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| Your Natural (Innate) Healing Ability |
Why do so many people with so many different health problems benefit from chiropractic care? Chiropractors don't give medicines or perform surgery so how does Chiropractic heal? Let's perform a little thought experiment to find out.
An Experiment
What would happen if you cut your hand? You'd bleed, of course. That is no surprise. But almost immediately afterwards a most amazing thing would occur: the blood around the cut would begin to clot. Clotting is needed to seal off the wound and prevent further blood loss and infection. The act of clotting is made up of nearly fifteen different chemical reactions that must take place in a certain order. Your blood, however, will clot even if you haven't studied biology.*
Further, anything that got into the cut that didn't belong there like dirt or bacteria, viri and other microorganisms would be hunted down, attacked and gobbled up by a vast antibiotic army that constantly patrols and protects our nooks and crannies. The soldiers of this army have fancy names: white blood cells, neutrophils, eosinophils, leukocytes, mast cells, killer cells, antibodies, and others. But you don't have to know their names, what they look like or even know they exist for them to work.
Soon a scab will form over the cut, the skin will knit together and in a few weeks it will look fresh and undamaged. And that occurs naturally.
If you cut the hand of an asthmatic, an elderly person, a baby, a cancer patient, an arthritic, etc. would they heal? Yes! The ability to heal remains. It is a fact of life and living whether of not you have any of the over one thousand different recorded diseases that plague humanity, we have within us this magical healing ability-the 'doctor' within us all the time, sick and well. You don't understand it? Don't feel bad, neither does anyone else. Doctors are constantly surprised by how powerful our healing ability can be. The medical journals are full of stories of people recovering from 'incurable' diseases. We often hear of patients given a short time left to live and who, years later attended their doctor's funeral.
But if everyone has a healing ability that is always present, why do people get sick? Why can't we be healthy all the time?
We know so little of healing. We study the body, flail against disease and yet watch in profound awe to see life returning to reclaim its own-and in utter helplessness when death claims its due. Why can't a person heal all the time? Why do some 'incurables' heal while others with less drastic conditions who are expected to heal succumb?
Although we have an incredible healing ability, it appears that there are factors which can affect it. The job of the doctor, any doctor is to raise the patient's natural or innate healing ability to its top efficiency.
Unfortunately much of the practice of so-call 'healing' today doesn't have to do with healing at all. It is mostly emergency first aid such as setting bones, stitching ends of broken skin next to each other, removing foreign objects, cutting out tumors, preventing re-damage by wrong activities, and the removal of the patient from factors that are causing immediate damage.
Apart from the above most of today's 'healing' is really the control of symptoms. Usually that includes taking drugs to lower fevers, kill germs, suppress pain, or change the body chemistry in one way or another. That is not true healing, it rarely treats the cause of the problem. In many instances medicines may prevent the body from healing properly.
Does taking antibiotics raise the resistance of the person who was so weak and rundown that the germs in the air found his body fertile soil? Does removing the cancerous breast correct the metabolism that caused cancer to grow in the first place? Does the taking of anti-hypertensives for high blood pressure correct the body malfunction that is causing the blood pressure to raise? Does giving children drugs to pacify then correct the cause of their behavior?
We all know of people who are walking medicine cabinets, who must constantly take medicines every day, even every hour, for weeks, months, years, but are not healing. If the drugs could heal, they wouldn't be needed after a few doses. Further, the side effects of medicines can and do cause considerable damage to one's health.
Now, while there is undoubtedly a time and a place for medical care, we must understand its strengths and limitations in order to use it wisely. Swallowing medicines for years while your general health deteriorates is not the way to live one's life. There are other things which could be explored, other approaches that can be tried, other wisdoms that may provide new keys to unlock the many doors to health.
Chiropractic Healing
Chiropractic is founded upon a single, basic premise: all living things have an inborn or innate wisdom that expresses itself as an organizing principle in life. Our incredibly complex and organized bodies are an expression of that innate intelligence of life. Our healing ability which constantly works to maintain us in health and heal us if we are injured or diseased is a reflection of this wisdom.
This ability has been described philosophically, scientifically and religiously. It's been called "The wisdom of the body", "The God Within", "Innate Intelligence", "The collected lessons of evolution", "The wisdom of nature", "Homeostatic adaptory mechanisms", "Vital Force", "Life Energy" and "Morphogenic Fields" among others.
It is with us all the time whether we're young or old, healthy or sick. It is the unique quality of life, of all living things.
Spinal Nerve Stress
There is a physical condition which interferes with the expression of this inner wisdom, intelligence, life and healing energy in our bodies. It is spinal nerve stress, also called vertebral subluxations. This condition interferes with the function of the nervous system, the communication system that links our inner wisdom or innate intelligence with our physical body. Dis-ease is created which sets the stage for disease and sickness of all kinds. When we suffer from dis-ease our natural healing energies are blocked up, our strength is reduced, our resistance to disease is lessened, and our ability to adapt to the stresses of life is compromised. The goal of chiropractic care is the correction of spinal nerve stress, this major interference to life's expression.
The Chiropractic Adjustment
When the chiropractor performs a spinal adjustment he or she is releasing or reducing spinal nerve stress. This permits the body to work more naturally and the nerves to function more efficiently. Your hidden doctor is awakened and your body is in greater communication with the forces of vitality and energy and life.
The majority of the people on this planet have never, and probably will never have their spines checked and their stresses released. That is a pity because spinal nerve stress (subluxations) are epidemic in society.
You cannot have 100% healing ability with spinal nerve pressure. Your spouse, your children, your family, cannot live at their highest potential if spinal nerve stress is present. It is for this reason that periodic spinal checkups by a chiropractor are so important.
The Mosaic That is Health
So if I have a healthy spine I'll never get sick?
If only life were so simple. Many things can affect our healing potential, the subject is incredibly complicated and profound. New studies are revealing that emotional health can strongly affect physical healing. Toward that end a new branch of health studies has emerged-Psychoimmunology which explores the relationship of how our mind influences our immune system. Love, Medicine & Miracles by Bernie S. Siegel, M.D. explores this field from the perspective of a man who often worked with terminal cancer patients. He studied those 'exceptional patients' who recovered from terminal cancers to learn what qualities they possessed that led them to recovery. (Love, Medicine & Miracles. Lessons Learned About Self-Healing from a Surgeon's Experience with Exceptional Patients by Bernie S. Siegel, M.D., Harper and Row Publishers).
There are many other factors influencing our health including diet, weight, exercise, rest and the use or non-use of cigarettes, drugs, vaccinations and other forms of "blood pollution". And surely the genetic strengths and weakness inherited from our parents can extend or limit our health potential.
How Chiropractors Heal
The best insurance against disease is maintenance. Having your spinal column periodically checked for spinal nerve stress is one of the most effective ways of living free from dis-ease and maximizing healing potential.
And that is how chiropractic heals. Doctors of Chiropractic remove interference to the nervous system and allow the energies of life to flow through the body providing nourishment, strength, flexibility, balance to help your inner doctor work its healing miracles.
Suggested Readings
Confessions of a Medical Heretic by Robert Mendelsohn, M.D.
Medical Nemesisby Ivan Illich
Male Practice: How Doctors Manipulate Women by Robert Mendelsohn
*Hemophiliacs have a condition which doesn't permit the clotting mechanism to function properly. The overall lesson of this experiment pertains to them as well, though using them for this example would be inappropriate.
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