What we must remember is that 85% of the iceberg can’t be seen from the surface. The same can be said for our health. If disease and poor health were an iceberg, all that we’d be able to see of it would be the very tip. That’s where we experience the pain, the symptoms. And that’s, generally, what conventional methods attempt to treat with drugs and surgery. But what about the rest of the iceberg? What about all the stuff that lies beneath the surface? That’s the stuff that’s causing all the symptoms. Drugs and surgery put a Band-Aid on the problem (albeit, a very necessary Band-Aid at times), but they never really get around to addressing the root cause. Chiropractic, of course, works to address the cause of disease. Through removing nerve interference, the body is able to start the task of healing itself... of regulating its hormones, balancing its irregularities, and strengthening its immune system. However, a lot of people, and a lot of chiropractors, use chiropractic just as they would conventional medicine. They use it to get rid of the symptom. Then they feel better, and move on. The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t address of the rest of the iceberg. Chopping off the tip of the iceberg doesn’t make the rest of it go away. Just because you're not experiencing symptoms yet doesn't mean disease is not building. More often than not, they’ll find themselves experiencing the same symptoms all over again down the road. And the body is constantly facing stresses every day - emotional, physical, and chemical - to heal from. In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have any of these stresses to deal with. But we do. That’s the reason Mind & Body Chiropractic makes it easy and affordable to get adjusted on a regular basis. Chiropractic is a necessary element in tackling the iceberg of poor health and disease. Doctors have found through common sense and experience that the immune system’s ability to fight off microorganisms is improved by resting and drinking fluids. No one had to do studies. It is a self-evident fact, and no one is about to suggest that doctors stop making that recommendation until a Harvard Medical School research program can be completed in which 1,000 people with the flu will be allowed to drink fluids and rest and 1,000 others with the flu will be made to walk around while deprived of fluids. Chiropractic is based upon the same logic. If there is an interference in the nerve system, the immune system, which is intricately linked to it, will not function as well as it should. Just as it would be ridiculous to demand that physicians do the study outlined above to prove the validity of rest and fluids for the flu, it would be just as ridiculous to demand research to prove that chiropractic helps the immune system work better. It is a self-evident fact. If the nerve system works better, every system in the body works better, including the immune system. Notice that chiropractors do not claim that chiropractic cures the flu, the common cold or anything else. Chiropractors just maintain that if there is an interference in the nerve system, the immune system will not work as well as it should, and if that interference is removed, the immune system will work better.
Because we are truly unique individuals, the outer characteristics of our faces, fingerprints, or even the irises of our eyes can be used to identify us. Likewise the inside workings of each our bodies is also truly unique to each of us. No two people have the exact same physiological needs. One person’s insulin needs are different than another person’s. Two people may eat the exact same meal, but the digestive juices necessary to break down that meal and make it useful to the body are totally different. Every person’s blood chemistry is slightly different. Our caloric intake needs vary from person to person and even within the same person from day to day. There are literally millions of different measurable characteristics within each person. How could any doctor know all these needs for any one person let alone for all patients? The fact is that he or she cannot. We simply cannot know the unique biochemical needs of each person. That is why chiropractic does not attempt to conform a person to a standard or norm which is really unknown to the doctor. Chiropractors recognize that the body has a self-regulating, self-normalizing mechanism, an innate intelligence. It is this innate intelligence that has stored the millions of unique characteristics and needs and can properly adapt to changes in both your body and the environment. To accomplish this adaptation, a communication system is necessary, and that system is the nerve system. If the nerve system is interfered with due to vertebral subluxation (a bone misaligned putting pressure on the nerves), then that which is uniquely you cannot be fully expressed. Thus, the objective of chiropractic is the correction of these subluxations. Recently I met someone who asked me if I thought chiropractic care was essential or if it was more like a luxury---something good to add to your life if you can afford it. Here’s what I believe. Chiropractic care is not essential to life in the same way as air and food and water. Are you surprised that a chiropractor would say that? Well, I say that because people can and have lived long lives without ever receiving a chiropractic adjustment, but people could not live very long without air or food or water. However, while air, food, and water are essential to life, a person’s life force (the energy which travels between the brain and body over the nerves to coordinate and control every function) is even more essential. Without this life force, a person cannot even live for a short time. You see, I do not believe chiropractic is essential if a person merely just wants to live. But I do believe chiropractic care is essential if a person would like their life force, which is most essential, to be expressed without interference so they can perform better in all areas of life. I believe chiropractic care is essential for helping people reach their potential. How does chiropractic care do this? Chiropractors adjust the spine which surrounds and protects the nervous system. With a properly aligned spine and thus a clear nerve supply, the life force of the body can express itself over the nerves without interference, and people can live life more fully. I believe that reaching your potential should not be a luxury---something good to add to your life only if you can afford it. The memberships at Mind & Body Chiropractic help people reach their potential through regular, essential chiropractic care that is affordable for everyone. Not a member at Mind & Body Chiropractic yet?
