​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.

​Researchers looked at medical data from 68 countries on 32 different types of cancer and the conclusions are shocking.  Before I tell you the shocking news understand that this is not new information.  This most recent study supports a previous study in 2015 that was also not well received due to the shocking nature of its results.  The shocking news is that about 66% of all cancers are just bad luck, 29% are attributable to environment, and only 5% are inherited from your parents.  In other words, you have no ability to reduce your risk of cancer in 71% of all cases.  Now it varies depending upon the type of cancer, but still, that’s really kind of scary.  Let me break this down.
 
            How about a quick embryology lesson.  We all start as a single cell, right.  Then that cell begins to wildly duplicate until we are a tiny ball of identical cells.  And then one of those cells changes, differentiates is the word, and becomes a nerve cell, and then a heart cell, skin, bone, etc. until we are us.  It’s kind of important that each adult cell type stays as that type.  But sometimes, a normal adult cell type will change backward and become abnormal, become more like its former undifferentiated self, and then start replicating uncontrollably.  Cancer.  There are different types of cancer and they come from different cell types and they behave differently.  But what they all have in common is they replicate uncontrollably and take over the immediate area.  If they metastasize, meaning they spread through the blood or lymph to other parts of the body, they can lodge somewhere else and take over that area too.  Sucks.
 
            Turns out there are 3 general categories of cancer.  The first is the kind that we inherit.  Bad genes that are passed down.  Not much we can do about that.  For example, there are genes for colon cancer that are 100% certain to develop into cancer.  Only thing this person can do is to have his entire large intestine removed.  The second type of cancer is just bad luck.  When cells duplicate (called mitosis) sometimes the duplication process just goes wrong, a mutation happens in the wrong spot, and voila, cancer.  Finally, the third kind is the kind that we can do something about preventing.  These are environmentally caused mutations.  We can reduce the incidence of mutation by not smoking, drinking clean water, breathing clean air, that type of thing.  And we can reduce the incidence by increasing our ability to prevent and repair mutations by taking anti-oxidants like fish oils, vitamin d, vitamin e, etc., and by eating a better diet. 
 
            So there’s no twist at the end of this story.  No chiropractic overlay.  Overall, you only have influence over 29% of cancers by changing your behavior.  71% of cancer cases are out of our control.  Seems bleak but that’s our world.  It is riddled with disease and evil.  So what’s the good news?  In my opinion, the good news is that we have each other!  We are all in the same boat together.  We have each other for research and for treatment and aid and guidance and comfort and support and hugs, holding hands, lending an ear, handing a tissue.  We have love.  And for that we can truly thank God.