Chiropractic-Maintaining Your Body's Healing Ability

What is chiropractic? Chiropractic is the science, art, and philosophy of the effects of the vertebral subluxation complex on the health of the body. Chiropractic is based in physical science; there is an art to the actual delivery of the chiropractic treatment, called an adjustment; and there is an underlying philosophy about health that is unique to chiropractic.

As a chiropractor, I believe the body is a self-healing organism designed to be in a state of perfect homeostasis, or balance. I believe that when the body is in balance, all systems function at 100% of the system’s potential, and the body is healthy. When the body is not in balance, when systems function at less than 100% of their potential, then health is lost and disease takes over.

According to Gray’s Anatomy, the nervous system controls and coordinates all of the functions in the body. Chiropractic is based on this fact. We recognize that a nerve must transmit a message from the brain to the organ, tissue, or cell in the body so that the organ, tissue, or cell knows how to function in a healthy manner. If this transmission of messages is disrupted, health is disrupted.

Chiropractic recognizes the relationship between a healthy spine and a healthy nervous system. Because of the position of the peripheral nerves, which exit the spinal cord through openings between the spinal bones, the health of the spine can affect the health of the nervous system. In a spine that has the vertebral subluxation complex, there will be a lack of proper function, causing interference with the nerves that can and will affect the body’s ability to transmit messages through the nerves. When nerve transmission is disrupted or lost, organs malfunction, muscles weaken, symptoms of disease and decay occur.

As a chiropractor, my job is to make sure that your body is free of subluxations, and free of nervous-system malfunctions that can cause pain and disease.

 

Many people seek chiropractic care to be free from the pain of headaches, backaches, and other musculoskeletal problems without the use of drugs or surgery. Many patients, when freed from spinal subluxations, also report an increase in overall health and vitality, as well as a lessening of symptoms of conditions that are not musculoskeletal, such as asthma, allergies, and earaches.

 

Can you imagine what a change it would be to be without pain, without suffering, without drugs? Chiropractic care is suitable for anyone who has a spine. Chiropractic is appropriate for anyone of any age, from the youngest baby to the most elderly person who wants to change their health. Chiropractic is very safe, very effective, and cost-effective.

How does one become subluxated? There are many ways, from birth trauma and falls as a child, to auto accidents, sports injuries, or accidents around the house. Subluxations can be caused by years of poor posture, or from stress. Think about it—do you remember any falls from your childhood? Most of us have at least one story of a childhood injury to relate. Maybe you fell down the stairs, off a bike, out of a tree, or off the monkey bars. Many patients I see recall injuries from high school sports.

Most of us have experienced a fender-bender or two, if not some more serious vehicle accident. (It’s hard to total a car without doing some kind of damage to your body. Just because nothing was broken doesn’t mean nothing was hurt.) Maybe you became subluxated when you moved or picked up something heavy, and now, every once in a while, your back “goes out on you.” A back that “goes out” now and then is almost a sure sign of subluxation.

If, years later, you can remember a fall, injury, or accident, it probably hurt, and it probably seriously jolted your body. You are probably subluxated. You may wonder why

you don’t feel subluxated. Here are some clues as to what being subluxated feels like: Are you stiff in the morning or after working? Do you notice a general lack of flexibility in your body? Rather than just easily turning your head, do you have to turn your shoulders to look behind you when you put the car in reverse? Do you have headaches? (Many patients who are subluxated report an initial symptom of headaches.)

Does your body feel as if it’s getting old? Do you have numbness or tingling in your hands or feet? Perhaps you thought it was a lack of blood flow, your hands or feet going to sleep. This can be a very common sign of spinal subluxations. Do you have leg pain that has been diagnosed as sciatica? Sciatica is another common sign of spinal subluxation.

These are some of the more common symptoms that can point to spinal subluxations. If you have one or more or all of these, then you may also have some other health problems. You probably aren’t as healthy as you’d like to be, and you probably don’t do all the things you’d like to do. Some patients attribute the above symptoms to “just getting older.” You don’t have to accept the outdated mode of thinking that says that you lose your health as you age. If your doctor has ever attributed your health problems to the fact that you’re getting older, I recommend that you change doctors.

So now you may have a better idea of what chiropractic is, and how you might feel if you’re subluxated. Now what do you do about it? First, call a chiropractor and make an appointment. Don’t worry, all chiropractors are very well educated and must pass rigorous national and state requirements to practice.

