Malachi's First Adjustment

My son, Malachi, just turned 1 month today, and he just had his first adjustment.  To many, that sounds very early for an adjustment. To me, it was 1 month too late.  The delivery went well, without any apparent trauma or complications.  As a newborn, he showed no signs of any complications either.  Just a couple weeks ago, he gradually began to be irritable.  It became progressive each day, making it more apparent that he was not comfortable and not at all content.  He became more difficult to hold without crying let alone put down by himself, and putting him down for a nap didn't last very long.  The nights become more tiresome and sleepless.  He was even throwing up after a feeding almost once a day and soon became congested with a cold.  Not a happy camper.  We first thought it might be gas, and we bought some drops to help out, but that only made him constipated.  A couple days later, we read some nutritional ways we could help out- by staying away from certain foods that cause gas and keeping him on a more strict feeding schedule.  Those ways seem to give a slight improvement, but he still seemed irritable and so we made the appointment.

We took him in to see my teacher at school, Dr. Watts, who specializes in pediatric care.  She made some spinal adjustments and took an in depth examination and provided some cranial work.  I went in not 100% sure if it would help, but I would have been more at ease knowing he was adjusted and properly functioning.  I drove home from school, to find my son content and happy.  It was like night and day.  The congestion hasn't gone away completely, but I was able to hold him in my arms and watch him stare at me without any look of discomfort or pain.

I don't know why still keep some doubt in the back of my mind.  I guess I keep falling back to the popular phrase, Nothing "seemed" to be wrong . . . not until the crying and fussiness never ended.  He wasn't quite to the point of colicky, but it was frustrating anyway.  However, I have talked with some who have had to deal with colicky and fussy babies.  And what is the usual response to treat? Usually, it's to just wait it out and they will grow out of it.  First off, it has been mine own experience and I have heard several others, if a doctor says about a child, "They will grow out of it" just simply means, "I have no idea and I don't care" and I would run out of that office.  Especially if it is a health issue.  There is a reason why children do things . . . and what a doctor calls, "growing out of it," really is a child adjusting to a problem in which the problem hasn't gone away, but rather the child has seemed to find away around the problem in their own unique way.  If a doctor told me that Malachi was just fussy and he will "grow out of it,", Malachi would have been left untreated when obviously there was something wrong and could be treated.  I just read in the book, A Well Adjusted Baby, that chiropractic adjustments have a 94% success rate for colicky babies (And yet people are told to wait it out).

I just wanted to share this experience, since it does help illustrate a good point about health care.  Most people think of chiropractors treating older people who are ailing from sickness and bone misalignments.  The elderly need the care for sure, but we need to stop thinking about treating people with what they are ailing from, and start treating people with preventive care.  This goes to all the medical and health care world.  This starts with our children.  Health care starts from the womb, even before the baby is born.  And when the baby is born, don't you think there is trauma that occurs, even in a simple, uncomplicated birth? Oh, there is plenty and a simple birth is rare these days.  Think of all the births that have complications, c-sections, labors being induced.  Think of all the babies being pulled and yanked out.  Birth is not a pretty site, and with all that trauma, don't you think it would be beneficial to get that child functioning properly and in good alignment from the beginning?  I would hope so.

Master Our Innate

Long before the movie, William Ernest Henley has inspired countless of people with his powerful words, Invictus.  "It matters not how straight the gate, how charged the punishments the scroll.  I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul."

I put the phrase, Back 2 Health, at the top of this page to emphasize the urgency to return to something that we have gradually veered from as a society.  I feel several of us often say, "I'm already healthy"  I know, because it is something I have said.  But are we?

The body is an amazing thing, with an incredible design.  The majority of the body functions unconsciously, or with very little thought.  We have learned to breath without having to think about it.  The body, in its infinite wisdom, makes it all work, from our lungs for breathing down to each and every microscopic cell utilizing the nutrients needed to function.  The body knows all.  Do we know how much calcium our muscles need to contract, how much blood is needed in a certain part to avoid hypoxia, or even how many white blood cells are needed to fight off invaders?  We don't . . but our body does.  Our body wants to be healthy.  Let me repeat that, our body wants to be healthy . . . but are we letting it?

