Should My Family See A Chiropractor? The Signs of Subluxation

Modern day medicine suggests that if you’re not sick then you’re well. A Family Wellness Chiropractor knows better. A lack of obvious symptoms of illness does not mean that you and your family are healthy.

What is Subluxation?
Our spine protects our spinal cord, which is the message highway from our brain to all of our other muscles, tissues, organs and glands via the nerves that exit between each vertebrae. Commonly known as the “central nervous system”, it’s the master controller of all of your body’s systems. If just one vertebrae is
even slightly out of alignment, it can cause nerve interference resulting in a lack of wellness. This lack of wellness will manifest itself in silent signs of subluxation, usually not given a lot of attention from a general practitioner or medical doctor. However, your family wellness chiropractor will recognize these signs right away.

Difficulty Sleeping
Subluxation can affect many areas but one of the most annoying is a disrupted sleep pattern. Science has shown that our bodies require a certain number of hours of sleep each night, and when our bodies are denied that required amount it can have some surprising side effects. It’s well known that sleep depravation can lead to impaired cognitive function, but even the loss of a few hours a night can affect your ability to concentrate, reason and problem solve. It has even been suggested that a lack of sleep can lead to severe health issues and depression.

Poor Posture
It goes without saying that our spine will affect our posture, however, what many parents don’t realize is that the majority of typical activities enjoyed by today’s youth will actually increase poor posture. It has been determined that the typical child spends 8 ½ hours a day “plugged in." This means that for over 8 hours a day your child is bent over a hand-held video game or laptop, slumped in a chair staring at a TV or computer screen, or hunched over their cell-phone sending text messages. If your child already has subluxation leading to poor posture, these typical daily activities are only going to make that existing problem worse.

Weak Immune System
If your child seems to be one of those children that catches every bug going around then this could be a sign of subluxation. Consider that the immune system operates by the brain recognizing an invader (virus or bacteria) and responds by telling the body to produce antibodies and eliminate the problem. If your child’s immune system is operating properly they will hardly show any symptoms of having contracted the cold, flu or other common childhood illness.
When your child’s spine is misaligned and the messages are interrupted from the brain to their muscles, organs and glands, their body will not function properly. Nerve interference will hinder the message and the glands won’t respond properly, which may result in your child’s body being unable to fight off the illness. In fact, a study published in 2009, revealed that regular chiropractic care for children resulted in commonly reported immune system-related improve-ments. For instance, parents reported back that their children were sick less often, had improved sleep patterns and an improved emotional state or mood. It should also be noted that in all of these cases, these improvements were unrelated to the initial reason for seeking chiropractic care.

Behavioral Problems
A study published in 2010 found evidence to support he improvement in ADHD symptoms as well as other behavioral, social or emotional difficulties following routine wellnesschiropractic care. Family Wellness Chiropractors recognize that beyond the effect of subluxation, our western culture and diet are contributing tobehavioral problems in our children. With regular adjustments as well as diet and exercise recommendations, chiropractic care can be effective in helping children.

Respiratory or Food Allergies
Whether your child suffers from runny noses and itchy eyes or asthma, respiratory allergies are highly irritating and food allergies can be equally frustrating, but your chiropractor might be able to help. As with many of the other silent signs mentioned so far, nerve interference can be equally at fault in all types of allergies. Basically, allergies occur when the immune system overreacts to a food or airborne allergen that it has mistaken as harmful. It reacts by creating specific antibodies or histamine to fight something that isn’t really dangerous. A body that is functioning properly may not react this way.

Digestion and Elimination Problems
The process of digesting food and eliminating waste is another important bodily system controlled by the central nervous system. Nerve interference can affect how the body functions resulting in common digestion and elimination problems such as colic, reflux, consti-pation and diarrhea. A randomized clinical trial by Wiberg, et. al. studied infants that had been diagnosed with colic and reported that chiropractic adjustments were proven to be 200% more effective in relieving the infants’ symptoms than the drug dimethicone. Another case study followed 132 infants with colic and 91% of the parents reported their infant improved within one week of beginning chiropractic care with just two to three adjustments. Similar studies done regarding many common child-hood digestive and elimination problems have found that chiropractic care is an effective and viable alter-native to routine drug therapies.

In Summary
An absence of symptoms does not always mean the presence of health. Your Family Wellness Chiropractor has been specifically trained to recognize the silent signs of subluxation and help you and your family have a higher quality of life.
If you recognize any of these six silent signs of subluxation,  then take a moment today to schedule a consultation with your Family Wellness Chiropractor.

Dr. Dana Weissman Timmins is available for Free Consultations should you have any questions about chiropractic care for yourself and your family. Please call (516) 809-9191 or visit our website for more information.