To borrow from the words of another doctor: "Life enters the brainstem and flows from above-down, inside-out." Truer words have never been spoken. The brainstem is life's inception point. It is the very first thing created while developing in utero. If it is compromised, then the body's ability to adequately regulate itself vanishes...it goes away. For most of us, we don't even notice it. Years and years can go by and we won't notice a severe enough symptom to think twice. And then you get a headache. You take a pill because that is what you are conditioned to do and the headache goes away. And then you get the flu every year. But you take medicine and it eventually goes away. And then you irritable bowel syndrome. That's a lot more difficult to deal with because now you're taking pills AND trying to change your diet. Nonetheless, you manage and do your best to suppress that symptom. And then you start getting frequent migraines. You take migraine meds, but you still end up getting migraines. And then you find out you have high blood pressure for your age. You start taking pills to get the heart to calm down. And then you get pains in your knees, back, and neck. So, you take pain medications to dull the aches...maybe get a cortisone shot in the knee. And then you find out you have a serious heart condition and that your liver is malfunctioning....

Is that any way to live?

I feel inclined to re-iterate something that I haven't really touched on in a long time. People...we DEVELOP into conditions.

Headaches, back pain, the flu, IBS, high blood pressure, heart conditions...there's really not a difference between them. Once upon a time, there wasn't a huge medical encyclopedia filled with different names for all the possible ailments in the body OR an online resource for everyone to check out the symptoms and "causes" of everything under the sun. It was much simpler. It was "the body is acting weird," followed by "Hmmm, I wonder why?" At some point, with the advent of modern medicine, the healthcare profession stopped caring about health and started focusing only on symptoms and conditions. When is the last time you saw a medical doctor for health? You never see a medical doctor for health. You see a medical doctor for a symptom or condition.

"My eye is red. I need the doctor to get some drops to put in it."

"My stomach hurts. I need the doctor to get an antacid."

"My head is swimming and I feel dizzy. I need the doctor to get something to stop making me dizzy."

Is your eye lacking drops? Is that why you have a red eye? Is your body lacking antacid? Is that why your stomach hurts? Is your body lacking dizzy pills? Is that why you're dizzy?

You see how flawed that system is? Now, I'm not trying to say that they are all bad...I'm just saying that medical doctors have been trained to put out a fire with a water gun. Medications merely postpone an issue.

Simply put, I'm getting a little frustrated by how little credit everyone gives their own body. Really intelligent people don't give their own body any credit. Really religious people don't give their own, God-created body any credit. For instance, you have a fever. What's the first thing you think? "Oh crap, I've got a fever! Fevers are bad! I must get rid of this fever!" WAIT. Read a medical text and it will tell you that a fever is part of the body's own disease-fighting arsenal, coming about as the body raises its temperature to fight off infection. Why would you want to stop that process? The body is trying to fight off an infection and you tell the body "No!"

So, here's the deal...I have yet to really get into the benefits of upper cervical care for kids. The youngest I've ever heard of being adjusted is a 4 hour old. Children, in all honesty, need to be checked immediately after birth with a neurologic gauge to assess the function of the brainstem. Being that the brainstem controls the function of the body, it is absolutely essential that the brainstem not be compromised so that the baby can develop into a healthy, happy person. I mean, let's face it. No offense ladies, but the womb ain't exactly the maternity suite at the Hilton. That's a tiny, cramped space. We all do yoga long before we're ever born into the world. Babies twist and turn and move around. It's not exactly a good thing for the spine that protects the brainstem and spinal cord to be smashed in a womb...but that's how it works! I'm not bashing the process, just pointing out that at the end of the process, it's so vitally important to make sure that the baby's body is functioning properly so that it gets the best possible chance to grow into a strong, healthy, happy kid. You'd do anything for your kids, right? You want the best for them, don't you? Give them the gift of health. I'm not talking about snap, crackling, and popping the youngsters, I'm talking about simply scanning the spine to identify any neurologic compromise that may be preventing them developing properly. You're either developing the right way or the wrong way. If your brainstem is compromised, you are absolutely developing the WRONG WAY. If there is a neurologic compromise, then it can be fixed. It's a quick and easy correction.

A teenage girl came into the office the other day. She was referred in by a healthcare professional that just gets what I'm saying completely. If the body is functioning at its best, what can't the body fix on its own. The body doesn't need medicine or any other man made help to be well...just no interference to what it was programmed to do! So, this young girl has 16 tumors, early signs of breast cancer, and has already been told she'll never have kids. Now, I've talked about shadowing doctors who have told me that they've seen this type of stuff. I've talked about how I've seen these people who supposedly have these crazy conditions getting better from upper cervical care. To this point, it was all honestly hearsay. Now, I believe it 100% and have no reason to question it...BUT to experience that type of thing yourself is just a whole different ball game. 16 tumors! In a teenager! And she's sitting in front of me asking for help! Absolutely mind-boggling, people. You are personally witnessing the evolution of a young upper cervical doc.

