I am a big believer in the value of chiropractic care.  My family gets regular chiropractic care both for pain and injuries as well as general wellness.  I sought chiropractic care during my pregnancy and my daughter had her first adjustment when she was 4 days old!  While this post is not food related, I do think a variety of health and wellness topics are important, especially when you are trying to maintain a real food, healthy lifestyle.  I am excited about today’s post and hope you enjoy it!

This week, we have a guest post by my brother, Tommy John, currently a 3rd year student working towards his Doctor of Chiropractic degree at Life University.  He is very passionate about chiropractic and the human body’s ability to heal itself and has always been interested in health and wellness.  He obtained his Master’s Degree in Health and Exercise Science from Furman University before playing professional baseball for a few years.  He then owned and operated his own baseball instructional facility and is a certified personal trainer and ARPWave therapist.

 

He is going to share 5 reasons why you should get your spine checked by a chiropractor…and, guess what!?  None of these reasons to see a chiropractor are related to back pain!

1.  Obesity and Metabolic Related Diseases

Of course we know that obesity is an out of control problem in the U.S. attributing to the top causes of death such as strokes and heart disease.  For the most part, diabetes (Type I and II), high blood pressure, obesity and obesity related diseases, can all be reversed with choosing the right “real” foods to eat, the right movements to perform in a training plan, and the right thoughts and images to consistently have playing through our minds.

But what if you aren’t digesting the foods properly?  In order to digest foods you need the work of enzymes.  The central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) control the cells responsible for releasing these enzymes and if the CNS is operating at its highest level then that person has the best chance to digest “real” foods when they are consumed.

The CNS also controls the release of two hormones responsible for telling us we are satisfied or full and when we should feel hungry and need food.  These are called ghrelin and leptin.  If the CNS is not performing at its most appropriate level then these hormones will be skewed leading to overeating, or eating when our body really doesn’t need any food.

It is still going to be the responsibility of the individual to consume the right “real” foods in appropriate amounts so that their now higher functioning system can digest them properly in order to carry out processes of their systems.  Having a clear spine would be the first and most important step toward a fat loss goal.

2.  Symptom-Free Does Not Equal Health

There was a medical doctor, Dr. Windsor, who in the early 1900’s took about 150 cadavers and observed what their organs looked like. He noticed the color of the tissue and cells, if there was visceral fat around it or not and whether the organ had signs of the start of disease.

He tried to stay away from organs that were the cause of death for that specific individual ie, for a person who died from a heart attack, he would avoid looking at the heart for observation.

He then traced the nerves that innervated these organs back to their location in the spine and 95% of the time found that the organs that had preliminary signs of disease also had fixations and adhesions at those segments in the spine.  Organs that had no signs of disease had extremely healthy sections of the spine.  (source, source)

Because a person does not have symptoms does not mean that they are healthy.  The disease process takes time to develop, sometimes 10-15 years worth of breakdown in order for a symptom to appear.

If the CNS is clear at the spine, subluxation free, then the communication highway between organ/tissue/cell and brain is open and the appropriate changes that may need to take place can be monitored and changed more effectively.

So cancer cells that are forming on our livers right now as we read this post can be recognized by that organ, a message can be sent to the brain triggering an immune response to seek and destroy the useless, damaging cells preventing permanent trauma from occurring.

Seeing a chiropractor regularly will help keep your spinal nerves clear of interference, which will help keep your visceral organs functioning optimally.

3.  Mental Health Disorders

Traditional methods of treating mental health disorders have a history of continually not being successful and all psychiatric medications have dangerous side effects which can lead to death in some instances.  Chiropractic care on the other hand is a very successful, safe, alternative method to getting at the root cause of most mental health disorders and can even lead to the prevention of the need for pharmaceutical intervention.

Clear View Sanitarium, one of the most prominent mental health sanitariums, which existed from 1926 through 1961, was located in the birthplace of chiropractic on the outskirts of Davenport, Iowa. The cases consisted of approximately 65% schizophrenia, 15% manic-depressive, and 20% other nervous and mental disorders. (source and source)

The chiropractors who worked with those patients had unparalleled success and today chiropractic care continues to have amazing results with the ever expanding array of mental health disorders.

With the laundry list of side effects that come with the medications to “treat” these conditions, some of which make the condition worse or amplified, seeking out chiropractic care for a mental health disorder could lead to a lower dosage of your prescription or maybe even lead to total elimination of it.

Click for the next post: reasons 4 and 5 on why you should see a chiropractor!!

If you’d like to follow Tommy, you can check him out on Facebook!

This post featured at Real Food Wednesday, Whole Foods Wednesday, Tasty Traditions, Thank Your Body Thursday, Simple Lives Thursday, Small Footprint Friday, Fight Back Friday, Fresh Bites Friday, Sunday School Blog Carnival, Make Your Own Monday, Thank Goodness it’s Monday, Fat Tuesday, Scratch Cooking Tuesday, Family Table Tuesday

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