Complete and thorough healing requires time

“Paint’s Not Dry Yet…”

You're a few weeks into your Chiropractic care and you're starting to feel better.  You want to get back to your routine as soon as possible.  There's a ton to do around the house, the garden, you've got a family to take care of and you can't wait to get back to the gym.  You have an urgency to start 'living' again.  Problem is… the paint's not quite dry yet.

It's not uncommon to feel 'done' after a few adjustments. When the innate recuperative abilities of your body kick in, you might look and feel remarkably new – like a fresh coat of paint. But like a fresh coat of paint, looks can be deceiving.  What seems completely dry (healed) on the surface may still have a few tacky areas underneath. It is similar to casting a broken bone. After a couple of days it ‘feels’ better, but, the bone is not mended yet. If you jump the gun and try to re-hang the fixtures, you might ruin the finish and need to start all over again.

Complete and thorough healing requires time.  Even though you may feel like your old self after a few Chiropractic sessions, it's no green light to go back to your old activities.  The stabilizing phase of care (where you feel so good you wonder why you're still coming in) is where all the 'paint curing' happens.  Give your body the time it needs to completely dry and you'll be happier with the end results. 

Healing is a process of RE-creating yourself

The Sixth Principle in Chiropractic states there is no process which does not require time, including the healing process.  BJ Palmer (the developer of Chiropractic) believed that with time and clarity in the nerve system, the body could heal itself in just about any situation.

A sick cell is replaced by a healthy one – healthy cells become healthy tissues – healthy tissues become healthy organs – healthy organs make a healthy human being.  The conversion from sickness to wellness is an innate process that can only be performed by the doctor within you, via a well toned nerve system.

Healing is therefore a process of RE-creating yourself, one cell at a time, over a period of time.  The power that made your body is more than capable of converting you from sickness to wellness.  All it needs is a clear pathway and enough sand in the hour glass to accomplish it.

Symptoms are your body's attempt to save itself

A family physician tells his patient "There are 3 stages of pain. The first stage, the pain is bad enough to catch your attention. The second stage it takes hold of you, and at the third stage it finally compels you to do something about it."  The patient asks his doctor, "When it gets to stage three what should I do?"  Without a blink, the doctor turns to him and says "take some Motrin…" (A true and all too often sad story)

The worst part is the patient actually thought it was good advice.  When he relays the story to his Chiropractor, the Chiropractor responds "If your smoke detector went off in your home, the 1st time it would probably catch your attention…  the 2nd time it would most likely take hold of you.  But if it went off a 3rd time and you were finally compelled to do something, would you take the batteries out so you wouldn't have to hear it anymore?  "Of course not," the patient replied "that would be stupid…" The patient got the point.

The moral of the story… Symptoms are your body's attempt to save itself.  Masking your symptoms (whether it’s pain, nausea, diarrhea or fever) with drugs doesn't fix the problem, it can actually make the situation worse.  Wouldn’t it be smarter to get to the CAUSE of the problem and deal with it the RIGHT way.  That's why they call Chiropractors DC's  because they are Doctors of finding the Cause! 

Chiropractic and Head Forward Posture

(borrowed from scienceinbrief.com)

Hyperkyphotic Posture 

 (Dowagers hump, extreme head forward posture, those people who walk around like they are looking on the ground for something. 

Stuff in red is from me) 

Predicts Mortality in Older

Community-Dwelling Men and Women: a prospective study ¹

Some of this is technical, but all very informative. 

The Facts:

a. The authors studied the association between thoracic hyperkyphosis and mortality in over 1300 individuals with a mean age of 73.

b. If the individual laid on their back and was unable to rest the head on the table without putting the neck into hyperextension they were considered to have thoracic hyperkyphosis.

c.   Patients were followed for an average of 4.2 years.

d.   Those "with hyperkyphotic posture had greater mortality rates. Increased severity of "kyphotic posture" appeared to be associated with a higher risk of mortality.

Discussion: Obviously, the inability to bring the head back to neutral resting position COULD be also caused by factors other than thoracic hyperkyphosis, but what's important here is that POSTURE appears to be associated with early mortality. Interestingly, thoracic kyphosis was found to be twice as common in men (44%) as women(22%) in this study, which seems to be at odds with conventional thought that thoracic hyperkyphosis is commonly caused by osteoporosis, a condition much more common in women.

The "NORMAL" Thoracic Kyphosis (curve)...

              Obviously, a radiographic evaluation of the T spine gives us a much more accurate idea of the sagittal curvature.

