If You Don’t Start Right You Won’t End Right

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If You Don’t Start Right, You Won’t End Right

Much like anything in life, it’s all about the beginning and maybe a little bit about the end.  How so? Let’s use this example: how do you build a house? Would you start building the roof first and put all of the shingles up and THEN start with your foundation?  I hope not! It’s all about the start, the building of the foundation to establish a strong structure in the end. In Gonstead chiropractic, we cannot stress the importance of establishing a balanced and healthy pelvis, a.k.a the foundation of the spine.

It’s A Solid Chunk Of Bone

You have two pelvic bones; left and right.  Early on in development each pelvic bone initially starts off as three separate bones.  It’s not until we mature and fully develop that each pelvic bone becomes one solid chunk of bone individually.  When the pelvis is subluxated, there is a direct relation to other subluxations in the spine; a domino effect. In Gonstead chiropractic, we cannot stress enough this relationship within the body.  It just so happens to be that this idea did not originate with Dr. Gonstead. It’s been around for a long period of time. Why stress the importance of starting at the pelvis? Newton’s third law is: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  By starting with checking the pelvis for imbalances we are able to ignore compensations that might ensue following a subluxation.

The Downward Spiral Begins At The Start

The first compensation that will occur for people who suffer from a pelvis subluxation will typically be in the lumbar spine.  The lumbar spine has nerve roots that regulate and control certain parts of the body. What will happen? Visceral problems will begin to occur.  Damaging the lumbar nerve roots will effect every tissue cell of any organ that is regulated in that particular root. Fast-forward some odd years later living with GI problems. Then the superficial pain occurs.  Enter the chief complaint “lumbar pain” or “lower back pain” (which ever you fancy). Start at the beginning and foundation of the spinal column. Chiropractic care seeks to turn on the natural healing ability, not by adding something to your system, but by removing anything that might interfere with the normal healing process within your system. #getchecked

Crisis In Healing…Why Natural Healing Is Still Growing

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Crisis In Healing…Why Natural Healing Is Still Growing

There is an age old conflict between treating the disease itself vs. the patient as a whole.  These opposing viewpoints have not changed, relatively, since 460 B.C….why? The current trend in emphasizing the disease puts our money, time and energy in the magic pill.  While this might be efficient for some in times of a crisis, the magic pill does not heal the body as a whole. How about utilizing the most non-invasive form of healing on your body?  Natural healing.

The Science Of Natural Healing

In chiropractic, we utilize inductive reasoning.  Neuroanatomy and neurophysiology has everything to do with the cause of disease.  If you disturb the structure of the human frame, you disrupt the nerve system. We deny that disease “just happens”.  The disease process must have a cause and chiropractic seeks that cause. The cause is attributed to a disturbance (subluxation) in the normal flow of neural communication.   The chiropractic profession is pretty advanced and continues to make more advancements to understand the reasoning of subluxations. These disturbances create a anatomical dis-relationship with the rest of the body, a.k.a dis-ease.

It’s In The Literature

Show me your evidence of natural healing.  Research has and always will provide insight on how the body heals.  The truth is that the day to day action of the body and what it is capable of is research within itself.  In Collected Papers Of Mechanico-Therapeutics, Dr. Edgar Cyriax  states “Every displacement of a vertebra changes the normal condition of pressure, tension, shape, size and length of the surrounding structures.  If nature is able to set up compensations, no evil effects ensue.” This statement means that subluxations will create dysfunction and produce symptoms of the body relating to the visceral (internal organs) or non-visceral.  Eugenics, Dr. Herman Rubin, M.D. – ” It may never occur to them (medical colleagues) that the headaches, stomach trouble, neuritis or nervous irritability they are attempting to cure may be due to nothing more serious than a displaced vertebra which any competent chiropractor can restore in ten seconds.”

Shoulder, Knees, Hips, Ankles…It’s Still A Spine Problem

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Shoulder, Knees, Hips, Ankles…It’s Still A Spine Problem

Extremities….aka, shoulders, knees, ankles, wrists or whatever extremity you want to throw in the mix is all related to the spine.  “Look well to the spine for the cause of disease” – Hippocrates. When extremity problems present themselves in our life, we forget about the structure that provides life to those parts of our body; the spine.  Now, what about incidences that occur like with Nancy Kerrigan. For those who don’t remember, Nancy Kerrigan was an Olympian struck in the knee by an individual who wanted to cause her harm. In these cases, this is a simple cause and effect situation.  For everything else, pay attention to the spine and what it offers in your healing abilities.

The Nerve Of That Extremity

To understand that healing begins in the spine, you must understand the importance of the central nerve system.  Every tissue cell that makes up any extremity, whether it’s your shoulder, knee, wrist or whatever, is originated and can be traced back to a specific spinal nerve.  For example, think about the wrist and carpal tunnel. The concept is that the large amount of time spent typing causes inflammation in the wrist. What most fail to realize is that the wrist and any muscle movement used for typing is controlled via your lower cervical spinal nerves.  Sure, the person is typing for hours upon hours, but what about the position of the monitor.  What about their neck posture…etc? Are they constantly looking down and then back up and creating constant flexion and extension in the lower cervical part of the neck?  Most of the time…YES!  Specifically for the wrist, it’s called double crush syndrome.  The first “crush” (irritated nerve fiber) will occur at the cervical spinal nerve and then the second “crush” will occur in the shoulder, elbow or wrist.

