Your inner doctor

Let’s start with the assumption you have a body, and you want it to work as well as possible…

This brain-body map shows how the brain, spinal cord and nerves connect all the organs together.

The first organ that forms is your brain.  And then it makes the body.  It does this with one information superhighway (the spinal cord), which is the next structure it builds.  It then makes exits off that highway (spinal plexuses) and roads into town (nerves).  The towns are your organs. 

The highway and brain and some of the organs get surrounded by bone to protect them and ensure your survival.  Would you think that the brain and the information superhighway might be important to your body, if the wisdom of your body used these to build your body from two half cells into a whole human being?   

Imagine learning to ride a bicycle and how tricky it is to coordinate all the handlebars and pedals and gears at first.  This is what the brain and superhighway are doing for your body.  The brain and body are constantly talking back and forth using nerve signals to coordinate the millions of functions going on at once.  It’s superfast - think of your hand on a hot stove, you get the message PDQ.  So, would it be possible, on a highway, exit ramp or road, where things are going fast, that there’s an accident and you suddenly land in a traffic jam? 

(We all know how annoying traffic jams are…)

Do you think that might be possible in your body from time to time? 

Well, if you’ve ever had stress of a physical, chemical or emotional nature…such as a fall, a work or sports accident, traumas, a car accident, repetitive motions, chemicals in your food, pesticides on crops, emotions with other human beings, life events, loss of a pet, a job, a loved one, or a million other things the mind comes up with...you've had potential stressors.  And they can cause traffic jams on your internal highway. 

So, your bones and your skeleton are linked by muscles, tendons and ligaments and fascia.  You may get a signal in one of the soft tissues that a traffic jam is going on.  You may feel a kink in your neck or somewhere in your back.  You may not.  And yet your whole system depends on these nerve signals flowing back and forth.  Your health depends on this.  Your organs depend on this.  And do we have a blinking red light that comes on before we get a symptom, that says, we’d better take some action ahead of total breakdown? 

No, unfortunately, your body deals with it and doesn’t always tell you until way down the road.  So, we assume everything is ok, which is logical, but still might not be true.    

If you’re going on a long road trip, don't you make sure you are not going to have a breakdown and ruin your trip?  Couldn’t we say life is a long road trip?  Would it be logical to double check things before our bodies break down?  Do we perform a maintenance schedule on our internal superhighway at 10k, 20k, 50k miles?  Or are we taught to “not fix it, if it’s not broken”, or just live with it until it’s bad enough to have an operation, and take XYZ in the meantime?  Meanwhile the problem can still be corrected, and we’re taught not to think about how (trust your doctor).  The thing I often see the spine do is create arthritis, in an attempt to stabilize the situation.  We may say, that’s not so bad, everybody gets that… 

What’s really happening is that the bones are stuck in the traffic jam, and over time the information getting through is just a trickle.  Are you going to be able to get full flow back, once it gets bad enough to have an operation?  Once the bone has crusted over the nerve for a very long time, no, you can’t get function back.   And nerves are delicate, they don’t regenerate very quickly, if at all.  So, at this point, you are having to settle for a very poor quality of life.    

OK, you can accept that you will hurt as you get older.  But that’s really the least of it.  Because what is happening in the town at the other end of this road, is that the organs are not healthy either.  They are breaking down, and you are creating more and more health issues.  You’re borrowing some sugar from your neighbors, but you still can’t bake a full cake.  Wouldn’t it make sense to correct the problem areas ahead of total breakdown?   

Open the highway!  Clear the traffic jams!  Let nature do its thing.  What if just for a second, we consider that there is something that built us and is still on the job.  It's monitoring what’s going on, and doing it’s best to keep us alive.  It’s more than ready to fix us.  From the inside-out.  If things are not too far gone, it can.  It’s a process to really trust the body and trust this concept.  Chiropractic's simple, painless approach is based on anatomy and logic. So many people have been helped by it. It makes sense to go to the root of the problem and flip the fuse at the fusebox!  But please don't wait too long after a major stressor to get checked. And please adopt the good habit of finding a regular frequency that suits your schedule and your budget. You will thank yourself later.       

My goal in life is to pay it forward.  To help others the way Chiropractic helped me.  To help people stay ahead of breakdowns.  To help you have the life you want to live.  I’m a good case study, because I did a lot of damage to my body when younger and still have a decent quality of life today thanks to regular chiropractic care.  I also give myself healthy input from the outside-in as much as possible (no one is perfect at self-care).  I have not had a prescription medication in my body for a very long time.  Of course there are degenerative processes taking place as we age.  But wouldn’t it be nice to have your candle just flicker out when you go, rather than deal with chronic disease?  Let’s stay ahead of that curveball.                 

If you want me to check you for traffic jams, I can do that.  Call or text for a checkup, no cost, no obligation.  It is better to know ahead of time.  That way you can take corrective action. And not have to wait for the other scenario.

Stay tuned for my next blog post.  Until we “meet” again, I light a candle to your health. 

Dr Deb