Chiropractic and Your Power Supply

Have you ever heard a chiropractor talk about the garden hose theory? It's not really a theory, but it provides a simple visual to explain chiropractic.

Stepping on a garden hose shuts down water flow. Bending or kinking a hose does the same thing. Chiropractors use the garden hose illustration to explain how nervous system communication is disrupted by the pressure of a jammed or fixated vertebrae.

Chiropractic researchers who have never provided care to first time patients hate the garden hose theory. They would rather talk about disafferentation, mechanoreceptors, and nociception. Got that? There is a mild rivalry between the field doctors and university researchers.

As a front line doctor who hears many stories of people suffering from chronic conditions, I naturally encourage them to visit my office. When someone looks at me with puzzlement, I have to come up with a quick and concise reason.

Most people have the chicken and egg idea about chiropractic. First they fall and then their back hurts. We can take the chicken and egg story a bit farther to help someone understand how chiropractic has much wider benefits.

The researcher would prefer to lecture about long term disafferentation of the subluxation causing a break down of homeostasis, thus setting up the body for a disease. I would rather use the garden hose idea and explain how years of stress and injury put enough pressure on the spine to make the nervous system shut down the healing response.

If the garden hose theory helps somebody realize the garden can wither away and become overrun with weeds, that person may decide to take a keener interest in his or her health.

It does not matter how old or busy we are. We should not take for granted the healing reserves of the body. When life is rushed with different priorities taking center stage, we do plenty to wear out the body's nervous system.

Life is more important than fancy terminology. I would rather talk with people about their lives, helping them come to terms with the stresses they have control over. It is crucial to share how chiropractic plays an important role in stress management.

Folks who experience the benefits of chiropractic adjustments tell me how it works for them in their own words. They feel the tension in their bodies become released. It has been described as a rubber band being relaxed so a person can feel more calm and refreshed.

What they understand very well is that they don't have to let stress weigh down their spines. It doesn't take long for the body to alert us with pain, fatigue and illness. Certainly ignoring the body's hints can be worse.

I only hope I don't hear people say they are sorry they waited so long before coming in. At this point the garden hose theory is out. Now it's more appropriate to use the theory of the tangled string of lights. If you ever had to unravel a set of lights that are twisted into terrible knots you know I mean.

To maintain health and manage the effects of stress, you are invited to experience how chiropractic can turn up your healing power.

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Your Bucket List Needs a Healthy Bucket

What's on your bucket list to do before you kick the bucket? The recent popularity of the bucket idiom has launched a funny movie and a number of coffee table books. Here's my turn. How are you taking care of your bucket?

How can you complete your bucket list, if your own bucket it getting in the way? Is it difficult to make plans because of health concerns? Our short summer has arrived and there could be a lot of great things to do but nagging problems can be detrimental.

With the usual picnics, festivals, and opportunity to be outside many folks are held back. They can't walk too long. They can't tolerate the heat. Events are too crowded. The parking lot is too far away. The bathroom is too far away and the line is too long.

These are not just bothersome things. For people with certain impairments this is their daily life and it forces them to stay home. Isolation and lack of meaningful activity are also important health risks that do not get enough recognition in the health arena.

What's the solution? We can help each other understand what is causing our buckets to wear out. Too many leaks lead to an empty bucket. The body is like a bucket and determining the leaks can help prevent health issues from taking away quality of life.

Chiropractic is a drug free and surgery free healing art that looks at natural ways to combat the stresses that wear away at the spine and eventually lead to damage in the rest of the body. Chiropractic is a great first step to manage stress.

Chronic health issues all start out as slow leaks in the bucket. Slow leaks may not be of concern at first, but a leak is a leak. Even someone driving on low tire pressure knows the tragedy that can be averted with proper intervention.

If someone takes the initiative to alter stress, the level of health achieved can be amazing. A chiropractic evaluation can paint a clear picture of stress effects. The spine not only mirrors what is happening with the rest of the body's organs, the spine itself can also weaken and become its own bad leak in the bucket.

You can take your own assessment of the cricks and cracks when you move. You can look at your posture in a mirror and see a head tilt, high shoulder, and feet rolling outward. A comprehensive chiropractic evaluation can connect the dots between spinal bones and the rest of the body's organs.

Learning to modify stress in one's life is not so easy. I hear many arguments that change is quite a personal challenge. We can all use a weekly adjustment to release built up tension and get back much needed energy so tasks don't seem as daunting.

Don't let stress drain you of your quality of life. I invite you to learn what a chiropractic care plan can do for your health. If you've never been to the chiropractor, put that on your bucket list. You'll enjoy the experience.

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Chiropractic Tip: Wellness = Confidence

Wouldn't it be great to never need to take your blood pressure again? How about never needing to check your blood cholesterol, triglycerides, or glucose? Can we imagine having the perfect certainty knowing our bodies are working as they should?

Why don't we ever entertain that thought? Does it seem ludicrously irresponsible? Scientists already predict great health discoveries that are transforming quality of life. So, how's your quality of life?

If you knew you were giving your body exactly what it needed, would you have the confidence to say, I no longer need to keep taking these tests? Because the real issue here is confidence. Do you have enough confidence in your own life's direction that you could skip the screenings for at least five years?

It's no sweat when you're young and carefree. All your tests come out normal. But health doesn't run on autopilot. Eventually the numbers creep into caution territory. What a way to destroy someone's self image. People feel horribly about themselves and then fear takes over.

Why would my body do this to me? I have asked that question myself in the past when dealing with a health issue. And negative feelings don't seem to contribute to the healing process.

We already know what causes poor health. We know what makes the body invite disease. Therefore, we should already know what makes the body thrive. Here comes that confidence factor again.

