True ChiropracTIC: Acid Reflux

Correction Chiropractic vs. Traditional Chiropractic

Traditional Chiropractic

Traditional Chiropractic focuses on goals such as decreasing muscle spasms, increasing range of motion, and the temporary reduction of pain. This is how most chiropractors practice and most of them do a great job. However, it falls under the category of symptom relief/ symptom management aka “band aid” care.

Correction Chiropractic

At True Chiropractic, our focus is on NeuroStructural Correction. Think of your spine as the foundation for a building. If the foundation was off, would you expect the floors to creak, the walls to creak, and for the windows to not close properly?

Now you can spend time patching all the damage, but you would be doing so with the expectation that in a short time the problems will have to be… repaired again and again.

NeuroStructural Correction looks for the underlying NeuroStructural Shifts in the spine that might be causing your foundation to be off. In the vast majority of cases that make their way to our practice, often as referrals from other chiropractors or medical doctors in the area, is a significant NeuroStructural Shift. These NeuroStructural Shifts are the underlying causes that often reveal themselves as “symptoms”- or what we refer to as Secondary conditions.

Get Back to Normal

Rather than constantly repairing the damage, at True Chiropractic, we focus on correcting the underlying NeuroStructural Shifts and help you reach Normal Structure.

Our services are not for everyone. However, if you are tired of constantly patching the problem and you are looking for a long term solution that you can both feel and see for yourself, then True Chiropractic may be the right place for you.

What is a NeuroStructural Shift?

While no one is structurally perfect, there is a normal healthy range. In the same manner, we can understand what a fever is because we know what the normal temperature is, or what constitutes high blood pressure because we are aware of the normal range. There are established normals everywhere we look, including gauges and warning indicators on the dashboard of your car… letting you know when things are abnormal.

At True Chiropractic, we are looking for a significant three-dimensional shift of the spine away from normal. If the lower back or hips shift, it will cause the shoulders to twist, and the head and neck to shift forcing the entire spine out of alignment. These shifts cause the muscles to spasm, the ligaments to deform, and it disrupts the NERVES traveling down the spinal cord. In other words, the main communication system that connects your brain to your body can be disrupted causing the body to fail to adapt properly.

Acid Reflux

Acid Reflux, Not ENOUGH Acid?

By Dr. Brian Helland
It occurred to me while working on a patient that too often we don’t connect the dots enough for our patients. I was adjusting a T6 subluxation on a patient (a subluxation is a misalignment of a vertebra with a resulting nerve irritation creating pain or some other dysfunction of the body) and asked her if she had been experiencing any kind of stomach issues. The T6 nerve is one of the main nerves that controls stomach function and the T6 vertebra is a common vertebra that we see in our office associated with acid reflux. She paused for a moment, and then she informed me that more times than not, she has to take Tums in the morning because her stomach is bothering her. Immediately two things came to my mind. Osteoporosis and not ENOUGH acid. Let me explain. First, calcium needs a strong acid environment in order to be absorbed into the gut, and protein absorption is also greatly diminished if the stomach does not have enough acid. Tums and other ant-acids neutralize acid thus preventing any beneficial amount of calcium from being absorbed and preventing certain enzymes from being activated that break down proteins. Knowing this, it seems kind of ironic that they package calcium with Tums, doesn’t it? Calcium and proteins are very important in bone health, so being on an ant-acid for a long time, might not be the best choice for someone concerned with osteoporosis. One of the classes we had to take during chiropractic college was called Gastro Intestinal class. This class was all about how the digestive system worked, and one piece of information from this class still sticks with me in the clinic to this day.

This information is that 80-90% of acid reflux cases are a result of TOO LITTLE acid, not too much acid. I know this sounds a little counter intuitive, but it makes sense when you break down the physiology of it. When the stomach doesn’t produce enough acid, the food you eat in essence “rots” in your gut. This results in an unnatural acid being produced in the stomach. The stomach is designed to handle a very strong natural acid, but it can’t handle putrid acids. The stomach can’t wait to get rid of this unnatural acid, and the quickest way out, is UP!

Our clinic has 2 ways of treating patients with acid reflux. First, we check their spines for subluxations in the areas associated with the stomach, and if we find nerve irritation, we give them a specific adjustment. You see, the body is designed to function correctly; it’s not intended to have acid reflux. Removing nerve irritation with a specific chiropractic adjustment, allows the brain to communicate better with the tissues of the body, and allow the body to better maintain a state of HEALTH. Chiropractors don’t diagnose or treat disease, we remove interference from the communication lines of the body. Bottom line, the body heals itself.

