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From:TheBahamasWeekly.com Body by Blower - Dr. Brian Blower DC
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
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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.