The majority of diseases have environmental causes. What happens to your internal and external environments impacts health. And we have a great deal of control over our internal and external environments.

As a chiropractor, the most important job I do is help the body self-regulate so it can handle stress appropriately. Once the spine is too burdened to support the body, it burdens the nervous system. This results in body breakdown down due to loss of communication.

Here's the kicker: People feel death like decades before the nervous system actual deactivates the heart or brain. There is no state of confidence when people keep bouncing back and forth through the stress layers of aggravation, disruption, and unbearable.

Wellness is a state of confidence. I call everything else lost in the layers. They are the layers of stress that weigh us down when we let our environments get out of control. We must work on regaining confidence.

Chiropractic care contributes to better health. Studies have shown it improves blood pressure and heart rate variability. It is also shown to help endocrine and immune system disorders. Interestingly, significant positive outcomes are seen with Crohn's disease, Parkinson's and Multiple Sclerosis.

Chiropractic's most unique benefit is that it unravels the build up of stress that has short circuited the nervous system. Remember, no nervous system means no life.

Blood pressure and blood sugar are small brush strokes on the painting of health, but they especially indicate the resilience of the nervous system. You can use this information to take control of your environment. You can use chiropractic to regain confidence that your body is a marvelous creation.

Spring Time, Chiropractic and New Patterns of Healing

I noticed in the last few months that people have been sick longer and not healing in the usual time. I don't want this to become a downward pattern for folks. And especially if you have been in the hospital recently, you need to visit a chiropractor.

This is because the weakness that was in the body prior to the illness or breakdown was gaining steam for a long time. The imprint is still there in the nervous system after the doctor sends you home. The body has a memory of weak patterns that we prefer would not be repeated.

A Rand study was done a number of years ago that showed elderly people older than 75 who received regular chiropractic care had better health and spent less days in a hospital compared to their non-chiropractic counterparts.

Everyone at every age can benefit from this. The payoff from prevention is well-stated. It can be an uphill climb for some with chronic pain and dysfunction, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. We just need to plug away at it no matter how difficult it seems to begin.

Stress never takes a day off, not for one minute. We need to have a plan in place to counteract it. While stressful events rewire the body to repeat weak patterns, we can instill stronger patterns with chiropractic.

I tell people to never underestimate the healing power of the body, but we need to prune those nerve branches with adjustments to the spine. Chiropractic provides a unique way to extinguish negative patterns and reinforce the positive patterns needed for healing and homeostasis.

The most frustrating conversations I have are with people who are suffering greatly, yet think they already know what chiropractic can or cannot do for them. They are stuck in some negative patterns.

I also see the frustrations others have when they have been doctor-shopping, looking for the right treatment. One size does not fit all, and many of us still believe there is a magic formula. Formulas only work in algebra. Health-building requires you to become well-acquainted with yourself.

I don't want the long, dark winter to turn into a cold, disappointing spring. It is time to wake up and feel renewal. If you have been sick, I invite you to take advantage of the rebuilding aspect of chiropractic. If you are ready to stretch your wings and challenge yourself to be a better person, chiropractic is there to open doors for you.

I, too, want to wake up to a fruitful spring and have to admit, I am tired of the old clinical talk that has been drilled into me. Diagnosis and symptoms don't get people excited about life. I am weary of helping people get over one pain and watch them stumble into the next.

Chiropractic is not about dwelling on pain. It is about striving to make your mark in the world. We use chiropractic to give us the energy to accomplish more and help others. Who's ready?

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Chiropractic is Like Driving

My dad taught me how to drive when I was in high school. That took incredible resolve and patience. Raise your hand if you've had the job of teacher while your inexperienced child stepped on the gas pedal.
     My dad gave me his tips and tricks. I had to use the front corners of the hood as reference points so I knew where my front tires were located. Then he used a wiffle ball to practice driving. He made me drive up and down the street and stop the car placing a tire right in front of the wiffle ball. I don't remember how many times I repeated the exercise but it took up most of an afternoon. At one point I parked on top of the ball and it was squashed. I think we quit for the day after that.
      I don't know if my dad ever saw the Brady Bunch episode where Marcia and Greg had a battle of the sexes to see who was the better driver. However, I knew my dad wanted me to be very precise when driving. The human body works in a very precise manner in response to exposures from the environment. These responses are determined by the nervous system as impulses are sent throughout the body. 
       One thing my dad kept professing during our driving lessons was that I would be making numerous subtle corrections with my hands on the steering wheel as I continuously assessed road conditions. It was this vigilance and correction that kept the vehicle moving safely down the road. This is similar to the body's nervous system that is always on duty assessing the environment. 
        A healthy body will be able to respond appropriately in good and bad situations. While we don't notice most minor corrections in the body, taking them for granted leads us to poor health. Back when my dad was reminding me to make continuous corrections while steering, he was helping me keep the car on the road. It only takes a minor distraction picking up the cell phone or changing the radio station to cause an accident. 
       Think of all the near misses you have had on the road. Injuries, toxins, and emotional upset can steer the nervous system off course like a ship on the ocean. If the body veers off course too many times, getting back on course can become futile. This is why we can benefit from chiropractic care. 
         Chiropractic provides the minor corrections that allow the nervous system to stay on track. Too many near misses in the nervous system is eventually exhausting and the next stressor could be more damaging. Chiropractors concentrate on the spinal changes that can set the nervous system off a normal course of regulation and healing. 
    While the spine can act as a shock absorber as we go about our day, the strain alters how messages are delivered between the brain and the body. Life can't always be a leisurely Sunday drive. And we certainly don't want to crash. Stay safe on your travels by getting your spine checked regularly.