Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to Weekly Well-Being, the healthcare newsletter sure to satisfy your taste buds for all things health and wellness related.  I'm fresh off a re-invigorating seminar that tore down a few false beliefs and taught me some things that are an absolute must to be great at Upper Cervical work.  So, I'm fired up...let's go to it!

 

It takes TIME

 

Often, we as chiropractors get too caught up in trying to help people overcome their symptoms that we forget that we're different.  We're not a pain pill designed to quickly block a transmitter in the brain that carries pain signals.  If we were, chiropractors would be ten times as popular as they are.  Instead, it's our job to clear out both the structural and functional irregularities that cause pain.  BIG DIFFERENCE.  As a society, health has been defined as something that's only a quick this or a quick that away, but that's just NOT true.  Keep that in mind when you embark on a true healing journey.  Make sure that you understand that it takes TIME to break down and it takes TIME to heal.  You do that and you're goals will be realistic and achievable...and you will regain your health.  You WILL regain your health.

 

Bell's Palsy

 

Bell's Palsy is defined as a dysfunction of the 7th cranial nerve, which controls sensation to the face, rendering the affected person unable to control his/her facial muscles.  The signs are fairly obvious, as the person usually has a drooping look about them on one side similar to what you'd see from a stroke victim.  The scariest thing about it is that it comes out of nowhere.  You can be driving in your car, look into the rear view one minute and everything will look fine and the next minute you look again and your face looks different.  Most are scared into thinking that something horrible has just happened, like they've just had a stroke or developed a tumor or something equally as frightening.  The reality, though, is that most of the time there is no scary cause for it.  The 7th cranial nerve just stops working properly...and it's that simple and that complicated.

 

Like with most conditions, the traditional medical approach is to throw pills at it to stimulate the nerve.  Sometimes it works; often times it doesn't.  Yet, each time this method is used, it ignores the fact that something caused the 7th cranial nerve to malfunction.  Dysfunction can be caused by irritation.  Ever banged your elbow on a table by accident?  Is it fully functionally right afterward?  No, because it was irritated.  The cranial nerves can malfunction due to a misalignment of the atlas vertebra that protects and surrounds the brainstem, in which you'll find the hub of each and every nerve in the body.  Since the brainstem's primary function is to route nerve signals, then irritation to the brainstem causes those nerve signals to be distorted, leading to dysfunction. 

 

Throwing drugs at this condition is a temporary fix, but the condition tends to be a recurring problem brought on by periods of high stress.  If you remove the cause of that problem, though, you won't have to worry about the recurrence. 

 

Thinking good things for you, as always,

 

Dr. Chad