Understand that it won't be my intention to make her tumors go away. I'm concerned about her symptoms, but I'm most concerned about the neurologic compromise that led to those symptoms. This girl needs one thing above all else: she needs the power to be turned back on....the life to be restored to her body. All the body needs is a chance to recognize that there's a whole bunch of abnormal collections of cells in the form of those aforementioned tumors. It will get rid of them! Tumors are like onions, people. They grow layers...but they can also shed layers. My intent is to identify any neurologic compromise, find the specific misalignment that is causing it, correct the misalignment to eliminate the compromise, and then keep it corrected. If her tumors go away, then by God I'll be thrilled for her. Good for her. If she's able to have kids, then I'll be pumped! Good for her.

Why would you ever want yourself or your kids to get to the point that that girl has?

Here's a fact: modern medicine has been said to have made such amazing strides in the last 70 years, but we are literally sicker today than we were 70 years ago. We've never been this sick. 8000 children a year are diagnosed with cancer. 8000 kids! In the last 30 years, the rate of Autism has shot up 245% !!!

Back to the adults...I want to give you an old example to help you relate to why you should be getting your spines checked. Christopher Reeve fell off a horse and broke his neck. He broke the top bone in the spine in three places. He was paralyzed. By breaking that top bone, his brainstem became so compromised that all his vital systems shut off. When I speak to you about the subluxation and the compromise on the brainstem, I'm talking about a slight misalignment that slowly causes you to develop into conditions. With Reeve, his top vertebra was so severely misaligned that his lungs, heart, digestive system, kidneys...everything just stopped. He was still alive, but he was basically living on a machine. Remember that all the vital organs are controlled by the brainstem. You aren't like Reeve. Your brainstem is compromised, but not to the point that it is shutting off the power to all your systems. Yours, rather, is just dimming the power to those systems.

In this day and age, we've got to be pro-active from DAY ONE! From the cradle to the grave, you have to start thinking about health in terms of the things that you can do to maximize your life and stop thinking about it as the absence of symptoms. If you don't start changing, you are going to wind up miserable, sick, depressed, and bitter that you didn't act sooner. I hate to put it in those terms, but I know which of you on this emailing list is actually getting your spines checked and those of you who are not. Nice time is over...it's GO time...

Condition of the Week: Headaches

A headache is one of the most common conditions in the United States. Defined as a pain in the head or upper neck, headaches affect kids and adults, alike.

Medical texts have found a few common contributors to each kind of headache pain. Because it is impossible for the brain itself to actually hurt (it has no nerves, therefore no sensation), the pain you experience during a headache is actually in the different skin covered areas of the face, in the muscles, in the blood vessels, and in the tissue layers that surround and protect the spinal cord called the meninges. The meninges is likely a foreign term, so allow me to quickly touch on that. There are three layers of tissue/membrane that surround and protect the spinal cord (not the spinal column, mind you, for that is bone). The spinal cord is what the brainstem becomes once you get down below the second cervical vertebra. If you'll recall from a few weeks ago, I talked about the cerebrospinal fluid. The meninges work together with the CSF to protect the central nervous system's core (the brainstem and spinal cord).

Anyhow, medical texts conclude that the majority of headaches come from traction to the meninges and blood vessels, as well as the muscles. Simply put, pulling on the tissues and vessels in the body causes pain in the head and upper neck...

FYI...only 9% of the nervous system deals with pain. The specific name for the sensation of pain is nociception. Noci means pain. Ception means the perception of. Thus, nociception is the perception of pain. We have nociceptors, or nerve system sensory fibers, located in the skin, muscles, blood vessels, and meninges. That's how we feel pain.

Let's say that you are sitting in the hair dresser's chair getting your ears lowered (hair cut). An errant hair gets stuck to the scissors and gets yanked (rather than cut) out. Ouch! That hurt! The sensation of pain came when the skin on top of your head was tractioned. The nocicepter aka pain receptor in your skin was activated due to that traction. Not cool...but fortunately the traction stopped once the hair was yanked out. That pain receptor sent out a cry for help to the brain, which immediately sent healing cells up to the area. Those cells worked really hard and really fast, causing that area to be warm to the touch. Isn't that awesome? The body inflamed the area to dull the pain, just like you'd do if you put a heating pad on it or rubbed the area. The body did that all by itself!

Let's say that the top bone in the spine slides out of position. When it does, it causes a traction on the muscles, skin, meninges, and blood vessels. It's a slow pull, and eventually it is yanking so much that it causes the muscles, skin, meninges, and/or blood vessels to fire their nociceptors aka pain receptors, giving you a HEADACHE. The nociceptor aka pain receptors in those areas were activated due to that traction. Not cool...but fortunately the brain recognized the cry for help and sent the healing cells. The body inflamed those areas to dull the pain. Still awesome! Unfortunately, the traction never stopped, so a couple of hours, days, weeks, or months later...you get another headache.

The lesson to be learned is that the subluxtion is a constant traction on the tissues and vessels that lead to the pain receptors kicking and giving you the "headache." Just a slight misalignment can cause that traction. Headaches are probably the easiest condition to be resolved under upper cervical care. It's natural that if the traction goes away, so will the pain. But remember that only 9% of the entire nervous system deals with the perception of pain. When the top bone in the spine slides out of position, yes it causes the surrounding vessels and tissues to pull, but more importantly it stresses the brainstem. So, what should really concern you is how the other 91% of the nervous system is affected....

Thinking good things for you...