The Basler Blog

Apr 05
0

My Back’s Out…And That Means What Exactly?

By | Benefits of Chiropractic | No Comments

My Back’s Out…And That Means What Exactly?

Oh the power of words and what they actually mean.  The most common phrase that I hear with new patients is typically, “My back’s out,” or, “Outta whack,” or something along those lines.  Now, we could just let that slide by and everything would be okay, OR we could educate and tell you more.  Before we begin, let’s clear the board and announce that in Chiropractic school, training, clinicals, national board exams, preceptorships, etc. etc., not once did we Chiropractors learn about the phrase, “My back’s out.”

My Back’s Really Out…Right?

Listen to the words we are saying, “My back’s out.”  NO, the back cannot simply “go out”.  The back doesn’t randomly decide to leave your body and go hang out at Costco without you.  Too critical?  Let’s use the word misaligned instead.  A misalignment in the spine, otherwise called a subluxation, can and does happen.  Once it occurs it will stay in that misalignment until forces (Chiropractic adjustments) begin to correct it.  Still, you cannot simply just feel like “My back’s out” or even if you try and be witty you cannot just say “I just felt a subluxation occur in my back.”

If My Back Is NOT Out, What IS Happening?

Here’s another common phrase “Don’t kill the messenger!”   When a subluxation occurs, it places undo stress upon the Central Nerve System (CNS) and can specifically irritate a spinal nerve.  This spinal nerve made certain muscles and controls certain muscles.  Therefore, when the nerve gets irritated, the muscles become irritated.  The last messages to appear after a subluxation has been existent will be chronic muscle tension, knots, and irritation.  A subluxation that goes on uncorrected and neglected for years is equivalent to your teeth not being cleaned.  As time passes, your symptoms begin to appear, and eventually when your body is in a stressed state, the PAIN messages appear.  Now your muscles, tendons, ligaments and tissue become inflamed…thus creating an episode of, “My back’s out.”

Just Get Checked

It’s simple.  If you utilize your Chiropractor correctly, you will know him before you need him.  Understand the reverse of this phrase as well.  When you do decide to get adjusted, the bone does not just simply “go back”…  It requires time and repetition for your CNS to allow your body to heal and ADAPT from the neurological strain that it was under for so long.  Just get checked!

 

Mar 27
0

Banish Seasonal Allergies Naturally

By | Allergies, Benefits of Chiropractic | No Comments

Banish Seasonal Allergies Naturally

Fall in love with taking care of yourself. Focus on creating a lifestyle that supports your mind, body and your spirit. Don’t rely or turn to medicine and its probability.  Seasonal allergies do not have to hold you back from the world you want to experience. This is not a gimmick, fad or a sale.  Seasonal allergies become apparent when your body is failing to heal and adapt to the stress placed on it.

Why Do Seasonal Allergies Occur?

There are two obvious reasons.  First, we begin to spend more time outside and begin to acclimate to the changes that are occurring.  Secondly, your body is responding to the allergens that have technically always been here.  When the irritant/allergen is inhaled, eaten or touched, the body produces specific antibodies called immunoglobulin, which triggers the release of histamines. Once released, histamines begin ravaging the body. Blood pressure drops, nearby blood vessels dilate, and the spaces between surrounding cells fill with fluid.  This inflammatory response launches a cascade of miserable symptoms, from itching and sneezing to nausea and vomiting.

The Chemical Cascade of Histamines

If two people are standing right next to each other, breathing the same air, why would Person A start producing mucus buildup and sneezing while Person B is completely fine?  What is the difference?  It’s the same air quality for both.  There are MANY factors that are the same and MANY that are different.  Ultimately, it depends on person A’s central nerve system (CNS) and how it responds and processes the air.  Person A will begin to produce more histamines, but then will typically go to Walgreen’s and buy Anti-Histamines.  Person A fails to realize that their body is still making histamines and their “cure” is a cover-up for a couple hours.  They never truly address the cause.

Chiropractic “Heals” The Body

Chiropractors are nerve system specialists.  We focus on subluxations (misalignment’s in the spine) that irritate the CNS and cause damage to your tissues cells.  Cells of the immune system and inflammatory cells receive orders and communicate in their response via the CNS.  Stress can be defined as “a state of disharmony or threatened homeostasis provoked by psychological, environmental, and physiological stressors.”  By removing subluxations, your body is able to adapt and heal from the so called “seasonal allergies”.  Why deal with symptoms when you can go straight to the cause with chiropractic!

Mar 26
0

Why Do You Have Butterflies In Your Stomach?

