Thursday, March 16, 2017

Car Crash? Whiplash? Dash to the Chiropractor Fast!

Do you have tissue issues and spinal subluxations following a car or motorcycle accident? You’re not alone. According to the American Academic of Orthopedic Surgeons, 15 to 40 percent of car crash victims will struggle with chronic pain for the rest of their lives. A major culprit: whiplash, a condition in which a forceful back-and-forth movement injures the neck.
Whiplash is not a new injury. For many years during the railroad boom, the neck and back pain resulting from railroad crashes was colloquially referred to as “railroad spine.” Though rare at the time, whiplash has become a common cause of chronic pain, as people rely on (fast) automobile transport more than ever before. The faster the crash, the more severe the whiplash.


Do you really need help?
Maybe you were only involved in a fender-bender. Maybe you have never been diagnosed with whiplash, but you still feel a little banged up months or years after the accident. Even if you were never formally diagnosed with whiplash, you may have suffered spinal trauma. At low speeds of ten to fifteen miles per hour, spinal damage can occur.
And whiplash doesn’t just go away. In the longest-running study on whiplash, over half of people diagnosed with whiplash struggled with chronic pain nearly twenty years after initial diagnosis. If not corrected, whiplash can disparage your quality of life.
Beyond the Spine
Spinal misalignment is not the only carryover from a car accident. You may be weighed down by tight muscles and anxiety. After reading the previous two posts, it may not surprise you that these accident-related problems are interconnected.
Your emotions and body positioning at the time of the accident matter. Maybe you had your head tilted talking on the phone when you got into the accident. Maybe you were stressed and tense. Even if you don’t remember what you were doing or how you were feeling, your body does. And until you address this trauma with chiropractic care, you will carry the emotions and the pain with you into the future. The traumatic memory of an accident is seared into your mind and body.
According to Psychopharmacologist Candice Perts, our tissues are storage receptacles for emotion. A misaligned spine and car-crash terror traumatize our tissues. We each have a little-known, thin web of connective tissue that runs from our head to our toes, holding everything in place. This fascia is why we have shape, form, and bodily integrity. When it is healthy, fascia is strong, supple, and hydrated. But car-crash trauma makes it weak, brittle, and dry. In this unhealthy state, it all too easily coils and knots—the painful, obvious indicator of tissue trauma.
If your muscles are tight and your mind is unsettled following an accident, you have tissue issues! Aligning your spine with chiropractic care will jumpstart muscle relaxation, putting you on the path to recovery.
Finding Relief
No conventional treatment is proven effective in the treatment of whiplash. Because the medical community has an incomplete understanding of whiplash-related chronic pain, some doctors prescribe symptom-masking, addictive pain pills. But the frustrating reality is that these provide no long-term remission from the pain. Each year Americans spend around $5.2 billion dollars on whiplash treatment methods, many of which are ineffective.
Chiropractic care and movement-based therapies are evidence-supported, long-term solutions for whiplash because they get to the root of the problem: spinal misalignment and limited range of motion. In one remarkable but small-scale study, 93 percent of patients who had been diagnosed with whiplash improved following chiropractic care. How’s that for effective?
If you or a loved one is still suffering from the devastating effects of a car or motorcycle accident, dash to the chiropractor fast!

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

The Backbone of Mind-Body Health

Ever wonder why a sore neck and back goes hand-in-hand with anxiety? If so, then pat yourself on your sore back! You have intuitively identified the strong connection between the mind and body.
Unfortunately, for hundreds of years, Western medicine has ascribed to the belief that the mind and body are separate, isolated parts. This belief system, called dualism, dissects the body in such a way that a pill is prescribed for nearly every problem. Sound familiar? To our detriment, holistic (a.k.a. integrative) lifestyle changes are often (mis)characterized as ineffective.
But this is changing. Integrative medicine (including chiropractic care) has begun to edge out the pharmaceutical industry in the treatment of chronic disease. Researchers are beginning to discover the truth behind ancient wisdom: an aligned spine is literally the backbone of overall wellbeing, connecting the brain to the rest of the body. The brain is not isolated from the body after all!
If you understand this, you have the bedrock of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI). Do not be intimated by the lingo! PNI is a fancy name for a field that tries to connect the mind and emotions (psycho), the brain and spine (neuro), and the immune system (immunology). All in a day’s work!
Psychoneuroimmunology: The Body as One
But how does PNI relate to chiropractic care? The spine connects the brain and body. Changes in the body, like chronic inflammation, affect spinal health. And any spinal misalignment, no matter how minor, affects the brain and body.
In serious cases, spinal misalignment (often called subluxation) can result in neurological issues. More commonly, it causes subtle and gradual (but very noticeable and annoying) symptoms like low backpain, neck pain, indigestion, frequent illness, irritable bowel, and arthritis. These symptoms may be caused, in part, by the wide-ranging effects of an unhealthy spine on the digestive, immune, and endocrine (hormonal) systems. To understand this complex interplay, indulge in a military metaphor.
The General and His Troops
Imagine an army general. He is the brain of his entire compound (body). His mood sets the tone of the compound, and in turn, the actions (and health) of the individual members of his unit influence his mood.
 
In order for the army to stay safe in its compound, guards, watchmen, and sharpshooters stay alert all through the night. Like the body’s immune system, these guards identify and fend off the attack of enemies. If they slack on the job, the entire army is at risk.
As any veteran will tell you, cleanliness of the compound is a top priority, as is digestion and detoxification in the body. If the compound is clean, it runs smoothly and efficiently. But if not, the compound’s dirtiness might compromise the troops’ and general’s effectiveness.
To help the compound run smoothly, the general sends out orders, just as the brain sends fast-acting nerve-impulses and slower, longer-lasting hormonal messages throughout the body. Captains (the Peripheral Nervous System or PNS) receive and carry out the orders by commanding a platoon of cells. Each platoon has a different function, but all work toward the same goal of health.
Stress can wreak havoc on the general and his unit as a whole. It causes everyone to work overtime, trying to restore a sense of calm. But frantic troops and a panicked general will not do their jobs well. In a state of long-term stress, the immune system becomes compromised and digestive activity slows.
But what role does the spine play in this rudimentary metaphor? The spine is how the general transmits his orders to his Commanders (the PNS)! It is the basis for all of the unit’s activity. If the general cannot properly send orders, he is diminished and ineffective. Enemies can overrun the compound, further weakening the unit. This is the vicious cycle of chronic disease.
In a future post we will examine exactly how these systems work together. But for now, remember that a well-functioning “army unit” is the basis for health and longevity.

Reclaim Your Life with Regular Chiropractic Care
 
Because the spine is so important to overall health, it is easy to see why the foundation of healing includes regular chiropractic care. Not only does it promote overall wellbeing, it can help you regain the sense of empowerment and positivity that comes with freedom of mobility. PNI research demonstrates that such positive thinking will, in turn, solidify your higher state of wellbeing.
Forget the vicious cycle of disease. Let chiropractic help you rediscover the joy of good health and positive thinking.