Think Well

Most people go to the doctor because they think they have something they shouldn’t have and want to get rid of.  But over the years, we chiropractors have come to understand that the problem when you aren’t feeling well is NOT that you have something you shouldn’t have and need to get rid of; the problem is really that you have LOST something you need to be healthy and happy.  You see HEALTH (also called “EASE”) is your natural state!   If you are experiencing anything other than ease, it is usually because you have simply LOST something that is necessary for you to maintain ease/health.  Understanding this very simple truth will not only help you get the most out of your chiropractic care, it will also help you and your family to keep growing stronger and healthier for the rest of your lives!

Let’s begin helping you understand this by looking at how your body really works.  There are three things you need to know in order to move consistently toward health, wellness and wholeness.

• 1) Every day, your body either gets a little stronger or a little weaker.
• 2) In order to get stronger instead of weaker each day, you must have a clear neurological CONNECTION between your brain and your body.
• 3) In order to have a clear connection between your brain and your body and keep growing stronger every day, your spine must be properly aligned and functioning normally (because of the intimate connections between your spine and nerve system).

If you understand these three things, you can also understand that if you lose normal alignment or function in your spine, you will also partially lose the CONNECTION between your brain and your body.  This is very important because without proper communication, you lose the ability to purposefully ORGANIZE all of the various parts of your body to work together harmoniously and with EASE.  In other words, you get a little weaker rather than stronger each day and you gradually LOSE your natural state of health/ease.

Chiropractic has only ONE GOAL, which can be summed up in what we call “The 3 R’s.”  Our goal is to;

• 1) Help Restore and maintain alignment and function in your spine, in order to…
• 2) Re-establish and maintain the neurological CONNECTIONS between your brain and your body, so that…
• 3) You can Resume purposefully ORGANIZING all of the parts of your body to work harmoniously together and consistently grow stronger and healthier every day.

And, as you continue growing stronger and healthier every day, you will move consistently from wherever you are right now toward first regaining your natural state of health (EASE), and then keep on moving toward wellness and ultimately into what we call wholeness.

So as we said before, the problem is NOT that you have something you shouldn’t have and need to get rid of; the problem is that you have LOST something you need to be healthy and happy.  HEALTH is your natural state, and if you are experiencing anything other than ease, it is usually because you have LOST your CONNECTION…and our job is very simply…to help you get it back and keep it for Life!

It’s as simple as that!

“If you keep postponing a decision, your indecision becomes your only decision.” Unknown

Billions of dollars are spent every year on health clubs, organic foods, vitamins, bottled water and many other healthy habits but as a whole there are very few who truly experience the kind of health that is possible.  In more than ten years of serving in health care, I have come to believe that the answer lies not only in misinformation but to a greater degree, our motives.  I find day in and day out that most of us have not decided to experience health rather we are striving to “not be sick”.   You see, you can’t escape what you are giving your attention to and when you get flu shots to avoid the flu or take aspirin daily to avoid heart disease your attention is not on health, it’s on the flu and heart disease.  Just look at the proof, our country rates 37 out of 39 industrialized nations and yet nobody spends more money than we do on “health care.”   To decide is to cut off and rule out all other possibilities.  To decide, however unconsciously, to “not be sick” is to postpone the decision to be healthy and be frustrated to no end that your efforts never seem to produce the health you desire.  To learn how to attain health, see our workshop schedule and give your attention to what’s possible, not what the world says you should fear.

“98% of the atoms in your body were not there a year ago.” Deepak Chopra M.D.

This is an extremely profound quote when you think about its implications. The various parts of your body are constantly regenerating new cells to replace old cells as the cycle of life rolls on.  Some cells, like the liver cells that detoxify your body, regenerate much faster than the cells of your bones. As a result, the entire body takes roughly 13 months to completely rebuild itself. That’s right; at any given moment you are no more than 13 months old.  Why then does our body seem to degenerate with time? 

Consider this process of cell replication like using a copy machine with one rule; you have to use each copy to make the next copy rather than have access to the original.  When you place the original in the copy machine, your first copy is the best copy, but from that point on each new cell or page is made using the previous copy.  As you might guess then, the copies begins to fade and blur making it more and more difficult with time to produce good quality copies.  This then places a tremendous importance on using good quality material and an active maintenance program to care for your copy machine. The quality of the ink and paper, whether you maintain the machine at its most efficient level and your commitment to keeping a clear and steady supply of electricity running to the machine all affect the final product.  Not only that, in the case of your body, the worse the quality of the material you use and the more you abuse the machine, the faster the copy machine works.  The goal then is to use the best nutrition and maintain your body’s ability to function at its optimal level if you want not only to slow the aging process down but produce the healthiest happiest you possible.  Should you ever have questions about health and healing, please don’t hesitate to ask or join us at our weekly workshops.

