For three consecutive decades, alternative health options have grown in popularity. Each year, thousands of people encounter chiropractic for the first time ever. These are my favourite patients, not only because they are on the path to an amazing health experience, but also because I get the opportunity to be the first to educate them on the many wondrous ways that chiropractic can and will help. I am floored each time a patient tells me “Dr. Mark, I had no idea,” or “how come nobody else has explained that to me before.” For this article, I am going to get on my soapbox and share with everyone, how and why chiropractic is good for you.
One of the key questions that all patients must answer before beginning care with me is “what is the role of the brain?” Most look at me briefly stunned, and then snap back into reality and respond with something like “it controls stuff,” or “it makes my muscles move,” or “it helps me think.” All of the answers are correct of course, and can be summarized by saying that the brain communicates with all cells, all the time. The messages that are sent travel down the spinal cord (think highway 401), and reach cells, tissues and organs via spinal nerves (think exits along the highway).
So what happens where there is an accident on the highway? Everything slows down. What happens if the exit that is usually three lanes wide, is now reduced to one lane? Everything slows down. Or think of another analogy: what happens when the speaker wires that connect to your radio are loose? The sound is not clear. Furthermore, what happens when your antenna is not quite gathering enough signal strength from the satellite or from the FM radio waves? You get broken sound. Well folks, what do you think happens when there is a problem along the course of the spine? The brain can no longer communicate properly with the cells, tissues and organs of your body!
So let’s say for example that one of the exits off the highway that’s been reduced to one lane is the pathway that the brain is trying to send messages to large intestine. The large intestine is responsible for, wait for it, bowel movements! Too much water means diarrhea, too little results in constipation. Well if the bowel is under direct orders from the brain, and the brain cannot communicate properly, the result will be dysfunction. Long term lack of communication will only worsen the severity of the condition (think disease). And believe it or not, there are exits along the highway that go to things like your sinuses (congestion/infection), your wrists (carpal tunnel), your bladder (incontinence/UTIs), your reproductive system (infertility/menstrual issues), your spleen and thymus (immune system/colds/flus) and EVERY OTHER SINGLE CELL in your body!
So why see a chiropractor? A chiropractor is trained for eight, yes eight years, on detection, diagnosis, and treatment of spinal conditions. A chiropractor is the expert at finding the loose wires, detecting poor signal strength and locating exits off the highway that are reduced to one lane. A chiropractic ‘adjustment,’ (which by the way is EXTREMELY safe, and painless) helps the brain to communicate with, and heal the body better. Who wouldn’t want that? The body is under extreme stresses each and every day of our lives. We brush our teeth at least twice a day, right? We get our oil changed every 10,000 km, right? We do these things to keep up with the stresses that our teeth and car face every day. Why don’t we care about our cells, tissues and organs the same way? Sadly enough, the reason is that nobody ever told us.
So if a healthier body is what you want, chiropractic is a no-brainer. If you want to join the millions of people that enjoy winters without getting sick, lives with fewer medications and surgeries, and more energy, and cells, tissues and organs that are simply functioning the way they are supposed to, seek out a chiropractor now.
Dr. Mark is a chiropractor and owner of ReAlign Health on Eagle Street in Cambridge. For more, visit http://www.realignhealth.com, or follow him on Twitter @drmarkguker
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