By | Benefits of Chiropractic | No Comments

Why do you Have Butterflies in Your Stomach?

Have You Swallowed Butterflies?

A good majority of people have probably experienced an episode of butterflies in their stomach.  You may have felt this sensation before a public speaking event, asking a lady on a date or feeling embarrassed for some reason.   Butterflies in your stomach is technically not a sensation, but more of a reaction.  This reaction is brought on by your innate ability to protect yourself.

Butterflies In Your Stomach Protect You!

A branch of nerves called the sympathetic nerve system is also known as your fight or flight response.  When your internal monologue enters into survival mode, you automatically trigger the fight or flight response.  The Brain-Gut connection comes into fruition with this reaction to stressors.  The brain has a tendency to “overreact” and send more electrical messages to the gut when our body is responding to stress.  Basically, it’s the muscles in your stomach freaking out.

Balancing the Stressors

The central nerve system (CNS) goes to every organ, gland, tissue, muscle and cell of the body.  Chiropractic’s focus is to allow the CNS to function without interference or to remove the subluxation.  The subluxation is a “blown fuse” and your body reacts by expressing itself outwardly via symptoms.  Chiropractic adjustments do not “cure” the butterflies in your stomach; instead they balance your stress response by releasing ‘feel good’ factors in the body.  After an adjustment, your body becomes ENHANCED and begins adapting, particularity the pre-frontal cortex in the brain which controls your thoughts, emotions, and cognitive behavior.

Watch Out For Butterflies in Your Stomach

What can we learn from this?  As we teach patients about their health and well-being, we stress the importance of knowing us before you need us.   The best time to get checked and adjusted is before your event.  You want to make sure your body is firing on all cylinders and this begins with your CNS.  Your brain controls every cell in your body, even the butterflies in your stomach.  Keep your spine aligned and the connection flowing with chiropractic.

 

 

 

 

Mar 19
0

How You “Think” Doesn’t Impact My Health…Think Again!

By | depression, emotions, stress | No Comments

Thinking Doesn’t Impact My Health…Think Again!

Think About What You Think About

Most people would suspect that physical trauma is the number one reason why people seek Chiropractic care.  But in actuality, the number one reason why people seek care is due to how they think, or emotional stress.  How you think directly impacts your health.  Early Chiropractic philosophy stated that “Auto-Suggestions” was one reason why people would seek care.  It was their inability to adapt to their own auto-suggestions.  Today we supplement the phrase auto-suggestions with stress.  Stress is what brings people into the office.  Our thinking process either creates positive affirmations or emotional stress.

The Chemical Break-Down of Thinking

When your body begins to become bombarded with obligations such as bills, taxes, and daily routines, internal changes occur that alter your thought process.  Chemically, your internal monolog will increase adrenalin, blood glucose, cortisol, and even cholesterol levels.  Serotonin will be the one chemical that actually decreases as a result of stress.  Serotonin, commonly known as the “happiness chemical”, is a huge factor in your mood and getting quality sleep to rest your body.

The Physiological Response to Thinking

The chemicals in the previous paragraph will begin to alter your brain activity and how your body responds.  So, how you think now will begin to impact your health in a way you can understand…in a way that you actually feel. Your quality of sleep is severely depleted, your immune system is compromised, heart rate will spike, and your blood pressure will begin to rise.  Along with these noticeable symptoms, you will also feel increased muscle tension and knots along the spine.  All of this as a result of your thinking!

Chiropractic Can Change How You Think

When the spine is properly aligned and free of interference, your thought process is limited in its negative abilities.  After receiving a specific chiropractic adjustment, there is a 99% correlation that your pre-frontal cortex becomes enhanced.  What does this mean?  The pre-frontal cortex of your brain controls planning, complex cognitive behavior, personality, expression, decision making, and moderating social behavior.  In simple terms, it controls how you think.  Specific chiropractic adjustments help the positive thought process.  Stay adjusted, stay positive!

#getchecked

 

 

Mar 09
0

Buy My Special Pillow…It Will Fix Everything Wrong With You

By | Benefits of Chiropractic | No Comments

Buy My Special Pillow…It Will Fix Everything!

The Analogy Of My Special Pillow

The My Special Pillow analogy has been around in our society for a period of time and will continue to stick around.  Why is the pillow industry always trying to create the “latest and greatest”?  Because they want you to buy it!  Just like anything else, they will try to improve something that is pretty darn simple.  Unfortunately, our society will get you to buy the coolest of the coolest pillow out there because some random sleep study confirmed people actually sleep “better” with it.