Millions of dollars are spent every day to convince us that the solution to our health problems can be found in the latest greatest lotion potion pill or shot.  The pharmaceutical industry has this money to spend because hook line and sinker we as a society have come to believe that it’s true, and pay dearly for it.  The irony however is that they literally make hundreds of billions of dollars a year attempting to replicate and mimic what our body already naturally produces. According to David Simon, MD, “When we are healthy our bodies can produce anti-depressant drugs, anti-anxiety drugs, immune-enhancing drugs, digestive system normalizing drugs, sleep-inducing drugs.” Etc.

Your brain and many of your internal organs, hormones, glands and tissues work together to keep your internal pharmacy functioning properly.  This army needs healthy, natural, nutrient dense foods (as opposed to processed, refined, artificial “junk” foods) as raw building materials as well as a clear neurological connection to coordinate any and all operations.  The quality of your raw materials (food) comes from your conscious decisions about what to eat and drink while the quality of the communication system that coordinates its use comes from a properly functioning spine and nervous system.

The role of your chiropractor is to help you keep your (and your families) nervous system functioning at its optimal level so that your immune system (using the natural internal pharmacy) can maintain a high resistance to disease.  If you have subluxation, you cannot function at your best and your “army” is ineffective.

Get a chiropractic spinal checkup; it’s easy, healthy and won’t require a thirty second list of potential side effects like death spoken at an unintelligible rate to meet legal standards for “properly informed.”

This question, depending on how you answer it can have a profound effect on your health for the rest of your life.  It’s been my experience that most people believe that germs are the reason they get sick.  In fact, this week so far, I’ve had several occasions to listen to people talking about avoiding germs by “spraying the whole house with Lysol” or “avoiding other people to keep from getting sick.” Last week a practice member who teaches middle school shared with me that twenty to thirty kids a day went home sick in spite of the record number who get flu shots each year.

If you believe that germs are the cause of sickness and disease then your idea of maintaining health will be completely different from someone who understands that germs don’t cause disease any more than flies cause garbage.  Germs, such as bacteria and viri, are everywhere: in the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink and every single thing we touch.  It’s not uncommon that you have influenza, tuberculosis, tetanus, staphylococcus and other germs in you all the time. It’s estimated that each of us give host to more than 3 trillion bacteria that live in harmony with our bodies, most of them completely necessary to our survival and yet infections are relatively rare.  Why then isn’t everyone sick all the time?

The reason is that germs are a threat only when you create a hospitable environment for them to flourish!  “You have, inside of you, a vast army with advanced weaponry on a constant search and destroy operation to find, repel and eat any invader.” Eat?  ”Well that’s how your immune system kills bacteria, viri, all kinds of germs – even cancer cells.” It patrols your every nook and cranny, searching to keep your body safe and secure by consuming and rejecting everything that doesn’t belong.

Your immune system, controlled and coordinated by the nervous system, is part of an amazing healing power designed to keep you perfectly healthy for well over 100 years.  This healing ability is able to cure even the most “incurable” diseases, everything from the common cold to cancer.   With this in mind, it’s the focus of the healthiest people on the planet to strengthen and maintain a healthy nervous system.  Provide your body with healthy raw materials and the freedom to communicate health and you will begin to experience a life without disease, in spite being surrounded by germs and those who choose to spray for flies rather than clean up the garbage.

 ”Subluxations can reduce nerve impulses by 60%” Chung Ha Suh Ph.D. Univ. of Colorado

What would communicating with others be like if 60% of each and every conversation on the cell phone could not be heard or understood?  I imagine most of us would become quit frustrated and complain to the cell phone companies if not outright fire them while we look to hire one we can rely on.  With your body, it’s not so easy.  If you ignore the problem or misdiagnose it as static’itis’, it will only get worse and there’s no tossing the phone or firing the company…. You’re it!  Poor communication affects everything you do and everyone you know.  Get checked for subluxation and know a clear neurological connection (health).

A recent article on page two of the Northfield Hospital Family Health Winter 2009 Newsletter sites opiate use as “eclipsing marijuana as a gateway to the world of illegal drug use” and that according to Charles Reznikoff, MD, an opiate addiction specialist, “pain pills contribute greatly to the opiate addiction he sees.  From what I could gather, it appears, Dr. Reznikoff, believes that adolescent risk taking and self medicating to “address untreated mental health disorders, such as anxiety, depression or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder,” are primary reasons for this trend.  I can’t help but ask myself at this point, what risk and why not?

What risk is he talking about?  By the time we’re 20 years of age, every western citizen has experienced 18,000 hours of advertising. That’s 18,000 hours of opportunities to establish and build on a belief system that perpetually reinforces the idea that you are weak and that your health is dependent on outside sources like drugs for answers.  Our country makes up 5% of the worlds population and yet consumes 60% of the world’s drugs, that’s 25 million pills consumed every hour every day every week of every year.  This trend is not expected to end any time soon as it’s estimated that in the year 2013, the global market for pharmaceuticals will top $1.0 trillion with the highest growth rate expected in the generic prescription drug market. 

