The difference between principled chiropractic care and temporary relief care is the difference between optimal health and just feeling good.
Although chiropractic is effective in providing patch-up or pain relief care, we have found addressing the nervous system offers long term benefits. This is why our office specializes in principled chiropractic care.
Thanks to technological advances and new understanding of the spine and nervous system, we are now able to provide gentle and specific adjustments and use progress trackers like INSiGHT scanning technology and digital x-ray to document the changes. If we are able to accept your case, a care plan will be recommended based on the degrees of physical, emotional, and chemical stressors on your nervous system. Pre-existing levels of degeneration in your spine, your age, levels of activity, expected lifestyle choices/habits, prior or planned surgeries/procedures, and your response to an adjustment may be factored into the doctors’ recommendation in order to achieve the desired goal. Not every spine is correctable in the expected timeframe to the desired level, so we always start with a checkup to evaluate your potential for success in our office.
When a person seeks chiropractic care and their chiropractor accepts them for care, it is essential that they are both working toward the same goal. Traditionally, the focus of healthcare is centered around a person's symptoms and the treatment or relief of their symptoms. This is the entire basis for temporary relief care. Today, chiropractic care is very well known for its ability to provide pain relief care. It is often referred to as miraculous in its ability to provide relief where all other forms of healthcare have failed. Although many chiropractors specialize in and are extremely successful with providing pain relief care, this was never the intended purpose for chiropractic. From its inception over 125 years ago, chiropractic was designed to be a principled form of healthcare. The goal or objective of chiropractic is to restore the state of balance (homeostasis) or ease in nerve tone of the body. In order to do that chiropractors must identify the underlying cause of a persons health challenge and correct it. A cause known as a subluxation, interferes with the body's natural ability to heal itself and maintain health by creating a disconnect between the brain and the rest of the body. There are three components to a subluxation– 1. Misalignment (aka vertebral subluxation complex), 2. Fixation and tension, 3. Neurological interference and imbalance. The first two components are addressing spinal structure, while the third component which we will talk about more in the next section, causes all the trouble based on the effect it has on the central nervous system. The function of the nervous system is to perceive the environment and coordinate the behavior of all other cells. Subluxations decrease proprioceptive input into the brain and nervous system, allowing stressful stimuli to reach the brain– moving it into a sympathetic (fight-or-flight) mode. Principled chiropractors locate subluxations, thoroughly analyze all of its components, and design a specific program of adjustments to correct those subluxations. Most importantly, this is done to help you and your family learn how to achieve a state of optimal health and how to manage life stressors in the future.
The Perfect Storm
Is your child chronically sick?– difficulty nursing, colic, reflux, constipation, ear infections, RSV, croup, chronic colds, allergies, asthma, and chronic autoimmune issues. Or maybe your child is chronically stress?– autism, ADHD, sensory processing disorder, anxiety, depression, focus and learning challenges, and sleep disorders.
Well, there are 3 triggers of the perfect storm– stress during pregnancy or prenatal period, birth intervention + trauma, and early use of antibiotics + medications. It begins with birth, and then goes through these 5 stages.
Fussy, colicky, constipated, sleep challenged infant.
Sensory, constantly sick, challenging baby to the toddler stage (meaning antibiotics and steroid-based anti-inflammatory medications over and over.
Constantly wound up, sensory overwhelmed, hyperactive, impulsive, emotional “stuck” child.
Focus, concentration, organization, social, and emotional regulation challenged grade school child.
Exhausted, angry, anxious, depressed teenager.
To get our kids healthy, nothing matters more than figuring out exactly what caused them to get sick and struggle in the first place. For the vast majority of us, we’re still being told by our medical doctors that everything from autism, asthma, and allergies are just simple bad luck– genetic. Problem is, that is still the predominant place we put blame for chronic health issues today when 20 years ago amazing scientists and researchers like Dr. Bruce Lipton brought forth the reality of epigenetics. Now, as more and more parents take their first step out of the traditional medical model and get online looking for answers and explanations, we tend to find the vast majority of information centers around the topic of toxins and the gut. When you seek out help for your child in a more natural, holistic health care model, you’ll quickly be overwhelmed with information about supplements, diet changes, and detoxing chemicals from your entire household.
There is one thing that is clear to us in 90%+ of the perfect storm case histories that no one else is talking about– neurological birth trauma to babies. Things like induction, manual assistance, forceps, vacuum extraction, and C-section. Not to forget a very common contributing factor is prenatal and maternal stress during pregnancy.
The bones of the skull, upper neck, and entire spine are more than just structure. They are there to house and protect the most important aspect of our health– the central and autonomic nervous system. When these areas are physically injured and altered during the birthing process, their function is altered from the very first moments of life. Vital functions such as…
Controlling nerves and muscles responsible for breastfeeding, digestion, draining fluid from the ears, sinuses, etc.
Controlling and regulating our immune system and inflammatory cascade.
Controlling and regulating all sensory processing– eyes, auditory, smell, touch, etc.
Controlling and regulating our motor development, milestones, tone, balance, coordination, etc.
Controlling speech development and function.
Controlling and regulating all initial brain communication and coordination– social, emotional, behavioral, memory, decision-making, etc.
