Chiropractic Care Produces Improved Relationships

            Getting along with people is one of the greatest challenges in life.  Marriage, family, “neighbor,” and national problems account for most of the conflicts and stresses in life.  One of the reasons why conflict in personal relationships is difficult to resolve is because often the problem lies with us.  Sure, there are miserable people in this world who probably cannot get along with anybody, but almost everybody seems to be able to get along with somebody.  Why is it that some marriages are unsuccessful and when both parties remarry they are happy?  There are probably many reasons but one has to be within the people themselves.  In describing difficult relationships we sometimes say there is “poor chemistry” between two people.  While that usually is used in an idiomatic way, it may be closer to the truth than we want to admit.

            Our chemistry does affect how we relate to people.  Change peoples’ chemistry with alcohol and those who are normally meek and mild may become aggressive and belligerent.  Often people need a couple of drinks at the end of the day to “wind down.” While the causes of ADD in children have not yet been determined, chemical factors are clearly involved.  There are dozens of other examples of how our chemistry affects our ability to get along with people.  Some people need a couple of martinis at lunch to get through the day.  Even the expression “take a pill” implies that changing our chemistry would make people easier to get along with.  Yet, we wonder why the drug problem is so great especially among our young people.  We seem to be teaching them that to improve relationships or be able to handle relationships, we must alter our body chemistry.  Perhaps if our body chemistry was right in the first place, we could handle some of the adversity that comes our way in the form of people with whom we have everyday contact. 

There is also the fact that people who just do not feel well, whose bodies are not working as they should, are not usually the happiest of people and not the easiest people to get along with.  It could be that health-and life-robbing vertebral subluxations are contributing to their bad disposition.  Given that the nerve system controls the glands that produce all of the chemicals in the body, vertebral subluxation could and does directly affect body chemistry and consequently indirectly affects our moods.  Here’s another thought, suppose the people that irritate us were under chiropractic care?  If we maintain that the problem is not us but is them, then perhaps getting them under care, improving their body chemistry and enabling them to function better will make them kinder, nicer and easier to get along with.  Sure that may appear to be a selfish reason to refer your boss or your neighbor or you fellow worker to the chiropractor, but remember it benefits them also.  They will be healthier, happier, and let’s face it, improved relationships work both ways.  Of course, chiropractic will not solve all the world’s problems or even all of yours but if we can solve even a few that would be a good start.

Our chemistry does affect how we relate to people.

Increased Income Earning Capacity

            In 1941 Ted Williams batted .406.  In over 60 years since then no one has batted .400.  What’s the difference between batting .400 and batting .200?  It is getting just two more hits every ten times up to bat.  Now that does not seem like a tremendous feat, yet a .200 hitter never makes it to the major leagues and a .400 hitter appears to be a near impossibility.  What kind of salary would a .400 hitter command?  Well, we know what kind of salary a .200 hitter receives.  It’s 2,000 dollars a month during the six or seven months of the baseball season.  It’s called the minor leagues.  They never make it to the Majors and the million dollar a year salaries.

            So what does baseball have to do with you?  Probably not much except as a spectator.  The point is that often there is very little difference between greatness and mediocrity.  That is why so many athletes do so many little things just to get a little bit of an edge.  Well baseball is a living, a means of earning an income, for a few, a very good income.  The principle of paying attention to the small things in order to be successful can be applied to any business, job or profession.  Not only is it paying attention to the small things but it includes making sure that you take care of the seeming unimportant things, the things that you think can take care of themselves.

