We hear it over and over again during cold & flu season: "I need to cancel my appointment today because I/my child/my spouse/our house is sick. I don't want to spread the symptoms."
We appreciate the kind thought. Truly, we do. But we must take a moment to discuss the fact that this is backwards, as an adjustment should be your number one priority and first line of defense once symptoms of illness begin to appear! Your immune system is a fairly sturdy and complex entity that can be and is affected by your neurological system. Your powerhouse of your neurological system is primarily housed inside your spine and skull. Chiropractic focuses on the health and mobility of the joints of your spine, allowing optimum correspondence between your nervous system and your immune system (and every other body system you have). Therefore, by getting adjusted as soon as symptoms appear, and frequently throughout the course of your illness, you are ensuring that your nervous system is communicating at top speed with your immune system, delivering messages to those 'bug'-fighting cells and directing them to the areas where they are needed!
Additionally, your chiropractor is trained to understand the complexity of your spine and the spinal cord - this includes understanding which nerves leave from which specific vertebral joint, and what organs or body functions those nerves serve once they leave. The nerves that service your stomach, your liver, your kidneys and other abdominal organs primarily come and go from your spine in the midback. The nerves that service your eyes, ears, nose, sinuses, throat and most of your head structures primarily come and go from your spine in the neck. Each nerve is associated with a specific vertebral segment, each nerve serves a specific organ(s) or function(s), and each nerve is dramatically affected by the health of the vertebral segment that surrounds it. So, if you are suffering from a stuffy nose and sore throat, and the segments of your neck associated with the nerves that service those organs are subluxated and incapable of allowing optimum communication between your brain and your body, your chiropractor will skillfully adjust the middle segments of your neck, creating mobility in your spine and unleashing the innate power of your nervous system! This, in turn, signals your immune system (via a chemical influx) that focus should be paid to the structures associated with the areas just adjusted, and you are one step closer to recovery. You can be your own doctor, if you give your body the environment it needs to innately heal itself! Go YOU!
All of this stems from what we know about the combined fields of neurology and immunology. Although each system can function separately from the other (arguably, this is far from ideal and would probably leave you very ill after a certain period of time), together they act synergistically and create an environment better suited to keep you happy, healthy and well.
Now, the next time you are feeling a bit under the weather, please think twice about cancelling your appointment with your chiropractor. Instead, do yourself and your body a favor and keep that appointment. Help your body fight whatever is contributing to your symptoms of dis-ease, get adjusted, and feel better. FASTER! And don't worry about us; I assure you that we are well-adjusted and can handle any potential contagion you might introduce to our immune systems! ;0)
Yours in health,
For your review, here is a Meric Chart. This is an explanation of the nerves of your spine and the body areas they are commonly thought to serve.
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