How is it that our kids are supposed to understand that there’s any risk whatsoever in popping a few pills to feel good when from infancy they’re taught that all answers are expected to come from a bottle?  Self medicating is the rule rather than the exception for if you have a headache, take Tylenol, if you have a runny nose take an antihistamine, if you have an upset stomach take the pink stuff (you know what I’m talking about), if you have allergies take Benadryl, if you’re depressed take Paxil if you’re anxious take Valium if you can’t sit still take Ritalin and if you don’t have any energy, drink coffee until one day you have no reservations about going to the medicine cabinet for a hit of Oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin or Methodone to take the edge of your stressful day.

Ironically enough, the same article then goes on to suggest the use of Methadone and Suboxone (drugs) as “tools available to manage withdrawal” and that they’re “proven to reduce death from drug overdose and HIV transmission.” I wasn’t quit able to follow the logic but then that’s the point.  Do you really believe that the power that transformed two cells at conception into a living breathing human being has now become so inept at birth that the only chance we have at living a long and healthy life is to rely on drugs made by companies that make more money each year than most countries? Why should any child take us seriously when we believe that “to prevent kids from wandering into recreational opiate use and the prospect of addiction” we think the answer lies not in nurturing the bodies self healing power but in “disposing of all pain pills and controlled substances when they have served their purpose or hiding them if they are still needed for legitimate medical use.”  Kids using drugs, ‘risky’ as it may be, is only a symptom and until we’re ready to correct the cause, expect the symptoms to get far worse before they ever get better.

For decades research has identified an increased risk of fatal breast cancer with the use of antibiotics.  In the Feb. 18, 2004 Journal of the American Medical Association researchers again confirm that antibiotic use (regardless of class) was associated with an increased risk of fatal breast cancer and that with the increased antibiotic use, there was a also a proportionate increase in the rates of breast cancer (9).  The power that made our body can and will heal our body if only given a chance.  Regardless of disease, and cancer is no exception, using drugs to suppress the warning signs (symptoms) that our body provides can only lead to serious illness.  You can only ignore the warning light in your car for so long before all is lost, and as I’m sure you’re well aware, there’s no going out to purchase a new you.  Take care of the one and only you… see your chiropractor and enjoy a well adjusted life.

Recently, while listening to my friend Lance Heisler with Lampe Law in Northfield Minnesota, he stated “we are all afraid of the things we don’t understand.”  At the time Lance was sharing with a BNI business group we’re involved with that in thirty two years of working in the legal system, he’s come to see that most of the fear generated about the legal process is based in misinformation and as a result is completely unnecessary if not harmful.  As a natural consequence, Lance spends a great deal of time and energy nurturing confidence in his clients as he guides them through the legal system; no doubt a reason why he’s so successful. 

I can empathize very much with Lance as I find the same to be true about the ‘health care’ system.  It’s a lack of understanding that eventually leads to the fear, sometimes overwhelming fear, I often see in practice members who come to me for help.  In many cases, they’ve experienced thousands of dollars worth of testing and multiple doctor visits and yet they still don’t understand “what’s wrong.”  This is where my work, much as it is with Lance, really begins.

Helping practice members discover how their body really works is the first step in unwinding the years of misinformation as it lays the groundwork for what questions you should ask in order to help the body heal.  If your doctor believes your body is weak and in need of outside intervention, he will ask “what do you have and how can we get rid of it?” thus the reason for so many tests and the use of drugs or surgery as a solution.  If your doctor believes that the power that made your body heals your body through a clear neurological connection, then he will ask “what are you toxic or deficient in and how can we help increase what the body needs to heal?”  Whether we’re conscious of it or not, most of us are simply asking the wrong questions and were we willing to face the fear, we would find that health is far easier to nurture than disease is to destroy.

What would it be like to live each day without undue concern for your health or the health of your family? I don’t mean living with reckless disregard for the future as many do albeit unconsciously, I mean having a sense of peace about living a life free from the diseases that are so prevalent in our society today. 

We live in a time of unprecedented prosperity and abundance while at the very same time degenerative diseases, some of which are only unheard of until the last 50 years, claim the lives of more and more people at younger ages every year. There are few and far between who do not believe it’s inevitable that they to will eventually suffer from such diseases as diabetes, cancer, stroke, and heart disease just to name a few.  The fear of such an end is not without merit when you review statistics that each year support the vast majority of us will die of heart disease, cancer or the methods used to treat them.  Add to this the suffering and premature deaths so often associated with these degenerative diseases and you begin to understand why there seems little hope to enjoy life without fear. 

The simple truth however reveals that each and every one of us can live a long and healthy life with an understanding of a single and yet profound fundamental truth. The power that made the body heals the body through a clear neurological connection from above down inside out!  Health is not gained so much by what we put in the body rather it is expressed in how we support this power that lies within through the implementation of three deliberate and yet essential habits. Once understood and implemented in our daily life they become the security that can only be described as a life without fear.  To learn more about these life changing habits, call us for a copy of our current workshop schedule where each week we devote a half hour to expand on the principles to the full expression of life, love and the divine spirit in humanity.