            One area that people take for granted is their health and proper function.  They do not worry about it until they lose it, until it begins to affect their job, their productivity or their earning capacity.  Here is a thought:  feeling poorly, being sick, not having sufficient physical and mental energy, not being able to focus on your work will affect your productivity, your earning capacity and your ability to succeed in your line of work.  Everyone can understand that.  Well suppose you do not ever realize that you are working at less than your capacity, that you are not experiencing the mental and physical energy necessary to do your job better.  There are thousands of people every week who get laid off or fired because they were not doing their job satisfactorily and they did not even know it.  Maybe you are not in danger of being fired but perhaps there are things you could be doing to make you a better employee, a more valuable asset to your company, to be more productive in whatever you do.  Maybe getting to bed earlier, or getting more exercise would do it.  Getting your spine checked and adjusted on a regular basis has to be an advantage.  It has to make you better if your nerve system is working at a higher level because every organ, gland and cell in your body needs the vital nerve energy to do its job.  If your nerve system is effectively doing its job, free of vertebral subluxations then you can effectively do your job and advance to the highest level possible.  Keep your nerve system working at its greatest potential so you can work at yours.

Getting your spine checked and adjusted on a regular basis has to be an advantage.

More Hours in Your Day

            We are all given the same amount of time in a day, 24 hours or 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds.  Why is it then that some people seem to be so productive in the course of a day, while the greatest accomplishments for the day for others may be just getting out of bed, getting dressed and eating three meals?  Have you ever been asked what you did the day before or over the weekend and for the life of you, you could not recount any worthwhile accomplishment?  If it’s the weekend you can usually get away with saying “I just relaxed” (although you may not feel that rested and you wish you could respond with an exciting, event-filled weekend.)  Why is it that so many people just do not feel like they are getting anywhere in life, not accomplishing their goals, not getting ahead in work and/or accomplishing more of the lofty goals they had as a young person?

            Time-management people say that the major problem is not that people do not have enough hours in the day but that they do not use the time that they have in a wise manner.  To be successful people must prioritize their day.  It is not enough to just have a list of things to do but to make sure that the list indicates the importance of the things to be done and that the most important things are done first.  Sadly for many people getting their spines checked and having subluxations adjusted is just not a priority in their day.  They would like to visit the chiropractor but the “tyranny of the urgent” controls their lives.  They do the things that they have to do rather than the things that they want to do.  Often the “have to do” things are not even important when it comes down to it—but we have just not prioritized our day.  Another reason why people do not accomplish what they should or what they want is that they just do not have the energy to do everything that needs to be done.  How many people spend an hour or two or more in front of the television and their to-do-list goes unfinished.  They just did not have enough energy.  If this happens long enough, what usually occurs is that the person stops making lists (and probably ends up watching more and more television.)

            Another problem with “too few hours” is poor planning and not scheduling your day most effectively.  As a result, we are re-tracing our steps often going past the same place twice and generally wasting time.  So what can we do about these problems?  Well, follow the experts’ advice.  Prioritize your day, make out a schedule of things you need to do and follow your plan.  Make sure that you regularly schedule a visit to the chiropractor.  It will give you more life, enable you to keep up an active schedule and get all those things done that you need to do with energy and time left over.  Try it, you may be surprised at the results!

Time-management people say

that the major problem is not that people

do not have enough hours in the day

 but that they do not use the time

that they have  in a wise manner.

More Balanced Body Chemistry

            Proper balance to our body chemistry is an important aspect of good health, proper function, and reaching your potential in every area of life.  There are a number of things that can upset your body chemistry such as food, alcohol, medications, the environment and pollutants that we take in with our food, water, and air.  Proper body chemistry and the production of the right chemicals in the right amounts is vital to almost every activity.  Scientists in the health field are realizing that many diseases, in fact, most diseases have at least some imbalance in body chemistry as a cause.  Diseases, like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, are directly related to the improper production of certain chemicals.  We are all aware that diabetes is caused by the body’s inability to produce an important chemical called insulin.

            Aside from health issues, proper body chemistry is important to overall well-being.  You cannot go to sleep at night if your body does not produce the right chemicals or if your body is producing the wrong chemicals.  You cannot thread a needle, climb steps, butter your bread, laugh, drive a car or just about anything else unless the chemistry in your body is balanced.