Licensing requirements weed out those that are truly not qualified to practice. The rest is up to you. Any time you choose a doctor, you should look at their ability to communicate with you as a priority, as well as their ability to listen. Ask questions and see how they respond. If the doctor’s office is professionally run and you’re comfortable with the doctor, then you’re probably in the right place. Most insurance covers some chiropractic, so check out the doctors on your plan. Remember, insurance policies cover a certain number of visits per year for each policyholder. But the number of visits you may require might differ from the number of visits your insurance company will cover. This is very common.

Most patients receive a complete examination. Chiropractors are well trained to palpate the body—that is, to make muscle and bone diagnoses by touching the body—but nothing gives the full picture like a picture. I know the cost of x-rays is a concern for many patients, but what is your health worth? Another common concern is x-ray exposure. I definitely think you should keep your x-ray exposure to a minimum.

Talk to your doctor about the minimum required to get the maximum information. A picture of your bones could save your life if you happen to have pain because of a serious disease process that has yet to be seen.

After the exam and the x-rays, the doctor will tell you what type of treatment is appropriate for your condition. When you get adjusted, you lie on a table fully clothed, and the doctor literally moves your bones by pushing them in specific directions with a specific amount of force. Don’t try this at home; adjustments are safe only when done by a well-trained, highly skilled professional. After the adjustment, which takes only a few minutes, you can get right up and go on about your life; in most cases, no recovery time is needed.

You’ve probably heard stories about people who went to a chiropractor and felt worse after the adjustment then they did before. That happened to me—after injuring my neck in an automobile accident, I found that, for a few weeks after the accident, my regular adjustment appointments left me sore. Had I not been a chiropractor and not understood why that was happening, I might not have gone back.

Yes, sometimes people do feel more sore after their first few adjustments. But notice that I say after their first few adjustments—not after every adjustment. In the beginning of the process, there is often a small inflammation reaction in the adjusted joints. That means they’re going to be sore. This doesn’t happen in every case—in fact, it doesn’t happen in most cases—but when it does, it’s just a part of the healing process. After a few adjustments, the discomfort should go away for the most part, and future treatments should be painless.

Usually, a series of spinal adjustments is needed to correct subluxations. Although a single adjustment might relieve the pain, it won’t permanently cure the problem—repeated adjustments are necessary to get rid of the subluxation. Each adjustment builds on the previous one retraining the muscles to support the vertebrae in their “new,” restored, healthy positions, which they may not have held in years. Most patients continue with some sort of preventive care, to maintain their health and to prevent subluxations from becoming reestablished in their spines.

Most people find that an adjustment once a month keeps them healthy, and counters the effects of the stressful, active lifestyles most of us live. If you want to be healthy throughout your lifetime, chiropractic adjustments are a necessity.

Further Reading

Healing Hands, by Joseph Maynard, D.C., Ph.C.

Chiropractic First, by Terry A. Rondberg, D.C.

Introduction to Chiropractic, by Louis Sportelli

The Chiropractic Way, by Michael Lenarz, D. C.

Chiropractic Compassion and Expectation, by Terry A. Rondberg, D.C. and Timothy J. Feuling

How Long Has Your Oil Light Been On?

If you want to remain in good health throughout your life, you must learn to recognize and listen to the messages your body gives you. This may be a challenge at first—most people are not very body-conscious, and feel their bodies only when they’re in severe pain. To become more body-conscious, you must listen to your body when it whispers to you, not just when it screams. To become more body-conscious, try the following exercise twice a day, morning and night, just before you start or end your day:

Take a few moments to sit or lie down in a comfortable position. Let your mind feel your body. First, put your attention on your feet and legs, being aware of how they actually feel: loose? tight? hot? cold? achy? Now, let your attention wander slowly over the rest of your body. Are you aware of any part that doesn’t feel as good as the rest? What does that feel like? Is it a sign of something new? Did you have this feeling the last time you did this exercise? Has it changed or progressed?

Do this exercise each day and you’ll begin to become much more familiar with the way your body normally feels. That will make you more likely to recognize a symptom when it first appears. But once you’ve become aware of your symptoms, you must make a choice about addressing them. An illustration common in the chiropractic profession is the Oil Light Analogy:

Imagine that you’re driving along in your car and the oil light comes on. What are you going to do? Ignore it and hope it will go away? If you do, you might be able to drive the car quite a bit longer, but eventually the lack of oil—which is, after all, the problem the oil light is designed to alert you to—will ruin the engine and render the car useless.

