What exactly does it mean to be healthy? Are you as healthy as you could be? How important is your nervous system? What exactly happens each and every time you visit your neighborhood Chiropractor for an adjustment?
First question. Official definition from The World Health Organization: Health is a state of complete physical, emotional and mental well-being. Not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. So lets think about what that means.
Every part of your existence needs to be in order. It’s not enough to eat well and exercise. Not enough to get adjusted. Not enough to “feel good” or have no symptoms of pain or any disease. What a concept.
I’ll bet if you asked anyone walking down the street if they were healthy or not they would judge their health on how they felt overall. Are they or you doing things to help your emotional and mental health? Are you making time for you?
Are you laughing enough? Are you exercising and eating well? Do you know that the top three causes of death in this country are largely due to lifestyle choices? Heart attacks, cancer and strokes / diabetes. If you don’t take care of your health today you may not be able to get it back tomorrow.
For those of you reading this article that have never been to a Chiropractor or simply went when “something hurt,” let me just give a very quick explanation of what we do. Every tissue, cell, organ and process in your body is ultimately controlled by your brain and nervous system.
The brain sends messages (commands) down the spinal cord and out to nerves that travel all throughout your body (just like telephone wires branching across America). The spinal cord and nerves are protected by individual spinal bones called vertebrae.
Due to causes such as slips and falls, car accidents, stress, poor posture, sitting at desks all day, etc.. these vertebrae can become misaligned.
When this happens, the signals traveling from the brain to the other parts of the body become impaired resulting in less than optimal functioning and health of the body.
Chiropractors adjust (move) the vertebrae back to their normal positions which allows for better transmission of nerve messages throughout the body leading to better functioning and health.
How important is your nervous system in all of this? When you consider that everything in the human experience starts with the nervous system that should give you a big hint.
Whether it is your brain telling your heart, lungs and adrenals to kick into overdrive because there is a pit bull chasing you; or your eyes or ears sending information to your brain so that it can react appropriately when a bus has lost control and is hurtling at you with its brakes screeching demonstrates that the gate-keeper and master controller is always the brain and the nervous system.
On a less dramatic, more day to day example your nervous system is always guiding nutrients and oxygen wherever it may be needed in the body. It is producing hormones and chemicals in the right amounts and at the right times for every process in the body to keep you alive.
What exactly happens each and every time you get adjusted? Think of it on a cellular level if your imagination is that vivid. You walk into the Chiropractor with a Subluxation (bone out of place pinching a nerve).
You get adjusted. It feels great. End of story, right? Wrong.That bone that was just cutting off the vital messages to whatever part of the body (heart, lungs, stomach, etc..) is now back where it belongs. Life is being restored where only a second ago it was being cut off. The cells are happy.
They are getting everything they need in the correct amounts at the right times. What do cells do? Other than their programmed function (stomach cells digest, heart cells contract, liver cells detoxify, etc..) they divide, replicate and reproduce themselves.
A few seconds ago they were not getting everything they needed. Were they reproducing themselves as healthy, complete cells or as a fraction of what they could and should be? Think about that question before you read on. Back to the definition of health. It applies to cells as well. Now they are reproducing as healthier cells. What does that mean for you? For your health? For your life?
Chiropractic is not everything. No one thing will ever be as I’ve shown in this article. But can you see how absolutely vital a healthy nervous system is to your Health and Wellness?
Dr. Howard Fleischer has been practicing in Culver City for 16 years, specializing in spinal correction and wellness care for children and adults. Voted Best Chiropractic office in Culver City four of the last five years by the Culver City Reader’s poll. If you would like to schedule a no out of pocket charge initial consultation and exam please feel free to call his office and mention that you saw this article in our paper. 310-398-0888
