Burnt Fingers - ouch!

So what is it that prevents you from burning your fingers when you touch a hot surface?  The school of hard knocks perhaps - you have done this before and know the consequences and so have become conditioned to avoid repeating the action.  But what is the underlying control mechanism that activates that almost immediate response when we inadvertently touch something that is going to cause us harm?  The Nervous System is what registers this noxious stimulus as messages are sent to the brain at lightening speed along nerve pathways.  Your brain then registers this and instantly sends a reactive response out to the body which tells your muscles in your arm to contract and get your fingers out of the way.  Can you imagine what would happen if there was any delay in this response - the consequences could be dire!  

So what would happen if this same scenario was applied to other parts of your body?  What would happen if for instance there was lack or interruption of nervous supply to your heart, or your lungs, or your bladder, or your intestine?  If we take your heart as the example, the following could be possibilities:  high or low blood pressure, arrhythmia's, congestive heart failure, to name but a few.  With the lungs; asthma, and or bronchial spasm could be the result.

Chiropractic was founded as an art, science and philosophy which directly looks to the remove this nervous system distress.  The bones, or vertebrae that make up your spine protect and wrap around your spine. However, between each one of these bones is a nerve which travels out into your body and acts as the information superhighway where messages travel back and forth from your brain.  When these bones become misaligned they cause a chocking down onto these nerves and a reduction in the speed and quantity of messages that can travel along this pathway.  Your whole system then slows down and responses and function decrease.  By removing the misalignment it is like removing the roadblock along this pathway and then nerve energy is free to flow and your body will respond appropriately.   This is exactly what the chiropractic adjustment does - it is so much more than getting your back "cracked"!         

                           

Living to a Hundred - the next step!

Reduce stress and fatigue:



Nervous system stress is caused when one or more of the bones that make up your spinal column become misaligned, and it is the job of Chiropractic to remove this. These bones or vertebrae wrap around your spinal cord and protect it. However, when we experience  either emotional, physical or chemical stress or a combination of these, these bones can shift out of their normal position and in so doing pinch or choke down on the nerves that exit the spinal cord between them. When this happens the brain has a hard time communicating with the rest of the body and telling it what to do. This increases stress! Also your body is required to work harder and harder leading to burn out and fatigue. The adjustment - the precise procedure used by a chiropractor to reposition the misaligned vertebra, removes the pressure on the injured nerve and so allows for restoration of brain - body communication. This then allows your body to function to its max, reducing stress and eliminating fatigue.

Want to live to One Hundred? Start with this:

Ignite your Fire:


Exercise, good nutrition and adequate sleep are all wonderful measures that are necessary to ensure optimal health. But unfortunately they are like putting premium gas or new oil into a car that has a damaged or non-functioning electrical system. Without the electrical system working properly the car won’t even start. We can change the oil, put in the most expensive gas, pump up the tires, and even have the car detailed but it still won’t go anywhere. The oil and gas are like good food, the pumped up tires and shiny exterior are like exercise. But what is lacking is the spark. Chiropractic is the key that turns on the ignition. Chiropractic makes sure that your electrical system is intact and firing adequately and appropriately so that there is proper functioning of your body. It makes sure that you can go when you start your engine!

Chiropractic and Kids.

So the other day I had a patient ask me why I adjust my kids?  "How old are they", she enquired?  "Two and four",  I responded.  "Well they don't have any neck and back pain - they have to be too young for that, surely!", was her comment.  Her retort really was a case in self-discovery.  Wow, I realized just what a terrible job I had done on educating this patient on what chiropractic is and isn't and it also gave me a glimpse into what she believed  true health to be.

 
At the outset let me point out that simply the absence of pain does not equate with optimal health.  Seriously, consider this for a moment: if you were to neglect brushing your teeth for say a month, and didn't have pain - would you still have good oral health?  Or what about the guy who is 100lbs overweight - his blood pressure is elevated, blood sugar is sky high, but has no pain - is he the poster child of good health?
For far too long we have been indoctrinated by the pharmaceutical media, medical fraternity and insurance industry, to believe that no pain means I must be healthy.  This is based on the old adage, that by taking this pill, or cutting something out you will rid yourself of pain, and voila you are well!

Perhaps a much more realistic equation would be that optimal health needs optimal function.  If our bodies are working to their maximum potential then we are more apt to enjoy optimal health.  Health means that we need to be able to fully adapt to mental, physical and chemical stresses on a daily basis.  You can't tell me that we are immune to these.  So how do we get this?  We achieve this by ensuring that our Nervous System - our bodies' master control system, is functioning without interference as this guides function.           

So to get back to my patients' question:  Knowing that she is a parent too, I asked her whether whether she wanted the best for her kids.  A rhetorical question I know, but a good one to ask anyhow.  Did she want to give her children an inheritance that had the potential for making them stronger, brighter, happier?  As a parent this is definitely what I want.  I want to make sure that my kids are equipped with whatever it takes so that they can be their best.  That they can run, jump and skip to the best of their ability, that they can heal quickly should they get hurt, that their immune system acts the most efficiently so that colds and infections are short lived, or don't even have a chance to take hold.  And these are just a few examples of what can happen when the nervous system is working correctly.  In short, that my children are capable of functioning to their max.  This reasoning is based on the understanding that if the Nervous System can send messages out into the body that are easily interpreted and appropriately acted upon, then function is going to be optimal.  However, when these messages are garbled, faint or distorted than function will proportionately decline.

I never want my kids to suffer from this, and probably neither do you!  The best solution is to have them get adjusted.  The chiropractic adjustment makes sure that messages transported by the nervous system out into the body reach their targets as loudly and clearly as possible.  Now that's true health!

