A Three-legged Stool

When it comes to health challenges and even wellness goals, I find that people often put all their eggs in one basket.  What I mean is, we try just one thing and if that doesn’t work, then we try another one thing.  Unfortunately, most people neglect their health until they get sick and then their one treatment consists of drugs without regard to the side effects or what lifestyle factors ultimately caused them to get sick in the first place.  This is true even though the New England Journal of Medicine has determined that 80% of our health problems should have been prevented through proper lifestyle.   I even find the same phenomenon with people seeking chiropractic care – they simply want to get adjusted without concern of what caused their problems or what else they can do on their own to improve their outcomes.  But there is a much better way.

Chiropractors deal with misalignments of the spine called subluxations that place pressure and tension on the nervous system.  Just like other health problems, subluxation is caused by excessive amounts of physical, chemical, and emotional levels of stress beyond what the body can adapt.  In fact, for a bone to become misaligned, there must be an imbalance of the muscles that are designed to keep the bones aligned, and at least five ligaments of the spinal joints will have been compromised as well.  The number one complaint about chiropractic care is that people respond and do well while they’re under active care, but when care is reduced the problems begin to come back.  Realize, this is not a chiropractic problem; this is either a stability or lifestyle problem.  In terms of stability, most people have imbalanced or weak muscles from sitting too much or doing the same activities over and over causing some muscles to be over-developed and others to be under-developed.  This phenomenon creates inherent stress on a joint and makes it very difficult for people to “hold their adjustments.”  In physical therapy, they would rehab those muscles to stabilize that joint.  My concern with this is what if the joint was imbalanced to begin with and we’re strengthening an improper structure?  In the past, as a chiropractor, I used to believe that all I had to do is restore the alignment and movement of the joint and the body would take care of the rest.  I have learned this is not true when that joint is supported by weak or imbalanced muscles.  When you restore alignment and strengthen at the same time, it’s a win-win.  In terms of lifestyle, I hope it’s only common sense that if I go back to the same faulty lifestyles that caused my problems to begin with, of course my symptoms will return.  This is why the physical, chemical, and emotional components must all be addressed.  When people address their physical stressors and begin to exercise, when they clean up their inflammatory diets, and when they work at reducing stress in their life through exercise, meditation, or other techniques, this is when health is truly restored.

We need to look at health as a three-legged stool where physical, chemical, and emotional well-being makes up the foundation.  When any one leg is compromised, the whole thing suffers.  We live in a world of numerous demands and stressors that complicate healing.  Whether we’re talking about a chiropractic problem or any health problem, you need to look at healing as a multi-dimensional process where you will likely need to make changes on more than one level to achieve real results.

It’s a Brain Thing

Even after 120 years, there are still a lot of people confused about chiropractic adjustments because they don’t want to get their “bones cracked, or popped.”  They believe that the adjustment “pops” a bone that is out of place back into place like snapping Legos into position.  Some of this is the fault of the chiropractor as we have allowed this simplified interpretation to be perpetuated over the years rather than tell the whole truth which is a little more complicated.  The truth is that the adjustment is more about the brain than it is about the bones.

Chiropractors detect and correct something called a subluxation.  Subluxations are indeed minor misalignments of the spine that can create pressure and swelling on the nerves causing interference with the nerve signals thereby adversely affecting everything under the control of that nerve.  The problem with this is that bones don’t just go out of place on their own – they are controlled by the muscles.  There are approximately 108 muscles of the spine whose job is to keep the bones of the spine in proper alignment.  That’s great, except for the fact that muscles don’t do anything on their own.  In truth, muscles do only one of two things – they turn on to contract, and they turn off to relax much like a light bulb.  However, just like the light bulb, the muscle requires an electrical stimulus from the wiring system of the body or the nerves.  And when it comes to maintaining the alignment of the bones through the muscular system, the nerves that coordinate all of this are controlled largely by the coordination center of the brain known as the cerebellum.  This part of the brain requires constant incoming information from all the joints and muscles of the body to coordinate balance and movement and maintain normal posture and proper structure.  So you see, a misalignment of the spine or subluxation is really a coordination problem.  There has to be some kind of disconnect between the bones, muscles, nerves and cerebellum that would allow a bone to stop moving correctly and become misaligned.  Therefore, you cannot truly “pop” a bone back into place.  Even if you could, the imbalanced muscles would pull it right back out of place.  Rather, the chiropractic adjustment moves the bone enough in the right direction to fire off the nerve endings in the joint that report to the coordination center of the brain (cerebellum).  This stimulus from the joint gives the cerebellum the information needed to begin re-coordinating the imbalanced muscles so that the body can begin to move the bone back into proper position and heal on its own.  I like to think of this like resetting the circuit breaker.  Because the muscles and the nervous system itself are very habit-forming this process usually requires repetition to retrain this complex system and ultimately correct the misalignment or subluxation.  So even though most people go to chiropractors for various pains, the process really is not about reducing pain, but rather about improving the function of this brain/body communication.  When this is accomplished, higher function not only leads to less pain, but better performance and ultimately better health because the brain is communicating with the body more efficiently through the nervous system as it was designed to do.  I share this perspective with you because many people are suffering unnecessarily due to commonly held misconceptions about how chiropractic and the chiropractic adjustment work.