The one crucial nerve that connects and tethers all of those vital functions together is the Vagus Nerve. Another term you can tie to everything above is– subluxation. Subluxation simply means “stress stuck on”. Our central nervous system is the “Air Traffic Control” system that regulates and controls every other major system in the body. Its main operating center is located in the brainstem, which can get easily injured and get damaged during the birthing process. The autonomic nervous system is the first to develop in the womb and it does so in layers. The sympathetic “gas pedal” layer lays down at 12-14 weeks, and is fully developed at 30 weeks. The parasympathetic “brake pedal” layer that regulates the sympathetic (fight or flight) system only fully develops postnatally. So, the gas pedal is always on at birth and the brake pedal can only be applied several months later. Once subluxation sets up shop, it gets stuck and alters the most important of all infant and childhood brain development features– movement and motor milestones. So, let’s talk about subluxation…
What are the 10D’s of subluxation?
Dyskinesia – impaired motion or movement of a part of the body.
Diaschisis – sudden loss of function in part of the brain connected to damaged area. Often coupled with birth trauma causing a shock throughout the nervous system.
Distortion – twisting or altering out of its true, natural, original state.
Disruption – a break or interruption in the normal course or continuation of an activity or process disrupts maturation, leading to cognitive and behavioral symptoms.
Dysafferentation – abnormal input of sensory information from a body part to the brain perceiving the world as stressful. The Prefrontal Cortex cannot be in control when the Amygdala is turned on.
Dysautonomia – abnormal involuntary action or control from an imbalance of the Autonomic Nervous System.
Dysfunction – impaired physiologic action or property of an organ or other part of the body.
Dysregulation – abnormal adaptation of form or behavior of organs, glands, and blood vessels.
Dysponesis – abnormal energy expenditure or organization, especially with muscle activity.
Disconnection – an overwhelmed brain disconnects from reality both scientifically and theoretically.
Subluxation is an input or incoordination issue. The Perfect Storm is a viscous cycle that feeds itself– the cycle must be broken/interrupted first, then restored and recalibrated in a healthy, functional manner.
How Do We Find Subluxations?
Our INSiGHT scanning technology is non-invasive, and safe for any age and case history. It helps to find, measure, and quantify subluxation, to better address the storm. When the “noise” going into the brain increases, it means an inappropriate response will be going out. Parents show up looking for improvement and change in the behavior of their child but they need to understand that it’s simply the “normal” output to the current abnormal input and coordination. Toxic stress weakens the developing brain, leading to problems in learning, behavior, and physical and mental health. The great thing is that the brain can be extensively remodeled throughout the course of one’s life– This is called neuroplasticity. Nerves that fire together, wire together.
Our care is not designed to make you instantly feel better but to help you heal as fast as possible and progress toward a state of optimal health. Most importantly, we will help you and your family handle life stressors/challenges in the future and maintain an adaptable health state of ease with proper nerve tone and balance. The coolest part about this type of chiropractic care is that regular adjusting visits last just a few minutes, easily fitting into a family’s busy schedule and also being fun and enjoyable for the kids.
We specialize in neurologically-focused pediatric, prenatal, & family principled chiropractic care. We provide gentle, specific, and scientific chiropractic adjustments over time and with repetition to correct the root cause… the subluxation. We get amazing results and we look forward to serving you and your family soon!
If you would like more information and real life examples, be sure to check out our stories of hope and blog articles.
“There is a vast difference between treating effects and adjusting the cause" - D.D. Palmer
The Windsor Autopsies
Can an Unhealthy Spine Affect Internal Organs?
At the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Henry Winsor conducted an experiment based on chiropractors claim that by adjusting the vertebrae they can relieve stomach troubles, ulcers, menstrual cramps, thyroid conditions, kidney disease, constipation, heart disease, lung and other diseases. In this experiment, he dissected both human and animal cadavers to see if there was any relationship between any diseased internal organs discovered on autopsy and the vertebrae with the nerves that went to the organs. Dr. Winsor dissected 75 human and 72 cat cadavers. He found nearly 100% correlation between minor curvatures of the vertebrae and diseases of the internal organs.
Heart Disease
All 20 cases with heart and pericardium conditions had the upper five thoracic vertebrae misaligned (T1-T5).
Lung Disease
All 26 cases of lung disease has spinal misalignments in the upper thoracic area.
Stomach Disease
All nine cases of stomach disease had spinal misalignment in the mid-thoracic (T5-T9) area.
Liver Disease
All 13 cases of liver disease had misalignments in the mid-thoracic area (T5-T9).
Gallbladder
All five cases with gallstone disease had spinal misalignments in the mid-thoracic area (T5-T9).
Pancreas
All three cases with pancreas disease had spinal misalignments in the mid-thoracic area (T5-T9).
Spleen
All 11 cases with spleen disease had spinal misalignments in the mid-thoracic area (T5-T9).
Kidney
All 17 cases with kidney disease were out of alignment in the lower thoracic area (T10-T12).
Prostate and Bladder Disease
All eight cases with prostate disease had the lumbar vertebrae misaligned.
Uterus
Two cases with uterine conditions had the second lumbar misaligned.
Thymus
Two cases with thymus disease had lower neck and upper back misalignments.
Reference: Winsor, 11. Sympathetic segmental disturbances-11. The evidence association, in dissected cadavers, of visceral disease with vertebral Deformities of the Same Sympathetic Segments, Medical Times, 49 1-7 Nov. 1921.
For more information, please click the link to visit our research page.
