “One and done”. If you have been given the advice that a Chiropractor check-up is an emergency situation and after an adjustment the body is automatically restored back to its orginal state then this is bad advice.

Whether the subluxation is an acute or chronic problem it will still require time to properly heal correctly. Just because you cannot see a wound healing within the spinal column does not mean it doesn’t exist. Take your skin for example. If you have ever sustained a deep cut, it can take weeks to months for the skin to heal. Most important here is that the part of your skin that you can see will not be the same as the surrounding skin tissue. Something changed and it did not take overnight!

Take the time to understand that age old adages are what they are! If you skip the healing steps you will miss the healing stages that your body is supposed to go through!

The Importance Of Muscle Memory

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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!

Stop Waiting For A Problem: Be Proactive

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Did you know that for several decades the top causes of death in the United States are often associated with a “disease” that takes years to often give you its first symptom? Take heart disease for example, the leading cause of death in the United States. Leading variables that fall under this category are: congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, cardiac arrest, stroke. The first symptom that some of these diseases produce are death itself.

Many people will judge their health based on how they feel. Perhaps not such an accurate measure when sometimes the first symptom can be death itself. Feeling “good” is a major plus in our day to day lives. How the body is functioning is a major component of Chiropractic. We are determined to make sure your central nerve system is functioning optimally to promote a life of health and abundance. The central nerve system gives life to all other systems and components of your body to be in tune with itself. Without overthinking the analogy, think of your central nerve system as the battery to your truck, without your battery, the truck is not going to turn ‘on’.

Being proactive with your health is a daily occurance. You need to weigh the positive over the negative effects to create a continual balance of success. With regular Chiropractic check-ups you can ensure that your central nerve system will be in its top form to perceive and handle any external stimulus throughout your day that will attempt to impact you negatively.

Most patients think if they are symptom-free that they are healthy. However,  just because you are not sick does not mean you are healthy. Of note here, changing the perception to being healthy by being proactive in your daily well being instead of waiting for a problem to arise speaks volumes. Think of this saying, “Going to the Chiropractor only when you are in ‘pain’ is like only eating healthy food only when you get sick.”

Collect What You Sow

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Now is the time for the harvest. Think of all your hard work that began in early spring while getting the soil ready for your garden to bloom. The harvest brings with it many satisfying emotions as well as even MORE work to process, can, clean, prep, for the next season. Farming is truly a complex system with no easy shortcuts. The same can be said of your health, it’s a daily quest to maintain what you have!

When all your hard-work comes to fruition, you can appreciate the harvest even more. Chiropractic care is very much like sowing seeds and reaping your harvest. You cannot immediately plant a seed and expect fruit to bear. Just as Chiropractic care is not an instant fix, one is not immediately “cured”. Seeds need care and maintenance while they grow, just like our bodies as we go through life.

The similarities between farming and chiropractic can provide us with a striking way to understand what the end goal should or could be. Farmers must be very aware of the temperature, moisture, and nutrients necessary for the soil to continually produce a good crop. Your body must be continually changing and adapting to the external influences that you place upon it. All the routine adjustments to keep your central nerve system free of dysfunction allows your body to maintain and promote health and well-being so you are continually yielding a healthy “crop” over and over again.

Taken one step further, we emphasis the importance of having your kids checked to build a healthy foundational life. It’s better to grow healthy kids than to fix injured adults. Imagine starting from the beginning and having your central nerve system in proper coordination at a young age instead of “fixing” something as it breaks down later in life. Theodore Roosevelt said it best: “Let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.” When living a healthy lifestyle you have no choice but to wear out appropriately on your time!

Is It Necessary

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Consider the word “necessary.” Often, what is necessary for one is completely different for another. With regards to your health, what is necessary for you? The good news is Chiropractic puts the “care” in health care. Our office utilizes the Gonstead technique which is specific care necessary to your spinal health, and yours alone. No one gets the same adjustment because no one is the same. The care you receive is necessary to you.

If we were to tell you that ‘wellness’ type Chiropractic care is not necessary for you, we would have to also tell you that daily brushing and flossing is not necessary. Yet, the Dental world has done a fantastic job informing people of the necessity concerning regular oral hygiene to maintain healthy teeth and gums. Why do we get lost when it comes to maintaining the function of your spinal column? Typically we can blame the symptom path of our brain.

Most will seek necessary care only when a symptom arrives on their door-step, thus prompting a search for a solution. We don’t start brushing our teeth only when our teeth start falling out do we? Understand that the symptoms your brain tells your conscious is not a reflection of the drugs that you did NOT take. Yet, most will stand in line for the medications and surgery option instead of the lifestyle modifications option.

Your brain is the first computer ever invented, and the spinal cord is like a USB cable, supplying life to every organ, cell, tissue, and gland that you have. Get ‘plugged in’ with Chiropractic care! It is necessary to promote the lifestyle that you want without the use of external stimulants. “While other professions are concerned with changing the environment to suit the weakened body, Chiropractic is concerned with strengthening the body to suit the environment.” – B.J. Palmer. Make your health necessary by utilizing a vitalistic approach that has been tried and tested.

Where Did My Back Go?

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We’ve all been around an invididual who claimed that their “back went out” after performing some physical activity. This phrase is often used in Chiropractic offices to describe a particualr problem known as a subluxation (misalignment within the spinal column creating undo stress upon a nerve fiber). Let’s be real though. Most people have never heard of the word subluxation until seeking help after such an event occurs.

Unless you’ve had a major accident, injury, or trauma that violently impacts tendons, ligaments and surrounding soft tissue, your spinal bones do not ‘simply’ move from being aligned to being misaligned. A subluxation is created over time often due to repetitive behaviors that require the body to adapt and heal. Once again, lets be honest. Most people will perform the same physical and mental task Monday – Friday never really giving their body a chance to adapt until Saturday and Sunday or a planned vacation occurs.

Relating to our current events, the fires and smoke we are breathing , let’s use this analogy: Fire Vs. Subluxation

Most of the fires are manmade, often due to neglect and improper care of not knowing the fire regulations.

All subluxations are manmade, often from neglect of your spinal column due to not knowing the important role it plays in protecting your central nerve system.

Most fires will typically start off very slow at first and then gather momentum, sometimes we think they will just ‘go out’ by themselves.

Most subluxations will take years to develop into an actual known health problem. Sometimes pain will be the first symptom to appear and the first to disappear, yet in reality the ‘burn’ is still slowly cooking away.

Then the smoke sets in. Not only creating more health concerns for us, but creating a different reality of our surroundings as well. I look out the window knowing I am supposed to see the Swan Range, yet all I see is smoke.

Paraphrasing Dr. Heidi Haavik, when a subluxation is created and manifests, it alters the reality of the brain to body conneciton. One would almost say that it creates a ‘brain fog’ of the information your brain needs to perceive to keep you healthy.

What’s the moral of the story? “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of a cure” – Benjamin Franklin

Be The Huck!

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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.