Two Types of ChiropracTORS

           Not all chiropractors are alike.  Although they go by the same name, chiropractors today differ greatly in technique and philosophy.  The traditional philosophy that chiropractic was based on has never changed, but for social acceptance, on a cultural level some chiropractors have.  As a result, when patients go to different chiropractors they get different opinions, care provided and results  This can be both confusing and frustrating to the patient.  If expectations aren’t met, patients stop chiropractic care, and never get to experience the great results chiropractic care can give them.  Basically, there are two types of chiropractors. The musculoskeletal chiropractors who work on symptom relief and the traditional wellness chiropractors who work on subluxation and structural correction.

            The symptom relief chiropractors primarily focuses on, you guessed it, relief of symptoms.  Adjustments are performed on the spine to decompress the joints, free fixations and reduce pain.  In addition, electrotherapies such as ultrasound, muscle work, physical therapy, electrical stimulation, laser and acupuncture are often used.  In some states chiropractors are even trying to “expand their scope of practice” to prescribe drugs.  The length of care under symptom relief chiropractors is usually dictated by the patient’s symptoms or insurance coverage.  Under this type of care, the treatment plans are determined according to symptoms or what the insurance will reimburse, neglecting the fact that your body is unique and heals different than everyone else, resulting in shorter treatment time yet still leaving the cause of the symptom untouched.  The patients typically feel better temporarily, but since the spine is still structurally misaligned, it continues to degenerate silently resulting in damage and dysfunction to the discs, joints and whatever part of the body the nerve supplies.

            The wellness chiropractor practices the traditional philosophy of chiropractic, dating back to 1895, which focuses on detecting and correcting vertebral subluxations and correcting the structure of the body.  Simply put, a subluxation is a misaligned vertebra which interferes with the nerve impulses.  Nerve impulse is the electrical impulse from the brain that regulates all function of the body and keeps us alive.  Although wellness chiropractors want their patients to “feel better,” their primary focus is removing the nerve interference and restructuring the spine and posture to it’s most stable biomechanical position, thus leading to lasting symptomatic relief.  By maximizing the integrity of the discs, joints and nerves through spinal adjustments and postural correction, the body’s wellness, health potential and ability to function improves!  This is done through a corrective care plan.  By focusing on the cause of the problem, not only do the symptoms disappear, but the patient’s overall health and well being are much improved as well!

That’s Not Normal

“Hey Doc, I need your help today, my breathing is not normal!” “What do you mean, not normal?” I asked. “Well, it’s normally right around 15 breathes per minute, but today it’s going almost 25 breathes per minute and it’s labored—definitely not right!” At first, you may think, “Yep, something’s definitely not normal there.” But the problem here is not with this man’s respiration rate.  It’s with our definition of the word normal.  What he really meant to say is that his respiration rate was not average.

Regrettably, these terms are very often used in place of one another incorrectly.  One of the areas this mistake is most often seen involves the day-to-day functions of our bodies.  Science has established what it calls normal figures for our physiological functions.  These include respiration rate, heart rate, blood pressure, cholesterol, temperature and everything else you can think of.  Medicine has even established a number as far as what each person should weigh.  However, what we are really looking at is not what is normal, but what is average.

An AVERAGE is rarely a number that is actualized by any individual in a group.  In fact, forcing a person’s body to conform to the average can actually be harmful to an individual.  The average is simply the median of the group.  The average value is something that is easy for us to know – all it takes is a simple mathematical equation to figure it out.  NORMAL on the other hand is something that is not as easy to figure out.  In chiropractic, we say that we are ever changing, constantly adapting, self-regulating and self-healing organisms.  We say that normal is something that can only be determined by the Innate Intelligence of the body. This is an important distinction to understand.  Even though the average respiration rate of an adult is 15 beats per minute, it may not be what is necessary for an individual at any given time.  In other words, if a person’s body needs to increase its respiration rate for some reason, it may not be average, but it can most certainly be normal!

Is it normal for a healthy baby to have a runny nose, fluid in its ears and a fever?  Is it normal for a healthy woman to gain 1-2 pounds per week?  Is it normal for a healthy person to vomit and have diarrhea?  Is it normal for a healthy person to have muscle spasms, inflammation and pain in his/her neck?

How did you answer these questions?  If you said no to any of them, you may be right.  And, if you said yes to any of them, you may also be right!  This is why:

1.      A healthy baby who is cutting teeth can have a runny nose, fluid in its ears and a fever.  These are all normal parts of the process of cutting teeth.

2.      A healthy pregnant woman will normally gain 1-2 pounds per week for nine months.

3.      A healthy person who eats a bad piece of fish will vomit and get diarrhea as a way of healthfully expelling toxins.

4.      A person who has injured his neck will have muscle spasms to protect the area from further damage while it heals.  He will also have inflammation to begin what is called the healing cascade.  And, his body will produce pain so that he knows to be careful until all is well.

