The Asheville, NC region has a reputation in the Southeast as a progressive community, open to many forms of alternative healthcare including Chiropractic, acupuncture, homeopathic medicine and various forms of body work, to name a few. As with many of the communities in the Southeast, there is no shortage of health concerns and one of the primary concerns seen in Asheville and the surrounding areas is Diabetes Mellitus (Type II). One of the biggest contributing factors to the development of Type II Diabetes is the presence of obesity, which is also a community health concern in this area.
Recent obesity statistics in North Carolina reports that approximately two-thirds of adults are obese in this state. An even more concerning statistic is that NC currently ranks fifth in the nation in prevalence of childhood obesity, meaning that there is an almost certain likelihood of increasing numbers of children and adults developing Type II Diabetes. Buncombe County, where Asheville is located, does have a slightly lower incidence of obesity, with 22.8-25 percent of the population being listed as obese, which is still almost 1 in every 4 residents. Obesity is measured using the BMI scale, and in order to be classified as obese, a person must have a BMI of 30 or higher.
To simply define Type II Diabetes, it is an abnormally high amount of glucose in the blood stream that comes from an inability of the body to produce an adequate amount of insulin to regulate glucose coming into the body. Adult Onset Diabetes is a current health concern and in 2014 it was reported that 29.1 million Americans suffer from the disease. This is 9.3 percent of the population. The highest percentage of those suffering from the disease are males over 65 years old, but there is a growing number of younger people developing Type II diabetes. The most recent statistics for Asheville, NC and Buncombe County is 8.5 to 9 percent of the population, which rates in the lower portion of those in North Carolina, yet still represents a large number of the population. Despite somewhat lower rates of diabetes at the state level, this area continues to follow the current national trend of increasing occurrence on a yearly basis, as evidenced by reports that between the years of 2005 and 2009 there was a state-wide increase in Diabetes of 16.9 percent.
So what does it all mean? Type II Diabetes and obesity are two conditions that are easily controlled with diet and exercise. Talk to your trusted healthcare provider about simply ways to improve your diet and fuel your body with the nutrients that it needs to function at its best. Talk with a Certified Fitness Trainer regarding simply exercise programs that can get you out, and get you moving and help to lose excess body weight. Feel free to contact us for exercise training assistance!
The thing about this statement is it is absolutely true! The power that went into the creation of your body, has the power to heal your body. If you stop and think about it literally, the human body, mind, and spirit as a collective are nothing short of miraculous. The name for this amazing power that exists in each of us is Innate Intelligence and as we move forward in this reading, I will begin to refer to it by this name.
To fully illustrate just how powerful that Innate Intelligence is, and just how miraculous each and every one of us truly are, let’s discuss the development of a human being. We all began life as the union of two incomplete cells, an egg cell from our mother and a sperm cell from our father. Now the sheer likelihood of this union alone is pretty unfavorable at best, yet somehow the particular sperm cell made its way to the particular egg cell that eventually led to the formation of one complete cell that became you! No pairing of any other sperm and egg cell would have resulted in OUR individual life, so that alone is pretty amazing. So now we have the complete cell with the 46 chromosomes necessary for life and in essence, this is the very beginning of life, at least as we know it. Now here is the thing, nothing had to specifically and consciously tell the sperm and egg cells what to do, it simply just happened right? Well not really, you see this process is made possible via Innate Intelligence. Even simple cells in our body contain this inborn power and it is necessary in order for life to exist.
So back to the story, this now complete cell that is ultimately the fully grown adult or almost grown reader, begins to divide over and over again until we become an embryo composed of more and more complete cells that begin to form into all the different parts of our body. Our organs, our blood cells, the bone of our skeletal system, our fingernails, and every other part of who we are, all develop from that original, single complete cell. The miraculous thing is, you never had to stop for a second and think about or tell these processes to occur thanks to Innate Intelligence. Even after birth, we continue to develop until we become an adult. And prior to birth, the Innate Intelligence present in our mother’s is responsible for ensuring that we in the embryonic stage receive the oxygen, nutrients, and hormones necessary for our development. So there is a harmonious union of our mother’s and our own Innate Intelligence.
Innate Intelligence does not cease to exist once we are fully developed adults and this is important to keep in mind. All of the processes that are occurring inside of our bodies that we never have to consciously think about, yet are vital to life, are occurring because of the power of Innate Intelligence, and thankfully so! Our heart beats, we fill our lungs with oxygen and expel unusable gases, our eyes blink so they do not dry out, our digestive systems works to breakdown foods into usable nutrients, our muscles fire in specific sequences so that we can maintain balance when walking and countless other processes of life are happening all at once without a single conscious thought on our part. With all of this in mind, I think we all can certainly agree that this Innate Intelligence stuff is not only pretty special, but also amazingly powerful.
We have covered the first aspect of the statement made in the title of this Chapter, so now it is time to focus on how Innate Intelligence has the power to heal our bodies. Perhaps one of the simplest ways to explain this is to think about a cut on our hand. For the sake of this illustration we will say it is a superficial cut that requires no medical attention. So we first go and wash off the cut with cool water and we then put a small bandage over the wound and within a few minutes, we forget about the cut all together unless we bump it on something and our brain receives some pain signals from our hand saying, “hey watch it!!!!!” Next thing we know in a few days, we take the bandage off and now the cut has began to heal over. No longer is it sensitive and we can see that new skin has formed over the wound and we are almost as good as new. Now was it the bandage that was responsible for the healing of the cut that took place? Of course not, it was our very own body. And guess what? We never for a second had to think about healing this cut, our body simply new exactly what to do from the moment we first received the cut. The healing process began immediately as our blood cells began to clot at the site of the cut, and from there the body began to send the nutrients and products necessary for new skin to form over the cut.
