Can Chiropractic Help With...?

This is something we get asked a lot. Most people want to know if chiropractic care can help them with a specific symptom they or someone they know is experiencing. My answer to your surprise is usually yes, but it warrants an explanation.

The reason is simple, if the chiropractic care you receive is aimed at restoring balance to the nervous system then most of the time it will reduce or eliminate a lot of common ailments. Your nervous system is the control and coordinating center for the entire body, so all function is determined by how your nervous system interprets information from the environment and then reacts to that information.

The more appropriate and proportionately your brain and spinal cord respond the better you will adapt to situations. You must not only respond to the environment but recover from the events that occur as well. If you insure an appropriate and proportionate response coupled with the ability to recover the less susceptible to illness and injury you will be. The latest research states that 90% of all illness and disease is directly related to how you respond to stimulus.

If you are experiencing symptoms that is a sign that your nervous system is having issues dealing with the environment. The nervous system will always play a role in the disease process, so making sure it is functioning properly should be your first line of defense against illness or injury not your last resort.

Call and schedule a Stress Response Evaluation to see how your Nervous System is dealing. 734-244-4383

Sudden Cardiac Death

New research in the Neurocardiac field is showing that sudden unexpected heart attacks from disruptive life events in seemingly healthy individuals is directly related to the nervous systems influence over the heart.

It seems that a sudden increase in stimulation too the nervous system will cause elevation in catecholemines, which is a stress hormone. This increased level of hormone has a toxic effect on direct contact with heart tissue and is what causes the attack to occur.

These disruptive life events were categorized the following way:
1) Collapse or Death of a close person
2) Acute Grief
3) Threat of loss of a close person
4) During mourning or an anniversary
5) Loss of status or self-esteem
6) Personal danger or threat of injury
7) After danger is over
8) Reunion or triumph

All were said to involve overwhelming excitation, giving up, or both.

A lack of balance in the body's ability to deal with stress has serious implications and consequences. It is directly related to how your brain and spinal cord transmit information. If there is interference to this information then there will be inappropriate responses. Sudden Cardiac Death is an inappropriate response to the disruptive life events listed above.

1) MA Samuels, The Brain-Heart Connection (part 1), Contemporary Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine, Circulation. 2007;116:77-84.

Interesting Fact About the Brain

The weight of your brain is only about 3% of your total body weight, yet it uses 20% of your energy.

Stress, The Nervous System, and Immunity

Stress will activate your autonomic nervous system, and lead to an increase in stress hormones being released. Hormones like; epinephrine, nor epinephrine, and glucocorticoids. These hormones act on the immune system and increase activity and also bring the body back to base line. A short term increase in immunity will follow, but if the stress is prolonged then an actual decrease in immunity will occur and possibly lead to auto immune disease.

In fact long term exposure or elevated levels of glucocorticoids(stress hormones) has been linked to a host of problems. Too name a few...fatigue, muscle atrophy, diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, reproductive decline, and immune suppression.

Do you know how your nervous system is reacting to stress and how that is effecting your body? Do you want to find out? Call Now 734-244-4383. Or visit our website www.chiromonroe.com

Pain and the Nervous System

The only reason you percieve pain is due to the Nervous System. As a matter of fact, pain or any symptom for that matter is simply the manifestation of an unbalanced Nervous System. The more unbalanced you are the more suseptable to illness and injury you become.

If you would like to discuss this matter further and how it applies to your health: call for a free consultation 734-244-4383.

Stress and Cholesterol

Long term stress plays a serious role in cholesterol levels. This is how...stress be it real or perceived causes the release cholesterol from the liver into the blood stream. Why? If your brain perceives a threat it prepares and calls into action a host of physiologic responses. One of the responses is to prepare for bleeding, or to stop bleeding. Cholesterol contains sticky platelets, and this is what your body uses to stop bleeding and form clots. This response occurs whether you are actually getting ready to fight a bear or you get cut off on the way to work. The degree of the response is what matters. So you can feel free to eat all the egg yolks you want, but take a minute to relax, breath, and get into the chiropractor to get your nervous system balanced. At our office we actually measure how your nervous system is responding to stress. Call for a consultation 734-244-4383.

