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#169 GLYMPHATICS

6/19/2017

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​No, I didn’t make up the word glymphatics.  We know that we don’t know everything there is to know about how the living cell works, but we know a lot.  But we thought we knew everything about what is called gross anatomy, but it turns out we didn’t.  This requires some explanation so stick with me.  It will be worth the read. 
In your body you have two fluid drainage systems.  The first we all know about, veins.  Blood comes out of the heart to the aorta to arteries to arterioles to capillaries to venules to veins to the vena cava to the lungs and then back to the heart again.  Simple.  The second is the lymphatic system.  It is a series of tiny nearly invisible tubes with one-way valves that drain all the cells and space (interstitial space) between the cells of your body.  It then filters this drainage through the immune system in the lymph nodes in the groin, arm pits, chest and neck finally dumping the filtered garbage into a vein in your chest for further processing by the kidneys and liver.  It’s the trash dump of the body.  Here’s the catch.  We absolutely thought we knew that there was no lymphatic system in the brain.  We just found out we were completely wrong.  It is there and it’s critical to brain health and it’s called the glymphatic system.
There is much you can learn by web-searching this, but here’s the must know.  The function of the glymphatic system is critical for brain health, both in the short term and the long term.  In the short term poorly functioning glymphatic drainage appears to play a role in migraines.  In the long term Alzheimer’s Disease is characterized by a build-up of b-amyloid protein.  This protein is a normal by-product of the brain but it is supposed to be drained by the glymphatics.  So Alzheimer’s may be caused or at least related to inadequate glymphatic damage.  There are a whole bunch of other neurological diseases that are very likely related to damage to this system as well, including Parkinson’s Disease and stroke and much more.  There is still much to learn.  It appears that concussions are one pathway of damage to the glymphatics but we are very early in the research to build a comprehensive list of causes of glymphatic injury. 
But one thing we do know is that drainage is critical.  And it has been shown that this system only drains when we are asleep!  This may be the critical reason why sleep is so important, as it is the only time when the junk produced by the very busy brain cells all day are cleaned out.  During waking hours the glymphatics are completely shut down.  It’s not that we should have 8 hours, research is indicating that we REQUIRE 7-9 hours per night for complete rinsing of all the built up gunk.  Furthermore, studies are showing that alternate side sleeping helps the glymphatics to function best, then back sleeping and stomach sleeping is worst of all.  
And here’s the chiropractic implication.  The glymphatics drain into the lymphatic system of the brain which drains into the deep cervical lymph nodes which are surrounding the cervical spine.  It is well understood by chiropractors that subluxation of the neck vertebrae can impair lymphatic drainage due to inflammation, nerve stress, and mechanical blockage.  So, subluxation correction followed by regular chiropractic adjustments as part of an overall wellness plan may help to improve brain drainage and function, both short and long term.  There have been studies linking chiropractic care to improved memory, behavior, and mental health.  Perhaps this is the link.  More to come.
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    Dr. Rick

    After writing an article per week for a year, I just kept going.  These are most of my collection.  They are written with my existing patients in mind, so some stuff may seem odd or unusual, but would make perfect sense to those who know chiropractic and who know me.  Enjoy and share!  For my personal blog visit: 

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Yolanda wrote:
     
     I used to suffer severe headaches and migraines on a daily basis, usually all day.  I managed to work in an office because I had to.  When I went home at the end of the day I would often close the shades and go to bed.  I could not plan weekend events because I simply never knew how I was going to feel tomorrow.  If there were a special event such as a birthday or wedding, I would begin to medicate myself two weeks in advance to give myself the best chance of making the event.
     Friends and fellow church-goers had been trying to get me to see Dr. Rick for some time before I finally gave in.  Looking back, I don’t know why I waited.  Within a month, I was headache free.  I couldn’t remember what it was like to not feel pain.  I could do whatever I wanted and not live in fear of the headache.  This was a miracle for me, but the story does not end here.
     An opportunity came up for us to adopt a newborn baby girl not long after I began chiropractic care.  This baby was particularly important to me and my husband because her mother is a relative.  Tragically, her mother was also a drug user and did drugs during her pregnancy.  If we could not adopt the baby she would have been put into the foster system since the biological mother was incapable of raising her.
     To keep a long story short, we did adopt her and she is doing fantastically.  There is no sign of any effect of the drugs on her as of yet, and with God’s help, there never will be.  We think that is because of the vast amounts of love and attention she gets from us, her real mommy and daddy.
     What does this have to do with chiropractic?  The reality is that without chiropractic, I would still be nearly an invalid with headaches.  I COULD NOT HAVE TAKEN CARE OF AN INFANT OR RAISED A YOUNG CHILD.  THEREFORE, SHE WOULD NOT HAVE ANY OF THE OPPORTUNITIES IN LIFE THAT MY HUSBAND AND I WILL BE ABLE TO PROVIDE FOR HER.  MY DAUGHTER’S LIFE IS POSSIBLE BECAUSE SOMEBODY MADE ME GO TO A CHIROPRACTOR. 
     You need to tell everyone you know what you know about chiropractic.  Who knows who’s life you will change too.
Andrew's mother, Barbara, wrote:

     Hello, My name is Andrew and I am a happy, healthy one year old.  But I wasn’t so happy or healthy when I first met Dr. Rick a few months ago.  I had been having problems with my ears for four months, I couldn’t sleep at night and I was miserable.  We’d been to the doctor lots of times but nothing was helping.  In fact, all the medicines the doctor had tried seemed to make me worse instead of better!  Both the regular doctor and the Ear-Nose and Throat doctor said that if the antibiotics didn’t work, then they’d just have to put tubes in.  Now my Mom and dad weren’t about to let them do surgery on me, especially since they had been reading and learned that tubes can cause more problems than they solve.  My mom and dad did a lot of praying.  Then my mom heard that sometimes babies who have a traumatic birth like mine have ear trouble.  You see when I was born they used a vacuum extractor and forceps to pull me out.  I guess all that yanking on my head, hurt my neck.  She also heard that chiropractic care can be the answer.  Now she was skeptical because she couldn’t imagine a chiropractor helping ear infections!?!  But at that point she was willing to try anything!!  Happily, a few weeks of adjustments and my ears were all cleared up.  In addition, I no longer had a stiff neck or shoulders and my whole personality was happier.  I have to tell all babies who have ear troubles, don’t let them give you tubes until you at least try chiropractic care first.  After all, it can’t hurt and if you’re like me, you could be perfectly well with no drugs and no surgery.  In my family, we thank God for Dr. Rick, because I feel better, my mom and dad are happier and sometimes, I even sleep through the night.