Fake Fats

I haven’t picked on trans-fats in a while.  While it’s been well recognized that these fake, unnatural fats have been linked to heart disease for some time, research from the American Heart Association shows a link between trans-fats and advanced dementia or Alzheimer’s as well.

For decades it was the saturated animal fats that were thought to be culprits to chronic disease.  So for years, fats were reduced and removed from foods while things like butter and lard were replaced with margarine and vegetable oil.  This strategy simply has not worked and it’s contributed to millions of early deaths.  The reason why this didn’t work and what you really need to know about trans-fats is that they are synthetic and they prevent the production of a chemical in your body known as prostacyclin which is necessary to keep blood flowing.  As a result, trans-fats cause clogging of the artery walls.  Likewise these oils including vegetable, soybean, corn, and sunflower oils when heated oxidize (or break down).  This reaction causes clotting and hardening of the arteries.  It is this same oxidation that is thought to contribute to the plaques in the brain that are related to Alzheimer’s.  In order to avoid trans-fats, you need to avoid any foods containing or cooked in hydrogenated vegetable oil.  This means avoiding all fried foods such as french fries and many other highly processed foods including chips, cookies, crackers, and cereals.  Even though these pseudo-foods have become the staple of the American diet, the good news is that the body can eliminate trans-fats in about a month when we quit putting them in our pie holes.  This makes eating out very difficult and fast-food almost impossible.  The best strategy is cooking natural whole foods at home.

Please understand that I am not advocating going fat-free.  Your body needs fat for brain function and hormone production!  You just want to reduce and eliminate these toxic fats and replace them with natural fats such as organic butter, avocados, fish oil, coconut and coconut oil, raw nuts (almonds, pecans, and macadamia) and seeds.  And even organic egg yolks and grass-fed meats are on the healthy list.  Another factor to be aware of is that statin drugs for cholesterol also increase the risk of dementia/Alzheimer’s because they deplete the brain of essential fatty acids and coenzyme Q10.  However, when you replace the trans-fats with healthy fats, cut sugar, and add in some exercise and stress reduction, most (if not all) people would not have a need for statin drugs to begin with.  So if you’re looking for a simple way to embrace a healthier lifestyle, consider going no trans-fats for a month and see what happens.

Posture Problems

In the first chapter of every physiology book you’ll find the phrase, “Anatomy dictates physiology.”  In other words, our structure dictates our function or how well things work.  This is certainly true in your neck.  A normal neck has a 35-45 degree curve as measured on x-ray.  Think of this like the bow in a dam or a bridge.  The curve provides flexibility and strength amongst numerous other functions.  When the curve is lost or especially reversed, problems can arise with our physiology.  These include chronic aches and pains, but also bigger problems with overall health.

The normal curve (lordosis) of our neck develops as an infant when we begin to hold our head up and crawl.  As mentioned, this curve reduces stress on the soft tissues of the neck and provides flexibility – think of it like a spring or shock absorber for the weight of the head.  This normal curve keeps the vertical pressure and weight of the head on the backs of the vertebrae rather than the fronts where the discs are.  Likewise, the curve allows the numerous little muscles on the back side of the neck to stay relaxed.  Poor posture from driving or sitting at a desk or especially looking down at a phone, tablet, or laptop for hours will change the muscle balance of the neck; stretching the muscles of the back side while shortening those in the front.  Some studies have shown that this phenomenon will happen 80% of the time after a whiplash accident from a car wreck or other injury.  In previous articles, we called this “upper-crossed syndrome.”  This syndrome results in a straightening of the neck or sometimes even a reversal of the curve.  Either way, when the curve is lost, you lose the functional advantages mentioned above and forces are shifted to the front of the vertebrae and onto the discs.  The result will be chronic tightness of the muscles in the back of the neck, chronic neck pain and stiffness, tension headaches, shoulder tension, and loss of normal range of motion in the neck.  Over time this imbalanced pressure creates excessive wear-and-tear that causes degenerative changes such as arthritis of the spine and breakdown of the discs.  Worse than this, as the head starts to drift forward from these changes of the neck, our shoulders won’t move the same.  Also, breathing will become more difficult.  You can try this on your own – just push your head forward and attempt to rotate your shoulders like you were swimming or take deep breaths.  A landmark 2004 study looking at thousands of subjects found that the loss of curve in the neck will increase tension in the spinal cord and stretch the cord up to 5-7 centimeters.  The study found that people that had this loss of curve on average lived two years less than those who retained the normal curve in their neck.

The good news is that all of this can be prevented and many times reversed.  Obviously, focusing on normal posture is critical.  But even when the curve is lost, there are neck and shoulder exercises that work to undo the damage.  Contoured cervical pillows help prevent the problem, but only if you sleep on your back.  When the curve is already lost, in most cases, you will need to practice some form of neck traction/extension regularly over a period of 6-12 months and there are various products that are designed for this retraining of the neck.