There are several factors, or Stressers, that expose the body to diseases and complications.  We organize these stressers as the 3 T's known as Traumas, Toxins, and Thoughts . . . or it can be put as the Physical, the Chemical, and the Emotional.  The physical varies from the small daily activities to the unfortunate traumas that occur.  This is the daily grind on the body physically.  The chemical is the things that we put in the body.  This ranges from what we eat, to what we expose our bodies to like dyes and makeup.  The emotional is often overlooked, but can have a great impact in our life and especially in our health.  Especially in the world today, we often cannot avoid Stress.  It is in our school, our work, and too often even in our own homes.  Several of these stressers have great impact on our immune system, thus exposing us to diseases.  It is not our body gone wrong, it is not even the pathogen that invades our body, it is our own choices.  All these stressers are avoidable.  Are we eating right?  Are we exposing ourselves to harmful chemicals?  I know each and everyone of us, including myself, can make better decisions in our lives.  Our body will be forever grateful.
 
Too many feel that they have no control on their health.  Some are told that they are genetically exposed to these diseases.  Don't let these lies fool you.  There is more recent studies I hope to share later showing that genes are not a permanent imprint, but can change and adapt. You have control.  You are the master of your health.  Take control of your life.  Take back your health.  "It matters not how straight the gate, how charged the punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul."

What is Chiropractics

I thought I would start with a basic overview of what Chiropractic is, mostly because many whom I have talked to have no or very limited understanding.  Usually the response consists of something concerning back pain.  Even though this is not wrong, that is sadly the extent to their knowledge.  The practice of modern Chiropractics was founded in 1895 by D.D. Palmer, a student of magnetic healing and bonesetting sciences.  The first "adjustment" was administered to Harvey Lillard, who later told Palmer that his hearing had greatly improved.  D.D. Palmer concluded that bone manipulation can restore function to the body.  This opened the door to the philosophy of what we today call Chiropractics.  The term Chiropractics actually was coined later by Rev. Samuel Weed, combining two greek words meaning "Concerned With (Praktikos) Hand (Chiro)"

So this is the beginning to manual manipulation in the philosophy of Chiropractics, later termed as Adjustment. But this is just the surface.  This is often the part that people understand, the "cracking backs" part of chiropractics.  But they are not bone doctors.  D.D. Palmer looked a little deeper, beyond the bones, and understood something that is just beginning to be recognized today.  The foundation to the body is not the skeleton.  The master system of the body is the Nervous System.  It is this system that connects the whole body, allowing the brain to communicate to the body and visa versa.  In fact, it is no wonder that the Nervous System is the first system formed in embryo.  This is vital.  It is needed to help the fetus to develop.  Without a skeleton, we would simply be a bag of organs.  Without a nervous system, we would die.  Simply put, the nervous system is the master system.  This was the focus of D.D Palmer and the early chiropractics, understanding that if a bone is out of place, it is effecting the function of the nerve that passes by, thus effecting certain body functions that the nerve supplies.  In short, Chiropractors are not bone doctors.  They are nerve doctors that understand the anatomy and physiology of the body to help restore normal function.

So what is Chiropractics?  It is the philosophy and the study of the body as a whole, including the anatomy and physiology, to restore and provide optimal function and health to an individual.  It is a vitalistic approach that the body has the understanding and ability to adapt, protect, and even heal itself.  Basically, the doctor can't heal the body.  Rather, the doctor restores the body to correct function, allowing the nerve to restore function and communication to the rest of the body, thus healing itself.  How so?  Can I ask what is the mechanism behind a fever?  Too many often blame their illness to the pathogen.  This is incorrect.  Yes, it is due to a pathogen, but it is not the cause.  The cause of the fever, is our own bodily response to protect itself and rid of the pathogen.  Our immune system effects the core body temperature, increasing it to kill off the pathogen that has invaded.  It is our own body, with it's infinite and innate knowledge, that causes the fever, to protect itself, simply, to heal itself.

Without proper nerve function, it is impossible for our body to normally function, allowing the body to be exposed to many diseases and physiological abnormalities.  The lack of nerve function is referred to as a Subluxation.  This can be caused by many things, simply put as the 3 T's.  Traumas, Toxins, and Thoughts, or it can also be put as Physical, Chemical, and Emotional stressers.  The physical is the daily activities along with the unexpected traumas that we face in life.  The chemical is the things that we put into our bodies directly, like food, or indirectly, like hair dyes.  The emotional is the stressers in life.  This one often gets overlooked.  When I say that someone is confident, do you view someone who has slumped shoulders and looking down at the ground.  No, we often view someone who is sitting or standing up straight, their head up and alert.  Our thoughts effect us dramatically, especially in a world like today with Stress all around us.  Stress plays with our emotions, and even our nerve functions, exposing us to many avoidable complications.  For optimal health and wellness, we need to rid of these stressers in our life.  Many of them, we can rid of ourselves if we choose to make the effort.  But there are others we need an "adjustment", to restore our nerve function, to restore our normal body function, and to restore our health.  For that, we have our friendly neighborhood Chiropractor.