Chiropractic Care

As soon as we left the hospital with Harlee, we didn’t go home.  No, we went to the chiropractor to get him adjusted.  After all the stress his head and neck was under during his 48 hours of labor, I definitely wanted to make sure nothing was thrown out of whack.

In my profession as a massage therapist, I’ve met a lot of people who either have no clue how beneficial chiropractic care is, or see a chiropractor as regularly as they see me.  This post is dedicated to the people who are missing out on chiropractic care.

This post also continues last week’s story about Harlee’s fever episode.  So, picking up where I left off, it was day three and his fever was back up again, and he was still droopy, lethargic, not eating, didn’t even seem to have the energy to cry.  It was the saddest thing I’ve ever seen… He’d been off-balance when walking for several weeks too, which concerned me that something was wrong with his ears, and ear issues can cause a runny nose, which he’d had for a LONG time too, and probably his weakened immune system and inability to keep his fever down.  That’s just my speculation though.  That prompted me to see the chiropractor in Waterloo that specializes in children and babies.  I know earaches are a very common result of a misalignment in the neck, so that’s something I wanted to get checked out anyway.  I called and set up an appointment for noon, and then called his pediatrician and got him in at 1:00.

Dr. Stratton was wonderful, very knowledgeable and very confident, and definitely right up my alley when it comes to natural health!  Although, most chiropractors are… She looked in his ears and noticed a lot of fluid backed up in his right ear, and then found a misalignment in his very top vertebra right below his skull, which can lead to ear issues (just as I suspected).  There was also another misalignment in his mid back, and his pelvis was a little out of place too (to which she asked if he’d been pooping regularly, which no, he hadn’t).  The adjustment was gentle, quick, simple, and then off we went to the doctor.

He slept on the way there.  When we got to the office he woke up, and, ta da!  Harlee was back!  It was CRAZY, let me tell you!!  He walked over to the play area in the waiting room (he hadn’t walked since Monday morning and this was Wednesday), he played, babbled (another thing we hadn’t heard since Monday), and wanted to snack on everything we had in the diaper bag!  When we were called back, his temperature was down to 98.3, and when the doctor looked in his ears he didn’t see any fluid issues at all!  Oh my gosh.  Why didn’t we take him to Dr. Stratton sooner??  Of course, go figure we schedule him with the pediatrician because of a high fever and lack of energy (and ear issues, too) and he’s all better when we get there.  That’s how it works, right?  I didn’t care, honestly, I was so glad he was better and so excited about the results we got from the chiropractor!

So, how does a chiropractic adjustment make everything all better like that?  Let me tell you all about it!  It’s all about the nervous system, which is housed in, not only your head, but your spine as well.  Your spinal cord connects directly to your brain, and transports your brain’s messages to your entire body through the spinal nerves that travel out between each spinal vertebra.  Your vertebrae can become out of alignment though due to anything in daily activity, especially accidents from tripping or stumbling to getting rear-ended in the car.  Sports activities can cause these misalignments, or subluxations, like taking a soccer ball to the head or especially getting tackled in football.  Subluxations can range from a fraction out of alignment to waaay out of alignment.  When a vertebra is out of place, it creates pressure on those spinal nerves, thus cutting off the messages the brain is trying to send through those nerves to different parts of your body.  Yikes!  Think about that – these nerves aren’t just supplying your muscles and causing you pain or tingling or numbness if there’s interference (which sucks in and of itself), these nerves are also supplying your ORGANS.  What’s going to happen to your liver if it’s not receiving all of the brain’s messages to clean out your blood?  What’s going to happen to your pancreas if it’s not receiving all of the brain’s messages to regulate blood sugar?  What about your stomach?  Your lungs?  Your heart?  What’s going to happen to your BODY if these organs aren’t working right?  This is where disease starts to form.  If the brain can’t get all of its messages to the organ, how do you expect that organ to function properly?

Some chiropractors believe that ALL disease is caused by nerve interference in the spine.  In my personal opinion I’m not sure about ALL of it, as certainly outside factors influence health as well, such as diet or toxins in the air or surfaces we come in contact with.  But I do believe that good spinal maintenance can help your body fight off infections or ailments brought on by poor diet or toxic environments.  The nervous system does control the immune system too, after all!

Also, as in my recent experience with Harlee, chiropractic care is great for ear issues – whether a minor ache or an infection – as good spinal alignment in the neck allows the ears to drain properly, thus preventing fluid build-up that can cause a bad sense of balance, like Harlee was experiencing, and can lead to earaches and infections.  So, before you rush to get tubes surgically inserted into your child’s ear drum (while under general anesthesia, yikes!), maybe make sure his or her neck is in proper alignment first.  That’s a much nicer, and much quicker and easier fix than surgery, don’t ya think?

Many chiropractors are different, as I’ve found – some believe solely in a hands-on approach and don’t believe in tools or machines, and some are the exact opposite.  Some take x-rays, some don’t.  Some offer multiple bodywork techniques in with their adjustments, including acupuncture or shiatsu.  I think they’re all beneficial – as chiropractors all have different approaches, there are many different people in the world that benefit from different kinds of healing techniques.  I personally like when different methods are used to loosen up the muscles surrounding the spine before an adjustment, but that’s because of my massage therapy background and it just makes sense to me.  Everyone is different, but ultimately you’re getting the same end result – the spine being put back into proper alignment so the nervous system can function at its peak.

The benefits of chiropractic care are endless.  It can both help fix an existing issue or prevent issues from happening in the first place.  It’s like a natural vaccine, putting the body in proper working condition to have the strength and power to fight off infections and illnesses on its own!  Sign me up!

Geez, why didn’t I just become a chiropractor?  Well, simply put, I was just more drawn to massage therapy.  And it absolutely has its benefits, and many of them!  It goes hand-in-hand with chiropractic care, too.  As a friend of mine in the massage field described, getting adjusted by a chiropractor brings you into a place of great health, but to get there you first have to go through the gates, which are the muscles.  You’re not going to get very far if the gates are locked!

Enter massage therapy, which is a topic for another post :).

Hope everyone is having a wonderful December!