Or, when the oil light comes on, are you going to stop, add oil, drive until the light comes on again, then stop and add more oil, and so on? Adding oil over and over is similar to adding pain relievers to your body. The symptom (the oil light) may disappear for a while, but it will return when the problem gets worse again (when enough oil has again leaked out or burned up). The underlying issue (the oil leak) is never addressed. Most of you probably don’t treat your car this badly, but your bodies might be another story.

Or, when the oil light comes on, do you call the mechanic and make an appointment to take your car in for service so that he or she can find out why it lost so much oil? Probably so. You want to fix that oil leak before it creates more problems in your car, costing you more money and inconvenience. You won’t wait till your car overheats or the engine seizes up just because of a simple lack of lubrication.

The oil light is similar to your symptoms. When your body malfunctions, it tells you so by exhibiting some type of symptom. The most dangerous way to deal with symptoms is to ignore them or hope that they’ll just go away.

Sometimes symptoms are subtle—fatigue, muscle tightness, loss of appetite, or a change in sleep patterns. This is the body whispering. At other times the body will scream for help, in the forms of pain, strong allergic reactions, or a reduction in organ function.

In most cases, the problem causing the symptoms has been there a long time, and the symptoms have worsened with time. (Remember, if the symptoms are getting worse, so is the underlying disease process.) I can’t tell you how many patients I’ve seen with severe health problems who waited a year or more to seek care because they “thought it would go away.” Meanwhile, their symptoms got only worse. In many cases, by the time the patient seeks care, the disease has progressed to a point where it is much harder to treat.

I often ask patients what prevents them from seeking care as soon as they’re aware of their symptoms. The most common responses are “I thought it would go away on its own,” “I didn’t have/didn’t want to spend the money,” “I didn’t have time,” “I was afraid of what the doctor might find,” and “I was afraid of how the doctor would treat me.” All

of these hinder people from receiving the benefits of early intervention. Let’s look at each of them.

First, if you think your symptoms might go away on their own, well, they might. But when the symptom goes away or is covered by drugs, is the underlying problem really gone? The body has an amazing ability to protect you from problems. In many cases, your symptoms will eventually go away because your body’s ability to speak to you is weakened. Your symptoms are gone, but the underlying problem persists until the body again tries to alert you, usually with more severe symptoms. Don’t ignore symptoms, and don’t cover them with drugs.

If money is a concern for you when you have symptoms, I suggest you build a good relationship with an alternative healthcare provider. A doctor of chiropractic, homeopath, doctor of Oriental medicine, or naturopathic physician are all good choices. These doctors are well qualified to act as primary-care physicians—that is, the first person you see when you have questions about your health. They can evaluate you and your symptoms and advise you on what steps you should take, including referrals to specialists, if necessary.

Many providers of alternative care offer consultations and appointments at reasonable prices, and are more likely to offer some sort of payment plan for those in need. Don’t wait until you’re really sick to make the initial contact—become an established patient before you really need to. The initial consultation is generally the most costly visit and takes the most time. Once you’re an established patient, most providers can do a follow-up checkup, as needed, for much less money. If you see these providers for your yearly checkup and maintenance needs, then they’ll already be up to date on your health history and will be able to help you when serious symptoms do arise.

I offer this advice to those of you who ignore your symptoms until they’re severe because you “don’t have time” to go to the doctor: First, review the “Make Your Health a Priority” chapter. Your health is so important that a trip to the doctor to get some advice should be a priority in your schedule. These days, more and more doctors’ offices, offer some evening and/or weekend hours. I know that many doctors’ offices can keep you waiting a long time. This is another good reason to build a relationship with a doctor before you really need a doctor. A few visits to a doctor’s office will give you an idea of how time-conscious the practice is. Your time, too, is important; your appointment time should be respected.

Doctors’ offices can get backed up for two reasons: emergencies and overbooking. Emergencies are understandable, but should be the exception rather than the rule. If you always have to wait for an appointment, it could mean that your doctor is trying to see too many people in the time available. Rushing patient visits is very stressful and can be a cause of mistakes. You might want to see another doctor.

If you’re the type of person who puts off getting healthcare because you’re afraid of what a doctor might find, remember: with many devastating and deadly diseases, early intervention is the key to survival. If you wait, it may be too late.