It’s No Coincidence

Every tissue cell of your body traces back to a specific spinal nerve.  Take care of the spine first and foremost and extremity dysfunction will cease to exist.  With a healthy spine, the tissue cells in your extremities will increase its adaptability and perform at peak potential.  The most important project you’ll ever work on is yourself. Technology has become a literal “pain” in the neck. Don’t forget to mind your posture and look to the spine first.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Learn About ‘Allergies’

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Learn About ‘Allergies’

Allergies.  What is really  happening to your body?  The immune system becomes confused by some sort of foreign substance or object and creates a response.  A HEALTHY response is one that occurs for a limited amount of time. The term allergen only becomes involved when your body does not adapt to the foreign invader.  Don’t become confused with what your body innately knows and what the commercials tell you. Just because “allergy medicine” is readily publicized as the “natural remedy” doesn’t mean that your body doesn’t have it’s own innate ability to adapt.  A hypersensitivity is a learning exercise for your body. Don’t suppress it with over the counter medication. Your body won’t learn from it.

Healthy Inside = Timed Response

When the central nerve system is in a healthy state, inadvertently the spine is in a healthy state.  Hence, the ‘healthy inside’. When the spine is placed under duress and a subluxation manifests, it puts the body in a constant state of dis-ease.  So, automatically, your CNS is stressed out which will alter the function and the precise coordinated attack of the immune system. When a nerve becomes inflamed sometimes it fires too much.  Sometimes it fires too little. In either case, whenever a nerve becomes irritated the body cannot function correctly. The immune system keeps attacking the foreign substance and keeps feeling threatened over and over again.  It’s like ‘saying uncle’ over and over and no one listens or stops what’s happening. Your immune response should be precisely timed to learn from the foreign substance and ADAPT.

Reducing The S Word… Stress

Symptoms such as sneezing, runny nose and watery eyes can cause added stress for allergy sufferers and may even be the root of the stress for some.  With regular spinal check-ups, you can ensure that your CNS is functioning in an optimal state and reduce and minimize the amount of spinal strain that it places on your CNS.  There is an intimate connection that exists between your CNS and your immune system. There are measurable improvements in immune function within minutes after a spinal adjustment.  This is measured by antibodies in the saliva. Don’t wait to get your spine checked. Eliminate the possibility of foreign substances creating a foothold in your immune system. Fire back and heal!

The Birth Of Chiropractic

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The Birth Of Chiropractic

September 18, 1895, marked the official birth of chiropractic.  This date is attributed to the founding father, D.D. Palmer, who gave the first recorded adjustment to Harvey Lillard in Davenport, Iowa.  Harvey Lillard had lost most of his hearing at a young age. The adjustment that D.D. Palmer performed on Lillard almost completely restored his hearing back to normal.  In the early days the principles of chiropractic were very simple. They consisted of merely locating bumps along the center of the patient’s back and forcibly reducing them with a shove or a push.  It was not until 1904-1905 that chiropractic was ingrained and seriously taught as a science, art and philosophy of the healing arts.

Back Up Just A Little Bit In Time

The first recorded adjustment was in 1895 in Davenport, Iowa.  However, spinal manipulation existed WAY BEFORE D.D. Palmer was around.  Enter Hippocrates. Hippocrates stressed the importance and teachings of writings we know today as aphorisms.  These aphorisms taught not to interfere or hinder, in any way, nature’s attempt towards recovery.  Hippocrates recognized the importance of spinal manipulation. Hippocrates taught that nature must heal and that the physician can only remove the obstruction (subluxation).  Much of chiropractic’s patient-centered approach can be linked to Hippocratic roots.

Fast forward to Claudius Galen, 130 – 200 A.D. He was considered the first to teach the proper positions and relations of the vertebrae.  Galen, like Hippocrates, recognized the importance of the nerve system. He stressed the importance to his students that the nerve system was the key to maximum health. Around the same time of Galen, Chang-Chung-King, referred to by medical science as the “Chinese Hippocrates”, stressed the importance of observing the patient as opposed to treating the symptom as for each disease.  The list of healers, philosophies and education goes on and on. Looking to spine is not a “new” trend. The primary focus of chiropractic is simply to remove the things that interfere with the body’s natural normal healing ability. #getchecked

 

Do You Have Patience To “Get Better”

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Do You Have The Patience To “Get Better”?

Do you have the patience to get better?  As Americans we have a ‘fast-food’ mentality.  We want and need things NOW. Anything that takes time has to come with a warning label!  Who would enforce the warning label though? There are entire industries out there hoping that you are looking for the ‘quick fix’ and will feed on your need for speed.    We are becoming a society that expects the ‘quick fix’. However, we will almost always become disappointed with the results. What happened to patience? We must learn the virtue of patience.  With patience comes results…in everything.

Do Not Neglect The Time

Once you go to a chiropractor you will have to keep going for the rest of your life.  Have you heard this before? In a way, it is true. Your chiropractor should explain to you why this is.  Chiropractic care allows the body to heal and adapt to both external and internal stressors without taking medication, invasive shots, surgeries or other forms of western medicine.  Chiropractic care enables your body to accomplish this by focusing on the central nerve system (CNS). With a healthy CNS you will have a healthy body. It’s a fact. It’s proven. It’s science.  It’s the truth and no one can dispute the significance of a healthy CNS. What is required with chiropractic care? Patience and time. The body requires time to heal. For example, Think of how much damage is done to your tissue cells when you break a bone or get a cut on your hand.  Anything that damages the TISSUE CELL requires time to repair and heal. There is a lot to rebuild.

Patience Is Needed, Oh Tissue Cell

The tissue cell requires your patience.    Want to build muscle by lifting weights? Change the tissue cell.  Want to learn to play the guitar? Change the tissue cell. Want to change improper curves in your spine?  Change the tissue cell. We can keep going on and on about other examples, but what all of this points back to is the word patience.  When your CNS is not adapting correctly, the tissue cell learns negative memory. Change the memory with positive repetitive actions, e.g., chiropractic care.  This is why your chiropractor will tell you to come back again. #getchecked