The importance of our nervous system
‘EVERY thought you’ve had, movement you’ve ever made and sensation you’ve ever experienced, has all been dependent on nerve messages flowing freely through your body. Your brain and spinal cord are protected by your skull and the 24 movable bones of your spine.’
So says Dr Jennifer Baham-Floreani, a chiropractic expert of more than 30 years, whose explicit description of the important yet largely misunderstood profession is one of the best I have come across in my brief study on the myths about chiropractors.
Even many medical doctors do not understand the work or chiropractors or do not want to accept them as part of the general health care in society. They have created myths that undermined the practice of chiropractors and that these myths have lingered on far too long.
In her book, Well Adjusted Babies, Dr Barham-Floreani points out that a person’s nervous system can be likened to "an information highway that delicately balances self-regulating mechanism”.
But the nerve messages could be interrupted or affected by vertebral subluxations (joint and nerve dysfunctions) which occur when there are misalignments of one or more vertebrae.
Many people are not aware of the dysfunctions because some subluxations are painless. They do not realise the presence of the subluxations in their body.
If the defects are not specifically treated and adjusted, the nervous system would not be able to coordinate with all bodily functions, including breathing, digestion and immune responses.
Dr Malcolm Rudd, who is treating my right thigh and neck, emphasises that the brain continuously produces vital messages that are decoded into electrical impulses, each with a purpose of performing an important function in a specific place within the body.
Millions of these messages are sent every second of a person’s life, passing from the brain to the body cells and then back to the brain.
Anything that interrupts the proper flow of electrical impulses through the nervous system should set off loud, beeping alarms in the body. But often it does not until a certain amount of damage has been done.
That’s what happened to me. I did not know what caused the pain in my right thigh. Neither the medical doctors nor the physiotherapists to whom I sought help mentioned any presence of subluxation or referred me to a chiropractor.
I had my regular morning exercises for years and my weekly massage. By any reckoning, I should be fit and, in fact, I am still fit.
Yet the pain occurred two years ago when I felt excruciating pain in my thigh. I had suffered in silence until my masseuse Eileen Reynolds insisted that I see a chiropractor.
Now, thanks to her and Dr Rudd, the pain has subsided considerably. It only appears when I sit too long at my computer. Otherwise I do not have any discomfort.
Dr Rudd tells of two interesting recent cases in which a man and a woman had their problems solved to their amazement.
For years the man had been able to climb a hill but could not come down from it without walking sideways in small steps at a time.
After some specific chiropractic treatment, he was able to walk up or down a hill without any problem.
The treatment on the woman has dramatically changed her from a very depressed state for years into a life of happiness and excitement that brought a remark from her husband: “You have given me back my wife.”
What is surprising to me is that chemical toxicity from foods, medications and the environment can cause reflexive stress to the spine.
Too much alcohol, sugar, preservatives and breathing environmental pollutants upset the body chemistry which, in turn, disrupts the tone of both muscles and ligaments resulting in vertebral subluxations.
I am told that regular consumption of sugar, which is commonly used in almost every kind of food, including breakfast products, biscuits, chocolate, coffee and tea, can depress the immune system. Its effectiveness can be reduced by 25% with as little as six teaspoon of sugar a day.
A child suffering cold or running nose consistently may find its cause at taking too much sugar daily. A tube of smarties, for example, contains 7.5 teaspoons of sugar.
The point here is to avoid sugar as much as possible and not to encourage children to take sugar in their early ages.
The question then comes to why a newborn baby needs to see a chiropractor?
Researches in numerous cases show that on average 85% of newborn babies have some forms of nerve dysfunctions or subluxations due to constraint or abnormal positioning in the uterus or spinal distress of the mother during delivery process.
The babies need to be checked and their spinal adjusted by chiropractors to enable them to grow healthy in their adult life.
Those interested to know more about a chiropractic guide for wholistic parenting from pregnancy through to early childhood should read Dr Barham-Floreani’s Well Adjusted Babies.
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