A couple other examples of Innate Intelligence at work are first let’s say that we go outside for a run on a hot summer afternoon. Now pretty quickly into our run, our body temperature begins to rise. If we do not do something about this increase in body temperature, some pretty serious and pretty bad things can happen including death. So our body’s response to this is to activate the sweat glands in our skin and we begin to sweat which works to cool our body and to allow us to maintain a safe body temperature and therefore hopefully, we do not die from running! Another example of Innate Intelligence is when we have a broken bone. We more than likely go to the emergency room and the doctor there sets the bone back into place. Pretty soon the bone heals and we are back to normal. Now it is not the doctor setting the bone back in place that actually leads to healing, it is the Innate Intelligence of the individual that does the healing. The doctor puts the bone into proper alignment so that when the body heals the bone, it does so in the proper position.
These are very simple examples of how Innate Intelligence is at work in our body, yet there is a very important point that I want to add here. Innate Intelligence is always at work inside each and every one of us, striving to maintain our level of function at 100 percent. This is the true role of Innate Intelligence, to maintain the function of the body. This is the case in all living things. When we are functioning as designed, there is no dysfunction present in the body, all systems are go, and we therefore are expressing 100 percent health. Innate Intelligence is working overtime to make certain that we are in a state of homeostasis or balance.
What if I said I can give you the secret to a longer and healthier life? Would you listen? If so then please read on!
We live in the age of great human advancement and improvements in technology, of which, are occurring at an exponential rate. Communication, travel, entertainment and endless other areas of life are continually improved upon. Yet, with all of the advancements in these areas, we also live in an age of decreased health and wellness. We literally stand a strong chance of becoming among the first generations of humans that have a lower life expectancy than those of the generations before us. Diseases and conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease have become common findings across our "modern" society. But enough with the hoe-hum, Debbie Downer, depressing news. Let's talk about the title of this blog post, and if I truly can offer you the "secret" to a longer and healthier life. Well, let me assure you that I can and the "secret" is something that has been around for over a century. So what's the secret, right? The "secret" really is no secret at all, it's Chiropractic care.
I am currently finishing up my Doctor of Chiropractic degree at Sherman College in SC. I am working with community members first hand as a Chiropractic Intern in our Health Center on campus and already witnessing the power of Chiropractic care when utilized on a regular basis. One thing continues to surprise me, and that is how little people, even those that have been under previous Chiropractic care, know about Chiropractic and why it is so much more than a means of addressing sore backs and aching necks. And this my friends is where we get into the good stuff!!! Remember the "secret" I promised?
So what exactly does Chiropractic do if it is not all about back and neck pain? Well, to understand this we have to think about the structure of the spine. Time for a quick anatomy lesson folks. There are multiple little bones that make up the bony structure of the spine. 24 of these guys are the "movable" vertebrae and guess what? They move. So these are the ones that I am most interested in as a Chiropractor to be. With this allowed movement comes a great deal of Range of Motion which is really important so that we can do all the cool and neat things that we need to do each and every day, like bend and rotate at our trunks and twist around all crazy when we cut a rug on the dance floor. So, you can see this movement is a good thing. Yet, with all this allowed movement also comes a possibility that one of these movable vertebrae moves a little too far to the point of getting stuck out of place. When this happens there is a strong likelihood that a pressure will be applied to one of the spinal nerve roots that directly exit off of the spinal cord through a small opening at the sides of each vertebra. Okay, so maybe that does not seem like a huge deal, but you have to trust me here, it is! With this pressure, there is an absolute interference that is occurring in the messages that the brain is trying to send out to the body through this spinal nerve root. (Think about what would happen to water flowing out of a garden hose if a gorilla were to stand on top of the garden hose). There is also a restricted flow of the messages going back to the brain from the body through this same affected spinal nerve root. Now pain could be a result, but it also may not be. Only 20% of all the nerves in the body are responsible for pain reception. That means that 80% of the millions and millions of nerves in the body have nothing to do with pain at all, and yet everything to do with function. That means that this 80% of our nerves are responsible for the function of every single cell, tissue, organ, and system in the body. Without these, we could not function at all. If there is an interference in the messages being sent through these nerves, there is a decrease in function. You could also say that the body is now in a state of dysfunction. And my friends, with nervous system dysfunction occurring over time, there is a strong likelihood that a state of dis-ease will follow.
Yeah I know, I know, that was a lot to absorb, but we have the technical stuff down now. So here is the important thing to take away from the above paragraph, bone on nerve is BAD. Now as a Chiropractic Intern, my job is to check your spine for these spinal misalignments that have caused an interference within the nervous system, which by the way has a name, Vertebral Subluxation. After I have located and analyzed the Vertebral Subluxation, I perform an adjustment. This is where I, either by hand or using an instrument, realign the vertebra back into its proper position and remove the pressure it has placed on the nerve root. Thereby, restoring nervous system communication at an optimal level, and that boys and girls is the "secret" to a longer and healthier life. When the nervous system is free of interference, the inborn intelligence and life force in each and every one of us can freely move throughout the body. The body is a powerful thing, and if given the opportunity to do so, can allow us to heal from many of the diseases and conditions affecting us today in the modern age of progression.
The fact that through my training, I have an opportunity to serve and love my community through the removal of Vertebral Subluxations, is nothing short of a dream come true. My goal is simple, to treat every person that I am privileged enough to share Chiropractic with, as I would my own family. Removing nervous system interference reconnects us to the Source. The very Source of life and our inborn healing ability. It is turning the light back on. And y'all, that is WHY I do what I do. So if you are not under Chiropractic care, please contact us by clicking the INSPIRE button on our homepage.
Dr. Christopher Weaver DC, PAK is a Doctor of Chiropractic and Professional Applied Kinesiologist. He's published two books on health and Wellness.