The 2nd approach that we use in our office to help people with acid reflux is to put them on an acid and enzyme supplement. This restores the proper acid balance in their stomach and aids the stomach in protein, fat, and carbohydrate absorption. The statistics from my college course are pretty accurate in our clinical findings. 80-90% of our patients with acid reflux notice a marked improvement in their symptoms. Some even get off their medication. (Always consult with your physician before changing your medications).

What are Secondary Conditions?

Once a NeuroStructural Shift is present and disrupting the spinal nerves and spinal cord, it can create many different secondary conditions or symptoms. The reason these are called secondary conditions is because they are a result of the primary NeuroStructural Shift, or the underlying cause. The location of the NeuroStructural Shift and where the nerves are being disrupted will give us an idea about your secondary conditions. Some of these include:

Acid Reflux
Allergies
Arthritis
Asthma
Attention Deficit Disorders
Auditory (ear) dysfunction
Bell’s Palsy
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Chronic Fatigue
Colic
Digestive Disorders
Disc Bulges or Herniations
Epilepsy
Fibromyalgia
Gastrointestinal Dysfunction
Headaches
High Blood Pressure
Hyperactivity (ADHD)
Immune Function
Irritable Bowel syndrome
Knee Pain
Learning Disorders (children/adult)

Back Pain
Menstrual Disorders
Meniere’s Syndrome
Migraine Headaches
Multiple Sclerosis
Neck Pain
Neurologic Dysfunction
Otitis Media (Ear infections)
Sciatica
Scoliosis
Shoulder and arm pain
Seizure Disorders
Skin Disorders
Sports Injuries
TMJ Disorder/Dysfunction
Torticollis
Trigeminal Neuralgia
Ulcers
Vertigo / Dizziness
Visual / Eye Disturbances
Whiplash
ZZZ ~ Sleep Disorder

What do I need to know before my Examination?

After a consultation with the doctor, a prospective patient may elect to proceed to our NeuroStructural examination. The examination may also be scheduled for a later time if you so choose. As always, the decision is yours and there is never any pressure. The NeuroStructural examination is comprehensive, which means you should safely plan on allotting no less than 60 minutes of your time.

What to expect in our NeuroStructural Correction Examination:

NeuroStructural Radiographs

NeuroStructural Spinal Analysis

NeuroStructural System Analysis

NeuroStructural Shift Detection

Orthopedic and Neurological Tests

The NeuroStructural examination is not only designed to detect NeuroStructural Shifts, but allows for a better understanding of “normal” and a complete understanding of the underlying cause of your condition. After your examination, you will be scheduled for a conference where we will explain our findings, how we can help you, and how things work if you should decide to work with our practice.

What are my Options?

There are a wide variety of options offered by medical and alternative medicine practitioners. Most doctors are focused on pain and symptom management, and they do an excellent job. The first type of treatment would focus on medication or herbal/ homeopathic remedies which can turn off pain receptors. Then the next step would be different forms of physical therapy that would be used to strengthen muscular weakness, address spasms, or increase mobility. Injection programs would then be introduced to calm the pain. When those don’t work, more invasive procedures such as surgery come into play.

All of these options are effective in the appropriate time and place and are geared towards different goals. Our goal is to correct the neural and structural integrity of your spine.

Dr. Jason Wing Louie has built excellent relationships with the best health care providers in the community. If during the consultation he finds that True Chiropractic is not right for you, he will make sure to find the best practitioner that can adequately address your specific condition.

What Can True Chiropractic do for Me?

At True Chiropractic, our focus will be a thorough structural and neurological correction of your spine. Dr. Jason Wing Louie is 1 of approximately 200 doctors in the world trained to do NeuroStructural Correction work via the Gonstead system of spinal correction. The specific and gentle nature of the Gonstead correction allows for the maximum acceptance and ease of structural alignment. It is also accomplished without any forceful adjusting, twisting, or cracking of the spine.

True Chiropractic uses pre and post NeuroStructural shift detection to verify the body is properly aligned and the nervous system is functioning properly. By correcting the structure of the spine, it will relieve pressure on the disc and nerves that are causing your specific secondary conditions.

We realize that some people are only looking for temporary relief, or a short term answer for their secondary conditions, and there’s nothing wrong with that. There are plenty of professionals in the community that provide this type of service, and we’ll be happy to direct you to the ones we trust.

We find that those looking for a long term solution to their problem or seek to prevent future ailments find that our office fits well in accomplishing those goals.

How Do I Work with True Chiropractic?

Most of our patients are referred to us by other patients, their medical doctor, or their current traditional chiropractor. The reason that our practice is built on referrals is because of simplicity and transparency.

Here’s the process:

Step 1: Schedule a complimentary consultation.

Step 2: If you like what you hear, you have the option to proceed forward with a NeuroStructural Chiropractic examination.

Step 3: After your NeuroStructural Chiropractic examination, we will schedule a conference where we will review what we found and how we can help you.

It is as simple as that.