It turns out the man who was concerned about his respiration rate had been in a bowling alley the night before and it had been a smoky environment after he had spent 3 hours mowing down an overgrown field full of weeds the morning before.  His body was likely raising its respiration rate to expel the toxins and to increase the rate at which his cells received oxygen to speed healing of the damage done by the smoke and allergens.  So you see, nothing was wrong, it just wasn’t average.

ChiropracTIC recognizes that normal is a state that can only be determined by your body’s Innate Intelligence.  We do not try to make you conform to a standard level of function.  Rather, we accept you for the unique individual that you are and we rejoice in the knowledge that when you have a clear nerve system and a healthy lifestyle, your body will do whatever is necessary to progressively and consistently grow you toward the full expression of your purpose and potential in life.  HAVE A NORMAL DAY!

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”

          The first Time I read this saying forced me to do a double take. This again made me realize how wise Albert Einstein was and how much I have to learn from. The whole point of this saying is to keep in the forefront of our minds that we should discover the more important lesson that should be learned in all areas of our lives. Many of you first came to True ChiropracTIC because of a crisis situation and wanted to be "fixed" and to be relieved of your symptoms.

            Now that you are educated about your body, hopefully you understand the importance of getting to the root cause of your health crisis and you realize masking the symptom is only a short term solution for a long term problem that has been festering inside your body for years.  Obviously one adjustment cannot undo a problem that has been inside you for years.

            Healing takes time!  Healing is a process so please respect this principle.  As the saying goes, "Rome wasn't built in a day." Neither was your body, nor your family, nor your house, nor your relationships, nor your expertise with the work you do.  The list could go on and on.

            So why would anyone expect anything different to apply when your body fails to adapt and you develop a health crisis or symptom? Your high blood pressure, heart condition, high cholesterol, digestive problems, obesity, lower back pain, migraines, vertigo, fertility problems, asthma and numbness didn't just appear overnight. So why expect these conditions to heal over night?

            Knowing that your nerve system controls how your body functions (and all the conditions above), we need to make sure there is proper communication from your brain to your body and back to your brain so your body can heal itself. This is how ChiropracTIC works.

Getting What You Deserve

"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."  Sir Isaac Newton's Third law of motion

Why are you dealing with this health condition – is it happening because yousomehow deserve it?  Did you ask to get sick?

When a person "gets" sick, did they "catch a cold" because a bacteria or virus decided to pick on them and not their spouse, that essentially lives the same lifestyle?

Some people think it's in their genes that they get sick more often than others.  It is amazing what some people come up with to explain why they are sick all the time.  Then there are others that act clueless as to why they are sick as if out of the blue a virus jumped out and gave them sickness and they ask the dreaded question, "What did I do to deserve this?"

There is a direct correlation between health and lifestyle habits that people seem to fail to connect. We don't get sick, we do sick. The better question we should ask is, "What did we do to become sick?" It really is about the "Three T's":  THOUGHTS, TRAUMAS and TOXINS.

What we focus on is what we bring more into our lives.  This is the simple law of attraction.  If you are completely focused on just getting rid of your current sickness / body signal, what happens?  Your health crisis will eventually disappear for a while until the next health crisis appears. If you start focusing on correcting the problem, instead of just masking the body signal, you will come to discover there will be fewer and fewer health crises in your life.

When it comes to traumas, we need to make sure you are physically conditioning your body to last you a lifetime. Unfortunately, getting adjusted for the rest of your life is not the answer to your health problems if your body can't physically last you a lifetime.  Proper motion into your body, when your body is healthy enough to handle it, is a statement I can't express enough.  Timing is everything, especially when it comes to your health.

Lastly, the toxins and chemicals your body comes in contact with plays a major role in your health. The old saying, "you are what you eat" is only partially correct. "You are what you digest" is a much more accurate statement.  You can only utilize the nutrients you put into your body only if it's digested correctly.  The other part is the toxins your body is exposed to.  The more toxic chemicals you expose your body to, the more likely you'll produce a toxic body that will provide many body signals.

Don't forget we all have a unique Innate Intelligence that knows how to control our body according to what's best for our individual self.  It just needs no interference (subluxations). What is toxic for one person may not be toxic to another person. Same premise holds true for the amount of physical activity for one person may not be enough for someone else to become healthy and stay healthy.  This also holds true for why some people can deal with emotional stress better than others.

This is why I always ask before I begin care with anyone, "Is your health enough of a priority to start the journey to create a healthier you? The choice is yours!"