            So what causes an upset or an imbalance of your body chemistry beside the things we mentioned earlier?  One thing, the thing that attracts the attention of the chiropractor, is a vertebral subluxation.  There are millions of glands and cells in the body that produce chemicals.  Every cell in the body produces chemicals for its own use.  But many of them also produce chemicals that are responsible for the functions already mentioned and thousands more that the average person does not even know about.   Actually it is a pretty wonderful thought, to realize that whether or not we know anything about the thousands of chemical reactions that are taking place right this second in our bodies, they are happening and keeping us alive and well.  For them to occur, they must receive the proper messages through the nerve system.  You can imagine how important communication is if there are thousands of glands and cells producing all these chemicals.  Any interruption in the communication system and the body just cannot do its job to properly produce chemicals and balance body chemistry.  That is exactly what a vertebral subluxation does, it disrupts communication resulting in an imbalance in body chemistry.  Can you live that way?  Well sure but not as well as you can with a well-balanced body chemistry.  Will it eventually lead to problems?  Absolutely!  Will it eventually cause diabetes, or Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s?  Well, we do not know that.  Everyone is different.  There are obviously other factors beside vertebral subluxation that determine whether a person gets sick or not and which disease they manifest, but getting adjusted regularly will definitely increase your chance of staying well!?!.  But more important, a more balanced body chemistry will improve the likelihood that you stay healthy just as eating good food, exercising regularly and getting the proper sleep will increase that likelihood.  Most important, when your body chemistry is balanced every activity you participate in will be improved.

Proper body chemistry and the production of the

right chemicals in the right amounts is vital to

almost every activity.

Greater Value From Your Exercise

            Regular exercise is essential to maximum health and overall well being.  Some insurance companies have financial incentives for their customers encouraging them to exercise.  Some businesses provide facilities for their employees to exercise.  They know that not only will there be less lost time because of sickness but when the employee is at work, he or she will be more alert and able to focus on their job tasks.  They are beginning to realize something that chiropractors have been saying for years, that the human body cannot be divided into the physical and the mental. Everything is related.  The brain is an organ like the heart.  If exercise is good for the heart, then it is good for the brain.  If it helps the heart work better, it will also enable the brain to work better.  Will exercise make the difference between having a heart attack and not having one?  Authorities say that is a distinct possibility.  Well then, it logically follows that it could make a difference between being able to use your brain effectively for the entire day rather than only three or four hours.  Would that greater efficiency benefit you in your job?  That also is a distinct possibility.

            If exercise is that important (and it is), then it is equally important to consider things that significantly impact your exercise. Chiropractic is such a thing.  There are two ways in which chiropractic directly affects your exercise.  First, some people just do not have the energy to exercise.  It is true that exercising regularly will enable your body to work better, which results in more energy, but it is difficult to break the negative cycle to get motivated to get up off the couch and exercise.  Chiropractic enables your body to work better by removing interference in the nerve system.  Often that is just enough motivation to allow you to get into a health routine.  Chiropractic can also help motivate you by helping you to understand more about the human body, what benefits it, and what does not.  As you become more appreciative of the wisdom of the body that has the ability to take what you eat, as well as the exercise and the rest you get and make you all that you can be you cannot help but be motivated to take better care of your body.

            Besides motivation, chiropractic affects your exercise by a physiological factor.  For your body to benefit from exercise to a maximum degree, you must have a good nerve supply.  You could exercise the parts of a corpse and it would not be one bit stronger, healthier or have more tone to its muscles.  It needs life to get any benefit at all.  In order to get the maximum benefit, a body needs the maximum amount of life, that is a full supply of mental impulses flowing over the nerve system to all parts of the body.  That can only occur if you are free of vertebral subluxations.  A paralyzed person can have their muscles exercised and receive therapeutic movements but it will not benefit them because the vital life energy is not flowing over the nerves.  Similarly, if a vertebra is subluxated, it interferes with some of the vital mental impulses that enable an exercised muscle to get stronger.  If you are going to exercise and you should,  be sure to not waste your time and energy.  Make sure your muscles have all the energy they need to maximize their potential.  Make sure that your spine is regularly checked for these life-robbing vertebral subluxations so that you get the most from your exercise program.

