My neighbor fell on some slippery tiles in her garden and broke her fibula.  She is a woman of about sixty.  Over the course of the past several years she has been hinting that she had some issues and would like to consult with me about them.   She has suggested neck and hand pain as well as the inevitable struggle with her lower back from time to time.  

Being a bit of a teaser I suggested she had a “tacky chassis.”  She laughed but didn’t get the truth in the barb.  From observation of her posture and gait it was clear to me that she was off her healthy gravitational plumb, and was therefore being cheated out of her health.     

A yogi once said that our bodies are only as young as the oldest part, that we are as healthy as we are supple.  Stiff and sticky joint movement reflects a decreased range of motion (ROM) of the parts.  Youthfulness is suppleness.  Look at the young and their fluid bobbing gaits.  Then look at the elderly with their stoop and limited strides.  

My neighbor shows the stoop and she doesn’t exercise as far as I  know.  Being supple and smooth in her motions is not part of her makeup.  When she hit the slippery tile she was a goner from the get go. We are often accidents waiting to happen.  Could she have avoided the broken leg had she been in a better state of suppleness?  Absolutely.

Think like this with me.  We are what we are.  We got here on the backs of the billions and billions of evolutionary tumbles of our forefathers.  History clearly shows the constant progression of our species anatomical adaptability and our present frame is a superior form of a well adapted eating machine.  

Our lithe and supple body design along with our efficient gut and large brains allows us to be the only mammal adapted to and able to run all day.  We can chase down any creature on this planet given enough time and opportunity.   We are without a doubt the top predator on the planet.   

History also shows that we are a species that has only recently increased our life expectancy to its present stage.  Classical examples of life expectancy for the human just a few thousand years ago would have been about thirty years old.  

Taken early by disease and untreated infirmities our ancestors faced hardships for survival that only the most isolated face to-day.  We have it easier with our food and comforts gathered for us and conveniently placed within easy access.  We have the methods of nutriment extraction and processing of our food that makes running the game trail a thing of the past.  

But my neighbor lays witness to the fact that by the old standards she shouldn’t even be here.  She would and should have had her body, her “tacky chassis,” culled from the human herd years ago.  Unable to keep up and without care available, to help her survive when sedentary, the odds of her early perishing along the trail side from thirst and hunger are very great indeed.  

Survival is a game best played by the young.  The young are supple and nimble and able to move and react quickly to more stimuli.   Oh, “what a shame that youth is wasted on the young.”  

So how do we beat the grim reaper?  How do we cheat gravity and entropy, the loss of energy from our bodies, that although ongoing is accelerated in the older folks?  How do we cling on to the fragile gossamer’s thread of youth and longevity?  

Come on keep thinking like this with me.  We are what we are.  We got here by doing what we should be doing and we should keep on doing it if we are going to press survival to its max.  

Sure our joints and muscle and tendons and ligament shorten and stiffen and lose their ROM over time.  And sure our digestive systems and our organs and great vessels weaken and breakdown changing our ability to nurture our health chemically over time too.  Remember suppleness is youth and you are a genius if you apply your wisdom.  

My neighbor didn’t exercise and from her diet and lifestyle she didn’t have the nutriments available within her blood to provide the kind of essential energy to even feel like trying to move regularly.  

My neighbor would have benefited by coming to see me professionally to get the latest on what is necessary to improve her health and enhance her knowledge about anti aging.  Perhaps if she had she would have had the ability to react a little differently to the rapid gravitational shift that preceded her falling.  

Chiropractic joint manipulation has been proven to enhance the neural pathways carriage of information to and from all the parts of our brains.  That is 'brains' in plural for we have an old brain that in automatic reflex responds to the rapid change of gravity upon the sensors, the joints and ligaments and tendons.  We have another brain the cerebellum that gives us spatial information and finally the cortex that is the part you are here with now and are comprehending your reading with.  Over three hundred joints in our bodies reply to the stimulation to and from our brains.  

The three hundred joints “gravity speak” through our nerves to our brains.  But if some of them are unable to speak clearly and aberrant chatter, then the reflex of the brains to the gravitational orientation founders.  Slow and inaccurate reactions to the falling stimulus can make the difference between landing and fracture and landing and straining or indeed landing and planting it like our Olympic athletes.  

Making an effort to challenge and eventually change for the better the ROM of our bodies joints yields great rewards to our health.  Health is the state where everything is working to its potential all of the time.  The chiropractor attempts to locate and gently manipulate so as to restore the proper ROM of the joints.  These limited joints are called subluxations and as we age and have traumas we accumulate lots of them through out our body.  

Half of our joints are in the hands and feet, the touchy feely parts of our anatomy.  My neighbor's comment about her hand and neck pains was a tell.  She was admitting to the need to reverse a compromised area of her anatomy.  Most often the real problem of subluxation with the hand pain is within the bony vertebrae of the neck and upper back with its ribs.  

Ignoring these problems is like the guy with the running toilet and the several hundred thousand dollar water bill that ensued.  Letting the small problems smolder and then flare up or fail to respond like my neighbors inability to catch herself is too often too costly.  With her now compromised leg and the crutches and the months to come she may deteriorate even more rapidly that before the fall.  I must go and give her a basket of goodies and have a chat with her.  

And you must think about whether or not you are being compromised and whether you will be the next one to support the plaster industry.   Every body should have a chiropractor and a word to the wise is sufficient.

About the author: Dr. Brian Blower has been a licensed chiropractor for 35 years practicing Applied Kinesiology and has been in private practice on Grand Bahama Island for the past 10 years. He is a founding member of Applied Kinesiology Canada and was educated at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. He has treated many celebrities and also specializes in sports medicine.  Dr Blower is currently in practice at the Family Wellness Center across from the Rand Hospital, Freeport. He can be reached at 242-351-5424 or 727-2454.    You can also find Dr. Blower on Facebook HERE

Feel free to contact Dr. Blower with any of your questions or comments at BodyByBlower@yahoo.com