My Special Pillow Is Doctor Recommended

The “Doctor Recommended” special pillow…It is simply just another way for someone to make a kick-back and sell you something.  As a Chiropractor, I never learned that the best way to promote my status as a Doctor was to sell “stuff” to the public. This can be said for any type of doctor profession out there.  Remember: My Special Pillow is just an analogy for the health industry as a whole.  This can be said for supplements, oils, laser-beams, exercises, special diets, lotions, etc.  Just because a diet is “Doctor Recommended” does not mean anything at all.  Literally.

The Truth of My Special Pillow

Health is hard-work.  My Special Pillow is trying to sell you the concept that health can be bought.  Being healthy as we know it starts from the inside of your body.  Why the inside?  Remember the first “Thing” made in your body was the brain and then then spinal cord, thus forming the central nerve system (CNS).  The CNS made everything else in your body…everything.  What about the heart…made by the CNS.  What about your left foot…made by the CNS.  And so on and so on.  Make sure that your CNS is free of stress by getting regular chiropractic check-ups.  Two other factors to implement are eating right and exercising.  That’s it.  The My Special Pillow concept will try to lure you away with the latest and greatest.  Just hold fast and stick to the things that survived the test of time. #getchecked

Mar 01
0

3 Affects Occurring On Your Spine Due To The “I” Hunch

By | posture, texting | No Comments

3 Affects Occurring On Your Spine Due To The “I” Hunch

Your Spine Dislikes Gadgets

Your spine is prone to continual stress every single day.  Your spine is specifically designed for two important functions.  Its top priority is to protect the most important structure within your body… the central nerve system (brain and spinal cord).  Secondly, the spine is designed to withstand stress, such as gravity, that is applied every single day.  In this day and age the TOP stressor that plagues our body is “The Gadgets”.  Cellphones, iPads, Kindle’s, etc.  When we continuously look down at gadgets, our entire spinal structure is under constant stress.

#1 – The Reverse Neck Curve Begins

Postural deviations that start in childhood and are left undetected and uncorrected will generally lead to bigger problems when those children become adults.  The more children are looking down at gadgets from earlier ages, the greater significance of cervical curve changes.  These changes are not for the better.

#2 – Your Spine Is Working Overtime

Having your head in a forward posture can add up to thirty pounds of abnormal leverage on the cervical spine.  This can pull the entire spine out of alignment – Rene Cailliet, M.D.  When we focus on the immediate we only focus on the cervical spine.  When in reality the entire spine will have to work over time.  This means that constant muscle tension, knots, and irritation will be existing all over the spine due to the imbalance in the neck area.

#3 -Your Spine Creates Unnecessary Stress

Constant forward head lean will put automatic stress on the central nerve system (CNS).  When you begin to alter your spinal curvature due to repetitive stress, this will result in a variety of health problems.  Why?  Without proper spinal support, the spinal bones will create tension and stress on your CNS.  Repetitive head lean is equivalent to adding an extra 60lbs of pressure on your spinal column…which means 60lbs of undo stress on your CNS.

Everyone has had poor posture at some point.  It only becomes a problem if you decide not to do anything about it.  Checking your posture and getting your spine checked for subluxations enables your body to adapt to the constant stress.

#getchecked

 

Feb 19
0

Learn Why Patience Is Key To Healing Your Body

By | Benefits of Chiropractic | No Comments

Patience is the Key to Healing Your Body

Teaching Patience to Patients

In this day and age the status quo is living in the fast-food lane, meaning we want things to happen NOW.  The age of patience is becoming a lost art. Industries will cater to this fast-food lane mentality and sell you products, trends, fads, and gimmicks, trying to convince you that something can happen in the NOW.  The “sale” that strikes a nerve with chiropractic care is emergency or urgent care.  Unfortunately my profession will sell you the quick “fix”.  Chiropractic care is not an emergency room or urgent care.  Chiropractic enables your body to adapt to the external stressors that plague it.  Feeling good just comes with the territory.  If you only come in to see the chiropractor when you’re in pain, then you should only eat healthy food when you get sick.  It takes time for your body to heal and adapt.  It takes patience.

The Truth about Patience in Healing

Nobody is too busy to heal, it just comes down to your priorities and choices you make in life.  Chiropractic care is not designed to make you instantly feel better.  It is actually designed to instantaneously begin the healing process and allow your body to adapt to your stressors.  Simple enough? Patience is fundamental with chiropractic because adapting to your stressors is a process, not an event.

