Flourish News/Blog

What About Those Pesky Symptoms?

January 18th, 2009 ~ Categories: Symptoms ~ 3 Comments

Learn how to read your body’s cues and respond appropriately.

I’ve had people say to me “I know you don’t want to hear about my symptoms, but…..” Enough people have said it lately that I thought an explanation of my view of symptoms was in order. It’s not that I don’t want to hear about symptoms or that you can’t tell me what they are, I just view them so differently. The current view of health holds that if we have symptoms, we are sick and if we are without symptoms then we are healthy. And so much of modem health care, especially that which is medical in its approach, is geared toward ridding the individual of their symptoms. Some of the sickest people are symptom free. They just don’t feel anything. Their bodies are so impacted with toxins and stress and injury (emotional and physical) that they have shut down. So lack of symptoms does not necessarily prove to be a healthy individual. As the reverse can also be true. A person with symptoms is not necessarily “sick”.

Now at first, ridding the system of symptoms seems like a wonderful, noble thing. At least until you start to consider how the body functions. Many of the symptoms people experience are actually signs that the body is healing and stopping those symptoms can inhibit the healing process. For example, a normal fever rise is the body’s first line of defense against infection. Temperature goes up, which increases the body’s activity and signals the immune system to ‘turn on”. When we take something to decrease the temperature it compromises the body’s natural healing response. When we ingest something that the body considers to be toxic, nausea and diarrhea are healthy responses. When a joint is injured the body gives us pain to let us know to be careful, to avoid using it and re-injuring it. It swells to provide a natural splint to the area to protect the injured joint and gets hot as the body increases the circulation to repair and heal the injured tissue. The runny nose we get at the change of seasons is the body sluffing off the old respiratory lining, much like the trees sluff off their leaves and animals sluff off winter coats.

Every symptom our body lovingly gives us is a message. The body can only speak to us in two ways, pain or pleasure, discomfort or comfort, ease or dis-ease. The words it speaks to let us know it is working or not working are what we have defined as symptoms. A heart that aches after years of abuse will signal us with chest pains. A stomach will flare up with an ulcer to let us know that we have let life get too stressful, that it is too much to bear. Our pulse will race with the anxiety forcing us to face the fears that have built up in our bodies.

When symptoms occur, when our body is trying its best to communicate with us, do we listen to what it is trying to say? Or do we just try to shut it up, quite down or stop the symptoms. Do we ignore the body’s only voice and try to “shut it up” like putting our hand over the mouth of a screaming child. If our intention is just to stop the symptoms, then we miss the gift. It’s not that I don’t want to hear about the symptoms, it’s that my intention is not to treat them or silence them, it is to acknowledge them with something far greater than talking about them. My purpose and intent is to turn on the power of the body so that it can heal, and can integrate the experiences of life. Sometimes when the body is in flow with life it has no symptoms and sometimes it does. Sometimes we feel great, sometimes we feel the process of healing happening and sometimes we feel our body telling us that a change is definitely in order. Life is a process not an event and so is healing. When your body is speaking, listen to what it is saying, acknowledge it and answer it. Educate yourself as to the processes of the body so that you can help it to heal and understand the messages it is giving you. I think the body’s wisdom will amaze you and if you both listen and respond, the conversations you have will surely enlighten you.

By Dr. Sue Brown, Chiropractor

What is Health?

January 18th, 2009 ~ Categories: Health ~ 4 Comments

Most people equate the word health with “feeling good,” “having no symptoms” or “feeling no pain.” One of the most common ways the public discusses health is when they say something like, “Oh, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with me except for this cough,” or “I’m really okay on the whole. It’s just this pain in my leg that’s holding me back.”

As a society we must stop viewing isolated parts that get sick or well independently from the rest of the body and begin to view the body as a whole, or we will never understand what health truly is.
One of the best definitions of health comes from Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary. Health: A state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.

Two things immediately come to light from the above definition. One is that health is something positive, a beautiful state of wellbeing of our whole being: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and social.
The second part of the definition tells us that merely being without pain, or feeling okay or without symptoms or disease is not at all what health is about.

Health comes from the Greek work “haelos” which means whole. It is a state that emerges when all your bodily parts are functioning as a whole, in harmony with all your other parts. It is a state when each tiny part of you is getting just what it needs to perform its function.

It is a state when our being is coordinated, internally and externally – when all of our parts are working properly under the direction of our brain, the master controller of our body.

Vertebral subluxations create uncoordination, disharmony, dis-ease and degeneration of your body. The role of the chiropractor is to free the communication between brain and body by means of specific spinal adjustments. The adjustments reduce or correct vertebral subluxations, resulting in greater health, less disease and a healthier physical, mental, emotional and spiritual state of being.

Let’s stop viewing health as something that we lose when we get sick. Let’s begin to see health as something we can have all the time, as something that makes us truly ALIVE!

There is no greater investment than in our selves. The true “miracles” of life are not recoveries from a dreadful disease but rather the ability to stay vibrant and healthy throughout life. This is accomplished by honoring and nurturing ourselves on a regular basis.

So invest in your health and wellbeing by getting checked and adjusted regularly. The difference in vitality, healing capacity, adaptation and recovery amongst families that receive regular Chiropractic care is night and day with the sample population. Their quality of life is superior as a whole, the need for medical interventions at a minimum if at all and the overall savings enormous. Join the Wellness revolution!

Questions Parents Frequently Ask About Children and Chiropractic

January 16th, 2009 ~ Categories: Kids & Chiropractic ~ 3 Comments

Why?
Children are as susceptible to trauma in their spines from various activities and events. These microtraumas can subluxate the vertebrae of the spine, placing pressure on their spinal nerves and therefore decreasing their bodies’ ability to function normally. Although symptoms, such as pain and malfunction may not show up for years, injury to their vital nervous system can have a lifetime of damaging effects.

When?
Children should be checked right after birth because of the potential damaging effects of the birth process. Even the most natural births are somewhat traumatic to the infant and may have “hidden damage”. Studies show that many children who experience symptoms of colic, ear-infections and asthma have spinal subluxations impairing their nervous system function. Early detection and correction can prevent layers of damage from occurring in the child’s vital nervous system. Accumulated damage will have lifelong consequences.

Does it Hurt?
Chiropractors specializing in children use very specific, gentle techniques to care for children. On the very young, the adjustment is as light as a finger touch. Doctors of Chiropractic who are members of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association have taken post-graduate classes on specific techniques for pregnant mothers, infants and children to enhance their skills in this field.

How?
Most of the members of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association offer complimentary consultations, giving parents the opportunity to meet them, find out about chiropractic for their families and discuss their individual needs.