Don’t you love surprises when they’re good? Something you didn’t expect but is as good or better than what you were looking for or expecting. For some people chiropractic is like that. For others they get just what they wanted. And, others fail to receive the benefit they were looking for.
Guess what? This isn’t the roll of the proverbial dice. The benefits you get are largely under your control in combination with the skill of the chiropractor.
Here’s a recent post of mine: You Don’t Lose Your Health Because You Get Sick.
Let’s explore a bit about how the body works, what happens to cause problems, and how chiropractic works. It’s likely a bit different from your understanding. But, first a bit of my story….
My First Experience with Chiropractic
Growing up I had no idea what a chiropractor was. I can recall walking down a street and seeing a business sign for a chiropractor and wondering what that was. When I was 18 I got in a head-on car collision and my head hit the windshield. The windshield broke and my head got split open.
After an ambulance ride to the hospital, x-rays, and some 30 odd stitches I was sent on my way. I was pretty sore for the better part of a week but life goes on. It wasn’t until more than a year later while in college that I began to experience headaches, back pain, neck pain, fatigue, and difficulty sleeping.
A family friend suggested her chiropractor and that’s when things began to shift. He helped me realize that all I was experiencing was linked to that whiplash injury. Within a short time I had the amazing experience of my body working like it should.
How the Body Works
The human body is amazing and is hardwired to express health. The body is continually…
- Self-monitoring: it is monitoring thousands of processes and reactions every second of every day without your awareness. Breathing, heart rate, blood glucose, hormones, neurotransmitters, etc.
- Self-regulating: all this information from its monitoring is used to make continual adjustments to every process and reaction in an attempt to maintain balance or homeostasis. Everything is continually adjusted to meet the demands of your body. If you are running your heart rate and breathing rate immediately go up to supply your body with oxygen.
- Self-healing: your body is in a continual state of repair and healing. Damaged cells and tissues are repaired or replaced. Injuries from cuts and scrapes to sprains and fractures are healed. Infection from bacteria and viruses are healed.
Pretty amazing, huh? I think so!
What system of the body do you think is responsible for coordinating these functions of monitoring, regulating and healing?
The Nervous System is often called the master control system of the body. It is akin to the conductor of the orchestra. The brain and spinal cord are responsible for coordinating all the functions that support health and vitality.
The nervous system is responsible for maintaining homeostasis.
So, what can go wrong?
What Goes Wrong
The short answer is that every departure from health that involves altered regulation and healing is accompanied by some form of interference to the ability of the nervous system to do its job.
I’ve written extensively about the link between chronic stress and health.
Here’s one of many articles I’ve written detailing how stress is literally the thief of health: The Secret of Why Chronic Stress is the Key to Massive Health Gains.
Your central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) is so important and so sensitive it is the only organ encased in bone. Nerves exit between every two spinal bones and go everywhere in the body. These nerves carry messages from the brain to the body and from the body back to the brain.
If one of the spinal bones gets stuck out of position or loses its ability to move properly it puts pressure on the nerves at that level and causes some problem in the function of the tissue wherever the nerve goes.
Most of the time this DOES NOT cause pain for a very long time. Depending on where the nerve goes it will impact body function. It might be altered digestion or heart rate or blood pressure or sleep or menstrual cycle or….
We call these stuck bones a subluxation and that is what a corrective and balancing chiropractor corrects.
The Real Purpose of Chiropractic
Chiropractic when it is applied properly seeks to correct these subluxations so that the nervous system can resume its job of properly monitoring, regulating, and healing. The nervous system is always seeking balance or homeostasis.
Nervous system tension, pressure, and irritation interferes with the body’s ability to maintain homeostasis which is critical to health.
A nervous system free from interference has the best chance of maintaining vibrant health.
4 Surprise Benefits of Chiropractic Care
The vast majority of people presenting to my office come in wanting relief from some pain. Some come with low back pain, some with neck pain, others with headaches or sciatica or hip pain.
Chiropractic is incredibly effective at providing relief of these issues. Sometimes it is within a visit or two. Other times depending on how chronic the issue is, it takes weeks to a few months.
When I delve a little deeper in the history most of these people have other health issues. Many have poor sleep. Some experience digestive issues. Some have high blood pressure. Almost everyone has some chronic health challenge and most are on medication.
The surprise benefits of chiropractic care come with correcting the nerve interference in the spine and maintaining it long enough to allow the body to operate in that state of homeostasis.
This is where the surprise benefits come. Let’s look at these in 4 different domains.
Surprise Benefit #1: Physical Benefits – some of the more common physical benefits people under corrective and balancing chiropractic care experience are:
- Increased Energy
- Improved Sleep
- Better Breathing
- Improved Menstrual Cycle
- Better Posture
- Feeling of Greater Ease
Surprise Benefit #2: Health Conditions – different organs and tissues are repaired and replaced at different rates. It can take from days to many months for different organs to heal and the health benefits show up long after the pain has left. Here are some common improvements in health conditions:
- Improved Fibromyalgia
- Acid Reflux resolved
- Less Reliance on Medication
- Asthma Improved
- Colic Improved
- Ear Infections resolved
- Bedwetting resolved
- Lowered Blood Pressure
Surprise Benefit #3: Emotional – how you feel is intimately related to the degree of tension within your nervous system. Stress is the common denominator of almost all health and emotional challenges. And, chiropractic changes the body’s relationship with stress. Here are a few benefits:
- Improved Mood
- Greater Clarity
- Sense of Calmness
- Reduced Stress
- Reduced Anxiety
- Reduced Depression
- Improved Mental Focus
- Better Attitude
Surprise Benefit #4: Life Benefits – a body with a nervous system clear of interference is better able to use its resources to enhance health and well being. Over time many people experience:
- Improved Relationships
- Increased Quality of Life
- Greater Creativity
- Healthier Habits
Chiropractic really has little to do with pain. It has everything to do with correcting the cause of nerve interference so the body can function the way it was intended and do what it does best; regulate and heal.
A body without interference has the greatest opportunity to express health. Sure, there are other components like diet, water, exercise, relationships, and sleep.
But, nothing works as well as possible if there is interference to the function of the nervous system.
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