As I write this article I am reminded by my interactions in my daily practice of three facts that are important in this topic:
1) Subluxation begins early in childhood, and maybe during pregnancy. This is demonstrated by the hundreds of kids I have examined with only a small percentage showing no signs of subluxation.
2) Degenerative changes to the spine often begin in early adulthood. This is demonstrated by MRI images of college-age athletes whom I continue to work with at the local University, as well as research from the University of Helsinki.
3) Spinal degeneration or what we call subluxation degeneration is responsible for more disabled people than any other single cause. This is clearly demonstrated in the scientific literature as well as time spent observing the 65+ crowd in places like malls, Disneyland, doctor’s offices, and waiting in line at the pharmacy.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU AND ME IS THAT WE ALL NEED TO TAKE ALL REASONABLE ACTION TO SLOW THIS PROCESS AS EARLY IN LIFE AS WE CAN REMEMBERING THAT WHAT IS ALREADY DONE IS ALREADY UNREVERSABLE.
So understanding the above, and recalling my article “Time, Life, and Gravity” sadly I can tell you that there are only 2-1/2 things that you can do that slow the relentless process of degeneration of the spinal joints. The biggest factor is one we sadly can’t control, genetics. As an adult human you don’t make cartilage very well at all. Some of us might have better genes for this and some have worse, but our joints are predisposed to wear out. So how can we slow this?
The ½ thing (of the 2-1/2 things) we can do is diet. The joints do require nutrients to be healthy, but vitamin and supplement makers, in my opinion, magnify the importance of their products in general. Eat a good diet and take some basic supplements. And then focus your energy on the 2 things that are more likely to slow joint decay.
Stretching – This is what we call an active therapy, which means that you do the work. You need to stretch all 3 spinal areas in all 6 directions of motion to the end of motion 7 days a week 365 days a year. This helps to “imbibe” the cartilage and discs with water and nutrients to maintain health and slow down decay. This gets the nutrients from your good diet to the joints.
Adjustments – This is a passive therapy, which means that I do the work on you. The adjustment forces motion into the joints that will not or cannot fully move due to muscle spasm, scar tissue, degenerative changes, or what we call negative neurological habit patterns (more on this next time).
Adjustments do part of the work. Stretching does part of the work. Together you and I are quite literally doing nearly all that can be done to slow spinal subluxation degeneration to keep you active and moving and healthy throughout your life. You can adopt a lifestyle of prevention or a lifetime of the consequences.
1) Subluxation begins early in childhood, and maybe during pregnancy. This is demonstrated by the hundreds of kids I have examined with only a small percentage showing no signs of subluxation.
2) Degenerative changes to the spine often begin in early adulthood. This is demonstrated by MRI images of college-age athletes whom I continue to work with at the local University, as well as research from the University of Helsinki.
3) Spinal degeneration or what we call subluxation degeneration is responsible for more disabled people than any other single cause. This is clearly demonstrated in the scientific literature as well as time spent observing the 65+ crowd in places like malls, Disneyland, doctor’s offices, and waiting in line at the pharmacy.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU AND ME IS THAT WE ALL NEED TO TAKE ALL REASONABLE ACTION TO SLOW THIS PROCESS AS EARLY IN LIFE AS WE CAN REMEMBERING THAT WHAT IS ALREADY DONE IS ALREADY UNREVERSABLE.
So understanding the above, and recalling my article “Time, Life, and Gravity” sadly I can tell you that there are only 2-1/2 things that you can do that slow the relentless process of degeneration of the spinal joints. The biggest factor is one we sadly can’t control, genetics. As an adult human you don’t make cartilage very well at all. Some of us might have better genes for this and some have worse, but our joints are predisposed to wear out. So how can we slow this?
The ½ thing (of the 2-1/2 things) we can do is diet. The joints do require nutrients to be healthy, but vitamin and supplement makers, in my opinion, magnify the importance of their products in general. Eat a good diet and take some basic supplements. And then focus your energy on the 2 things that are more likely to slow joint decay.
Stretching – This is what we call an active therapy, which means that you do the work. You need to stretch all 3 spinal areas in all 6 directions of motion to the end of motion 7 days a week 365 days a year. This helps to “imbibe” the cartilage and discs with water and nutrients to maintain health and slow down decay. This gets the nutrients from your good diet to the joints.
Adjustments – This is a passive therapy, which means that I do the work on you. The adjustment forces motion into the joints that will not or cannot fully move due to muscle spasm, scar tissue, degenerative changes, or what we call negative neurological habit patterns (more on this next time).
Adjustments do part of the work. Stretching does part of the work. Together you and I are quite literally doing nearly all that can be done to slow spinal subluxation degeneration to keep you active and moving and healthy throughout your life. You can adopt a lifestyle of prevention or a lifetime of the consequences.