Repetition…Repetition….Repetition
By Arno Burnier, D.C.
One of the most frequent statements made by lay people about Chiropractic is that “once you start receiving care you must keep going frequently for an extended period of time.” This, taken without rational understanding, distracts many to seek the beneficial health effects which are to be gained from Chiropractic.
What the Doctor of Chiropractic works with are blockages that develop in the spine as a result of stress and various other trauma. Those blockages are natural physiological responses to overwhelming invasive forces. The excessive impact causes some of the 134 spinal joints to tighten and lose their normal movement. In advanced situations the loss of motion is so severe that it causes complete restriction of movement called ankylosis. This is a progressive process of variable intensity readily observed in the elderly.
As a rule, any tissue in the body will tighten in response to trauma. If you get punched in the shoulder, the next day you have a tight shoulder. If you go home and find your husband or wife has left you suddenly, your stomach will knot up. In the same way, the muscles, ligaments, and joints of the spine contract when subjected to overpowering stresses.
The purpose of spinal adjustments is to correct the blockages by restoring the normalcy of movement in the articulations of the spine. This is a corrective process achieved by creating a repeated demand for movement and elasticity in the specific areas where the blockage has occurred.
No more than a weight lifter can develop strength, bulk, and definition by lifting once a week, can correction be achieved in the spine by few adjustments. It is the regularity of stretches every day that allows the gymnast or dancer to effectuate a full split. The body responds to what we demand from it according to the law of demand and supply. It is the constant pull of braces upon our teeth that achieves the desired result after few years. Wearing braces for a few weeks or months undoubtedly induces changes but is not sufficient to correct the distortion.
Here lies the rational behind the frequency of visits during the original phase of care. The duration of that phase is directly dependent upon the condition of each individual spine, their age, overall physical condition and history of trauma past and present.
Since the spine is the most battered organ in the human body and since more people are incapacitated by a spinal problem at any give time than by any other ailment, it is only logical to take care of our back bone and have it checked regularly.
After all the spine is not only the back bone of the human body but it is also its life line.
Arno Burnier, D.C
I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas. Have safe travels and enjoy your loved ones on this very special holiday. Thank you to everyone for being practice members. I love and appreciate all of you.
Welcome baby Colton! He was born last week and had his 1st adjustment at 1 day old! He is a perfect expression of life and health. Congratulations mom and dad Andy and LauraV! Thank you for the honor of adjusting your beautiful new baby boy. I had the honor of going to the hospital and giving mom and baby a chiropractic adjustment. Wow. How Awesome was that? Now, did Colton complain of back pain? Did he complain of neck pain? No, but the birth process is a stress to baby and mother. Stress causes subluxation, misalignment of spinal bones that put pressure on the nerve system. The nerve system controls the function of the body. Pressure on it decreases body function. This alone was enough to have the baby checked for subluxation as soon after birth as possible. Colton was subluxated, an adjustment was given and his little body is now able to function at its God given potential. Awesome! What about you? Are you functioning at your God given potential? Call now to get checked for subluxation. You deserve it.
Who is chiropractic for? Is it only for people who have a “back problem?” Is it something you “try” and if it doesn’t “work” you see a “real doctor?” Is it something that helps you when you have a car accident or a work comp injury? Unfortunately, my profession has done a really good job of teaching people that you don’t need us unless the above happen or if you have really good insurance. Look at any of the phone book chiro ads. You will see back pain, neck pain, numbness and all insurances accepted. Then look at the phone book ads for physical therapists. Same thing. Folks, chiro is not and never was about treating back pain, neck pain, headaches, car accidents, work comp injuries and boo boos.
Friends, EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE CHECKED BY A CHIROPRACTOR! If you are not getting checked, you are not doing everything you can to live a high quality life. Quality of life is directly correlated to spinal cord function. Don’t wait til you have a bad back or stiff neck or an auto accident (don’t make your kids wait til then either). That is crisis care. Get the most out of life. Get adjusted for health and life. Don’t get adjusted for sickness and pain!
