Recently I’ve read a book called “The Reality Check” by Dr Heidi Haavik who is both a Chiropractor and a Neuroscientist who has spent the last 15 years studying human neurophysiology. It’s safe to say that she knows what she talking about. Her book summarizes the last 15 years’ worth of research she has done and puts into plain and simple terms exactly how Chiropractic adjustments act on the human body. So, forget (almost) all of what you know and prepare to have your mind blown…
Chiropractic adjustments change the way your brain works. Consider this:
Ceoinsdr the pweor of the hmaun bairn. It dseno’t metatr in
waht odrer the ltetres in a wrod are, the olny tihng taht is iproatnt is
the frist and lsat lteres are in the rghit palce. The rset can be a ttoal mese and
you can sitll raed it.
The fact is that our brains are powerful beyond measure. And this plays a major role in our situation every single second of every single day.
Our reality is created in our brain. Our body has neurological receptors in every joint, muscle and tissue within our body that are constantly sending information to our subconscious brain. That way we innately know where our limbs are in space, how full our tummy is, how fast our heart is beating, how warm or cold we are…..all the details that go into creating your current perception of yourself. And this can change from second to second, minute to minute, hour to hour. Sometimes, due to internal changes, or external changes that are out of our control, this feedback system gets a bit of static, or the subconscious brain gets overloaded and our reality can become a little less real. Have you ever run into the door frame as you walk through your bedroom door? Or any other door that you walk through several times a day? For whatever reason your brain has miscalculated where you are in relation to that door and you fail to pass through it cleanly. Little glitches in the matrix. It turns out that chiropractic spinal adjustments essentially hit a reset button in your brain which allows it to start processing some of that sensory information in a more accurate way.
Heidi also discusses symptoms – typically experienced as various pains. Very rarely is the pain the problem, the problem is the underlying cause that is distorting the way the brain interprets information and thus creates pain as a sensation to unusual stimuli. This goes a long way to explaining why people with pain in regions outside of the spine (knees, shoulders, ankles etc) often experience a change in their symptoms after having their spine adjusted. While no work may done directly on the painful joint, when the spine is adjusted the receptors are rebooted and with altered pathways of information come altered sensations. The fascinating thing is that we are just beginning to understand the mechanisms of HOW Chiropractic adjustments effect the human body, but with a very small amount of knowledge it’s easy to see WHY Chiropractors have been able to report so many positive patient anecdotes about positive changes within their bodies after starting Chiropractic care.
This doesn’t mean to say that for a broken bone or torn ligament all you need is Chiroractic care. Of course when there is an injury there may well be other care that is needed first. However, how many people do you know with aches and pains around their body and no real reason for it other than playing sport when they were younger, or “it’s just a part of getting old”, or having been told its likely just arthritis. Perhaps, just perhaps, there is a glitch in their Matrix and their bodies and brains aren’t communicating clearly?
It’s no secret to any Chiropractor I know that Chiropractic care enhances a persons quality of life and has any number of positive side effects. Whats great is that through research conducted largely here in NZ we are now getting a body of scientific information that explains just why we get such positive results. It’s rapidly becoming clear that Chiropractic can play a large role in preventative health care rather than placing such an emphasis on ambulance-at-the-bottom-of-the-cliff type health care. Financially and emotionally, it just makes sense to look after yourself than to wait and try to heal yourself.
For a greater understanding of the connection between Chiropractic care and brain/body function as well as how this relates to you, your children and keen sports participants come into the office and borrow our copy of The Reality Check or head online to www.heidihaavik.com/research to access some other great resources and buy your own copy. The first step to getting the health you want is having the right information!