Admittedly this past week, I finished watching the Star Wars trilogies. I’m getting a healthy head start preparing for the release of Episode 7. Yes, I will be watching them all again. I’ve seen them so many times and even waited in line for the openings of episode 1-3! As my girlfriend says… “NERD ALERT!”. But who cares that my brother and I have so many of the toys that came out after episode 1… I think we were making up for our mom giving away our Millennium Falcon toy growing up (no I am not scarred… not really).
Being in my 6th year of practice, I can say with certainty (and frustration) that we need to bring balance to the Force in this world. Controversial topics cannot be discussed without polarizing the two having the conversation or a whole state/country/world.
For me, this comes out most tangibly when it comes to how we view health. We’ve forgotten that our bodies are holistic and we are more than a set of organs, tissue and cells. We’ve forgotten that we are animal species and that laws of nature affect us just like all other living things. I mean can you take a part any living thing and put it back together like a mechanic can do a car?
How would things be different if our system (and society as a whole) acknowledged there is a vitalistic nature to who we are. We are vital beings intimately connected internally (every system talks to and influences every other system in the body) and that we are intimately connected to our environment. It’s actually really brilliant and beautiful.
I remember when I used to drive down to San Diego to visit Steve and I could feel my body relax as I made that turn on the 5 in San Clemente/San Onofre. You know the one, right when you see the Pacific Ocean. It’s such an amazing feeling.
Do you have moments where you feel an almost tangible change in health for the better?
I know now my sympathetic nervous system was winding down and my parasympathetics were winding up. This complementary but opposite pair of systems (the autonomic nervous system) used to be called the involuntary nervous system because you don’t have to consciously think about what it does. You don’t have to tell your blood to uptake oxygen as it passes through your lungs or your liver to detoxify right?
When the sympathetic system is turned on. It’s sort of like the gas pedal for the body where in nature you need to do two things: Fight (defend yourself) or Flight (get out of there and hope you’re not the slowest animal in the pack).
Some of the things that happen in the body when sympathetics turn on:
If you look at this list, how does it all look for virtually every chronic disease? The precursor symptoms for type II diabetes, heart disease, stroke, attention deficit and other neurobehavioral disorders, depression and anxiety are all listed. Interesting to note, insulin and sex hormones are incredibly mitogenic (meaning they cause cell-replication). So how does it look for cancer?
Your body is so incredibly smart, when you are stressed, it decreases your immunity and digestion. Blood is actually sent away from your abdomen and into you arms and legs! Why? Because a white blood cell, isn’t going to save you from a sabertooth tiger! Isn’t that super smart? In chiropractic, we call that Innate Intelligence.
What is stress? Is it just emotional? Back in the day, it was a sabertooth tiger but now, it’s money, family, work, etc. In chiropractic, we say stress comes in three forms: physical, chemical and emotional. One of my mentors, Dr. James Chestnut out of Victoria, BC, says we have to remember to think like a biologist. Check out this short video:
Our systems are programmed for short term stress… that’s why it’s called Fight-or-Flight. If we were cruising down the highway, we can’t just floor the gas pedal all the time without possibly getting into an accident can we?
Did you know there were ZERO cases of type II diabetes in children in 1980 and as of 2010 there were over 57000? Why are more than half our children overweight or obese? Why are pediatric cancers on the rise? Does anyone else think this is significant? Everyone knows someone with a chronic condition and now everyone is starting to know a child with chronic disease!
Why are we finding chronic conditions in children more and more frequently? Why do we have more and more kids on drugs than ever in the history of our world? Why is our infant mortality rate ranked in the 30s!?
If the above stress response slide is new to you, keeping reading and I will keep writing.
If you would like to hear about health in an open, honest way, in a way where you won’t be (or feel) demonized for your beliefs, please come back! Soon and often 🙂
I promise none of this means you have to rid your entire world of stress. I do promise everything will naturally unfold as you keep learning. When you learn, you make better choices and get better results. Simple.
For now, here are a few action steps… don’t worry this is easy.
First,
Add one good thing to your life at a regular frequency. Don’t worry about the getting rid of the bad (yet). Whenever patients come to see me, they are surprised that I don’t immediately tell them to quite smoking or lose weight. Why? How stressful is moving away from something you LOVE or are addicted to?
Second,
Answer the question:
Where do you feel, you lack peace of mind regarding health?
My answer is, dare I say, childhood vaccination. We can’t even talk about it without the possibility of losing friends or family.
*If you are wondering whether or not the polarization of society is intentional. Read this. Organizations exist with the specific intention of shutting down of the exploration of truth. More on this later!
Great article Dr. Stan!!