Times Are Changing

Dwight Lundell MD of Mesa AZ, in his expose´ entitled "World Renown Surgeon Speaks Out On What Really Causes Heart Disease," provides a lucid explanation of the widespread poor health in our culture, and a remarkably simple and accessible set of solutions.

A former hospital Chief of Staff with over 2500 heart surgeries to his credit, Dr. Lundell said, "We opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from... elevated blood cholesterol. The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a diet that severely restricted fat intake... Deviations from these recommendations were considered heresy and could... result in malpractice. These recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally defensible. The discovery a few years ago that inflammation in the artery wall is the real cause of heart disease is slowly leading to a paradigm shift in how heart disease and other chronic ailments will be treated.

The long-established dietary recommendations have created epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the consequences of which dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences... Simply stated, without inflammation being present in the body, there is no way that cholesterol would accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause heart disease and strokes. Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature intended. It is inflammation that causes cholesterol to become trapped.

The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine... The biggest culprits of chronic inflammation... are the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour and all the products made from them) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower... in... processed foods.

Take a moment to visualize rubbing a stiff brush repeatedly over soft skin until it becomes... red and nearly bleeding. If you kept this up several times a day... you would have a bleeding, swollen infected area that became worse with each repeated injury. A diseased artery looks as if someone took a brush and scrubbed repeatedly against its wall. There is no escaping the fact that the more we consume prepared and processed foods, the more we trip the inflammation switch little by little each day. The human body cannot process... foods packed with sugars and soaked in omega-6 oils.

There is but one answer to quieting inflammation, and that is returning to foods closer to their natural state. To build muscle, eat more protein. Choose carbohydrates that are very complex such as colorful fruits and vegetables. Cut down on or eliminate inflammation-causing omega-6 fats like corn and soybean oil and the processed foods that are made from them."

The time is coming when physicians of all kinds will awaken to things natural, as we have professed for over a century. Have faith, and keep telling people the truth -- it's working.

This is a post from Dennis Perman's weekly newsletter.

Happy New Year

The first quarter of 2012 is almost over and spring weather is in full swing.  Do you still remember your New Year's resolutions?  Are you on track to reach them by summer?  Are you still committed or have you thrown in the towel already.

My mentor Dr. Bill Harris says "Determined persistence is the key to lasting success and achievement".

Are you determined and are you being persistent?  If not, take a deep breath and re-commit and take a small and focused step to get back on track so you will achieve your goals that you set on January 1, 2012.

How Is Your Sleep?

            With all the labor-saving devices of our modern society, somehow we never seem to have more time to sleep.  We just seem to have more activities to fill our time.  Studies have demonstrated that most people do not believe that they get enough sleep.  This, despite the fact that everyone knows that getting the proper rest is essential to health and well being.  It is also interesting that you never hear someone say, “Boy, I’ve been getting too much sleep lately, I need to cut back.”  They may say that about exercise or eating but never sleep.  In fact, if a person continually gets a great amount of sleep they usually still do not feel rested and the conclusion often is that there is something physically wrong with them!

            So how much sleep does the average person need?  Actually, no one cares what the average person needs.  Everyone really wants to know how much they need, and frankly, no one can tell you that.  The amount each individual needs is an individual thing.  It varies from person to person, and also from day to day depending upon physical and mental activity, as well as physiological changes taking place in your body on a given day and the general stress level in your life.  If no one can know how much we need, how can we know what is the necessary amount of sleep?

            The answer lies in listening to our bodies.  Our bodies tell us when we are tired, when we need to go to bed and get some sleep.  In a similar manner, we can know when we have gotten enough sleep, that is when we wake up refreshed and feel like we have more energy.  We do not get drowsy during the course of the day and when we finally go to sleep at night, we quickly fall into a deep restful sleep.  That is the way it should be, and for many people life is like that.  These are the people whose bodies are working as they should.  Their body is producing the right chemicals in the right amount for them to get a restful sleep and to wake up refreshed.  We know chemicals make us sleep and keep us awake.  After all, people take chemicals in the form of drugs to go to sleep or stay awake.  The problem is that it is not the natural way.  The body is not producing those chemicals and as a result, they have to have harmful side-effects.