The 5 Keys to Optimal Health that you can really focus on are:
1. Proper nutrition
2. Proper exercise
3. Proper emotional stress relief
4. Proper sleep patterns
5. Proper functioning Nervous System

5 Signs of life

If you spend any time in our office, you will realize we focus heavily on how the body is functioning as that is the best sign to see what direction your health is heading.  In ChiropracTIC terms, we focus on analyzing how the body is adapting to the stressors it's being exposed to.  We break the functioning categories into 5 Signs of life:

1.  Assimilation: The body's ability to absorb food materials, digesting them and making them a part of itself. In other words, converting this food into such a form that it become a part of the body.
2.  Excretion: The body's ability to give off waste matters, which not only are no longer of use in the body, but which may be detrimental to the body if retained. You must realize this is different than secretion.  Secretion is something formed by the body to be used inside the body and has a definite function.
3.  Adaptability:  The body's intellectual ability to deal with the external stressors it's exposed to from a physical, chemical and emotional perspective.
4.  Growth:  The body's ability to expand according to the intelligence of the body to a mature size and dependent upon the power of assimilation.
5.  Reproduction: The body's ability to develop and maintain the existence of it's life form from a cellular level all the way to the entire life form.  Reproduction is truly dependent upon the power of growth and the power of assimilation.

These five signs of life are what I analyze in my office to determine what direction you are heading toward.  Just because you appear healthy today, doesn't mean you will appear healthy tomorrow as your body is in a continual state of change. This is why regular check-ups are so crucial to your success of health.  Your body is in a constant state of repair and breakdown.  As long as your body is repairing faster than it's breakdown, you will have hope with healing and becoming healthier.  If you absorb only one thing from this article, hopefully it is this:

Repair  >  Breakdown

Avocados & ChiropracTIC a Winning Combination

Often we hear we should stay away from eating foods that are high in fat.  Often, avocados are one of those "high fat" listed foods. However, avocados contain great nutrients for your body that can also lower your risk of heart disease.

It has been known that the monosaturated fat in avocados can help promote "good" HDL cholesterol levels.  A recent study conducted at the University of California at Los Angeles found that avocados contain considerable amounts of beta-sitosterol, a phytochemical that helps lower total blood cholesterol levels and the fiber in avocados and you have a powerful cholesterol-fighting functional food.

Combine this with healthy eating and ChiropracTIC care and your body will function in a healthy way -- innate intelligence at its best.  So before you put a "do not eat" list together read about each food so yo make the correct choices that are heathy. 

In addition, UCLA also found out that the avocados have nearly twice the amount of vitamine E as many other foods... they also contain omega 3-6-9 fatty acids, potassium, vitamin A and other nutrients including many other vitamins, calcium and minerals zinc and maganese.

Avocados were also rich in lutein, a phytochemical whcih helps protect against cataracts and macular degeneration; and contains glutathione, which helps regulate the body's antioxidant defense mechanism.

Guacamole is a delicious way to add avocados to a snack or meal, it can be used as a sandwich spread, a dip for raw vegetables or with healthy crackers.  Another way to consume this healthy food is to add a quarter of an avocado into your smoothie to make it creamy and delicious.

Be sure to maintain a healthy lifestyle by keeping the three types of stressors from causing subluxations inside your body:  Thoughts, Traumas and Toxins...

Your nervous system is your super highway system to your health. ChiropracTIC care for you, your family and friends will ensure that your nervous system is functioning at 100% by keeping the brain and body connected and communicating smoothly. 

Digestive Health

What most people don't know about Chiropractic Care...

Nerves from many regions of the spine have a definite digestion connection. These spinal nerves are capable of speeding up or slowing down the passage of food through the gastrointestinal tract, increasing or decreasing the amount of digestive juices secreted into the tract, and sending a greater or lesser supply of blood to various digestive organs. The consequences of disturbing these spinal nerves are not necessarily limited to spinal pain, but can potentially involve any function affected by these nerves, including digestion.

An Australian survey of 1,494 chiropractic patients revealed that spinal pain is often accompanied by heartburn or indigestion. The majority of these patients never told their doctors of chiropractic about their stomach symptoms - only their spinal pain, which usually was located between the shoulder blades. Of the patients with indigestion or heartburn, 22 percent reported relief from their digestive symptoms, as well as their spinal pain, while under chiropractic care.

            Unfortunately, many people with back pain, neck pain, tension headache and other types of spinal pain turn to painkilling medications before trying chiropractic care. This decision may be detrimental to digestive health. For example, the American Gastroenterological Association estimates that some 16,500 Americans die each year from bleeding ulcers related to the use of nonsteroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).  This category of drugs includes several that are commonly taken for spinal pain, such as Aspirin, Advil, Aleve, Motrin, and Naprosyn.

Tylenol is not an NSAID and is not believed to be responsible for significant numbers of bleeding ulcers, but it has been linked to another digestive problem - liver damage.  The risk to the liver posed by Tylenol is especially severe in patients already taking other medications with known liver toxicity.

No painkilling drug can match the safety record of chiropractic care. Is it reasonable to make painkilling drugs your first line of defense against spinal pain? Or is it more intelligent to consider this approach: Chiropractic first, drugs second, surgery last?

ChiropracTIC is so crucial to all aspects of your life!  Please don't underestimate the power of your body to heal and function.  It is designed to improve your body's ability to adapt and function.