              Harrison defined the thoracic kyphosis as ELLIPTICAL in shape, having a Jackson's (Cobb) angle of 44.2 degrees from T1-T-12. Realizing the difficulty of visualizing both T1 and T12 on the radiograph, Harrison recalculated the model to reflect a thoracic kyphosis of 33.3 degrees between T 3 and T10. ²

Vaz et al, define the average thoracic kyphosis as 47 degrees in healthy young adults. ³

Boseker et al, defined a range of "normalcy" between 20-50 degrees in healthy children. ⁴

So you can see that opinions vary as to what is actually normal. I encourage interested readers to come to do some reading and establish in their mind what they consider to be the appropriate upper limits of thoracic kyphosis. Personally, I generally tend to view curves in excess of 40 degrees (as measured from T3-T10) as suspect. That's just my opinion based on my reading of the literature, but 40 degrees is an upper limit you will find frequently cited. Regardless of which value you consider appropriate, it is important to have some sort of firm upper limit, above which you will start considering clinical intervention.

Clinical Management:

A number of tools have been looked at for treating thoracic hyperkyphosis but definitive research is still sorely lacking. Some options you may want to consider are exercise, bracing, and spinal remodeling (chiropractic). Here are two simple, inexpensive tools I have found to be helpful.

Thoracic Rolls

One method of actively addressing the thoracic kyphosis is to simply place the patient over a large foam roll (in the 10-13" diameter range work well for this), have them cross their arms on their chest and raise their hips up, and then "roll" themselves up and down over the roll by alternately flexing and extending the knees. This does two things. First, it introduces a fulcrum effect into the mid T spine to help reduce the kyphosis. Secondly the rolling motion helps mobilize the spine and costovertebral articulations to promote a reduction of kyphosis.

  

Thoracic Arch

                      Another method is to simply allow the patient to passively rest over a foam roll or fulcrum, working up from 1 minute to 20-30 minutes. This time frame allows for stretching of the paraspinal tissues to occur and for the spine to "remodel" into a reduced kyphosis.  

I generally start with the patient over the arch with the fulcrum at the apex of the kyphosis as shown above. Once they can comfortably relax for the full 20-30 minutes without any problems or soreness, I place a 1" spacer beneath the arch to raise it up and increase the leverage effect into the mid thoracics. Occasionally, I may end up placing an additional spacer or two as needed to effectively introduce extension into the thoracics.

References:

1.Kado DM, Huang MH, Karlamangla AS, Barett-Connor E, Greeendale GA. Hyperkyphotic posture predicts mortality in older community-dwelling men and women: a prospective study. JAGS 2004;52:1662-7

2. Harrison DE, Janik TJ, Harrison DD, Cailliet R, Harmon SF. Can the thoracic kyphosis be modeled with a simple geometric shape? The results of circular and elliptical modeling in 80 asymptomatic patients. J. Spiinal Disord Tech. 2002 Jun;15(3):213-20.

3. Vaz G, Roussouly P, Berthonnaud E, Dimnet J. Sagittal morphology and equilibrium of pelvis and spine.Eur Spine J. 2002 Feb;11(1):80-7.

4. Boseker EH, Moe JH, Winter RB, Koop SE. Determination of "normal" thoracic kyphosis: a roentgenographic study of 121 "normal" children. J Pediatr Orthop.2000 Nov-Dec;20(6):796-8.

1 out of 3 people over 65 fall each year

1 out of 3 people over 65 fall each year – 13,700 fatalities, 1.8 million to ER – Once a fall occurs there’s a 50% chance of another fall within 6 months (from a CDC report).

A great argument for the importance of good posture, spinal hygiene and of course Chiropractic care. You might not be over 65 but you might know someone who would benefit from having their nerve system balanced to help them stay balanced.

What does the world look like through Chiropractic colored glasses?

You have probably heard of ‘rose colored’ glasses. What does the world look like through Chiropractic colored glasses?  Does your health shine brighter… are your relationships with friends and family more in focus…  is your job performance sharper and crisper?

You 'see' everything through your nerve system – how you feel, how you interact with the people around you, how you react to your environment, how you perform at home or at work.  When your nerves are stressed, the line between barely existing and fully living is blurred.  However, the more clear your nerve system, the better your ability to interact physically, mentally and spiritually with the world around you; and ultimately the better your quality of Life.

When a Chiropractor adjusts the stress from your nerve system, it's like cleaning the dirt, streaks and smudges from the lens through which you interpret your world – and with a clear lens you can see all  your potential.

 Life is vibrant when you're viewing it through Chiropractic glasses.

The subluxation is in danger!

A very entertaining video done by a fellow Logan College graduate,

Dr. Jim Saeli.

Watch it to the end to get the full ’story’.

Coconut oil

They, you know 'they' 'them', used to say coconut oil was terrible and very bad for your health.

Watch this video to the end.