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. 

Garden Your Spine Much?

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‘Tis is the season to dive into the outdoors and create an abundance of joy that comes from gardening. Along with the tending of your garden comes the process of deciding what type of garden you want. There are basic laws that cannot be subsitited when it comes to gardening, as well as variables to enhance what you expect from your garden. Some of the minor variables that come with this decision for your garden:

  • talking to your plants
  • fertilizer
  • Vegtables or flowers
  • Soil Ph level
  • To weed or not to weed
  • Proper spacing, and so on…

Variables. When it comes to gardening, there are variables upon variables that exist and will continue to change, modify, and heighten the experience of gardening. Tricks of the trade, even secrets of what to do. Often, you will learn these through trial and error. Yet the three basic laws of gardening that have survived the test of time are water, soil, and sunlight.

Chiropractic care is like gardening. Seeds need care and maintenance while they grow, just like our bodies do as we “grow” through life. Your spinal column is designed to protect the most important entity in the human body, the central nerve system. Any subluxation (misalignment within the spinal column) will create interference within the brain to body connection and thus cause interruptions in the growth and development of the body.

Just like gardening, many variables exist to “enhance” your health. Basic laws will still exist and will survive the test of time. Your central nerve system does, and always will, need check-ups throughout life to make sure your body is expressing its fullest potential. It provides water, sunlight, and the proper soil for all your organs, cells, tissues, and glands that you need to thrive in life.

‘Attitude’ Adjustment

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“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.”

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!

Kids Chiropractic: It’s Not New

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Did you know that currently 54% of children in the US suffer from a chronic health condition?  1 in 6 children have a developmental delay/disability, 1 in 11 children have ADHD, 1 in 12 children have asthma, 1 in 36 have autism and 1 in 285 will be diagnosed with cancer by the age of 20.

While severe subluxation resulting in nerve damage may be clinically obvious at birth, more frequently the trauma remains subclinical with symptoms arising at a later time. These symptoms include, but are not limited to, irritability, colic, failure-to-thrive syndromes, and those syndromes associated with lowered immune response. (Clinical Guidelines)

The true cause of disease lies within the body.  Taking care of your family’s health should be a priority. Your lives depend on it! Chiropractic focuses on being preventative rather reactive. Instead of waiting for something to arise, prepare and act now.

Complicated deliveries represent a higher risk to the child suffering spinal damage during the birth process.  Any condition that arises to change the normal birth process frequently results in subluxation at the level of greatest stress. (Clinical Guidelines)

With this defensive attitude, that externals are to blame for illness, it is no wonder that many individuals are chronically worried about their health. “If people believe they live in a germ filled, polluted environment and that they are weak because of inherited psychological and physical deficiencies, they will perceive themselves as helpless and victimized when they become ill.” – Dennis T. Jaffe, Ph.D

The brain that is created upon conception makes every living tissue, organ, cell, and gland that the body needs. Collectively the central nerve system regulates every function in your life. Wouldn’t it be wise to make sure this master system was free of any interference to regulate your child’s overall health and well-being? Chiropractic is for all, and to serve all.

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.

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.

Why A Spinal-Check Up Is First, Then The Adjustment

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Why wouldn’t you want to access something first before making a change? Accessing the damage before alterations are made sounds pretty smart to us. In Gonstead Chiropractic we utilize the initial X-rays every spinal check-ups coupled with our tool of choice, the Neurocalometer (Scope). The Scope allows us to see inflammation along the spinal column and then to match it accordingly with your X-rays to see if this is an actual subluxation that needs an adjustment or if this is a compensation that is created via a subluxation that does NOT need adjusted.

Often times when it comes to your body and more specifically the spinal column, we assume that the area of pain is the area of correction. This is more often NOT the case. When a subluxation (misalignment within the spinal column placing undo stress upon a single nerve fiber) exists it disrupts the communication between the brain and body. Meaning? It changes the outcome of every tissue cell that is supposed to be in ideal function for that specific moment. A subluxation disrupts your body’s ability to be properly adapt and changes the course of your health. It doesn’t allow your brain an accurate reality of what is really happening.

Why in Gonstead Chiropractic do we use Neurocalometer before we adjust the spinal column. This is our tool of choice that we use for daily visits to access the spinal column looking for minute differences in temperature from one side of the spine to the next. Neural relationships to skin temperature offer a noninvasive method of quantifying neural function.

No other metric of healthy function has been used for as long as skin temperature. Nearly 2,500 years ago Hippocrates was said to have used a slurry of mud over the skin to identify those areas that dried fastest due to heat levels of the skin. As current research explains, thermal variability in humans is a sign of a healthy system (Adaptability Textbook).  

How Would You Define Being Healthy?

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Where does health come from? This question itself is bigger than the short paragraphs that we can provide you with. In order to understand health you must understand the body and the ca pabilities it holds. The current paradigm of “health” that most people assimilate with was based in 1948 post World War II and is still the current model.

With this general concept of what health is we started to become a society based on palliative care and started to turn away from the idea that the body could and would heal from within. Palliative care is based upon relieving the signs and symptoms without dealing with the actual cause of what CAUSED the signs and symptoms in the first place. Why do two people drink from a fountain and only one gets “sick”?

1948 World Health Organization definition of health: “A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. So, just because you don’t have a disease makes you healthy? Far from the truth. Every day you have the choice to make healthy decisions or unhealthy decisions that will alter and change the trajectory of your bodies ability to ADAPT to the stressors you place upon it.

If you start to take up rowing, your hands begin to blister from the new repetition that your body places upon it. Instead of ‘treating’ the blisters with medicine and remedies your body is designed to callus over the blisters and adapt in accordance with the stressors that you place upon your hands.

In Chiropractic, we are solely based upon the adaptability paradigm. We not only have a philosophy of what health is, the science has been there and still continues to support the TRUE definition of health. The bodies ability to remain healthy is innately within all of us and at the center of this health is the central nerve system. Every organ in the body is connected to the one under your hat – B.J. Palmer. Change your paradigm…change your health.