Fighting Disease or Restoring Health?
What makes sense to you?
One of the things I enjoyed about being a chiropractor was helping people who had no hope. I didn’t think it was faith healing. I just knew how to do things many doctors didn’t know how to do. My belief system was different. Most doctors saw causes of patients’ diseases. I saw the cause of health. Not everyone got well, but many, many got better. I didn’t deny the cause of their illness. I focused on the cause of health.
The Covid pandemic was a good example. The cause of disease was the virus. Some people died. Some people were very sick. Some people were hardly affected. The virus was the same. What was the difference?
The difference was the individual’s response to the virus. A good response was quickly recognizing the virus and neutralizing it as soon as possible. A slow response would allow the virus to replicate requiring more defenses to be mustered against the stronger enemy. People who had “comorbidities” were more at risk. In other words, sick people got sick and healthy people stayed healthy.
Adaptation is the key. What causes adaptation? If health is defined as optimal physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, what is the cause? Who or what decides what is optimal? Is it up to your doctor?
Optimal is not too much and not too little. Optimal implies intelligence. Some part of us decides what is optimal.
If you are sitting reading this, what is optimal for your heart rate and blood pressure? If you have been running for a mile, what is optimal for your heart rate and blood pressure? It should be different than while sitting. Do you have to take your blood pressure and heart rate to decide? No. You make that decision on a subconscious level.
Blood pressure is controlled by adjusting the volume of blood using the kidneys. If the volume goes up, blood pressure goes up. Blood pressure is also controlled by the strength and frequency of the heart. Increased heart output increases blood pressure. Another way blood pressure is controlled is by the diameter of the blood vessels. If the diameter of the vessels is smaller, pressure goes up. There are receptors in your aorta and the carotid body in your neck that sense your blood pressure and send the information to your brain.
You decide based on a number of factors. If you need more oxygen and nutrients in your muscles for running, you increase your blood flow accordingly.
If all of that is true, how does our blood pressure become suboptimal? One hypothesis is that there is miscommunication in the nervous system. That is what chiropractors work on. We adjust the spine to restore nervous system function. When the nervous system is working properly, you change your blood pressure naturally.
Blood pressure is only one example. You control all functions of your body at a subconscious level. Your primary means of control is using your nervous system. If out of control, look first to the nervous system and the spine. That is health restoration. Rather than your doctor deciding to fight your body, you heal yourself. See a chiropractor. You might be amazed at the results.