Just give me a call to schedule your first visit. Already a member? Share this blog post with with your family and friends and encourage them to start reaching their potential too. A few weeks ago at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast, a colleague of mine explained chiropractic to everyone in the room using the phrase that makes up the title of this blog post. What I've written below was inspired by her explanation of that phrase. Here is what an adjustment IS. An adjustment is a specific and safe force that is introduced to a vertebrae that is subluxated (misaligned) and thus negatively affecting the function of the nervous system. The body then uses this force to move the vertebrae towards its proper position which allows the nervous system to function better so the body can begin or continue the process of healing itself. Here is what an adjustment IS NOT. It is not a magic trick that magically makes back pain disappear. Think about this. When a person sees their medical doctor for an illness, they leave that doctor still feeling sick with a prescription and instructions to take a pill 3 times a day for 10 days. And then after those 30 "appointments", they may still be sick and need to go back to their medical doctor. Likewise, a person who has hurt their back, especially someone who has never bothered to see a chiropractor on a regular basis, is probably going to leave still having some back pain and with a "prescription" for more adjustments. And then after those adjustments, they may still choose, and often do choose, to continue to go back to their chiropractor on a regular basis. People often report that they feel better in some way after one adjustment (more energy, clearer thinking, breathing easier, and yes... even less pain), and that's a very good thing. However, the sole objective of chiropractic is to correct vertebral subluxations (spinal misalignments) to allow the master control system of the body, the nervous system, to function better. Whether a person still has pain or not (or any other symptom) after an adjustment, they can rest assured that with fewer subluxations, they are walking out of the office functioning better than when they walked in. Your spine protects your spinal cord and the nerves that come from the spinal cord. Your spinal cord and your nerves are how your brain and body communicate with each other. This communication is done by sending a sort of electrical signal over the spinal cord and nerves. Knowing this, you can then think of anything in your body that is connected to nerves (muscles, lungs, stomach, etc.) like “electrical appliances” of your body. If they're plugged in, they work. If they're not plugged in, they won't work. To take this analogy further, think of a light. It’s an electrical appliance, and when it's connected to electricity, it works. When it's not connected, it doesn't work. Now, what if I used a dimmer switch to cut down on the current going to the light bulb? The light would still work, just not as well or as brightly as it potentially could be shining. Your spine is made up of 24 movable vertebrae which I like to call "switches". When these switches get stuck out of place (which chiropractors call subluxation), they interfere with communication between the brain in the body. If that interference is in an area of the spine with nerves that go to the stomach (for example), the stomach will still work, just not as well as it could be working. Now apply this idea to other parts of the body. Chiropractic is not a cure all or really even a cure anything, because most health conditions have multiple factors that cause problems. Chiropractic very simply, yet powerfully, lays a solid foundation for the body to perform as well as it can. No matter what symptoms a person has, or better yet, even if a person has no noticeable symptoms, a person is always better off with a good nerve supply than with a poor nerve supply. What is needed for healthy actions to actually create healthy bodies?
Three keys immediately come to mind, and the first two are Frequency and Consistency. Two Examples:
A third key to creating healthy bodies from healthy actions is a Lifelong Commitment to those healthy actions. For example, consider the following questions.