I want to take a moment to address an issue that, in all the literature and among those who know the truth, has been been put to rest. However, it is ironic those who bring it out of the dust every now and again. I had a practice member report to me an occurence that happened to him while visiting with his neurologist yesterday. This member is a GREAT member of the practice and a true friend of chiropractic. He understands that chiropractic is not a replacement of, or alternative to, medicine. He is experiencing some things that prompted him to visit this neurologist. From my point of view as a non-therapeutic, pure chiropracTOR, it is his choice and he understands that no matter what the medics do for any condition, he is better off getting adjusted IN ADDITION TO whatever they decide to do. Why be subluxated AS WELL AS have whatever medical condition you are experiencing? Anyway, in talking to this neurologist, he mentions that he visits a chiropractor regularly. Then the MD goes on to say “that’s okay, just don’t let him adjust your neck.” So “Tom” says, “why not?” “Well you could have a stroke,” says Dr. MD. Now folks, there has been reported in the past that someone somewhere had a stroke following a “chiropractic manipulation.” However, they have actually been by “manipulation” maneuvers in martial arts, but when reported it goes in as a “chiro. manipulation.” Also, little old ladies have strokes when turning to back out their car or putting their heads back to be washed in the beauty salon. This also gets reported as “manipulation of the cervical spine.” Anyway, I find it very ironic that a neurologist, who pays thousands of dollars in malpractice premiums per year (malpractice premiums are a good measure of a professions risk, the higher the premium, the higher the risk of that profession) is warning someone not to get adjusted because it may cause stroke. Friends, there simply is NO BASIS WHATSOEVER for statements like this. Strokes from an adjustment SIMPLY DO NOT HAPPEN. Can you imagine how fast chiropractic would be shut down if we hurt even 1/4 of the amount of people that organized medicine hurts every year? A neurologist pays many thousands of dollars in malpractice premiums per year because their job involves LOTS of risk of harm. A chiropractor pays only a couple hundred dollars in premiums because THERE IS NO RISK OF HARM! Folks, NEVER LET AN MD GIVE YOU CHIROPRACTIC ADVICE!!!!! I cannot overstate this. An MD knows as much about true, real chiropractic as an elephant (unless they are one of MY practice members and have been TAUGHT by ME REAL chiropractic). This does not mean I do not like or believe in MD’s. I have alot of MD’s among my very best friends and I ask and respect their advice in MEDICAL matters. I would say the same about chiropractors. DO NOT LISTEN TO A CHIROPRACTOR WHO IS GIVING YOU MEDICAL ADVICE!!! They simply do not know enough about it, even though they all claim to have the same or better education than med students. Ask a D.C. how many heart sounds he listened to in chiroschool before he was given his license. Then ask an M.D. how many they listened to. Let me tell you, D.C.-about 25 on a cd and in class with a stethoscope. M.D.-thousands in hospitals on real patients with real conditions. Likewise, how many subluxations has the M.D. found in a cervical spine and adjusted safely? Let me tell you-NONE! Professionals should keep within their own boundaries. Folks, chiropractic adjustments, given by a trained chiropracTOR are perfectly safe and provide benefit EVERYTIME. You can rest assured that you are in good hands when getting adjusted at Jensen Family Chiropractic! Isn’t it ironic?
Shift Happens
I know this is not exactly what you’ve seen on the bumper stickers, but it is the saying that I would love to see instead. An old Indian saying goes, “If you want to see what your thoughts were like yesterday, look at your body today. If you want to see what your body will be like tomorrow, look at your thoughts today.” How can this be? Well we have all heard of the mind-body connection and it is this connection that is responsible for the truth of the statement above. Every second of our lives we are creating a new body. Just one year ago, 98% of the atoms in our bodies weren’t there. Deepak Chopra, MD, has compared us to a building getting new bricks every day. It has been estimated that we have 60,000 thoughts per day. The unfortunate thing is that 95% of the thoughts we’ll have today are the same thoughts we had yesterday and the day before. If we compare this to the building analogy, it’s as if, even though we are constantly replacing the bricks in our building, we keep building it the exact same way because we only have one idea of how it is to be built each day. So, we maintain the same level of health. This is important because it is our thoughts that determine what our lifestyles will be like. If our thoughts are about decreasing stress, we have little room for creating peace. If they are about how much we hate being overweight, we have very little time to spend on thoughts about being fit. If we worry about all the things that might go wrong, we don’t have much time to think about things that will go right. And so it goes. Our thoughts create most of the physical, chemical and mental stresses we will encounter each day as well as what our response to them will be. This is where the shift comes in. You go to the chiropractor to remove nerve interference caused by stresses that your body couldn’t handle. But what about changing your lifestyle so that you can minimize the occurrence of that nerve interference? Chiropractic care is a teamwork venture! My job is to remove nerve interference and your job is to stop making it! If you keep following the same recipe, you get the same cake. Once you understand the importance of having a fully functioning nerve system and you assume responsibility for your lifestyle, Shift Happens! This is when you see a new building being built. This is when you experience the ideal health that you and your family deserve. The way to begin is to stop thinking about getting rid of what you don’t want and focus on producing what you DO want. Instead of trying to decrease stress in your life, do things to CREATE peace. Instead of trying to rid your body of symptoms and “disease”, focus on doing things that CREATE health (GET ADJUSTED REGULARLY, eat good, exercise). Instead of judging people, love them more. All of this creates a shift from fear to love, sadness to joy, and from sickness to health by reducing the incidence of subluxations in our life.
With all of the economy scare tactics, war propaganda, politics and terrorism threats out there right now, take some time to remember that in the grand scheme of things, all will be okay. I remind people that stress is what causes interference on our nerve system, setting the stage for the blueprint of sickness and disease to manifest in your nerve system. Make sure you are getting adjusted to assure that we change the patterning of your nerve system to a healthy one, and your innate intelligence, “life force”, is flowing without interference. Getting adjusted will keep you and your family healthy through it all and keep your mind in the right place. With all of the uncertainty out there, this I am certain of! If you have some free time Sunday morning, come watch the Twin Cities Marathon and cheer on myself, my dad and 15,000 of our closest friends! It should be a nice fall day.
Please stay tuned for chiropractic info, office tours, events etc. Thank you for visiting this webpage! I will put my newsletters on here from now on and will hopefully be publishing some chiropractic educational stuff at least every other week. Sometimes it may be rants about things in the news related to health and performance issues. Hopefully all can benefit from it. Feel free to check out the site and let me know what you think. Thank you so much. I love and appreciate each and every one of you. Thank you for the opportunity to be your chiropractor, and if you are not a practice member yet, please become one!!! If not, I know you somehow and I am grateful for that. Peace.