The Father of Patience

“Healing is a matter of time, it is sometimes a matter of opportunity,” – Hippocrates.  Think of it this way.  If you work a 9-5 job Monday through Friday, and a good majority of that time you are sitting at a desk utilizing a computer, a substantial amount of physical and emotional stress is placed on your body.  Chiropractic care enables your body to adapt to the external stressors in your life.  If you have complete loss of patience you will just conform to the “status quo” and take medication.  Your body will always go through stress, but it’s your innate responsibility to promote adapting.  Adapting comes with understanding how patience is required in healing.  If you get a cut, a scab will form and you will heal.  If you break a bone, you will heal.  The same can be said for just about ANYTHING in your body when you give it time.  Chiropractic care paired with patience will promote adapting and healing within your body. #getchecked

Feb 01
0

How To Ditch The Junk And Create Health

By | Benefits of Chiropractic | No Comments

Ditch the Junk and Create Health

Is It Healthcare or Sick-care?

It’s the end of January and the New Year started with a BANG.  Either you have set the stage to create health and are continuing on your journey, or maybe you just need a little push.  The “healthcare” industry thrives on the New Year and people looking for a fresh start.  Wikipedia put the definition of “Healthcare Industry” as such: The healthcare industry is an aggregation and integration of sectors within the economic system that provides goods and services to treat patients with curative, preventive, rehabilitative, and palliative care.  The healthcare industry is ranked 4th of all industries in the United States.  When measuring the US healthcare compared to others, study after study continuously ranked the US in the bottom half.  What exactly does that mean?  Despite high spending on health care, the U.S. population has poor health.

Create Health by Eliminating Junk

To create health, you need to eliminate the junk that you have been exposed to.  Gimmicks, trends, health fads and the newest and latest PILLS.  It’s literally junk.  Here’s a nice tid-bit of information for you.  The FDA stated that 70% of all supplement companies violate agency rules.  This means there is no filter for what they can create, produce and SAY to get you thinking that you will benefit from one of their potions. This is not even talking about medicine and the pills they produce, this is just the supplement industry itself.  Just think, if their efficacy has such low standards, what other rules are they manipulating?  They will say anything to make you think that they can “cure, heal, or fix” you.

Create Health with the Foundation First

A healthy inside creates a healthy outside.  The inside we are referring to is the central nerve system (CNS).  The CNS made every organ, tissue, and cell in your body.  If you want to be healthy make sure your spine, which protects the CNS, is completely free of interference. It’s no secret, trend, or new fad that creating a healthy you begins with the inside first.  Specific Chiropractic care does not sell you anything.  Chiropractic care only enables your body to do what it is supposed to do…be healthy.  #getchecked

Jan 27
0

Know Us Before You Need Us…The Misconception About Chiropractic

By | Benefits of Chiropractic | No Comments

Know Us Before You Need Us…The Misconception About Chiropractic

The First Truths

Blurred lines create the biggest misconceptions of what Chiropractic actually is.  To set the record straight the very first recorded adjustment in 1895 in Davenport, Iowa was not for lower back pain or a headache.  The first recorded adjustment in fact enabled a deaf individual to restore his hearing.  Thus Chiropractic was born.  Looking toward the spine for all disease in the body was NOT something new.  Hippocrates, The Father Of Medicine, stated, “Look Well To The Spine For The Cause Of Disease.”  Even American Indian hieroglyphics demonstrated ‘back-walking’.  The sick would lie down and have their spines manipulated by the feet of others.

Blurred Lines Create The Misconception

The age of insurance creates and sets new demands.  With the age of insurance beginning in the mid 1990’s there became an alarming rate of what they called “musculoskeletal pain.”  One might say this was due to the changing lifestyle of desk jobs, diet, or just an accumulation of not taking care of ourselves.  Either way, insurance companies started dictating what was necessary for the patient rather than the patient deciding for themselves.  When pain would occur, Chiropractors had great results in helping patients; the insurance companies recognized this and did not like it.  They would rather you get out of pain as fast as possible and never let you HEAL or ADAPT.  The “quick fix” was a growing trend that was not dealing with overall health and well-being.

Education Is The Foundation To Correct The Misconception

Keep in mind that in the mid 1990’s pharmaceutical companies did not have the power they now assume.  A pain reliever drug such as Tylenol was not even invented until the 1950’s and it started out just like all drugs as a prescription first.  There was no such thing as walking to the gas station and buying a pain reliever over the counter.  Regardless, if you use your Chiropractor as an expensive Tylenol, then you will only get Tylenol like results, aka temporary.  Chiropractic is the study, art, and science of getting the sick better and keeping the healthy well.  #getchecked