            How well your body is producing “sleep chemicals” and “awake chemicals” is a function of your innate wisdom and the nerve system which directs the production of those chemicals.  How quickly and how deeply you fall asleep is also a direct function of your nerve system.  When there is an interference in the nerve system due to a vertebral subluxation, your body just cannot function as it should and the sleep-regulating system, as well as every other system in your body is negatively affected.  By checking your spine regularly, your chiropractor can correct these subluxations as soon after they occur as possible.  This results in a minimum of nerve interference to the sleep-regulating mechanism.  As a result, your body works better.  You may be able to get to sleep sooner, get to a deeper, more restful sleep and awaken refreshed.  Chiropractic adjustments cannot provide more hours of sleep time in your day but it can make the hours that you do sleep more productive, more refreshing and more restorative and that may be even better than having more time to sleep.

By checking your spine regularly, your chiropractor can correct these subluxations as soon after they occur as possible.

A Longer Life

            With few exceptions, all of us would like the opportunity to add years to our life, especially if they were quality years in which we could be productive or enjoy the activities of retirement.  While it is true that people are living slightly longer than they did a century ago, it is debatable whether the quality of that life is better.  We know though that it is possible to live a longer life, even to live a good, long life. There is an old adage that says, “If you want to live to a ripe old age, choose your grandparents wisely.”  The point being that there are some things that are out of our control.  We have a genetic “shelf life” built into each of us and that varies widely from one person to the next.  Yet, generally speaking, experts suggest that the human body was designed to live 120-150 years.  In fact, some scientists believe the human body was created to live a thousand years!  Even taking the lowest figure, 120 years is still far more than most people live, although there are people who do live well over 100 years demonstrating that it is possible.  If it is possible for one person to do it, then the body is designed to live that long. 

Still, it is unusual enough that if someone does live to be 100, the local newspapers want to do an interview and ask him or her what the secret to longevity is.  Some of the “secrets” these centenarians give are quite amusing and often contradictory.  One will say he drinks alcohol every day, the other says he never touches alcohol.  One says hard work, the other says no work!  But of all the questions asked, one question is never asked.  Why does less than only one in 1,000 live past the age of 100?  What is keeping the rest from reaching the century mark? 

Honestly, none of the 100 year olds seem to have a “special secret,” and there is no secret to longevity common to them all.  As much as diet and exercise are important factors, that does not seem to be the secret.  Many of them do not have diets different from the average person and many of them do not regularly exercise.  Conversely, many people who eat well and regularly exercise all their lives do not live nearly as long.  Does that mean you should ignore good eating habits and regular exercise?  Of course not.  But there must be something else, some factor that is common to everyone, that prevents 99+% of the population from reaching 100 years of age.

            While not claiming to have the answers, I have a suggestion.  The ability of your body to generate life, the vital mental impulses to all parts of the body enabling them to work in a coordinated manner, is essential to a long and healthy life.  Some people may have naturally better functioning nerve systems, more powerful generators if you will.  Clearly, the ability to get these vital messages through to all organs, tissues and cells is as important a factor as the ability of the body to generate them in the first place.  It’s no coincidence that people who do not live to be 100 have bodies that quit working properly.  The heart is the most common factor but we also blame pre-100 deaths on problems of the lungs, kidney and liver. 

Here’s another question no one seems to be asking.  If the body is designed to last 120 years, why do some of the parts break down along the way?  One factor definitely is a lack of vital life energy from the brain to the parts over the nerve pathways.  That is where the chiropractor comes in, correcting vertebral subluxations that deprive the body of life-giving, life-extending, vital mental impulses.  Does that mean that going to a chiropractor will guarantee a longer life?  No, there are no guarantees that you will not be hit by a truck tomorrow.  But we can say just by sheer logic that, all things being equal and barring unforeseen trauma, if you have a good nerve supply, you have to live longer than if you do not.  Just as, all things being equal, exercising and eating healthy will extend your life.  Chiropractic enables you to have a good nerve supply.