In October we discussed the five essential areas that you need to address if you want to achieve and maintain optimal wellness: Nutrition, Exercise, Adequate rest and relaxation, a positive mental attitude, and a nervous system which is free of interference. It’s this last component that I want to address this month.
So, what does your nervous system (brain, spinal cord, and all the branching nerves) have to do with health. Well, from the chiropractic perspective your health is based on 4 fundamental principles:
1. You are a self-healing organism. Your body is designed to heal itself. Think about this for a moment. If you get a simple cut, it usually heals in a few days all by itself. On the other hand, even the most expensive and finely tuned car won’t do this. If you scratch the paint on your Bentley, Lamborghini, or whatever, that scratch will remain unless you take it to the shop to have the scratch repaired. But what about more serious injuries? Even a broken bone heals by itself. The cast may provide the proper alignment and immobilization during the healing process, but it’s the bone that does its own healing. This is remarkable! Did you know that you get a new stomach lining every 5 days and a new set of taste buds every 11 days? Incredible! When you remove your clothes before going to bed tonight, thousands of tiny skin cells float to the floor, and then you vacuum yourself up in the morning. Were you aware that 98% of the dust in your house is you?! You are a very dusty person!
Think of yourself as running on “auto-pilot”. Your body performs this self healing function in addition to all the myriad of self regulating functions (digestion, immunity, temperature control, etc.) without your conscious control or even awareness. In order to perform all these amazing tasks, your body must follow a very exact program.
2. Your nervous system is the “thing” which oversees and runs this program. It’s like a central computer command centre which runs you. So long as your nervous system can communicate with every organ, cell, tissue, and every nook and cranny of you, you will be functioning with optimal health. This, in fact, is what “normal” is (or what it should be!).
3. Obviously then, if there is any type of interference with the function of the nervous system, your body won’t do what it’s designed to do, it will do it’s own thing. This is definitely not okay!
4. The purpose of chiropractic is to locate and correct these areas of interference and restore law and order to the system. Hence, my patients and I are like the new sheriffs in town!
Does this all make sense?
Next month we’ll talk about what causes this interference, some of the real effects, and what you can do about it.
Till then, cheers!
Dr. Paul is the owner of Weber Chiropractic Clinic and Wellness Centre in Port Hope. He can be reached at 905-885-9306, or you may visit his website http://www.drpaulweber.com/.