What should your diet look like? Which nutrients or vitamins should you be getting and exactly how much of each do you need? Should you exercise 1 day a week, 3 days, or 5? Should you exercise for 20 minutes, or should it be an hour and a half? The answer to all of these questions is quite simply that I don’t know because you are a unique individual. Your habits and lifestyle are unique to you. The exact chemical makeup of your body this instant is unique to you and is not even exactly the same as it was just seconds ago. What I can say is that you are likely to get the most benefit from healthy dietary choices that are made on a frequent and consistent basis for a lifetime. Likewise, I can say that you are likely to get the most benefit from exercise if you exercise on a frequent and consistent basis for a lifetime. Chiropractic care is no different than any other healthy action you choose to do. Exactly how often do you need to get adjusted? I don’t know, exactly, because you are a unique individual with a lifestyle and habits that are unique to you. What I can say is that you are likely to get the most benefit from chiropractic care if you get your spine checked (to see if it needs to be adjusted) on a frequent (I recommend at least weekly) and consistent basis for a lifetime. For me for the first two months of 2012, “frequently” meant getting my spine checked 5 days a week Monday through Friday. Currently I get my spine checked every Monday and Friday. My kids (ages 13, 10, 7 and 1) get their spines checked by me once a week at a minimum, and I couldn’t imagine going more than a week without getting my spine checked. At the office, I provide memberships so you can afford to apply the three keys of Frequency, Consistency, and Lifelong Commitment to the healthy actions of getting your spine checked and adjusted. In other words, I provide memberships so you can afford the same care that I give to my family. If you haven't seen the trailer to the new documentary, Medical Inc., take 3 minutes to check it out below. If you have seen it already, check it out again and see if you can pick out 4 things that really caught my attention. Below are the 4 things that caught my attention. *Chiropractic appears through spoken word, written word, picture, or video at least 10 times in only 3 minutes! *The movie's tagline is "Exposing the Modern Medical Monopoly", and at 2:41 the trailer refers to this in regard to chiropractic with these words: THEY TRIED TO WIPE OUT THE CHIROPRACTIC PROFESSION AND NEARLY SUCCEEDED. Below is a summary of what the trailer is referring to here. "In the case of Wilk vs American Medical Association, the judge ruled that the AMA, and its cohorts, were guilty of having conspired to destroy Chiropractic, thus violating the Sherman antitrust laws. They did this by making interprofessional cooperation impossible under the guise of being 'unethical', concealing evidence of the effectiveness of Chiropractic, and conductive an enormous disinformation programme to discredit Chiropractic in order to maintain their monopoly." The 2 paragraphs quoted above can be found in a concise summary of this case found on this website. A more in depth look at the case of Wilk vs. American Medical Association can be found here. *At 1:49 in the trailer it is mentioned that the last season the NBA's Utah Jazz had a chiropractor on staff, the team reported only 8 injuries all year. And the following year they had about 140 injuries! The take home point here is that if regular chiropractic care helped the Utah Jazz avoid injury and perform better during the bump and grind and battering of an NBA season, how much can it help you perform better each day in all the areas of your life that are much more important than winning basketball games? *And finally, at 2:21 a young man says, "It doesn't really feel like it's their job. It's like their mission in life. It's like help just you." I conclude this blog post with the above statement from the movie trailer because it summarizes the spirit of Mind & Chiropractic. The procedures and unique membership fee system at the office are set up to do just that. Help you. It is my mission to provide you and your family and friends with chiropractic care that you can afford to benefit from for your entire lifetime. 1. The best use (of course!) for a safety pin is to use it to describe chiropractic to someone. <<<<=====Here's what that looks like. Here's what it sounds like: When your brain is well-connected to the rest of your body through the nervous system your body is in a state of "ease". That's good! A disrupted or disconnected nervous system, due to misalignment of the spine called subluxation, causes your body to be in a state of "dis-ease". That's bad! When your body is in "dis-ease", you may not have any symptoms, but the organs and tissues of the body aren't working right. If they don't work right long enough, you may one day develop symptoms or be diagnosed with a disease. Chiropractic adjustments restore the connection and give your body the best chance to function its best. And here the other four safety pin uses as promised by the title of this blog post. 2. Connect 10 together to use as a bookmark. 3. Use one as a guitar pick. 4. Hook a bunch together to make Christmas tree streamers. (Start collecting those safety pins today!) 5. Keep loose buttons together. Can you think of any other safety pin uses? Can you think of any other items I could use to explain chiropractic? |