Muscles have memory?

This is something you here pretty often. And at first glance seems plausible. We have all worked out or practiced something for a period of time and stopped for whatever reason. Then gone back to working out and it doesn't take as long to get back in shape or regain your form.

I have often heard this is due to muscle memory. The truth is muscles don't have memory. There isn't a little brain in each muscle storing information for each action. It's your brain and nervous system that creates a pathway or neuronal network that remembers the task performed. The pathway is what is remembered by the brain. This is why it is easier to get in shape the second time around.

Great Quote

"While other professions are concerned with changing the environment to suit the weakened body, chiropractic is concerned with strengthening the body to suit the environment." ~ BJ Palmer, DC

Our genes are expressed according to the environment, not by random chance. So most diseases are largely lifestyle related and thus can be avoided by making better decisions.

Making New Connections

Did you know your nervous system has the ability to reconfigure based on the information it receives from the environment? Amazingly, the nervous system can reorganize the way it controls and coordinates the bodies function through a process called neuroplasticity.(1) Neurons that makeup the brain can create new pathways by which they deliver information.

Chiropractors have long theorized these findings and applied their techniques in order to provide proper information for the nervous system to create new correct pathways so the body can heal itself. It has been shown that repetition of new stimulus will create these more effective pathways that are used to coordinate function.(2)

Another startling fact is that age has little effect on this ability to reconfigure proper pathways to improve upon health.(3) So this shows that your body and brain have the ability to improve health no matter how old you may be and that your body can continually change according to the stimulus provided or environment it is in.

Our bodies no matter how much we abuse them are truly amazing and the ability to heal lies within all of us.

1. Onteniente,B. Neuroplasticity:from physiological adaptation to the concept of therapeutic plasticity. INSERM, UMR 894.

2. Grill-Spector K, et al. Repetition and the brain: neural models of stimulus-specific effects, Dept of Psychology Stanford University.

3. Itari I, et al. Roles of continuous neurogenesis in structural and functional integrity of the adult forebrain, Nature Neuroscience 2008, 11, 1153-1161.

Water gives me Heartburn!

I actually had someone say this to me. I could not believe they actually thought it was the waters fault. Imagine a digestive system so messed up that water(which is essential to life) produces indigestion. A system that is so screwed up that pure, clean, clear water pushes it over the edge. Does that sound absurd to anyone else out there?

Let me be extremely clear...Water can not cause heartburn, and if someone says it can either slap them in the face or turn and run as fast as you can because there is something not right with them.

Water is essential to the cells in your body. They need it to function properly. If your cells don't have enough water cells become dehydrated and the membranes become brittle and easily damaged. When cells become brittle they are more susceptible to illness and injury.

How much should you drink? One good way to measure is the color of your urine if its clear you are hydrated. The less clear...the less hydrated you are.

If you happen to get heartburn after drinking some pure, clean, clear water its probably not the water. It was probably the Mickey D's you had for lunch. Think about it. Water is essential, Mickey D's is not.

Who is responsible for your health

The answer is you. Health care providers are there to provide you information and techniques so you can make an educated decision on how you should obtain or experience health. The fact is education and understanding are the keys to health. If you don't understand what health is seek out some education on the matter. Be wise about the people you choose to educate you as well. If their understanding of health is limited then I suggest finding someone else.

If you rely on your insurance company to help you with your decision, my guess is you are probably not that healthy nor do you stand a good chance of getting there. As per your decision making process.

Here is a little evidence to support my statement. If you think your insurance company has your best interest in mind...think again.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/15/insurance.fast.food.stock/

Under Construction

This blog is currently under construction. Look for new information on health, the nervous system, and chiropractic in the very near future.