If you’re very afraid, take a friend or family member with you to the doctor’s office so they can help you deal with your fear. It’s easier to be brave when you’re holding the hand of someone who cares for you. Be sure to let the doctor and staff know that you’re afraid. Most support staff in doctors’ offices are wonderful when it comes to quelling patients’ fears—after all, they do it all the time. Let them know what you’re feeling, so they can help you be more comfortable.

Many people hesitate to seek care because they’re reluctant to take the drugs offered by allopathic practitioners. This is another reason to get established with an alternative-care provider first. They can tell you if your problem can or can’t be handled in a drug-free manner, because that’s what they provide: drug-free care. If they’re not qualified to treat your condition and you do need drugs, they’ll refer you to an MD.

Last but not least, if you’re already an established patient with a doctor before an emergency occurs, you’ll already know how well your doctor listens and how comfortable you are with him or her. That way, you won’t have to face an unknown condition and an unknown doctor at the same time.

Learn to listen to your body, and pay attention to your symptoms. Choose early intervention so that minor health problems don’t become major ones. These two things alone will help you live a longer, healthier life.

Health Goals are not the only goals that add to your good health.

 How many times have you been told to stop daydreaming? Probably more than you remember. I think daydreaming can make you healthier, because it’s during those daydreaming sessions that we often find our true goals in life.

Having goals seems to help extend a person’s life. Did you ever hear of a person who worked hard all their life, looking forward to those golden years of retirement, who then passed away just weeks after receiving their gold watch? A person needs something to strive for.

The goal could be building a nice home, or raising children who are respectful of all beings. Many of us have those goals. If you do, don’t forget that you have them. Be mindful of what you’re building and raising.

Maybe you have a career goal—to be the biggest, the brightest, the best. Maybe your goal is religious in nature—to find the Buddha within, to experience compassion. Maybe your goal is to accomplish something for your favorite charity. Maybe you’d like to become great at a sport or hobby. Maybe you’d like to learn something new.

Maybe you’d like to improve your health, or change your habits.

Striving for something keeps our spirits alive, focuses our energy, and keeps us young. It gives us a reason to stay focused when life seems unworthy of our attention. It gives us an opportunity to grow, and for the life energy to flow through us. It rejuvenates our spirits.

Goals give us a way to mark time. We set a goal, plan for success, watch the growth of the goal, and, finally, accomplish something. What a sense of pride. Belief in oneself is a major part of making and meeting goals. It’s also a major result of making and meeting goals. Believing, acting, and achieving will increase your confidence. Accomplishing goals makes one happy. That improves health.

Set goals for yourself by writing them down. If you have children, I’m sure you have goals as a parent. If you’re a homeowner, you may have goals for your home environment. Make a list of the goals you already have that you hadn’t even realized were goals. Starting the list with things you’re already doing will help you to become more mindful of your daily achievements.

Next, add to the list the goals you would have if you knew you could do anything. Have fun with this list. Don’t limit yourself—just write down whatever you might want to do. Don’t judge your goals, just imagine them and write them down, no matter how farfetched they seem. Remember, all goals begin as something you’re not doing that you’d like to be doing. Large or small, all goals begin as an inkling of something that might be impossible, that you choose to believe is possible.

When your list is done, for the time being—lists change as goals change as people change, so it will never be “finished”—read it over, again trying not to judge. Maybe sailing around the world is a goal that seems impossible at this time, but who knows? Even as you read this sentence, some people actually are sailing around the world. One day, you could be one of them.

Next, for each goal, make a list of the things that would have to happen to make it come true. If I were going to sail around the world someday, some of the things that would have to happen first are: learn to sail, learn to read nautical maps, get a passport, learn boat maintenance, familiarize myself with harbors around the world, learn the basics of several widely used languages, buy a boat (or look into renting one), and; most important, somehow find the time and the money to do all of this. Now, look at this list and choose a place to start. I could start by reading books on nautical navigation. Find a beginning point and start with it. The point is to start somewhere. Once you have, you’re already closer to your goal.

Now that you have your list of “things that would have to happen,” review it regularly. That way, when things start to happen in your life that could help make your goals possible, you’ll recognize and act on them. Being mindful of your goals draws them to you, and makes you better prepared to act on them.

A life on course to accomplish goals is a life with meaning and purpose. A life full of what you want is a healthier life. Here’s wishing all your dreams come true!