Does Your Digestion Need A Tune-Up?

            “One man’s meat is another man’s poison” is an old saying that still conveys a lot of truth.  Why is it that some people can eat anything, while others complain that just about everything disagrees with them.  We can solve the problem by just avoiding particular foods or food groups.  Yet, while that may ease the discomfort, it does not resolve the problem.  The body is still not functioning as it should.  Perhaps much of the difficulty in people’s lives results from constantly avoiding or ignoring little problems or covering them up with medication, while the cause of the body functioning incorrectly is never addressed.  If the body cannot digest a certain food and you do not eat that food, you are symptom free.  But that does not resolve the problem.  There is something wrong in your digestive system and if not corrected, it will create problems later in life.  If your car shakes and has abnormal vibrations when you get up to speeds of 60 MPH would it be wise to keep your speed below 60 and ignore checking into the cause of the problem?  Of course not.  You may damage your car or endanger your life.  Ignoring certain foods and not trying to find out why your digestive system is not working properly pretty much amounts to the same thing.

            The digestive system is one of the most delicately balanced systems in the body.  Think about all the different types of food we eat.  Did you know it takes a different type of chemical substance to digest all of the different types?  Sugars, fats and proteins all require different chemicals to be digested and assimilated.  On top of that, we usually put them all in the body at the same time!  Somehow our bodies know which chemicals work on which foods and how much is needed for the proper digestion of each.  When our bodies are working properly, the innate wisdom of the body produces these chemicals exactly as needed.  When you realize that digestion in the stomach necessitates highly corrosive hydrochloric acid and yet the stomach lining is protected from being burned, you have to be in awe of our fantastic bodies.

            Suppose the cells that produce the protective coating for the stomach were not working as they should.  Messages from the brain over the nerve system are needed to produce that protective coating as well as to produce the right amount of acid at the right time.  Every function of digestion, whether in the mouth, the stomach, the intestines or anywhere in between, necessitates chemical production which in turn necessitates mental impulses from the brain.  If there is an interference to these mental impulses, the body will not and cannot work as it should.  That interference occurs with vertebral subluxation.  Digestion and assimilation of food is necessary for life and health.  Proper digestion and assimilation is vital to a healthy and productive life. Keep your digestive system working at its maximum by seeing your chiropractor regularly to have your spine checked for vertebral subluxation.

Keep your digestive system working at its maximum by seeing your chiropractorregularly to have your

spine checked for vertebral subluxation.

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.

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.