We invite you to visit our website at www.core-chiropractic.com to learn how this can be an affordable option.  Or call us at (208) 664-0800 as we would love to answer your questions.
 

Natural defenses for the Flu Season.

It seems that with each change in the season, and especially as we enter Autumn, the C.D.C. and Departments of Health issue their warnings about the potential for a flu epidemic. This year is proving to be no different, and with the incidence of the H1N1 or Swine flu everyone is encouraged and, shockingly reports are filtering through that we may be mandated, to get the latest flu vaccine.

Cause for concern for many are the constituents of this vaccine; formaldehyde, aluminium, egg protein, and especially the use of Squalene, as an adjuvant. Adjuvants are pharmacological or immunological agents that modify the effect of other agents (e.g., drugs, vaccines) while having few if any direct effects (see discussion that follows), when given by themselves. (Definition from Wikipedia). In the case of a vaccine the adjuvant is added to raise the effect of the vaccine, so that it has a quicker more potent effect. One can think of it as turbo charging the vaccine.
Squalene in and of itself is a naturally occurring substance within the body, but when introduced by the foreign route of injection provokes the immune response. The effect is that the body registers this as a foreign substance and goes after it by destroying it. Even destroying it in areas where it is vital to the health of the Nervous System resulting in inflammatory syndromes.


A link between Gulf War Syndrome and Gulf War veterans who received Squalene containing vaccines has received much attention but has been questionably debunked by both the World Health Organization and the Department of Defense.


So where do we go from here if we want to boost and aid the immune system from a natural standpoint? I have decided to break the recommendations down into two parts. In this post I will address immune strengthening through the use of natural supplements and in Part Two will talk about how chiropractic affords a superlative means of engaging the immune system.


The main thrust of any supplemental regimen is to boost the immune system so that it becomes more effective and more fortified in launching a precise response.


Echinacea:  Modulates the immune response by interaction of alkylamides (functional constituent) with CB2 receptors.  Boosts white blood cell count, especially natural killer cells. 
Andrographis Complex: Supports and enhances immune reponse following stress, sudden weather changes or temperature. Supports healthy respiratory system function.
Euphrasia Complex:  Supports healthy mucous membranes especially those of the nose and sinuses. Assists in maintaining healthy breathing passages to support free and clear breathing.  Maintains normal respiratory tract function through normal mucus secretion.
Garlic:  Enhances immune system response and promotes healthy lung function.
Vitamin D: helps regulate cell growth, immunity and metabolism.  Vitamin D acts as a substrate for multiple gene regulated functions in the body, one of which is the ability to fight infections.  It produces over 200 anti-microbial peptides through this action, one of which is cathelicidin - a naturally occuring broad-spectrum antibiotic.   
Calcium Lactate: promotes the uptake of Vitamin D, and modulates the amount of tissue and blood calcium.    

It is imperative that the supplements taken are from a wholefood base and are not synthectically derived.  Your body no more knows what to do with these as it does with a bunch of chemicals or parts of the whole. Hence, avoid fractionated neutraceuticals.  You will be able to differentiate whether the supplement is of this ilk if on the doasge chart they come in mega dosages e.g. 1000% ,or if it refers to the vitamin as something, e.g. Vitamin C as ascorbic acid.

Tired of living in Pain - what are my options?

Daily in my practice I hear, " I just want to get rid of the pain", and yes this is a very strong motivator, and something that obviously needs to be addressed. But my contention is that pain in and of itself is a very poor indicator of someone's health status. Pain generally is the last thing to show up, but the first thing to go. Think of the cancer patient. Did their cancer just show up because they now have pain? Generally this just isn't the case. And once the pain is gone, are they cancer free? Consider a broken bone - once it has been splinted and the pain goes away - has the bone healed? Pain is used by the body as a signal to indicate or bring to our attention that something is wrong, much like the engine light on a car dashboard warns us that something is wrong with the inner workings of our car. We would be foolish to simply remove the fuse to the light and switch off this warning sign and continue driving, assuming that all is well. Well, this is generally what we do when we reach for the bottle of Tylenol. Sure it will get rid of the pain, but won't necessarily address the cause of the pain. In our fast paced society we are driven to find a quick and immediate fix, and just don't have the patience to allow the body to heal itself. However, when we mask the pain or simply treat the symptom, what we may essentially be doing is setting ourselves up for disaster. Consider the scenario of chest pain which may be a sign of an imminent heart attack. Wouldn't it make more sense then to look for the cause of the pain, and rather deal with this. Sure, it may take longer for the results to show up but they will be much more deeper and longer lasting. Chiropractic was founded on the principle of looking to the cause of the disease, and acknowledging the healing and restorative power of the body. Under the control of the nervous sytem the body recognizes right from wrong and has the ability to heal itself. Pain in this sense reflects that the system is working correctly. It is revealing that something is wrong - and as such shouldn't be negated. Imagine if the body never registered pain! If we were to suffer interference into this system - the nervous system, then this could ultimately be the consequence. Chiropractic looks to determining whether their is indeed interference and removing this so that messages may be sent and interpreted by the brain and that the body should function as it should. If you would like to find out more about how Chiropractic can go beyond just treating pain please send me your comments. I would be delighted to respond.

Organic - so what!

This is an extension to the previous discussion about the need to detoxify our bodies at least annually due to our accumulation of pesticides, herbicides, and preservatives through he foods we ingest. The Environmental Working Group has published a list of the most commonly consumed fruits and vegetables and determined their toxic load via pesticide residue. The recommendation is to purchase organic as much as possible but at least for foods with high pesticide levels. The following link will take you to the list of foods that were tested and the corresponding results. http://www.foodnews.org/fulldataset.php